1. Praise be to Him Who hath honoured the Land of Ba (Beirut)
through the presence of Him round Whom all names revolve. All
the atoms of the earth have announced unto all created things
that from behind the gate of the Prison-city there hath
appeared and above its horizon there hath shone forth the Orb
of the beauty of the great, the Most Mighty Branch of God -
His ancient and immutable Mystery - proceeding on its way to
another land. Sorrow, thereby, hath enveloped this
Prison-city, whilst another land rejoiceth.
Exalted,
immeasurably exalted is our Lord, the Fashioner of the heavens
and the Creator of all things, He through Whose sovereignty
the doors of the prison were opened, thereby causing what was
promised aforetime in the Tablets to be fulfilled. He is
verily potent over what He willeth, and in His grasp is the
dominion of the entire creation. He is the All-Powerful, the
All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
Blessed, doubly
blessed, is the ground which His footsteps have trodden, the
eye that hath been cheered by the beauty of His countenance,
the ear that hath been honoured by hearkening to His call, the
heart that hath tasted the sweetness of His love, the breast
that hath dilated through His remembrance, the pen that hath
voiced His praise, the scroll that hath borne the testimony of
His writings. We beseech God - blessed and exalted be He -
that He may honour us with meeting Him soon. He is, in truth,
the All-Hearing, the All-Powerful, He Who is ready to
answer.
(Tablets of
Bahá'u'lláh, pages 227-228)
2. O people of
the world! When the Mystic Dove will have winged its flight
from its Sanctuary of Praise and sought its far-off goal, its
hidden habitation, refer ye whatsoever ye understand not in
the Book to Him Who hath branched from this mighty
Stock.
(The
Kitab-i-Aqdas, Baha'u'llah: page 82)
3. When the ocean
of My presence hath ebbed and the Book of My Revelation is
ended, turn your faces toward Him Whom God hath purposed, Who
hath branched from this Ancient Root.
(Baha'u'llah: The
Kitab-i-Aqdas, page 63)
4. The Will of
the divine Testator is this: It is incumbent upon … (all) to
turn, one and all, their faces towards the Most Mighty Branch.
Consider that which We have revealed in Our Most Holy Book:
`When the ocean of My presence hath ebbed and the Book of My
Revelation is ended, turn your faces toward Him Whom God hath
purposed, Who hath branched from this Ancient Root.' The
object of this sacred verse is none other except the Most
Mighty Branch [Abdu'l-Baha]. Thus have We graciously revealed
unto you our potent Will.
(Baha'u'llah:
Tablets of Baha'u'llah, page 221)
5. You have
written that there is a difference among the believers
concerning the 'Second Coming of Christ.' Gracious God! Time
and again this question hath arisen, and its answer hath
emanated in a clear and irrefutable statement from the pen of
`Abdu'l-Bahá, that what is meant in the prophecies by the
`Lord of Hosts' and the 'Promised Christ' is the Blessed
Perfection (Bahá'u'lláh) ...
My name is `Abdu'l-Bahá.
My qualification is `Abdu'l-Bahá. My reality is `Abdu'l-Bahá.
My praise is `Abdu'l-Bahá. Thraldom to the Blessed Perfection
is my glorious and refulgent diadem, and servitude to all the
human race my perpetual religion...
No name, no
title, no mention, no commendation have I, nor will ever have,
except `Abdu'l-Bahá. This is my longing. This is my greatest
yearning. This is my eternal life. This is my everlasting
glory.
(World Order of
Bahá'u'lláh, page 139)
6. An attempt…should
now be made to clarify our minds regarding the station
occupied by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the significance of His position
in this holy Dispensation. It would be indeed difficult for
us, who stand so close to such a tremendous figure and are
drawn by the mysterious power of so magnetic a personality, to
obtain a clear and exact understanding of the role and
character of One Who, not only in the Dispensation of
Bahá'u'lláh but in the entire field of religious history,
fulfills a unique function. Though moving in a sphere of His
own and holding a rank radically different from that of the
Author and the Forerunner of the Bahá'í Revelation, He, by
virtue of the station ordained for Him through the Covenant of
Bahá'u'lláh, forms together with them what may be termed the
Three Central Figures of a Faith that stands unapproached in
the world's spiritual history. He towers, in conjunction with
them, above the destinies of this infant Faith of God from a
level to which no individual or body ministering to its needs
after Him, and for no less a period than a full thousand
years, can ever hope to rise. To degrade His lofty rank by
identifying His station with or by regarding it as roughly
equivalent to, the position of those on whom the mantle of His
authority has fallen would be an act of impiety as grave as
the no less heretical belief that inclines to exalt Him to a
state of absolute equality with either the central Figure or
Forerunner of our Faith. For wide as is the gulf that
separates 'Abdu'l-Bahá from Him Who is the Source of an
independent Revelation, it can never be regarded as
commensurate with the greater distance that stands between Him
Who is the Center of the Covenant and His ministers who are to
carry on His work, whatever be their name, their rank, their
functions or their future achievements. Let those who have
known 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who through their contact with His
magnetic personality have come to cherish for Him so fervent
an admiration, reflect, in the light of this statement, on the
greatness of One Who is so far above Him in station.
