The arrival of Baha'u'llah in Akka marks the opening of the last phase of
His forty-year long ministry, the final stage, and indeed the climax, of
the banishment in which the whole of that ministry was spent. A banishment
that had, at first, brought Him to the immediate vicinity of the
strongholds of _Sh_i'ah orthodoxy and into contact with its outstanding
exponents, and which, at a later period, had carried Him to the capital of
the Ottoman empire, and led Him to address His epoch-making pronouncements
to the Sultan, to his ministers and to the ecclesiastical leaders of Sunni
Islam, had now been instrumental in landing Him upon the shores of the
Holy Land--the Land promised by God to Abraham, sanctified by the
Revelation of Moses, honored by the lives and labors of the Hebrew
patriarchs, judges, kings and prophets, revered as the cradle of
Christianity, and as the place where Zoroaster, according to
'Abdu'l-Baha's testimony, had "held converse with some of the Prophets of
Israel," and associated by Islam with the Apostle's night-journey, through
the seven heavens, to the throne of the Almighty. Within the confines of
this holy and enviable country, "the nest of all the Prophets of God,"
"the Vale of God's unsearchable Decree, the snow-white Spot, the Land of
unfading splendor" was the Exile of Ba_gh_dad, of Constantinople and
Adrianople condemned to spend no less than a third of the allotted span of
His life, and over half of the total period of His Mission. "It is
difficult," declares 'Abdu'l-Baha, "to understand how Baha'u'llah could
have been obliged to leave Persia, and to pitch His tent in this Holy
Land, but for the persecution of His enemies, His banishment and exile."
Indeed such a consummation, He assures us, had been actually prophesied
"through the tongue of the Prophets two or three thousand years before."
God, "faithful to His promise," had, "to some of the Prophets" "revealed
and given the good news that the 'Lord of Hosts should be manifested in
the Holy Land.'" Isaiah had, in this connection, announced in his Book:
"Get thee up into the high mountain, O Zion that bringest good tidings;
lift up thy voice with strength, O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings.
Lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah: 'Behold your God!
Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for
Him.'" David, in his Psalms, had predicted: "Lift up your heads, O ye
gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory
shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the
King of Glory." "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence." Amos had, likewise,
foretold His coming: "The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter His voice
from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the
top of Carmel shall wither."
Akka, itself, flanked by the "glory of Lebanon," and lying in full view of
the "splendor of Carmel," at the foot of the hills which enclose the home
of Jesus Christ Himself, had been described by David as "the Strong City,"
designated by Hosea as "a door of hope," and alluded to by Ezekiel as "the
gate that looketh towards the East," whereunto "the glory of the God of
Israel came from the way of the East," His voice "like a noise of many
waters." To it the Arabian Prophet had referred as "a city in Syria to
which God hath shown His special mercy," situated "betwixt two mountains
... in the middle of a meadow," "by the shore of the sea ... suspended
beneath the Throne," "white, whose whiteness is pleasing unto God."
"Blessed the man," He, moreover, as confirmed by Baha'u'llah, had
declared, "that hath visited Akka, and blessed he that hath visited the
visitor of Akka." Furthermore, "He that raiseth therein the call to
prayer, his voice will be lifted up unto Paradise." And again: "The poor
of Akka are the kings of Paradise and the princes thereof. A month in Akka
is better than a thousand years elsewhere." Moreover, in a remarkable
tradition, which is contained in _Sh_ay_kh_ Ibnu'l-'Arabi's work, entitled
"Futuhat-i-Makkiyyih," and which is recognized as an authentic utterance
of Muhammad, and is quoted by Mirza Abu'l-Fadl in his "Fara'id," this
significant prediction has been made: "All of them (the companions of the
Qa'im) shall be slain except One Who shall reach the plain of Akka, the
Banquet-Hall of God."
Baha'u'llah Himself, as attested by Nabil in his narrative, had, as far
back as the first years of His banishment to Adrianople, alluded to that
same city in His Lawh-i-Sayyah, designating it as the "Vale of Nabil," the
word Nabil being equal in numerical value to that of Akka. "Upon Our
arrival," that Tablet had predicted, "We were welcomed with banners of
light, whereupon the Voice of the Spirit cried out saying: 'Soon will all
that dwell on earth be enlisted under these banners.'"
The banishment, lasting no less than twenty-four years, to which two
Oriental despots had, in their implacable enmity and shortsightedness,
combined to condemn Baha'u'llah, will go down in history as a period which
witnessed a miraculous and truly revolutionizing change in the
circumstances attending the life and activities of the Exile Himself, will
be chiefly remembered for the widespread recrudescence of persecution,
intermittent but singularly cruel, throughout His native country and the
simultaneous increase in the number of His followers, and, lastly, for an
enormous extension in the range and volume of His writings.
His arrival at the penal colony of Akka, far from proving the end of His
afflictions, was but the beginning of a major crisis, characterized by
bitter suffering, severe restrictions, and intense turmoil, which, in its
gravity, surpassed even the agonies of the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran, and to
which no other event, in the history of the entire century can compare,
except the internal convulsion that rocked the Faith in Adrianople. "Know
thou," Baha'u'llah, wishing to emphasize the criticalness of the first
nine years of His banishment to that prison-city, has written, "that upon
Our arrival at this Spot, We chose to designate it as the 'Most Great
Prison.' Though previously subjected in another land (Tihran) to chains
and fetters, We yet refused to call it by that name. Say: Ponder thereon,
O ye endued with understanding!"
The ordeal He endured, as a direct consequence of the attempt on the life
of Nasiri'd-Din _Sh_ah, was one which had been inflicted upon Him solely
by the external enemies of the Faith. The travail in Adrianople, the
effects of which all but sundered the community of the Bab's followers,
was, on the other hand, purely internal in character. This fresh crisis
which, during almost a decade, agitated Him and His companions, was,
however, marked throughout not only by the assaults of His adversaries
from without, but by the machinations of enemies from within, as well as
by the grievous misdeeds of those who, though bearing His name,
perpetrated what made His heart and His pen alike to lament.
Akka, the ancient Ptolemais, the St. Jean d'Acre of the Crusaders, that
had successfully defied the siege of Napoleon, had sunk, under the Turks,
to the level of a penal colony to which murderers, highway robbers and
political agitators were consigned from all parts of the Turkish empire.
It was girt about by a double system of ramparts; was inhabited by a
people whom Baha'u'llah stigmatized as "the generation of vipers"; was
devoid of any source of water within its gates; was flea-infested, damp
and honey-combed with gloomy, filthy and tortuous lanes. "According to
what they say," the Supreme Pen has recorded in the Lawh-i-Sultan, "it is
the most desolate of the cities of the world, the most unsightly of them
in appearance, the most detestable in climate, and the foulest in water.
It is as though it were the metropolis of the owl." So putrid was its air
that, according to a proverb, a bird when flying over it would drop dead.
Explicit orders had been issued by the Sultan and his ministers to subject
the exiles, who were accused of having grievously erred and led others far
astray, to the strictest confinement. Hopes were confidently expressed
that the sentence of life-long imprisonment pronounced against them would
lead to their eventual extermination. The farman of Sultan 'Abdu'l-'Aziz,
dated the fifth of Rabi'u'_th_-_Th_ani 1285 A.H. (July 26, 1868), not only
condemned them to perpetual banishment, but stipulated their strict
incarceration, and forbade them to associate either with each other or
with the local inhabitants. The text of the farman itself was read
publicly, soon after the arrival of the exiles, in the principal mosque of
the city as a warning to the population. The Persian Ambassador,
accredited to the Sublime Porte, had thus assured his government, in a
letter, written a little over a year after their banishment to Akka: "I
have issued telegraphic and written instructions, forbidding that He
(Baha'u'llah) associate with any one except His wives and children, or
leave under any circumstances, the house wherein He is imprisoned.
Abbas-Quli _Kh_an, the Consul-General in Damascus ... I have, three days
ago, sent back, instructing him to proceed direct to Akka ... confer with
its governor regarding all necessary measures for the strict maintenance
of their imprisonment ... and appoint, before his return to Damascus, a
representative on the spot to insure that the orders issued by the Sublime
Porte will, in no wise, be disobeyed. I have, likewise, instructed him
that once every three months he should proceed from Damascus to Akka, and
personally watch over them, and submit his report to the Legation." Such
was the isolation imposed upon them that the Baha'is of Persia, perturbed
by the rumors set afloat by the Azalis of Isfahan that Baha'u'llah had
been drowned, induced the British Telegraph office in Julfa to ascertain
on their behalf the truth of the matter.
Having, after a miserable voyage, disembarked at Akka, all the exiles,
men, women and children, were, under the eyes of a curious and callous
population that had assembled at the port to behold the "God of the
Persians," conducted to the army barracks, where they were locked in, and
sentinels detailed to guard them. "The first night," Baha'u'llah testifies
in the Lawh-i-Ra'is, "all were deprived of either food or drink... They
even begged for water, and were refused." So filthy and brackish was the
water in the pool of the courtyard that no one could drink it. Three
loaves of black and salty bread were assigned to each, which they were
later permitted to exchange, when escorted by guards to the market, for
two of better quality. Subsequently they were allowed a mere pittance as
substitute for the allotted dole of bread. All fell sick, except two,
shortly after their arrival. Malaria, dysentery, combined with the sultry
heat, added to their miseries. Three succumbed, among them two brothers,
who died the same night, "locked," as testified by Baha'u'llah, "in each
other's arms." The carpet used by Him He gave to be sold in order to
provide for their winding-sheets and burial. The paltry sum obtained after
it had been auctioned was delivered to the guards, who had refused to bury
them without first being paid the necessary expenses. Later, it was
learned that, unwashed and unshrouded, they had buried them, without
coffins, in the clothes they wore, though, as affirmed by Baha'u'llah,
they were given twice the amount required for their burial. "None," He
Himself has written, "knoweth what befell Us, except God, the Almighty,
the All-Knowing... From the foundation of the world until the present day
a cruelty such as this hath neither been seen nor heard of." "He hath,
during the greater part of His life," He, referring to Himself, has,
moreover, recorded, "been sore-tried in the clutches of His enemies. His
sufferings have now reached their culmination in this afflictive Prison,
into which His oppressors have so unjustly thrown Him."
The few pilgrims who, despite the ban that had been so rigidly imposed,
managed to reach the gates of the Prison--some of whom had journeyed the
entire distance from Persia on foot--had to content themselves with a
fleeting glimpse of the face of the Prisoner, as they stood, beyond the
second moat, facing the window of His Prison. The very few who succeeded
in penetrating into the city had, to their great distress, to retrace
their steps without even beholding His countenance. The first among them,
the self-denying Haji Abu'l-Hasan-i-Ardikani, surnamed Amin-i-Ilahi
(Trusted of God), to enter His presence was only able to do so in a public
bath, where it had been arranged that he should see Baha'u'llah without
approaching Him or giving any sign of recognition. Another pilgrim, Ustad
Isma'il-i-Ka_sh_i, arriving from Mosul, posted himself on the far side of
the moat, and, gazing for hours, in rapt adoration, at the window of his
Beloved, failed in the end, owing to the feebleness of his sight, to
discern His face, and had to turn back to the cave which served as his
dwelling-place on Mt. Carmel--an episode that moved to tears the Holy
Family who had been anxiously watching from afar the frustration of his
hopes. Nabil himself had to precipitately flee the city, where he had been
recognized, had to satisfy himself with a brief glimpse of Baha'u'llah
from across that same moat, and continued to roam the countryside around
Nazareth, Haifa, Jerusalem and Hebron, until the gradual relaxation of
restrictions enabled him to join the exiles.
