Visiting Bahá’í Holy Places/Monument Gardens

[Page 26]Monument Gardens

“BLESSED REMAINS PUREST BRANCH AND MASTER’S MOTHER SAFELY TRANSFERRED HALLOWED PRECINCTS SHRINES MOUNT CARMEL . . . . CHERISHED WISH FULFILLED.” 38 (Shoghi EFFendi)

“The conjunction ofthese three resting—places, under the shadow of the Báb’s own Tomb, embosomed in the heart of Carmel, facing the snow—white city across the bay of‘Akká, the Qiblih of the Bahá’í'world, set in a garden ofexquisite beauty, reinforces, ifwe would correctly estimate its significance, the spiritual potencies of a spot, designated by Bahá’u’lláh Himself the seat of Gods throne. It marks, too, a further milestone in the road leading eventually to the establishment of that permanent world Administrative Centre of the future Bahá’í’ Commonwealth, destined never to be separated from, and to function in the proximity of, the Spiritual Centre of that Faith, in a land already revered and held sacred alike by the adherents of three of the worlds outstanding religious systems.” 39 (Shoghi Effendi)

“For such as might undertake, in the days to come, the meritorious and highly enviable pilgrimage to these blessed shrines, as well as for the benefit of the less privileged who, aware of the greatness of their virtue and the pre—eminence of their lineage, desire to commune with their spirits, and to strive to acquire an added insight into the glory of their position, and to follow in their footsteps, let these Testimonies written by Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá be their inspiration

and guidance in their noble quest. . . .” 4° (Shoghi Effendi) The resting place of The resting places ofThe Purest Branch The Greatest Holy Leaf and Nawéb

The resting place of Munirih Khánum

26 VISITING BAH/SCI’ HOLY PLACES

[Page 27]The Greatest Holy Leaf

“He is the Eternal! This is My testimony for her who hath heard My voice and drawn nigh unto Me. Verily, she is a leaf that hath sprung from this pre—existent Root. She hath revealed herselfin My name and tasted of the sweet savours of My holy, My wondrous pleasure. At one time We gave her to drink from My honeyed Mouth, at another caused her to partake of My mighty, My luminous Kawmar. Upon her rest the glory of My name and the fragrance of My shining robe.” 4‘ (Bahá’u’lláh)

“Let these exalted words be thy love

song on the tree of Baha’, O thou most holy and resplendent Leaf: ‘God, besides Whom is none other God, the Lord of this world and the next!’ Verily, We have elevated thee to the rank of one of the most distinguished among thy sex, and granted thee, in My court, a station such as none other woman hath surpassed. Thus have We preferred thee and raised thee above the rest, as a sign of grace from Him Who is the Lord of the throne on high and earth below. We have created thine eyes to behold the light of My countenance, thine ears to hearken unto the melody of My words, thy body to pay homage before My throne. Do thou render thanks unto God, thy Lord, the Lord of all the world.

“How high is the testimony of the Sadratu’l—Muntaha for its leaf; how exalted the witness of the Tree of Life unto its fruit! Through My remembrance of her a fragrance laden with the perfume of musk hath been diffused; well is it with him that hath inhaled it and exclaimed: ‘All praise be to Thee, O God, my Lord the most glorious!’ How sweet thy presence before Me; how sweet to gaze upon thy face, to bestow

upon thee My loving-kindness, to favour thee with My tender care, to make mention of thee in this, My Tablet—a Tablet which I have ordained as a token of My hidden and manifest grace unto thee.” 42 (B-aha”u’ll;ih)

VISITING BAH/V1’ HOLY PLACES 27

[Page 28]“Dear and deeply spiritual sister! At mom and eventide, with the utmost ardour and humility, I supplicate at the Divine Threshold, and offer this, my prayer:

“ ‘Grant, O Thou my God, the Compassionate, that that pure and blessed Leaf may be comforted by Thy sweet savours of holiness and sustained by the reviving breeze of Thy loving care and mercy. Reinforce her spirit with the signs of Thy Kingdom, and gladden her soul with the testimonies ofThy everlasting dominion. Comfort, O my God, her sorrowful heart with the remembrance ofThy face, initiate her into Thy hidden mysteries, and inspire her with the revealed splendours of Thy heavenly light. Manifold are her sorrows, and infinitely grievous her distress. Bestow continually upon her the favour of Thy sustaining grace and, with every fleeting breath, grant her the blessing of Thy bounty. Her hopes and expectations are centred in Thee; open Thou to her face the portals of Thy tender mercies and lead her into the ways of Thy wondrous benevolence. Thou art the Generous, the

an

All—Loving, the Sustainer, the All—Bountiful. . . . 43 (‘Abdu‘I—Balr.i)

“Moreover, as a further testimony to the majestic unfoldment and progressive consolidation of the stupendous undertaking launched by Bahá’u’lláh on that holy mountain, may be mentioned the selection ofa portion of the school property situated in the precincts of the Shrine of the Báb as a permanent resting—place for the Greatest Holy Leaf, the ‘well—beloved’ sister of ‘Abdu7l-Baha, the ‘Leaf that hath sprung’ from the ‘Pre—existent Root,’ the ‘fragrance’ of Bahá’u’lláh’s ‘shining robe,’ elevated by Him to a ‘station such as none other woman hath surpassed,’ and comparable in rank to those immortal heroines such as Sarah, Asfyih, the Virgin Mary, Fatimih and Táhirih, each of whom has outshone every member ofher sex in previous Dispensations.” 44 (Shoghi Effendi)

