The Funeral of 'Abdu'l-Bahá

'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away at His home in Haifa in the early hours of 28 November 1921, in the seventy-eighth year of His age. On the Friday before, despite great fatigue, He had given alms to the poor as was His custom. The next day He felt feverish, and on the Sunday, unable to leave the house, He sent the believers to the Tomb of the Báb to attend a feast while He remained at home.

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That night, before He retired, He asked after the health of every member of His household, of the pilgrims and of the friends in Haifa. The news of His passing spread like wildfire through the town and was flashed over the wires to distant parts of the globe.

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Shoghi Effendi describes the funeral, held the next morning, in *God Passes By*. No less than ten thousand people took part, representing every class, religion and race in Palestine.

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> The coffin containing the remains of 'Abdu'l-Bahá was borne to its last > resting-place on the shoulders of His loved ones.

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The procession was led by the city police as a guard of honour, followed by Muslim and Christian Boy Scouts, Muslim choristers chanting verses from the Qur'án, the chiefs of the Muslim community headed by the Muftí, and Christian priests, Latin, Greek and Anglican. Behind the coffin walked His family, the High Commissioner for Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel, the Governor of Jerusalem, Sir Ronald Storrs, and notables Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Druze, with Egyptians, Greeks, Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Europeans and Americans, men, women and children.

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> The long train of mourners, amid the sobs and moans of many a > grief-stricken heart, wended its slow way up the slopes of Mt. Carmel to > the Mausoleum of the Báb.

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Near the eastern entrance of the Shrine the casket was placed on a plain table, and nine speakers, *who represented the Muslim, the Jewish and Christian Faiths,* among them the Muftí of Haifa, gave their funeral orations. The High Commissioner then came close to the casket and, with bowed head, paid his last homage, and the other officials followed him.

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> The coffin was then removed to one of the chambers of the Shrine, and > there lowered, sadly and reverently, to its last resting-place in a vault > adjoining that in which were laid the remains of the Báb.

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Sir Herbert Samuel later wrote, in a letter printed in Lady Blomfield's *The Chosen Highway*:

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> A great throng had gathered together, sorrowing for His death, but > rejoicing also for His life.

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Sir Ronald Storrs wrote:

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> I have never known a more united expression of regret and respect than > was called forth by the utter simplicity of the ceremony.

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During the week after His passing, from fifty to a hundred of the poor of Haifa were fed each day at His house, and on the seventh day corn was distributed in His memory to about a thousand of them, irrespective of creed or race.

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Bahá'ís observe the Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Bahá at one o'clock in the morning on 28 November. It is one of the two Holy Days on which work need not be suspended.

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*A retelling based on Shoghi Effendi's account of the funeral in **God Passes By** (Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1944), chapter 21, and on the letters of Sir Herbert Samuel and Sir Ronald Storrs printed in **The Chosen Highway** (Lady Blomfield); the indented passages are quoted from those texts. For the fuller account, see the originals.*

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