The Brave Walk in the Dark

A retelling for children, based on The Chosen Highway by Lady Blomfield, drawn from the childhood memories of Bahíyyih Khánum.

It was the winter of 1852, and the city of Tihrán was bitterly cold.

In that city was a terrible place called the Síyáh-Chál — the "Black Pit." Long ago it had been an underground reservoir for holding water. Now it had been turned into a prison, deep beneath the streets. To get down to it, you walked down a flight of stone steps into the dark. There was no light there, and no clean air. The family later remembered that it was ankle-deep in filth, and crawling with insects.

And there, in that cold blackness, Bahá'u'lláh was held prisoner. He was chained with heavy irons, along with other believers, and the iron pressed and cut into Him whenever He moved. He stayed in that dark place for four long months.

Up above the ground, His family was in great danger too.

His wife was named Ásíyih Khánum. She had grown up in a wealthy home, with beautiful things and people to help her, and she had never wanted for anything. But now all of that was gone. She and her children had to hide. They were poor and afraid, and worst of all, she could not find out whether her beloved husband was still alive. Every single day she lived without knowing.

So this brave mother did something very hard — not once, but again and again.

At night, when the streets were dark and empty, she would quietly slip out of her hiding place and walk through the dangerous city, all the way toward the prison. She went for one reason only: to learn whether her husband had lived through another day.

You have to understand how frightening that was. In those months, the crowds in the city were cruel. Believers were being dragged from their homes and hurt and killed, day after day. For a woman to walk alone through those streets, heading straight toward that prison, took more bravery than most people are ever asked for in their whole lives. But she found that bravery inside herself — and she found it night after night — because she loved Him.

While their mother was out in the dark, the children waited at home.

One of them was a little girl named Bahíyyih Khánum. She was only about six years old. She had a baby brother named Mírzá Mihdí, who was just two. While their mother was gone, it was this small girl's job to hold her little brother in her arms and keep him calm and quiet.

Imagine her, sitting in the dark, only six years old, with the toddler hugged close. Every sound outside made her heart jump. She listened, and listened, hoping not for a scary knock at the door, but for one sound only: the soft footstep that would mean her mother had come safely home again.

There was an older brother too — a boy of eight named 'Abbás, who would one day grow up to be known as 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Even though He was still a child, He already carried heavy sorrows that most grown-ups never have to bear.

It is almost too sad to think about. And yet, when you look closely at this family in that long, cold winter, the thing that shines out is not the fear. It is the love. A mother brave enough to walk into danger every night. A little girl with her steadfast arms wrapped around a frightened baby. A whole family that simply would not let terror win.

And here is something wonderful that the family could not have known while they were suffering so much. It was inside that very dungeon, during those very months, that something began. In that deepest darkness, God's message to Bahá'u'lláh first began to stir within Him — a light that no darkness anywhere could ever put out.

The enemies who threw Him into the Black Pit thought it would be the end. Instead, it became a beginning — the start of a whole new day for all the people of the world. And the quiet, patient love of one family, holding tight to each other through that winter, became part of the foundation it was all built upon.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "The Mother Who Walked to the Prison".

Blomfield, L.. (1940). *The Chosen Highway*. George Ronald. https://bahai-library.com/blomfield_chosen_highway