(Shoghi Effendi,
The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 131)
7. He is, and
should for all time be regarded, first and foremost, as the
Center and Pivot of Bahá'u'lláh's peerless and all-enfolding
Covenant, His most exalted handiwork, the stainless Mirror of
His light, the perfect Exemplar of His teachings, the unerring
Interpreter of His Word, the embodiment of every Bahá'í
ideal, the incarnation of every Bahá'í virtue, the Most
Mighty Branch sprung from the Ancient Root, the Limb of the
Law of God, the Being "round Whom all names
revolve," the Mainspring of the Oneness of Humanity, the
Ensign of the Most Great Peace, the Moon of the Central Orb of
this most holy Dispensation -- styles and titles that are
implicit and find their truest, their highest and fairest
expression in the magic name 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He is, above and
beyond these appellations, the "Mystery of God" --
an expression by which Bahá'u'lláh Himself has chosen to
designate Him, and which, while it does not by any means
justify us to assign to Him the station of Prophethood,
indicates how in the person of 'Abdu'l-Bahá the incompatible
characteristics of a human nature and superhuman knowledge and
perfection have been blended and are completely
harmonized.
(Shoghi Effendi,
The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 133)
8. There hath
branched from the Sadratu'l-Muntaha this sacred and glorious
Being, this Branch of Holiness; well is it with him that hath
sought His shelter and abideth beneath His shadow. Verily the
Limb of the Law of God hath sprung forth from this Root which
God hath firmly implanted in the Ground of His Will, and Whose
Branch hath been so uplifted as to encompass the whole of
creation. Magnified be He, therefore, for this sublime, this
blessed, this mighty, this exalted Handiwork!... A Word hath,
as a token of Our grace, gone forth from the Most Great Tablet
-- a Word which God hath adorned with the ornament of His own
Self, and made it sovereign over the earth and all that is
therein, and a sign of His greatness and power among its
people ...Render thanks unto God, O people, for His
appearance; for verily He is the most great Favor unto you,
the most perfect bounty upon you; and through Him every
mouldering bone is quickened. Whoso turneth towards Him hath
turned towards God, and whoso turneth away from Him hath
turned away from My beauty, hath repudiated My Proof, and
transgressed against Me. He is the Trust of God amongst you,
His charge within you, His manifestation unto you and His
appearance among His favored servants... We have sent Him down
in the form of a human temple. Blest and sanctified be God Who
createth whatsoever He willeth through His inviolable, His
infallible decree. They who deprive themselves of the shadow
of the Branch, are lost in the wilderness of error, are
consumed by the heat of worldly desires, and are of those who
will assuredly perish.
(Baha'u'llah,
Tablet of the Branch)
9. "O Thou
Who art the apple of Mine eye!" Bahá'u'lláh, in His own
handwriting, thus addresses 'Abdu'l-Bahá, "My glory, the
ocean of My loving-kindness, the sun of My bounty, the heaven
of My mercy rest upon Thee. We pray God to illumine the world
through Thy knowledge and wisdom, to ordain for Thee that
which will gladden Thine heart and impart consolation to Thine
eyes."
(Shoghi Effendi,
The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 134)
10. Thou knowest,
O my God, that I desire for Him naught except that which Thou
didst desire, and have chosen Him for no purpose save that
which Thou hadst intended for Him. Render Him victorious,
therefore, through Thy hosts of earth and heaven... Ordain, I
beseech Thee, by the ardor of My love for Thee and My yearning
to manifest Thy Cause, for Him, as well as for them that love
Him, that which Thou hast destined for Thy Messengers and the
Trustees of Thy Revelation. Verily, Thou art the Almighty, the
All-Powerful.
(Bahá'u'lláh,
in a prayer revealed in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's honor)
11. Abdu'l-Bahá's
great work was now ended. The historic Mission with which His
Father had, twenty-nine years previously, invested Him had
been gloriously consummated. A memorable chapter in the
history of the first Baha'i century had been written. The
Heroic Age of the Baha'i Dispensation, in which He had
participated since its inception, and played so unique a role,
had drawn to a close. He had suffered as no disciple of the
Faith, who had drained the cup of martyrdom, had suffered, He
had labored as none of its greatest heroes had labored. He had
witnessed triumphs such as neither the Herald of the Faith nor
its Author had ever witnessed.
