Laid to Rest Beside the Báb

A retelling based on God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, which records the building of the Shrine of the Báb and the passing and burial of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Words in quotation marks are quoted from that history.

On one of His visits to Mount Carmel, Bahá'u'lláh Himself pointed out to 'Abdu'l-Bahá the site that was to be the permanent resting-place of the Báb. The Báb's remains had been hidden and moved from place to place since His martyrdom in 1850. The task of building a Shrine for them fell to 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

It took Him years, through some of the hardest times of His ministry. The owner of the land refused for a long time to sell. An exorbitant price was at first demanded for opening a road to the site. Officials raised endless objections, which He answered Himself. His enemies spread monstrous accusations about the purpose of the building, and His prolonged, enforced absence from Haifa kept Him from overseeing the work in person. He often said: "Every stone of that building, every stone of the road leading to it, I have with infinite tears and at tremendous cost, raised and placed in position."

On the day of Naw-Rúz 1909 He had the marble sarcophagus carried into the vault prepared for it. That evening, by the light of a single lamp and with believers from East and West present, He laid within it with His own hands the wooden casket holding the remains of the Báb and His companion. When all was finished, 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who had cast aside His turban, removed His shoes and thrown off His cloak, bent low over the open sarcophagus, rested His forehead on the border of the casket, and wept, so that all who were present wept with Him. That night He could not sleep.

Twelve years later, on 28 November 1921, 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away in Haifa. The next morning some ten thousand people, of every class, religion and race in the land, followed His coffin up the slopes of Mount Carmel to the Shrine of the Báb. Near its eastern entrance the coffin was set on a plain table, and nine speakers of the Muslim, Jewish and Christian Faiths gave their orations. Shoghi Effendi writes that 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."

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi.

Effendi, S.. (1944). *God Passes By*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/shoghi-effendi/god-passes-by/