To the galling weight of these tribulations was now added the bitter grief
of a sudden tragedy--the premature loss of the noble, the pious Mirza
Mihdi, the Purest Branch, 'Abdu'l-Baha's twenty-two year old brother, an
amanuensis of Baha'u'llah and a companion of His exile from the days when,
as a child, he was brought from Tihran to Ba_gh_dad to join his Father
after His return from Sulaymaniyyih. He was pacing the roof of the
barracks in the twilight, one evening, wrapped in his customary devotions,
when he fell through the unguarded skylight onto a wooden crate, standing
on the floor beneath, which pierced his ribs, and caused, twenty-two hours
later, his death, on the 23rd of Rabi'u'l-Avval 1287 A.H. (June 23, 1870).
His dying supplication to a grieving Father was that his life might be
accepted as a ransom for those who were prevented from attaining the
presence of their Beloved.
In a highly significant prayer, revealed by Baha'u'llah 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."
After he had been washed in the presence of Baha'u'llah, he "that was
created of the light of Baha," to whose "meekness" the Supreme Pen had
testified, and of the "mysteries" of whose ascension that same Pen had
made mention, was borne forth, escorted by the fortress guards, and laid
to rest, beyond the city walls, in a spot adjacent to the shrine of Nabi
Salih, from whence, seventy years later, his remains, simultaneously with
those of his illustrious mother, were to be translated to the slopes of
Mt. Carmel, in the precincts of the grave of his sister, and under the
shadow of the Bab's holy sepulcher.
Nor was this the full measure of the afflictions endured by the Prisoner
of Akka and His fellow-exiles. Four months after this tragic event a
mobilization of Turkish troops necessitated the removal of Baha'u'llah and
all who bore Him company from the barracks. He and His family were
accordingly assigned the house of Malik, in the western quarter of the
city, whence, after a brief stay of three months, they were moved by the
authorities to the house of _Kh_avvam which faced it, and from which,
after a few months, they were again obliged to take up new quarters in the
house of Rabi'ih, being finally transferred, four months later, to the
house of Udi _Kh_ammar, which was so insufficient to their needs that in
one of its rooms no less than thirteen persons of both sexes had to
accommodate themselves. Some of the companions had to take up their
residence in other houses, while the remainder were consigned to a
caravanserai named the _Kh_an-i-'Avamid.
Their strict confinement had hardly been mitigated, and the guards who had
kept watch over them been dismissed, when an internal crisis, which had
been brewing in the midst of the community, was brought to a sudden and
catastrophic climax. Such had been the conduct of two of the exiles, who
had been included in the party that accompanied Baha'u'llah to Akka, that
He was eventually forced to expel them, an act of which Siyyid Muhammad
did not hesitate to take the fullest advantage. Reinforced by these
recruits, he, together with his old associates, acting as spies, embarked
on a campaign of abuse, calumny and intrigue, even more pernicious than
that which had been launched by him in Constantinople, calculated to
arouse an already prejudiced and suspicious populace to a new pitch of
animosity and excitement. A fresh danger now clearly threatened the life
of Baha'u'llah. Though He Himself had stringently forbidden His followers,
on several occasions, both verbally and in writing, any retaliatory acts
against their tormentors, and had even sent back to Beirut an
irresponsible Arab convert, who had meditated avenging the wrongs suffered
by his beloved Leader, seven of the companions clandestinely sought out
and slew three of their persecutors, among whom were Siyyid Muhammad and
Aqa Jan.
