Bahá'u'lláh in the Black Pit

*A retelling based on the **Epistle to the Son of the Wolf**, one of the last Tablets revealed by Bahá'u'lláh, in which He recalls His imprisonment in the dungeon of Ṭihrán. A few details are added from Shoghi Effendi's **God Passes By**. Words in quotation marks and indented passages are Bahá'u'lláh's own, as translated by Shoghi Effendi.*

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On August 15, 1852, a young Bábí, driven by despair over the execution of the Báb, fired a pistol at Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh near his summer residence at Níyávarán. The Sháh was wounded, and a fierce persecution of the Bábís followed.

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Bahá'u'lláh was then staying at Lavásán, outside the capital. "We were in no wise connected with that evil deed," He later wrote, "and Our innocence was indisputably established by the tribunals." Declining advice to hide, He rode the next morning to the headquarters of the imperial army at Níyávarán, where He was delivered into the hands of His enemies. From Níyávarán He was taken "on foot and in chains, with bared head and bare feet," to the dungeon of Ṭihrán.

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On the way a rider snatched off His hat. Shoghi Effendi adds that He was stripped of His outer garments several times, mocked, and pelted with stones.

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The dungeon, known as the Síyáh-Chál, had once been a water reservoir for one of the city's public baths. Bahá'u'lláh described it in the Epistle:

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> We were consigned for four months to a place foul beyond comparison. As to the > dungeon in which this Wronged One and others similarly wronged were confined, > a dark and narrow pit were preferable. Upon Our arrival We were first > conducted along a pitch-black corridor, from whence We descended three steep > flights of stairs to the place of confinement assigned to Us. The dungeon was > wrapped in thick darkness, and Our fellow prisoners numbered nearly a hundred > and fifty souls: thieves, assassins and highwaymen.

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His feet were placed in stocks, and around His neck were fastened chains so heavy that, Shoghi Effendi records, their mark remained on His body for the rest of His life. His enemies went so far as to poison His food, which impaired His health for years.

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Day and night in that dungeon, He wrote, He thought about the Bábís, and wondered what could have led a people so high-minded to so outrageous an act. He resolved that after His release He would work with all His strength to regenerate them. Then:

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> One night, in a dream, these exalted words were heard on every side: "Verily, > We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy Pen. Grieve Thou not for > that which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety. > Erelong will God raise up the treasures of the earth—men who will aid Thee > through Thyself and through Thy Name, wherewith God hath revived the hearts of > such as have recognized Him."

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Later in the same Epistle He describes what He experienced in those nights:

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> During the days I lay in the prison of Ṭihrán, though the galling weight of > the chains and the stench-filled air allowed Me but little sleep, still in > those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from the > crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitateth > itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Every limb of My > body would, as a result, be set afire. At such moments My tongue recited what > no man could bear to hear.

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In the same Epistle He quotes what He had written to the Sháh himself: "O King! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing."

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After four months He was released. Shoghi Effendi names the causes: the persistent efforts of the Russian Minister, Prince Dolgorouki, to establish His innocence; the public confession of Mullá Shaykh 'Alí, surnamed 'Aẓím, who acknowledged his own complicity and cleared Him; the findings of the tribunals; and the efforts of His own brothers, sisters and kindred. His freedom did not last.

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By order of the Sháh He was exiled, and about a month after His release He set out for Baghdád, the first stage of an exile that ended only with His passing in the Holy Land nearly forty years later.

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*This is a retelling. For Bahá'u'lláh's own account, see the **Epistle to the Son of the Wolf**; for the wider history, see **God Passes By**, chapters V to VII.*

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