Who Would Suspect Me?

*A retelling based on **The Chosen Highway** by Lady Blomfield, with context from **God Passes By** and H. M. Balyuzi's **'Abdu'l-Bahá: The Centre of the Covenant**. Words in quotation marks are as recorded in those books.*

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Early in 1917 vague but alarming rumours about conditions in Palestine reached the Bahá'ís in London, and they were anxious for 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Lady Blomfield, who set this story down, often comforted herself by repeating words He had spoken to her: "Have you not realized that never in my life have I been for one day out of danger? ... Be not troubled, these enemies have no power over my life, but that which is given to them from on high."

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Since the war began, the Holy Land had been almost cut off from the Bahá'í world. Shoghi Effendi writes in God Passes By that most of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's followers were "entirely cut off for a number of years from the spiritual center of their Faith." H. M. Balyuzi records that when Mírzá Fadlu'lláh Khán Banán reached Haifa from Shíráz on 19 January 1915, with the offerings of the Bahá'ís of that city, his arrival was "the last link with the outside world for a long time."

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In those war years 'Abdu'l-Bahá wished to send a Tablet to the friends in Tihrán, to be copied there and sent on to the Bahá'ís in other lands. Everywhere the believers were anxious for news of Him, and terrible rumours about His fate were being whispered. None of the friends available seemed to have any real chance of getting a letter through. His enemies were watching for any opportunity to make mischief, and anyone caught carrying such a letter in wartime could expect to lose his liberty, and perhaps his life.

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Then an Arab believer named Hájí Ramaḍán came forward. "I implore Thee, O my Master, to accept this service from me," he said. "Insignificant am I, and nearly blind, who would suspect me?" He was seventy-five years old. His wife had died, and so had his sons. He had given his property and his shop to his sons-in-law, and wanted whatever money he had left to be used for the poor.

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"Nothing have I to bind me to this world," he said, "so in perfect freedom I offer this my service." And he pleaded: "I only, it seemeth to me, have any chance of succeeding as Thy messenger. I pray Thee, accept me!"

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"Thou only are at this time available, and I entrust thee with this Tablet," said the Master.

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Hájí Ramaḍán hid the Tablet carefully and set out, his heart, Lady Blomfield says, "filled with joy." He walked for forty-five days, and reached Tihrán with the news that the Master and His family were safe.

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After resting for a while he started back, and the return journey was harder. He travelled through Kirmánsháh and Baghdád disguised as a pedlar. There was gold at the bottom of his bags, and letters were sewn into the lining of his 'abá. For one stage of the journey he passed as an eye-doctor, and the Arabs among whom he travelled believed his simple remedy, a lotion of boracic acid, worked wonders. He rested very little, because every halt risked discovery, and he went on, "defying fatigue, danger, and the burden of his seventy-five years."

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When he arrived he laid the gold and the letters, intact, at the feet of the Master. 'Abdu'l-Bahá embraced him and said: "Behold by what poor and humble children of God are great events served."

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The Tablet he carried, dated November 1917, is printed in The Chosen Highway.

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It begins: "What though the doors be closed, the roads and the ways barred, and the usual means of communication be no longer existing, yet the streams of union and nearness of heart flow on without ceasing in the ecstasy of spiritual communion." It continues: "Even though the rays of Light and the reflecting Mirrors be far apart, yet there is no severance, for the union, by the rays and bounties of the reflection, remains firm and unfailing." It asks the Bahá'ís to "show forth in their works such determination and steadfastness that the world of humanity may greatly marvel, saying: Behold what firmness and uprightness, what strength and vigour are theirs." It gives the news the friends were waiting for: "Praise be to God that, with the aid and favour of His Holiness the Almighty, our days are passed in the best of health on Mount Carmel at the house of His Honour Aqa 'Abbas-Quli." Near its end it explains that because the usual means of communication had been severed, "His Honour Haji Ramadan, has been sent with this Tablet, since he only is, at this time, able to undertake the journeyings."

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After some rest Hájí Ramaḍán set out on another mission, and never arrived. No news of what became of him ever reached the friends. Others were sent from time to time to look for him, without success. Balyuzi, telling the same story, writes that "no trace of him was ever found." Lady Blomfield remembered him as an Arab, old and nearly blind, "with the soul of a shining and chivalrous knight."

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **The Chosen Highway** by Lady Blomfield, Part III, "Haji Ramadan", and Balyuzi's **'Abdu'l-Bahá: The Centre of the Covenant**, pp. 411-412.*

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