The consternation that seized an already oppressed community was
indescribable. Baha'u'llah's indignation knew no bounds. "Were We," He
thus voices His emotions, in a Tablet revealed shortly after this act had
been committed, "to make mention of what befell Us, the heavens would be
rent asunder and the mountains would crumble." "My captivity," He wrote on
another occasion, "cannot harm Me. That which can harm Me is the conduct
of those who love Me, who claim to be related to Me, and yet perpetrate
what causeth My heart and My pen to groan." And again: "My captivity can
bring on Me no shame. Nay, by My life, it conferreth on Me glory. That
which can make Me ashamed is the conduct of such of My followers as
profess to love Me, yet in fact follow the Evil One."
He was dictating His Tablets to His amanuensis when the governor, at the
head of his troops, with drawn swords, surrounded His house. The entire
populace, as well as the military authorities, were in a state of great
agitation. The shouts and clamor of the people could be heard on all
sides. Baha'u'llah was peremptorily summoned to the Governorate,
interrogated, kept in custody the first night, with one of His sons, in a
chamber in the _Kh_an-i-_Sh_avirdi, transferred for the following two
nights to better quarters in that neighborhood, and allowed only after the
lapse of seventy hours to regain His home. 'Abdu'l-Baha was thrown into
prison and chained during the first night, after which He was permitted to
join His Father. Twenty-five of the companions were cast into another
prison and shackled, all of whom, except those responsible for that odious
deed, whose imprisonment lasted several years, were, after six days, moved
to the _Kh_an-i-_Sh_avirdi, and there placed, for six months, under
confinement.
"Is it proper," the Commandant of the city, turning to Baha'u'llah, after
He had arrived at the Governorate, boldly inquired, "that some of your
followers should act in such a manner?" "If one of your soldiers," was the
swift rejoinder, "were to commit a reprehensible act, would you be held
responsible, and be punished in his place?" When interrogated, He was
asked to state His name and that of the country from which He came. "It is
more manifest than the sun," He answered. The same question was put to Him
again, to which He gave the following reply: "I deem it not proper to
mention it. Refer to the farman of the government which is in your
possession." Once again they, with marked deference, reiterated their
request, whereupon Baha'u'llah spoke with majesty and power these words:
"My name is Baha'u'llah (Light of God), and My country is Nur (Light). Be
ye apprized of it." Turning then, to the Mufti, He addressed him words of
veiled rebuke, after which He spoke to the entire gathering, in such
vehement and exalted language that none made bold to answer Him. Having
quoted verses from the Suriy-i-Muluk, He, afterwards, arose and left the
gathering. The Governor, soon after, sent word that He was at liberty to
return to His home, and apologized for what had occurred.
A population, already ill-disposed towards the exiles, was, after such an
incident, fired with uncontrollable animosity for all those who bore the
name of the Faith which those exiles professed. The charges of impiety,
atheism, terrorism and heresy were openly and without restraint flung into
their faces. Abbud, who lived next door to Baha'u'llah, reinforced the
partition that separated his house from the dwelling of his now
much-feared and suspected Neighbor. Even the children of the imprisoned
exiles, whenever they ventured to show themselves in the streets during
those days, would be pursued, vilified and pelted with stones.
The cup of Baha'u'llah's tribulations was now filled to overflowing. A
situation, greatly humiliating, full of anxieties and even perilous,
continued to face the exiles, until the time, set by an inscrutable Will,
at which the tide of misery and abasement began to ebb, signalizing a
transformation in the fortunes of the Faith even more conspicuous than the
revolutionary change effected during the latter years of Baha'u'llah's
sojourn in Ba_gh_dad.
The gradual recognition by all elements of the population of Baha'u'llah's
complete innocence; the slow penetration of the true spirit of His
teachings through the hard crust of their indifference and bigotry; the
substitution of the sagacious and humane governor, Ahmad Big Tawfiq, for
one whose mind had been hopelessly poisoned against the Faith and its
followers; the unremitting labors of 'Abdu'l-Baha, now in the full flower
of His manhood, Who, through His contacts with the rank and file of the
population, was increasingly demonstrating His capacity to act as the
shield of His Father; the providential dismissal of the officials who had
been instrumental in prolonging the confinement of the innocent
companions--all paved the way for the reaction that was now setting in, a
reaction with which the period of Baha'u'llah's banishment to Akka will
ever remain indissolubly associated.