At the close of
His strenuous Western tours, which had called forth the last
ounce of His ebbing strength, He had written: "Friends,
the time is coming when I shall be no longer with you. I have
done all that could be done. I have served the Cause of
Bahá'u'lláh to the utmost of My ability. I have labored
night and day all the years of My life. O how I long to see
the believers shouldering the responsibilities of the
Cause!... My days are numbered, and save this there remains
none other joy for me." Several years before He had thus
alluded to His passing: "O ye My faithful loved ones!
Should at any time afflicting events come to pass in the Holy
Land, never feel disturbed or agitated. Fear not, neither
grieve. For whatsoever thing happeneth will cause the Word of
God to be exalted, and His Divine fragrances to be
diffused." And again: "Remember, whether or not I be
on earth, My presence will be with you always."
"Regard not the person of Abdu'l-Baha," He thus
counselled His friends in one of His last Tablets, "for
He will eventually take His leave of you all; nay, fix your
gaze upon the Word of God... The loved ones of God must arise
with such steadfastness that should, in one moment, hundreds
of souls even as Abdu'l-Baha Himself be made a target for the
darts of woe, nothing whatsoever shall affect or lessen their
... service to the Cause of God."
In a Tablet
addressed to the American believers, a few days before He
passed away, He thus vented His pent-up longing to depart from
this world: "I have renounced the world and the people
thereof... In the cage of this world I flutter even as a
frightened bird, and yearn every day to take My flight unto
Thy Kingdom. Ya Baha'u'l-Abha! Make Me drink of the cup of
sacrifice, and set Me free." He revealed a prayer less
than six months before His ascension in honor of a kinsman of
the Bab, and in it wrote: "`O Lord! My bones are
weakened, and the hoar hairs glisten on My head ... and I have
now reached old age, failing in My powers.'... No strength is
there left in Me wherewith to arise and serve Thy loved
ones... O Lord, My Lord! Hasten My ascension unto Thy sublime
Threshold ... and My arrival at the Door of Thy grace beneath
the shadow of Thy most great mercy..." …
A month before
His death (which occurred in the 78th year of His age, in the
early hours of the 28th of November, 1921) He had referred
expressly to it in some words of cheer and comfort that He
addressed to a believer who was mourning the loss of his
brother. And about two weeks before His passing He had spoken
to His faithful gardener in a manner that clearly indicated He
knew His end to be nigh. "I am so fatigued," He
observed to him, "the hour is come when I must leave
everything and take My flight. I am too weary to walk."
He added: "It was during the closing days of the Blessed
Beauty, when I was engaged in gathering together His papers
which were strewn over the sofa in His writing chamber in
Bahji, that He turned to Me and said: `It is of no use to
gather them, I must leave them and flee away.' I also have
finished My work. I can do nothing more. Therefore must I
leave it, and take My departure."
Till the very
last day of His earthly life Abdu'l-Baha continued to shower
that same love upon high and low alike, to extend that same
assistance to the poor and the down-trodden, and to carry out
those same duties in the service of His Father's Faith, as had
been His wont from the days of His boyhood. On the Friday
before His passing, despite great fatigue, He attended the
noonday prayer at the mosque, and distributed afterwards alms,
as was His custom, among the poor; dictated some Tablets - the
last ones He revealed -; blessed the marriage of a trusted
servant, which He had insisted should take place that day;
attended the usual meeting of the friends in His home; felt
feverish the next day, and being unable to leave the house on
the following Sunday, sent all the believers to the Tomb of
the Báb to attend a feast which a Parsi pilgrim was offering
on the occasion of the anniversary of the Declaration of the
Covenant; received with His unfailing courtesy and kindness
that same afternoon, and despite growing weariness, the Mufti
of Haifa, the Mayor and the Head of the Police; and inquired
that night - the last of His life - before He retired after
the health of every member of His household, of the pilgrims
and of the friends in Haifa.
At 1:15 A.M. He
arose, and, walking to a table in His room, drank some water,
and returned to bed. Later on, He asked one of His two
daughters who had remained awake to care for Him, to lift up
the net curtains, complaining that He had difficulty in
breathing. Some rose-water was brought to Him, of which He
drank, after which He again lay down, and when offered food,
distinctly remarked: "You wish Me to take some food, and
I am going?" A minute later His spirit had winged its
flight to its eternal abode, to be gathered, at long last, to
the glory of His beloved Father, and taste the joy of
everlasting reunion with Him.
The news of His
passing, so sudden, so unexpected, spread like wildfire
throughout the town, and was flashed instantly over the wires
to distant parts of the globe, stunning with grief the
community of the followers of Bahá'u'lláh in East and West.
