Bahá'u'lláh's Farewell to Baghdád

*A retelling based on **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi (chapters VII to IX), which quotes the eyewitness account of Nabíl. Words in quotation marks are quoted from that book.*

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Bahá'u'lláh was released from the Síyáh-Chál of Ṭihrán and banished from Persia. On 12 January 1853 He set out with members of His family on a three-month journey across the mountains in the depth of winter, and on 8 April 1853 He arrived in Baghdád.

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In the years after His return from the mountains of Sulaymáníyyih in 1856, the modest house where He lived became, in Shoghi Effendi's words, "the focal center of a great number of seekers, visitors and pilgrims, including Kurds, Persians, Arabs and Turks, and derived from the Muslim, the Jewish and Christian Faiths." It became a sanctuary for those who had been wronged by the representative of the Persian government in the city, who fled there in the hope of redress.

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Religious leaders of Baghdád, among them the Muftí, came to question Him and became His admirers. Poets, mystics, government officials and Persian princes were drawn to Him.

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Shoghi Effendi writes of the many testimonies left by those who met Him in those years: "of the mendicant, the sick, the aged, and the unfortunate whom He succored, healed, supported and comforted; of the visitors, from the haughtiest prince to the meanest beggar, who crossed His threshold and sat at His feet ... of His adversaries who were confounded or disarmed by the power of His utterance and the warmth of His love." Many of those who had reviled His companions while He was away in the mountains fell silent.

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His enemies, among them the Persian consul-general, pressed for His removal, and in 1863 the Ottoman government summoned Him to Constantinople. The governor's deputy delivered the invitation, together with a sum of money for His expenses. Bahá'u'lláh accepted the invitation but declined the money. When the deputy urged that a refusal would offend the authorities, He accepted it and distributed it that same day among the poor.

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On 22 April 1863 He left His house for the last time. A crowd of friends and strangers, Arabs, Kurds and Persians, notables and clerics, officials and merchants, and many of the poor, the orphaned and the outcast, thronged the approaches to the house. On His way to the river He gave a last alms to the poor He had befriended.

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Before crossing the Tigris He said to His companions: "I entrust to your keeping this city of Baghdád, in the state ye now behold it, when from the eyes of friends and strangers alike, crowding its housetops, its streets and markets, tears like the rain of spring are flowing down, and I depart. With you it now rests to watch lest your deeds and conduct dim the flame of love that gloweth within the breasts of its inhabitants."

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For twelve days He stayed in the Najíbíyyih Garden, later named the Garden of Riḍván, while visitors came to bid Him farewell. Among them was the governor, Námiq Páshá, who offered Him any help He wished. Bahá'u'lláh asked only that he show consideration and kindness to His loved ones.

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At noon on 3 May 1863 He mounted His horse and rode out of the garden. An eyewitness wrote: "Believers and unbelievers alike sobbed and lamented." Nabíl, who was also there, recalled: "Numerous were the heads which, on every side, bowed to the dust at the feet of His horse, and kissed its hoofs, and countless were those who pressed forward to embrace His stirrups."

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

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