Such was the devotion gradually kindled in the heart of that governor,
through his association with 'Abdu'l-Baha, and later through his perusal
of the literature of the Faith, which mischief-makers, in the hope of
angering him, had submitted for his consideration, that he invariably
refused to enter His presence without first removing his shoes, as a token
of his respect for Him. It was even bruited about that his favored
counselors were those very exiles who were the followers of the Prisoner
in his custody. His own son he was wont to send to 'Abdu'l-Baha for
instruction and enlightenment. It was on the occasion of a long-sought
audience with Baha'u'llah that, in response to a request for permission to
render Him some service, the suggestion was made to him to restore the
aqueduct which for thirty years had been allowed to fall into disuse--a
suggestion which he immediately arose to carry out. To the inflow of
pilgrims, among whom were numbered the devout and venerable Mulla
Sadiq-i-_Kh_urasani and the father of Badi, both survivors of the struggle
of Tabarsi, he offered scarcely any opposition, though the text of the
imperial farman forbade their admission into the city. Mustafa Diya
Pa_sh_a, who became governor a few years later, had even gone so far as to
intimate that his Prisoner was free to pass through its gates whenever He
pleased, a suggestion which Baha'u'llah declined. Even the Mufti of Akka,
_Sh_ay_kh_ Mahmud, a man notorious for his bigotry, had been converted to
the Faith, and, fired by his newborn enthusiasm, made a compilation of the
Muhammadan traditions related to Akka. Nor were the occasionally
unsympathetic governors, despatched to that city, able, despite the
arbitrary power they wielded, to check the forces which were carrying the
Author of the Faith towards His virtual emancipation and the ultimate
accomplishment of His purpose. Men of letters, and even 'ulamas residing
in Syria, were moved, as the years rolled by, to voice their recognition
of Baha'u'llah's rising greatness and power. Aziz Pa_sh_a, who, in
Adrianople, had evinced a profound attachment to 'Abdu'l-Baha, and had in
the meantime been promoted to the rank of Vali, twice visited Akka for the
express purpose of paying his respects to Baha'u'llah, and to renew his
friendship with One Whom he had learned to admire and revere.
Though Baha'u'llah Himself practically never granted personal interviews,
as He had been used to do in Ba_gh_dad, yet such was the influence He now
wielded that the inhabitants openly asserted that the noticeable
improvement in the climate and water of their city was directly
attributable to His continued presence in their midst. The very
designations by which they chose to refer to him, such as the "august
leader," and "his highness" bespoke the reverence with which He inspired
them. On one occasion, a European general who, together with the governor,
was granted an audience by Him, was so impressed that he "remained
kneeling on the ground near the door." _Sh_ay_kh_ 'Aliy-i-Miri, the Mufti
of Akka, had even, at the suggestion of 'Abdu'l-Baha, to plead insistently
that He might permit the termination of His nine-year confinement within
the walls of the prison-city, before He would consent to leave its gates.
The garden of Na'mayn, a small island, situated in the middle of a river
to the east of the city, honored with the appellation of Ridvan, and
designated by Him the "New Jerusalem" and "Our Verdant Isle," had,
together with the residence of 'Abdu'llah Pa_sh_a,--rented and prepared for
Him by 'Abdu'l-Baha, and situated a few miles north of Akka--become by now
the favorite retreats of One Who, for almost a decade, had not set foot
beyond the city walls, and Whose sole exercise had been to pace, in
monotonous repetition, the floor of His bed-chamber.
