An Hour of Kissed Hands: 'Abdu'l-Bahá Wins Bahá'u'lláh a Day in the Country

In Chapter 3 of Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, Esslemont relates a small piece of household diplomacy that brought to an end one of the most painful aspects of Bahá'u'lláh's confinement.

By the late 1870s the strict early years of the imprisonment had slowly relaxed. The Persian Bahá'ís were now able, in many cases, to attain the presence of the Blessed Beauty. The governorship of 'Akká had passed through several hands. The local population had come, by long acquaintance, to a quiet respect for the Persian Family that had been thrust into their midst.

Bahá'u'lláh, however, would not Himself leave the city. The Ottoman decree of banishment had not been formally lifted; He was, by the terms of the original sentence, still a prisoner. He held to the dignity of His own confinement and would not put even a single foot beyond the city gates without explicit permission.

'Abdu'l-Bahá, observing His Father's tiredness — the dust of the city, the heat of the summer, the stifling of years inside the narrow streets — set out to do what an obedient son could do. He did not request the outing directly. He arranged that one of the respected local Sunni shaykhs of 'Akká, a man for whom Bahá'u'lláh had warmth and esteem, should come to the house and plead.

Esslemont describes the scene the witnesses preserved.

The shaykh came. He sat at Bahá'u'lláh's feet. He took the Blessed Beauty's hands. He kissed them and held them. He did not let go. He pleaded, gently and continuously, that Bahá'u'lláh should consent to a visit to the green countryside beyond the city — a few hours' drive away, an hour at the Mansion of Mazra'ih in the small estate the Master had quietly arranged for that purpose.

Bahá'u'lláh resisted. The shaykh held the hands and pleaded. Bahá'u'lláh resisted again. The shaykh did not move.

Esslemont preserves the duration:

[The Shaykh] took hold of the hands of the Blessed Beauty and kissed them for an hour, finally hearing: Khaylí khub — very good.

The phrase — Khaylí khub, in Persian — is the gentlest form of acquiescence in everyday speech: Very good, all right, so be it. It was the answer the Master had hoped, by His chosen intermediary, to extract.

Bahá'u'lláh visited the country. The visit became visits. The strict confinement of the Most Great Prison was, in effect, quietly ended in those late years — not by a decree from the Sultan, not by a successful escape, but by the patient diplomacy of an obedient son who had asked a respected neighbour to ask what He could not Himself ask.

The detail Esslemont preserved — kissed them for an hour — gives the story its weight. Some doors do not open to a single knock. They open to an hour.

Source: J. E. Esslemont, Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era (George Allen & Unwin, 1923), Chapter 3. Public domain text from Project Gutenberg eBook #19241.

Esslemont, J. E.. (1923). *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era*. George Allen & Unwin. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19241