Aqa Sidq-'Ali was yet one more of those who left their native land,
journeyed to Baha'u'llah and were put in the Prison. He was a dervish; a
man who lived free and detached from friend and stranger alike. He
belonged to the mystic element and was a man of letters. He spent some
time wearing the dress of poverty, drinking the wine of the Rule and
traveling the Path,(22) but unlike the other Sufis he did not devote his
life to dusty ha_sh_i_sh_; on the contrary, he cleansed himself of their
vain imaginings and only searched for God, spoke of God, and followed the
path of God.
He had a fine poetic gift and wrote odes to sing the praises of Him Whom
the world has wronged and rejected. Among them is a poem written while he
was a prisoner in the barracks at Akka, the chief couplet of which reads:
A hundred hearts Thy curling locks ensnare,
And it rains hearts when Thou dost toss Thy hair.
That free and independent soul discovered, in Ba_gh_dad, a trace of the
untraceable Beloved. He witnessed the dawning of the Daystar above the
horizon of 'Iraq, and received the bounty of that sunrise. He came under
the spell of Baha'u'llah, and was enraptured by that tender Companion.
Although he was a quiet man, one who held his peace, his very limbs were
like so many tongues crying out their message. When the retinue of
Baha'u'llah was about to leave Ba_gh_dad he implored permission to go
along as a groom. All day, he walked beside the convoy, and when night
came he would attend to the horses. He worked with all his heart. Only
after midnight would he seek his bed and lie down to rest; the bed,
however, was his mantle, and the pillow a sun-dried brick.
As he journeyed, filled with yearning love, he would sing poems. He
greatly pleased the friends. In him the name(23) bespoke the man: he was
pure candor and truth; he was love itself; he was chaste of heart, and
enamored of Baha'u'llah. In his high station, that of groom, he reigned
like a king; indeed he gloried over the sovereigns of the earth. He was
assiduous in attendance upon Baha'u'llah; in all things, upright and true.
The convoy of the lovers went on; it reached Constantinople; it passed to
Adrianople, and finally to the Akka prison. Sidq-'Ali was present
throughout, faithfully serving its Commander.
While in the barracks, Baha'u'llah set apart a special night and He
dedicated it to Darvi_sh_ Sidq-'Ali. He wrote that every year on that
night the dervishes should bedeck a meeting place, which should be in a
flower garden, and gather there to make mention of God. He went on to say
that "dervish" does not denote those persons who wander about, spending
their nights and days in fighting and folly; rather, He said, the term
designates those who are completely severed from all but God, who cleave
to His laws, are firm in His Faith, loyal to His Covenant, and constant in
worship. It is not a name for those who, as the Persians say, tramp about
like vagrants, are confused, unsettled in mind, a burden to others, and of
all mankind the most coarse and rude.
This eminent dervish spent his whole life-span under the sheltering favor
of God. He was completely detached from worldly things. He was attentive
in service, and waited upon the believers with all his heart. He was a
servant to all of them, and faithful at the Holy Threshold.
Then came that hour when, not far from his Lord, he stripped off the cloak
of life, and to physical eyes passed into the shadows, but to the mind's
eye betook himself to what is plain as day; and he was seated there on a
throne of lasting glory. He escaped from the prison of this world, and
pitched his tent in a wide and spacious land. May God ever keep him close
and bless him in that mystic realm with perpetual reunion and the beatific
vision; may he be wrapped in tiers of light. Upon him be the glory of God,
the All-Glorious. His grave is in Akka.