Two years later the palace of Udi _Kh_ammar, on the construction of which
so much wealth had been lavished, while Baha'u'llah lay imprisoned in the
barracks, and which its owner had precipitately abandoned with his family
owing to the outbreak of an epidemic disease, was rented and later
purchased for Him--a dwelling-place which He characterized as the "lofty
mansion," the spot which "God hath ordained as the most sublime vision of
mankind." 'Abdu'l-Baha's visit to Beirut, at the invitation of Mi_dh_at
Pa_sh_a, a former Grand Vizir of Turkey, occurring about this time; His
association with the civil and ecclesiastical leaders of that city; His
several interviews with the well-known _Sh_ay_kh_ Muhammad 'Abdu served to
enhance immensely the growing prestige of the community and spread abroad
the fame of its most distinguished member. The splendid welcome accorded
him by the learned and highly esteemed _Sh_ay_kh_ Yusuf, the Mufti of
Nazareth, who acted as host to the valis of Beirut, and who had despatched
all the notables of the community several miles on the road to meet Him as
He approached the town, accompanied by His brother and the Mufti of Akka,
as well as the magnificent reception given by 'Abdu'l-Baha to that same
_Sh_ay_kh_ Yusuf when the latter visited Him in Akka, were such as to
arouse the envy of those who, only a few years before, had treated Him and
His fellow-exiles with feelings compounded of condescension and scorn.
The drastic farman of Sultan 'Abdu'l-'Aziz, though officially unrepealed,
had by now become a dead letter. Though "Baha'u'llah was still nominally a
prisoner, "the doors of majesty and true sovereignty were," in the words
of 'Abdu'l-Baha, "flung wide open." "The rulers of Palestine," He moreover
has written, "envied His influence and power. Governors and mutisarrifs,
generals and local officials, would humbly request the honor of attaining
His presence--a request to which He seldom acceded."
It was in that same mansion that the distinguished Orientalist, Prof. E.
G. Browne of Cambridge, was granted his four successive interviews with
Baha'u'llah, during the five days he was His guest at Bahji (April 15-20,
1890), interviews immortalized by the Exile's historic declaration that
"these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away and the 'Most
Great Peace' shall come." "The face of Him on Whom I gazed," is the
interviewer's memorable testimony for posterity, "I can never forget,
though I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very
soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow.... No need to ask in
whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of
a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain."
"Here," the visitor himself has testified, "did I spend five most
memorable days, during which I enjoyed unparalleled and unhoped-for
opportunities of holding intercourse with those who are the fountain-heads
of that mighty and wondrous spirit, which works with invisible but
ever-increasing force for the transformation and quickening of a people
who slumber in a sleep like unto death. It was, in truth, a strange and
moving experience, but one whereof I despair of conveying any save the
feeblest impression."
In that same year Baha'u'llah's tent, the "Tabernacle of Glory," was
raised on Mt. Carmel, "the Hill of God and His Vineyard," the home of
Elijah, extolled by Isaiah as the "mountain of the Lord," to which "all
nations shall flow." Four times He visited Haifa, His last visit being no
less than three months long. In the course of one of these visits, when
His tent was pitched in the vicinity of the Carmelite Monastery, He, the
"Lord of the Vineyard," revealed the Tablet of Carmel, remarkable for its
allusions and prophecies. On another occasion He pointed out Himself to
'Abdu'l-Baha, as He stood on the slopes of that mountain, the site which
was to serve as the permanent resting-place of the Bab, and on which a
befitting mausoleum was later to be erected.
Properties, bordering on the Lake associated with the ministry of Jesus
Christ, were, moreover, purchased at Baha'u'llah's bidding, designed to be
consecrated to the glory of His Faith, and to be the forerunners of those
"noble and imposing structures" which He, in His Tablets, had anticipated
would be raised "throughout the length and breadth" of the Holy Land, as
well as of the "rich and sacred territories adjoining the Jordan and its
vicinity," which, in those Tablets, He had permitted to be dedicated "to
the worship and service of the one true God."
