The Evening of Bahá'u'lláh's Life

*A retelling based on **Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era** by J. E. Esslemont, chapter 3, the sections "Prison Gates Opened", "Life at Bahjí" and "Ascension". Words in quotation marks are from that book, including 'Abdu'l-Bahá's account quoted there in Shoghi Effendi's translation.*

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While He was held in the barracks at 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh wrote to some of the believers: "Fear not. These doors shall be opened. My tent shall be pitched on Mount Carmel, and the utmost joy shall be realized." Esslemont writes that this was in due course literally fulfilled, and he lets 'Abdu'l-Bahá tell how.

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Bahá'u'lláh loved the countryside. One day He remarked: "I have not gazed on verdure for nine years. The country is the world of the soul, the city is the world of bodies." When 'Abdu'l-Bahá heard of this, He called on Muḥammad Páshá Ṣafwat, who owned a palace called Mazra'ih about four miles north of the city, and rented it for about five pounds a year. He had it repaired and a carriage made ready.

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Bahá'u'lláh would not go. "I am a prisoner," He said. 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked three times and was refused each time. He then asked a Muslim shaykh of 'Akká, a man of influence who loved Bahá'u'lláh, to plead with Him. The shaykh sat down close to His knees, took His hands and kissed them. "Who has the power to make you a prisoner?" he asked.

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Each time Bahá'u'lláh answered that He was a prisoner, the shaykh took His hands and kissed them again. For a whole hour he kept on pleading, until at last Bahá'u'lláh said, "Khaylí khub (very good)." The next day 'Abdu'l-Bahá drove Him to Mazra'ih in the carriage. No one objected.

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After two years there, an epidemic broke out at Bahjí and the owner of the mansion there fled with his family. 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalled: "We took the house at a very low rent, and there the doors of majesty and true sovereignty were flung wide open." Bahá'u'lláh was still nominally a prisoner, but governors, generals and officials asked for the honour of meeting Him, a request He seldom granted. Often He would say: "Verily, verily, the most wretched prison has been converted into a Paradise of Eden."

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Esslemont adds that life at Bahjí was simple. Bahá'u'lláh and His family lived modestly, and nothing was spent on selfish luxury. Nearby the believers prepared a garden called Riḍván, where He often stayed for days or weeks at a time. He visited 'Akká and Haifa, and more than once pitched His tent on Mount Carmel, as He had foretold in the barracks. He spent His time for the most part in prayer and meditation, in writing and revealing Tablets, and in the spiritual education of the friends, while 'Abdu'l-Bahá took charge of every other affair.

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Esslemont then writes: "Thus simply and serenely did Bahá'u'lláh pass the evening of His life on earth until, after an attack of fever, He passed away on the 29th of May, 1892, at the age of seventy-five." Among the last Tablets He revealed was His Will and Testament, "which He wrote with His own hand and duly signed and sealed." Nine days after His passing it was opened in the presence of members of the family and a few friends.

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By it, Esslemont writes, 'Abdu'l-Bahá was made His Father's representative and the expounder of His teachings, and all the family and the believers were told to turn to Him.

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era** by J.E. Esslemont.*

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