The Return from the Mountains

A retelling based on The Chosen Highway by Lady Blomfield (George Ronald), drawn from the recollections the Greatest Holy Leaf, Bahíyyih Khánum, gave of her childhood. The narrative is retold in our own words; the lines in quotation marks are verbatim from the book, except Bahá'u'lláh's words from the Kitáb-i-Íqán. Read the full text for the original account.

Bahíyyih Khánum was still a young girl in Baghdád when her father went away. On 10 April 1854 Bahá'u'lláh left the house without telling anyone, even His family, where He was going or when He would return. He took no luggage, only a little rice and some coarse bread, and went into the mountains of Kurdistán. In the Kitáb-i-Íqán He later explained why: "The one object of Our retirement was to avoid becoming a subject of discord among the faithful, a source of disturbance unto Our companions, the means of injury to any soul, or the cause of sorrow to any heart."

"Our grief was intense when my father left us," Bahíyyih Khánum told Lady Blomfield. She, her mother, Ásíyih Khánum, and her brother 'Abbás "clung together in our sorrow and anxiety."

Before leaving, Bahá'u'lláh had given a kinsman and his family shelter in the house, and had asked the household to care for them. This guest lived in constant fear of arrest. He kept the door of the house locked, would not let the girl make friends with the children next door, would not even let the family go to the public baths, and allowed no one to come in and help. "For hours every day I had to stand drawing water from a deep well in the house," she remembered; "the ropes were hard and rough, and the bucket was heavy." Her mother helped, though she was not strong. Then the baby of the family, a boy born after their arrival in Baghdád, became seriously ill. The guest would not allow a doctor, or even a neighbour, to come, and the baby died.

All this time Ásíyih Khánum and Bahá'u'lláh's brother Mírzá Músá made every inquiry they could. 'Abbás was deeply distressed by the long absence. On one occasion He prayed a whole night that their father might be restored to them. The very next day He and Mírzá Músá overheard two people speaking of a marvellous one living as a dervish in the mountain district of Sulaymáníyyih. They described Him as "The Nameless One," who had "magnetized the country-side with his love." 'Abbás and His uncle knew at once that this must be Bahá'u'lláh.

Shaykh Sulṭán, a faithful friend of the family, set out with another of the believers to find Him. While they were away, Ásíyih Khánum finished a coat for her husband, made from pieces of red Persian cloth she had kept from her marriage treasures.

At last, as she and the two children sat waiting, they heard a step. It was a dervish, and through the disguise they recognized Bahá'u'lláh. Two years had passed since He left. "Our joy cannot be described as we clung to him," Bahíyyih Khánum said. "I can see now my beloved mother, calm and gentle, and my brother holding his father's hand fast, as though never again could he let him go out of his sight, the lovely boy almost enfolded in the uncouth garment of the dervish disguise."

This account is retold for the Bahai Story Library; it is a paraphrase, not the original text. The quoted lines are verbatim from The Chosen Highway (Lady Blomfield, George Ronald), apart from the words of Bahá'u'lláh, which are from the Kitáb-i-Íqán as quoted in God Passes By. See the source for the complete account.

Blomfield, L.. (1940). *The Chosen Highway*. George Ronald. https://bahai-library.com/blomfield_chosen_highway