Nabíl's Grief at the Ascension

In Memorials of the Faithful, 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells the story of Nabíl-i-Zarandí, the chronicler of the Dawn-Breakers, and of what the passing of Bahá'u'lláh meant to him.

In the flower of his youth Nabíl left his family in Zarand to teach the Faith. He went to 'Iráq seeking Bahá'u'lláh, only to find that He had withdrawn to the mountains of Kurdistán, and he waited in Karbilá until He returned. Later he was directed to travel throughout Persia and tell the believers in its cities and villages all that had taken place. When he reached 'Akká, in the years of strict imprisonment, he was informed against and expelled from the city. He withdrew to Safad, and then made his home in a cave on Mount Carmel, lamenting night and day, moaning and chanting prayers. When at last the gates were opened and Bahá'u'lláh came out of the prison-city, Nabíl hastened to Him, and was admitted to His presence almost daily.

On 29 May 1892 Bahá'u'lláh passed away at Bahjí. 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes:

This went on until the day Bahá'u'lláh ascended. At that supreme affliction, that shattering calamity, Nabíl sobbed and trembled and cried out to Heaven. He found that the numerical value of the word "shidád"--year of stress--was 309, and it thus became evident that Bahá'u'lláh foretold what had now come to pass.

He continues:

Utterly cast down, hopeless at being separated from Bahá'u'lláh, fevered, shedding tears, Nabíl was in such anguish that anyone seeing him was bewildered. He struggled on, but the only desire he had was to lay down his life. He could suffer no longer; his longing was aflame in him; he could stand the fiery pain no more. And so he became king of the cohorts of love, and he rushed into the sea.

Before that day, Nabíl had written out the year of his death in the one word: "Drowned."

Near the end of His account, 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes:

The waters of sacrifice closed over him; he was drowned, and he came, at last, to the Most High.

A retelling based on Memorials of the Faithful by 'Abdu'l-Bahá (chapter on Nabíl-i-Zarandí); the indented passages are quoted from the Project Gutenberg text, eBook #19279. For the fuller account, see the original.

'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1915). *Memorials of the Faithful*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19279/pg19279-images.html