Not I Speak These Words

A retelling based on God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi. Words in quotation marks are preserved in that account.

In Adrianople in 1868 rumours were spreading that the followers of Bahá'u'lláh were to be dispersed and banished to different places, or secretly put to death. Then one morning His house was suddenly surrounded by soldiers, and sentinels were posted at its gates. His followers were summoned once again by the authorities, interrogated, and ordered to make ready for their departure.

"The loved ones of God and His kindred," Bahá'u'lláh wrote in the Súriy-i-Ra'ís, "were left on the first night without food." "The people surrounded the house, and Muslims and Christians wept over Us." And: "We perceived that the weeping of the people of the Son (Christians) exceeded the weeping of others—a sign for such as ponder."

Áqá Ridá, who shared His exile all the way from Baghdad to 'Akká, remembered it too. "A great tumult seized the people," he wrote. "All were perplexed and full of regret." And: "Most of our possessions were auctioned at half their value."

Some of the consuls of foreign powers called on Bahá'u'lláh and offered to intervene with their governments on His behalf. He expressed His appreciation, and firmly declined. Of them He wrote: "They, verily, evinced towards Us manifest affection."

Khurshíd Páshá, the governor, had several times categorically denied the accusations sent to him from Constantinople and had interceded vigorously on Bahá'u'lláh's behalf. He was so embarrassed by his government's action that he chose to be absent when informed of Bahá'u'lláh's immediate departure, and left the Registrar to convey the purport of the Sultan's edict. One believer, Hájí Ja'far-i-Tabrízí, finding his name left off the list of those who might accompany Bahá'u'lláh, cut his throat with a razor, but was prevented in time from ending his life. In the Súriy-i-Ra'ís Bahá'u'lláh calls the act "unheard of in bygone centuries."

On 12 August 1868 Bahá'u'lláh and His family set out in carriages, escorted by soldiers under a Turkish captain named Hasan Effendi, on a four-day journey to Gallipoli. An eyewitness wrote of the farewell: "Methinks the city, its walls and its gates bemoaned their imminent separation from Him." Another remembered "a wonderful concourse of Muslims and Christians" at the door, and that "most of those present were weeping and wailing, especially the Christians."

At Káshánih, one of the stopping-places on the road, the Súriy-i-Ra'ís was revealed. In it Bahá'u'lláh declared: "this Youth hath departed out of this country and deposited beneath every tree and every stone a trust, which God will erelong bring forth through the power of truth."

Several of the companions who had been brought from Constantinople were waiting at Gallipoli. On His arrival, as Hasan Effendi, his duty done, was taking his leave, Bahá'u'lláh gave him this message: "Tell the king that this territory will pass out of his hands, and his affairs will be thrown into confusion."

Áqá Ridá recorded what followed: "Bahá'u'lláh furthermore added: 'Not I speak these words, but God speaketh them.' In those moments He was uttering verses which we, who were downstairs, could overhear. They were spoken with such vehemence and power that, methinks, the foundations of the house itself trembled."

Bahá'u'lláh Himself attests in the Súriy-i-Ra'ís that while in Gallipoli He also sent a verbal message to the Sultan through a Turkish officer named Umar, asking for a ten-minute interview, "so that he may demand whatsoever he would deem to be a sufficient testimony and would regard as proof of the veracity of Him Who is the Truth." Should God enable Him to produce it, the Sultan was to "release these wronged ones and leave them to themselves."

Three nights were spent in Gallipoli, and still no one knew where Bahá'u'lláh would be sent. Some thought the exiles would be scattered; some that they would be sent back to Persia; others expected their immediate extermination. The government's original order was that Bahá'u'lláh, Áqáy-i-Kalím and Mírzá Muhammad-Qulí, with one servant, were to go to 'Akká, and the rest to Constantinople. The order provoked scenes of indescribable distress. At Bahá'u'lláh's insistence, and through Umar Effendi, a major appointed to accompany the exiles, it was revoked, and it was decided that all the exiles, about seventy in number, would be banished to 'Akká.

The dangers ahead were so grave that before leaving Gallipoli Bahá'u'lláh warned His companions that "this journey will be unlike any of the previous journeys," and that whoever did not feel himself "man enough to face the future" had best "depart to whatever place he pleaseth, and be preserved from tests, for hereafter he will find himself unable to leave." His companions unanimously chose to disregard the warning.

On the morning of 21 August 1868 they embarked on an Austrian-Lloyd steamer for Alexandria, on the way to 'Akká.

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi.

Effendi, S.. (1944). *God Passes By*.