A Dewdrop from That Limitless Ocean
'Abdu'l-Bahá, A Traveler's Narrative, (1886), Cambridge University Press
When in Bahá'í history
Baghdád (today: Baghdad, Iraq)
A retelling based on A Traveller's Narrative by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, translated by E. G. Browne, with passages from Shoghi Effendi's God Passes By (chapter 9). Words in quotation marks are from those books.
In A Traveller's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes that the essence of the Báb's writings was the praise of "that Reality soon to appear which was His only object and aim, His darling, and His desire." The Báb regarded Himself as a harbinger of good tidings, and He never ceased to tell His followers to expect the appearance of that One. 'Abdu'l-Bahá quotes the Báb's own words:
I am a letter out of that most mighty book and a dewdrop from that limitless ocean, and, when He shall appear, My true nature, My mysteries, riddles, and intimations will become evident...
In the same passage the Báb names the year sixty-nine (1269 A.H.), "the year of 'after a while,'" as the time when this would be disclosed. 'Abdu'l-Bahá adds that the remembrance of the One to come "was the bright candle of His dark nights in the fortress of Mákú, and remembrance of Him was the best of companions in the straits of the prison of Chihríq."
In God Passes By, Shoghi Effendi writes that the "year nine" (1269), "anticipated in such glowing terms by the Báb," began late in 1852, while Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned in the Síyáh-Chál of Ṭihrán. His Revelation was born in that prison, but a "delay," of no less than a decade, followed before He announced it to the Báb's disciples. That delay ended in April 1863, when, on the eve of His exile from Baghdád, He declared His mission to His companions in the Najíbíyyih Garden, which His followers named the Garden of Riḍván. With that Declaration, Shoghi Effendi writes, the "set time of concealment" was fulfilled, and the nineteen years that the Báb had fixed in the Persian Bayán as the first "Vahíd" were complete. He adds: "The Báb's own prophecy regarding the 'Riḍván,' the scene of the unveiling of Bahá'u'lláh's transcendent glory, had been literally fulfilled."
This is a retelling. For the full accounts, see A Traveller's Narrative by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi.
Cite this story
'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1886). *A Traveler's Narrative*. Cambridge University Press.
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