One Hundred Electric Lamps

A retelling based on The Bahá'í World, vol. 15, He Loved and Served by Nathan Rutstein, Selections from the Writings of the Báb and God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi. Words in quotation marks are from those books.

The Báb was held in the fortress of Máh-Kú in Ádhirbáyján, in a chamber of sun-baked bricks that had no door. In the Persian Bayán He wrote: "In His presence, which is My Presence, there is not at night even a lighted lamp! And yet, in places [of worship] which in varying degrees reach out unto Him, unnumbered lamps are shining! All that is on earth hath been created for Him, and all partake with delight of His benefits, and yet they are so veiled from Him as to refuse Him even a lamp!"

Dr. Zia Bagdadi, an Eastern believer living in Chicago, recalled a day at the Shrine of the Báb in a letter to the Spiritual Assembly of New York dated 9 June 1922. "It was on the anniversary of the martyrdom of His Holiness the Báb, while all pilgrims were at the Sacred Shrine." 'Abdu'l-Bahá stood at the threshold for a few minutes without speaking. Then, Bagdadi wrote, "His silence broke with gushing tears and (He) cried loudly, saying: In all the years of imprisonment (in Máh-Kú), the Báb spent all the nights in utter darkness. Yea, not even a candle was allowed (Him) . . . Therefore, God willing, I shall illumine His Sublime Shrine with one hundred electric lamps."

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Roy Wilhelm, a coffee merchant in New York, read those same words of the Báb. According to Nathan Rutstein, Curtis Kelsey's biographer, he was so moved that he wrote at once to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, asking permission to send a lighting plant to Haifa for the Shrine of the Báb. A cable came back from the Master saying that three plants were necessary. Within weeks the machinery was on its way.

It stayed in Haifa for about a year, untouched. One believer in California sent over a young electrical engineer, and the Master sent him back, saying it was not yet time. A young Persian from India, Husayn-i-Kahrubayi, whose name means Husayn the electrician, came and offered to install the plants. He too was sent home, and was asked to wait until the Master called him.

Curtis Kelsey served with Wilhelm on the Spiritual Assembly of New York and worked for his father, an engineer. His hobby was electricity. One day Wilhelm asked him, "How would you like to go to Haifa?" Wilhelm had already written to 'Abdu'l-Bahá asking that Kelsey be permitted to install the plants. Several weeks later the answer came by cable: CURTIS KELSEY PERMITTED. Kelsey sold his possessions, including his Model T Ford, and his father and Wilhelm helped with the rest of the money.

Several days before he sailed, Wilhelm told him what the work was: to design and install electrical systems at the Shrines of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh and in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's house. There was no electricity at Bahjí or in Haifa, so each place would need its own generator. Rutstein writes that Kelsey thought this called for more experience than he had, and that an electrical engineer should be doing it. He told Wilhelm so. Wilhelm did not seem disturbed.

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Kelsey reached Haifa in September 1921. For about two weeks he had no word of when the work would start, and he spent the time unpacking the plants and repairing the Master's two cars. On 12 October 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote to Wilhelm: "Mr. Kelsey, the electrical technician, has arrived. He is a true gentleman."

The Master took him to Bahjí and chose the room at the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh for the lighting plant. Later, walking toward the Mansion, He stopped and asked how Kelsey planned to light the Shrine. Kelsey said he would put underground lights in the inner garden, to shine up through the flowers. He would electrify the oil lamps, and he would run lights around the cornice. The Master nodded and said, "Balih! Balih!" (Yes! Yes!) Rutstein records that this was 'Abdu'l-Bahá's last visit to Bahjí.

It was the Master's wish, Rutstein writes, to see the Shrine of the Báb bathed in light and at the same time to look across the bay and see the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh lit as well. So He told Kelsey to work two weeks at Bahjí and two weeks at the Shrine of the Báb, back and forth, until the work was complete. He introduced Kelsey to Husayn, who had now been called, and assured him that they would learn to work well together though neither understood the other's language. Each knew a few of the other's words. They laid their tools out on a large table, and Kelsey would hold one up and call out its English name while Husayn gave the Persian.

Work at Bahjí began at the end of October. 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent the caretaker a note about the "dear guest" who was coming to arrange the lighting of the Holy Shrines, ordering meat at lunch and dinner, and milk and eggs in the morning. He wrote: "It will be some trouble for you but this service is the duty of 'Abdu'l-Bahá."

At about one in the morning on 28 November 1921, someone pounded on the door of Kelsey's room, crying out for the Master. He ran to the house and found that 'Abdu'l-Bahá had passed away. The Greatest Holy Leaf sent him in the Master's Ford to tell the friends in 'Akká.

The work was not finished. The Master had wished that the lights should come on together the first time, and they did. Bagdadi's letter gave the report from Haifa: "Now the news has come that on the last day of the Feast of Riḍván the three Blessed Shrines were illumined with electricity and the light is flooding the Bay of 'Akká." Shoghi Effendi later recorded in God Passes By "the installment of an electric plant, the first of its kind established in the city of Haifa, flooding with illumination the Grave of One Who, in His own words, had been denied even 'a lighted lamp' in His fortress-prison in Ádhirbáyján."

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see The Bahá'í World, vol. 15, and He Loved and Served by Nathan Rutstein.

Suhm, C. R. J. R. A. M. L.. (1976). *The Bahá'í World, vol. 15, In Memoriam: Curtis DeMude Kelsey*. Bahá'í World Centre. https://bahai-library.com/pdf/bw/memoriam_bw_15.pdf