From the Prison-City to Bahjí

*A retelling based on **Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era** by J. E. Esslemont (chapter 3), which quotes 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own account as translated by Shoghi Effendi. Details are also drawn from Shoghi Effendi's **God Passes By**. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.*

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For nine years Bahá'u'lláh had not set foot outside the walls of 'Akká. The Sulṭán's decree forbade the exiles to leave the city. 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."

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'Abdu'l-Bahá heard of this saying and understood that His Father longed for the country. A few miles north of 'Akká stood a palace called Mazra'ih, surrounded by gardens and running water. Its owner, a Páshá who was opposed to the exiles, lived in the city and left it empty. 'Abdu'l-Bahá called on him and asked to rent it. The Páshá was amazed, but agreed, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá took it for about five pounds a year.

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He had it repaired and prepared a carriage. Although the decrees forbade the exiles to pass the city walls, He then walked out through the city gate. The guards made no objection.

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When all was ready, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told His Father that the palace and a carriage were waiting. Bahá'u'lláh refused, saying: "I am a prisoner." He asked a second and a third time, and received the same answer. 'Abdu'l-Bahá then turned to a Muslim Shaykh of 'Akká who loved Bahá'u'lláh, and asked him to go and plead. The Shaykh knelt close to Bahá'u'lláh, took His hands and kissed them, and asked why He did not leave the city.

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"I am a prisoner," He said. "God forbid!" the Shaykh replied. "Who has the power to make you a prisoner? You have kept yourself in prison." For a whole hour he went on pleading, until at last Bahá'u'lláh said, "Khaylí khub (very good)." The next day 'Abdu'l-Bahá drove with Him to Mazra'ih.

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Two years later the owner of a mansion at Bahjí fled with his family from an epidemic, and the house was taken at a very low rent. Bahá'u'lláh lived there for the rest of His life. In 'Abdu'l-Bahá's words, at Bahjí "the doors of majesty and true sovereignty were flung wide open." The decrees of Sulṭán 'Abdu'l-'Azíz were never repealed, and Bahá'u'lláh remained a prisoner in name.

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Yet, 'Abdu'l-Bahá continued, "Governors and Mutasarrifs, generals and local officials, would humbly request the honor of attaining His presence--a request to which He seldom acceded." Once a European general who came with the governor was so impressed that he "remained kneeling on the ground near the door."

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Esslemont sums up these years: "Having in His earlier years of hardship shown how to glorify God in a state of poverty and ignominy, Bahá'u'lláh in His later years at Bahjí showed how to glorify God in a state of honor and affluence." The offerings of His followers placed large funds at His disposal, but He and His family lived simply, and "expenditure on selfish luxury was a thing unknown in that household." He spent His time for the most part in prayer and meditation, in revealing Tablets and in the spiritual education of the friends.

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'Abdu'l-Bahá took on all other affairs, meeting the mullás, poets and officials Himself, so that His Father might be free for this work.

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In April 1890 the Cambridge orientalist Edward Granville Browne spent five days at Bahjí and was received by Bahá'u'lláh. He wrote afterward: "The face of him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe it.... No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain!"

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era** by J. E. Esslemont, chapter 3.*

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