The enormous expansion in the volume of Baha'u'llah's correspondence; the
establishment of a Baha'i agency in Alexandria for its despatch and
distribution; the facilities provided by His staunch follower, Muhammad
Mustafa, now established in Beirut to safeguard the interests of the
pilgrims who passed through that city; the comparative ease with which a
titular Prisoner communicated with the multiplying centers in Persia,
'Iraq, Caucasus, Turkistan, and Egypt; the mission entrusted by Him to
Sulayman _Kh_an-i-Tanakabuni, known as Jamal Effendi, to initiate a
systematic campaign of teaching in India and Burma; the appointment of a
few of His followers as "Hands of the Cause of God"; the restoration of
the Holy House in _Sh_iraz, whose custodianship was now formally entrusted
by Him to the Bab's wife and her sister; the conversion of a considerable
number of the adherents of the Jewish, Zoroastrian and Buddhist Faiths,
the first fruits of the zeal and the perseverance which itinerant teachers
in Persia, India and Burma were so strikingly displaying--conversions that
automatically resulted in a firm recognition by them of the Divine origin
of both Christianity and Islam--all these attested the vitality of a
leadership that neither kings nor ecclesiastics, however powerful or
antagonistic, could either destroy or undermine.
Nor should reference be omitted to the emergence of a prosperous community
in the newly laid out city of I_sh_qabad, in Russian Turkistan, assured of
the good will of a sympathetic government, enabling it to establish a
Baha'i cemetery and to purchase property and erect thereon structures that
were to prove the precursors of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the
Baha'i world; or to the establishment of new outposts of the Faith in
far-off Samarqand and Bu_kh_ara, in the heart of the Asiatic continent, in
consequence of the discourses and writings of the erudite Fadil-i-Qa'ini
and the learned apologist Mirza Abu'l-Fadl; or to the publication in India
of five volumes of the writings of the Author of the Faith, including His
"Most Holy Book"--publications which were to herald the vast multiplication
of its literature, in various scripts and languages, and its
dissemination, in later decades, throughout both the East and the West.
"Sultan 'Abdu'l-'Aziz," Baha'u'llah is reported by one of His
fellow-exiles to have stated, "banished Us to this country in the greatest
abasement, and since his object was to destroy Us and humble Us, whenever
the means of glory and ease presented themselves, We did not reject them."
"Now, praise be to God," He, moreover, as reported by Nabil in his
narrative, once remarked, "it has reached the point when all the people of
these regions are manifesting their submissiveness unto Us." And again, as
recorded in that same narrative: "The Ottoman Sultan, without any
justification, or reason, arose to oppress Us, and sent Us to the fortress
of Akka. His imperial farman decreed that none should associate with Us,
and that We should become the object of the hatred of every one. The Hand
of Divine power, therefore, swiftly avenged Us. It first loosed the winds
of destruction upon his two irreplaceable ministers and confidants, 'Ali
and Fu'ad, after which that Hand was stretched out to roll up the panoply
of Aziz himself, and to seize him, as He only can seize, Who is the
Mighty, the Strong."
"His enemies," 'Abdu'l-Baha, referring to this same theme, has written,
"intended that His imprisonment should completely destroy and annihilate
the blessed Cause, but this prison was, in reality, of the greatest
assistance, and became the means of its development." "...This illustrious
Being," He, moreover has affirmed, "uplifted His Cause in the Most Great
Prison. From this Prison His light was shed abroad; His fame conquered the
world, and the proclamation of His glory reached the East and the West."
"His light at first had been a star; now it became a mighty sun." "Until
our time," He, moreover has affirmed, "no such thing has ever occurred."
Little wonder that, in view of so remarkable a reversal in the
circumstances attending the twenty-four years of His banishment to Akka,
Baha'u'llah Himself should have penned these weighty words: "The Almighty
... hath transformed this Prison-House into the Most Exalted Paradise, the
Heaven of Heavens."