No Prisoner, but a King of Kings

A retelling based on Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era by J. E. Esslemont, chapter 3, which describes Bahá'u'lláh's imprisonment in 'Akká and quotes 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own account, translated by Shoghi Effendi, of how the prison doors were opened. The words in quotation marks are from that book.

Before He left Adrianople, Bahá'u'lláh wrote to the Sháh of Persia of the place to which He was being sent. It was, He had been told, "the most desolate of the cities of the world, the most unsightly of them in appearance, the most detestable in climate, and the foulest in water." There, He wrote, they meant to imprison Him and to take away from Him "the good things of the life of the world during what remaineth of our days."

At that time, Esslemont explains, 'Akká was a prison city to which the worst criminals of the Turkish Empire were sent. Bahá'u'lláh and His followers, about eighty in number, men, women and children, arrived in 1868 and were shut in the army barracks. There were no beds, the food was poor, and nearly everyone fell ill; three of the company died. For more than two years none of the Bahá'ís were allowed out, except four men who went under guard each day to buy food.

Visitors were strictly kept away. Several Bahá'ís from Persia came the whole way on foot, only to be refused entry to the city. They would go to a spot on the plain beyond the third moat from which the windows of Bahá'u'lláh's rooms could be seen. He would show Himself to them at a window, and after gazing on Him from afar they would weep and return home.

In time the restrictions eased. Bahá'u'lláh was moved to a house in the town, where He remained confined for seven more years, and visitors began to be admitted. Later still, 'Abdu'l-Bahá rented the mansion of Mazra'ih, outside the city, and a Muslim shaykh who loved Bahá'u'lláh pleaded with Him for a whole hour until He agreed to go there. After two years at Mazra'ih He moved to Bahjí.

'Abdu'l-Bahá described what followed. At Bahjí, He said, "the doors of majesty and true sovereignty were flung wide open." Bahá'u'lláh remained a prisoner in name, for the firmans of Sultán 'Abdu'l-'Azíz were never repealed, "yet in reality He showed forth such nobility and dignity in His life and bearing that He was reverenced by all." "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 governor asked this favour because higher authorities had ordered him to visit Bahá'u'lláh together with a certain general. The request was granted. The general, a European, was so impressed by Bahá'u'lláh's majestic presence that he stayed kneeling on the ground near the door. Only after Bahá'u'lláh had invited them several times would the two visitors accept the water-pipe offered to them, and even then they barely touched it to their lips before setting it aside and sitting with folded arms, so humbly that all present were astonished.

'Abdu'l-Bahá summed it up in these words: "The loving reverence of friends, the consideration and respect that were shown by all officials and notables, the inflow of pilgrims and seekers after truth, the spirit of devotion and service that was manifest all around, the majestic and kingly countenance of the Blessed Perfection, the effectiveness of His command, the number of His zealous devotees-all bore witness to the fact that Bahá'u'lláh was in reality no prisoner, but a King of Kings. Two despotic sovereigns were against Him, two powerful autocratic rulers, yet, even when confined in their own prisons, He addressed them in very austere terms, like a king addressing his subjects."

Bahá'u'lláh Himself, 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalled, would often say: "Verily, verily, the most wretched prison has been converted into a Paradise of Eden."

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

Esslemont, J. E.. (1923). *Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era*. George Allen & Unwin. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19241