Messages from far and near, from high and low alike, through
cablegrams and letters, poured in conveying to the members of
a sorrow-stricken and disconsolate family expressions of
praise, of devotion, of anguish and of sympathy…
As to the funeral
itself, which took place on Tuesday morning - a funeral the
like of which Palestine had never seen - no less than ten
thousand people participated representing every class,
religion and race in that country. "A great throng,"
bore witness at a later date, the High Commissioner himself,
"had gathered together, sorrowing for His death, but
rejoicing also for His life." Sir Ronald Storrs, Governor
of Jerusalem at the time, also wrote in describing the
funeral: "I have never known a more united expression of
regret and respect than was called forth by the utter
simplicity of the ceremony."
The coffin
containing the remains of Abdu'l-Baha was borne to its last
resting-place on the shoulders of His loved ones. The cortege
which preceded it was led by the City Constabulary Force,
acting as a Guard of Honor, behind which followed in order the
Boy Scouts of the Muslim and Christian communities holding
aloft their banners, a company of Muslim choristers chanting
their verses from the Qur'an, the chiefs of the Muslim
community headed by the Mufti, and a number of Christian
priests, Latin, Greek and Anglican. Behind the coffin walked
the members of His family, the British High Commissioner, Sir
Herbert Samuel, the Governor of Jerusalem, Sir Ronald Storrs,
the Governor of Phoenicia, Sir Stewart Symes, officials of the
government, consuls of various countries resident in Haifa,
notables of Palestine, Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Druze,
Egyptians, Greeks, Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Europeans and
Americans, men, women and children. The long train of
mourners, amid the sobs and moans of many a grief-stricken
heart, wended its slow way up the slopes of Mt. Carmel to the
Mausoleum of the Báb.
Close to the
eastern entrance of the Shrine, the sacred casket was placed
upon a plain table, and, in the presence of that vast
concourse, nine speakers, who represented the Muslim, the
Jewish and Christian Faiths, and who included the Mufti of
Haifa, delivered their several funeral orations. These
concluded, the High Commissioner drew close to the casket,
and, with bowed head fronting the Shrine, paid his last homage
of farewell to Abdu'l-Baha: the other officials of the
Government followed his example. The coffin was then removed
to one of the chambers of the Shrine, and there lowered, sadly
and reverently, to its last resting-place in a vault adjoining
that in which were laid the remains of the Báb. During the
week following His passing, from fifty to a hundred of the
poor of Haifa were daily fed at His house, whilst on the
seventh day corn was distributed in His memory to about a
thousand of them irrespective of creed or race. On the
fortieth day an impressive memorial feast was held in His
memory, to which over six hundred of the people of Haifa, Akka
and the surrounding parts of Palestine and Syria, including
officials and notables of various religions and races, were
invited. More than one hundred of the poor were also fed on
that day….
Thus was brought
to a close the ministry of One Who was the incarnation, by
virtue of the rank bestowed upon Him by His Father, of an
institution that has no parallel in the entire field of
religious history, a ministry that marks the final stage in
the Apostolic, the Heroic and most glorious Age of the
Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh.
(Shoghi Effendi:
God Passes By, Pages: 309-320)
12. Tablet of
Visitation
He
is the All-Glorious!
O God, my God! Lowly and tearful, I raise my suppliant hands
to Thee and cover my face in the dust of that Threshold of
Thine, exalted above the knowledge of the learned, and the
praise of all that glorify Thee. Graciously look upon Thy
servant, humble and lowly at Thy door, with the glances of the
eye of Thy mercy, and immerse him in the Ocean of Thine
eternal grace.
Lord! He is a poor and lowly servant of Thine, enthralled and
imploring Thee, captive in Thy hand, praying fervently to
Thee, trusting in Thee, in tears before Thy face, calling to
Thee and beseeching Thee, saying:
O Lord, my God! Give me Thy grace to serve Thy loved ones,
strengthen me in my servitude to Thee, illumine my brow with
the light of adoration in Thy court of holiness, and of prayer
to Thy kingdom of grandeur. Help me to be selfless at the
heavenly entrance of Thy gate, and aid me to be detached from
all things within Thy holy precincts. Lord! Give me to drink
from the chalice of selflessness; with its robe clothe me, and
in its ocean immerse me. Make me as dust in the pathway of Thy
loved ones, and grant that I may offer up my soul for the
earth ennobled by the footsteps of Thy chosen ones in Thy
path, O Lord of Glory in the Highest.
With this prayer doth Thy servant call Thee, at dawntide and
in the night-season. Fulfil his heart's desire, O Lord!
Illumine his heart, gladden his bosom, kindle his light, that
he may serve Thy Cause and Thy-servants.
Thou art the Bestower, the Pitiful, the Most Bountiful, the
Gracious, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
- `Abdu'l-Bahá
