When Their Father Was Taken to Prison

A retelling for children, based on The Chosen Highway by Lady Blomfield, who wrote down the memories of Bahíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy Leaf.

Long ago, in the city of Tihrán, there lived a little girl named Bahíyyih, who was six years old. She had an older brother, 'Abbás, who would one day be known as 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and a baby brother, Mírzá Mihdí, who was only two. Their father was Bahá'u'lláh, and their mother was Ásíyih Khánum.

One day their father was away at His house in a country village. Suddenly a servant came running in to their mother, very upset. Their father had been arrested! He had walked many miles, His shoes were gone, He had been beaten, and there were chains around His neck.

Many years later, Bahíyyih remembered that day:

My poor mother's face grew whiter and whiter. We children were terribly frightened and could only weep bitterly.

Then almost everyone ran away, friends, relatives and servants, because they were afraid. Only one man-servant and one woman stayed. People came and carried off everything in the house. But their uncle, Mírzá Músá, who was always kind to them, helped their mother and the three children escape and hide in a little house near the prison.

The prison was a dark place under the ground. Their father was kept there in chains for four months. Their mother sold the few treasures she had saved, so that the guards would take food to Him.

Every morning some of the prisoners were taken out and killed, and a drum was beaten loudly. Bahíyyih never forgot that sound. The children held on to their mother, and their mother did not know whether it was her own husband who had been taken that day.

Their mother could only find out whether He was still alive by going out late at night or very early in the morning, even though it was dangerous. Usually 'Abbás went with her. Little Bahíyyih stayed behind in the dark, holding her baby brother in her arms. She was shivering with fear, but she held him and waited until her mother came home.

A relative who could go to the courts brought them news and helped get food to their father. At last news came that their father would be let out of prison. He and His family would have to leave their country and go to the city of Baghdád, but He was alive.

When He came to them, Bahíyyih remembered how happy they were, and how they cried with their mother when they saw the marks the chains had left on His neck and the wounds on His feet.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "The Day Bahá'u'lláh Was Arrested".

Blomfield, L.. (1940). *The Chosen Highway*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust.