The Ransom of the Purest Branch

*A retelling based on **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi (chapter XI), with details from Adib Taherzadeh's **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh**, volume 3, and Lady Blomfield's **The Chosen Highway**. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.*

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Mírzá Mihdí, known as the Purest Branch, was the younger brother of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, born in Ṭihrán in 1848. When Bahá'u'lláh was exiled to Baghdád, the family left him behind in Ṭihrán because he was too delicate for the winter journey. His sister, the Greatest Holy Leaf, recalled that he was left with their mother's grandmother, "though the parting with him was very sad." He was brought to Baghdád some years later and from then on shared his Father's exiles, serving Him as an amanuensis.

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In 1868 Bahá'u'lláh and His family were imprisoned in the barracks of 'Akká. Pilgrims who came, some of them on foot from Persia, were kept away from Him. Shoghi Effendi writes that they "had to content themselves with a fleeting glimpse of the face of the Prisoner, as they stood, beyond the second moat, facing the window of His Prison."

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On the evening of 22 June 1870, Taherzadeh relates, Bahá'u'lláh told His son that he would not be needed to write that day, and he went up to the roof of the barracks to pray, as he often did. In Shoghi Effendi's words, "He was pacing the roof of the barracks in the twilight, one evening, wrapped in his customary devotions, when he fell through the unguarded skylight onto a wooden crate, standing on the floor beneath, which pierced his ribs."

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According to Taherzadeh, Bahá'u'lláh came to His dying son and asked whether he wished to live, assuring him that if he did, God would restore him to health. The Purest Branch asked instead that his life be accepted as a ransom, so that the believers who longed to enter Bahá'u'lláh's presence might be able to come. He died twenty-two hours after the fall, on 23 June 1870, at the age of twenty-two.

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In a prayer revealed in his memory Bahá'u'lláh wrote: "I have, O my Lord, offered up that which Thou hast given Me, that Thy servants may be quickened, and all that dwell on earth be united." To His son He said: "Thou art the Trust of God and His Treasure in this Land. Erelong will God reveal through thee that which He hath desired."

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His body was washed in the presence of Bahá'u'lláh and buried outside the city walls near the shrine of Nabí Ṣáliḥ. Taherzadeh records that soon afterwards many of the restrictions in the barracks were relaxed and several believers were able to attain Bahá'u'lláh's presence. About four months after the Purest Branch's death, Bahá'u'lláh and His companions were moved out of the barracks. Seventy years later, his remains and those of his mother were brought to Mount Carmel.

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*This is a retelling. For the full account, see **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi and **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh**, volume 3, by Adib Taherzadeh.*

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