The Long Walk Up the Mountain

A retelling for children, based on The Chosen Highway by Lady Blomfield, and the account written by Shoghi Effendi and Lady Blomfield, The Passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

In the early hours of a November morning, in the town of Haifa, by the sea, 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away in His own home. The evening before, He had come back from the Shrine of the Báb, and had stayed up talking with His family late into the night.

When morning came, the sad news traveled from house to house through the town. Then it spread out past the town and into the hills all around.

The very next day, people began to gather — and not just a few. Around ten thousand people came. Think how many that is! They came from every kind of home and every kind of faith. There were Muslims, and Christians, and Jews, and the Druze people who lived in the hills above Haifa. And there were Bahá'ís, too, who had come from many faraway lands. People who did not always agree, and did not always live side by side, all came together on this one day.

Why did so many different people come? Because each of them had loved 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and now they had all lost the same dear friend.

Behind the town rose a tall, green mountain called Mount Carmel. Up on its slopes stood the beautiful Shrine of the Báb. And that is where everyone was going.

Slowly, slowly, the great crowd began to climb. 'Abdu'l-Bahá was carried up the mountain on the shoulders of the people who loved Him. Behind Him came the long, long line of mourners, winding its way up the slopes. Many of them were weeping as they walked, for their hearts were full of sadness.

At last the long climb was over, and everyone reached the Shrine. There, one after another, nine speakers stood up beside Him. They came from three different faiths — some were Muslim, some were Jewish, some were Christian. Each one spoke in his own way, in his own words, trying to say what their city had lost. And then, gently and quietly, 'Abdu'l-Bahá was laid to rest in the Shrine, close beside the Báb.

An important leader who was there that day looked around at all the weeping people. He said something that is still remembered. The mourners, he said, were "sorrowing for His death, but rejoicing also for His life." They were sad that He was gone — but oh, how glad they were that He had ever lived at all!

Here is something many of those people learned only that very morning. For years and years, all through hard and hungry war times, someone had been quietly bringing food and warmth to the poor families of Haifa. The families did not always know who their kind helper was. And now they found out: it had been 'Abdu'l-Bahá, all along — the same Master they had sometimes seen walking by the seashore in His white turban.

That is why so many different people climbed the mountain together that day. 'Abdu'l-Bahá had loved every one of them, no matter who they were or what they believed. And love like that does not divide people — it gathers them, shoulder to shoulder, all the way up the mountain.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Ten Thousand Mourners on Mount Carmel: The Funeral of 'Abdu'l-Bahá".

Blomfield, L.. (1940). *The Chosen Highway*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://bahai-library.com/blomfield_chosen_highway