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“In a highly significant prayer, revealed by Bahá’u’lláh in memory of His son—a prayer that exalts his death to the rank of those great acts of atonement associated with Abraham’s intended sacrifice of His son, with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the martyrdom of the Imam Husayn —we read the following: ‘I have, O my Lord, offered up that which Thou hast given Me, that Thy servants may be quickened, and all that dwell on earth be united.’ And, likewise, these prophetic words, addressed to His martyred son: ‘Thou art the Trust of God and His Treasure in this Land. Erelong will God reveal through thee that which He hath desired.” 45 (Slmghi Effendi)

“Upon thee, 0 Branch of God, be the remembrance of God and His praise, and the praise of all that dwell in the Realm of Immortality and of all the denizens of the Kingdom

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[Page 29]of Names. Happy art thou in that thou hast been faithful to the Covenant of God and His Testament, until Thou didst sacrifice thyself before the face of thy Lord, the Almighty, the Unconstrained. Thou, in truth, hast been wronged, and to this testifieth the Beauty of Him, the Self-Subsisting. Thou didst, in the first days of thy life, bear that which hath caused all things to groan, and made every pillar to ‘ _ _ _ 1 tremble. Happy is the one that remembereth thee,

 and draweth nigh, through thee, unto God, the

Creator of the Morn.” 46 (Bahá’u’lláh)

“Glorified art Thou, O Lord my God! Thou seest Me in the hands of Mine enemies, and My son blood—stained before Thy face, O Thou in Whose hands is the kingdom of all names. I have, O my Lord, offered up that which Thou hast given Me, that Thy servants may be quickenecl and all that dwell on earth be united.

“Blessed art thou, and blessed he that turneth unto thee, and visiteth thy grave, and draweth nigh, through thee, unto God, the Lord ofall that was and shall be. . . . I testify that thou didst return in meekness unto thine abode. Great is thy blessedness and the blessedness of them that hold fast unto the hem of thy outspread robe. . . . Thou art, verily, the trust of God and His treasure in this land. Ere long will God reveal through thee that which He hath desired. He, verily, is the truth, the Knower of things unseen. \When thou wast laid to rest in the earth, the earth itself trembled in its longing to meet thee. Thus hath it been decreed, and yet the people perceive not. . . . Were We to recount the mysteries of thine ascension, they that are asleep would awaken, and all beings would be set ablaze with the fire of the remembrance of My Name, the Mighty, the Loving.” 47 (Bahá’u’lláh)

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“To this same buria1—ground, and on the same day the remains of the Purest Branch were interred, was transferred the body of his mother, the saintly Navvab, she to whose dire afflictions, as attested by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in a Tablet, the 54th chapter of the Book oflsaiah has, in its entirety, borne witness, whose ‘Husband’, in the words of that Prophet, is ‘the Lord of Hosts,’ whose ‘seed shall inherit the Gentiles,’ and whom Bahá’u’lláh in His Tablet, has destined to be ‘His consort in every one of His worlds.” 48 (Shoghi Effendi)

“Among those who shared His exile was His wife, the saintly Navvab, entitled by Him the ‘Most Exalted Leaf’, Who, during almost forty years, continued to evince a fortitude, a piety, a devotion and a nobility of soul which earned her from the pen ofher Lord the posthumous and unrivalled tribute of having been made His ‘perpetual consort in all the worlds of God’.” 49 (Shoghi Effendi)

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[Page 30]“Concerning the Most Exalted Leaf, the mother of‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’u’lláh has written: ‘The first Spirit through which all spirits were revealed, and the first Light by which all lights shone forth, rest upon thee, 0 Most Exalted Leaf, thou who hast been mentioned in the Crimson Book! Thou art the one whom God created to arise and serve His own Self, and the Manifestation of His Cause, and the Dayspring of His Revelation, and the Dawning—Place of His signs, and the Source of His commandments; and Who so aided thee that thou didst turn with thy whole being unto Him, at a time when His servants and handmaidens had turned away from His Face. . . . Happy aI't thou, Q My handmaiden, and My Leaf, and the one mentioned in My Book, and inscribed by My Pen of Glory in My Scrolls and Tablets. . . . Rejoice thou, at this moment, in the most exalted Station and the All—higheSt Paradise, and the Abhá Horizon, inasmuch as He Who is the Lord of Names hath remembered thee. \‘{/e bear witness that thou didst attain unto all good, and that God hath so exalted thee, that all honour and glory circled around thee.” 5° (Bahá’u’lláh)

“O faithful ones! Should ye visit the resting-place of the Most Exalted Leaf, who hath ascended unto the Glorious Companion, stand ye and say: ‘Salutation and blessing and glory upon thee, O Holy Leaf that hath sprung from the Divine Lote—Tree! I bear witness that thou hast believed in God and in His signs, and answered His Call, and turned unto Him, and held fast unto His cord, and clung to the hem of His grace, and fled thy home in His path, and chosen to live as a stranger, out of love for His presence and in thy longing to serve Him. May God have mercy upon him that draweth nigh unto thee, and remembereth thee through the things which My Pen hath voiced in this, the most great station. We pray God that He may forgive us, and forgive them that have turned unto thee, and grant their desires, and bestow upon them, through His Wondrous grace, whatever be their wish. He, verily, is the Bountiful, the Generous. Praise be to God, He Who is the Desire of all worlds, and the Beloved of all who recognize Him.” 3‘ (B-.1lla’u'll-A11)

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“HOLY MOTHER MUNIRIH K\HANUM ASCENDED ABHA KINGDOM. WITH SORROWEUL HEARTS BAHA’I’S WORLD OVER RECALL DIVERS PHASES HER RICH EVENTFUL LIFE MARKED BY UNIQUE SERVICES WHICH BY VIRTUE HER EXALTED POSITION SHE RENDERED DURING DARKEST DAYS ‘ABDU’L—BAHA’S LIFE.” 51 (Shoghi Effendi)