The Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahjí

Bahá'u'lláh ascended on 29 May 1892 in the Mansion of Bahjí near 'Akká. Adib Taherzadeh tells of His passing in the last chapter of the fourth volume of *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh*, drawing largely on the account left by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam.

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Nine months before His passing, as 'Abdu'l-Bahá later attested, Bahá'u'lláh had voiced His desire to depart from this world. From the tone of His words to the friends it became increasingly apparent that the end was approaching, though He never spoke openly of it.

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On the eve of 8 May 1892 He contracted a fever. For a few days some of the friends were still admitted to His presence. Nabíl was received alone for about half an hour, and later wrote that he wished he had known it would be his last audience with Him. Then the door was closed to visitors.

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On the ninth day of the illness 'Abdu'l-Bahá brought His Father's message to the believers: they must remain patient and steadfast and arise to promote the Cause, for He would always be with them. The next day there was rejoicing when 'Abdu'l-Bahá brought word that His health had improved.

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On the fifteenth day all the friends at the Mansion, pilgrims and residents alike, were summoned to His bedside. He lay leaning against 'Abdu'l-Bahá and spoke to them:

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> I am well pleased with you all, you have rendered many services, > and been very assiduous in your labours. You have come here every > morning and evening. May God assist you to remain united.

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It was their last audience with Him.

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He ascended eight hours after sunset, in the early hours of 29 May 1892. A multitude of the inhabitants of 'Akká and the neighbouring villages gathered in the fields around the Mansion, weeping and crying aloud their grief. The news was telegraphed to Sultan 'Abdu'l-Ḥamíd in words beginning *the Sun of Bahá has set*, and Bahá'u'lláh was laid to rest shortly after sunset that same day, in the northernmost room of the house adjoining the Mansion where His son-in-law lived.

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For a full week the bereaved family fed a great number of mourners, rich and poor alike. Notables, among them Shí'ih and Sunní Muslims, Christians, Jews and Druzes, poets, 'ulamá and officials, joined in lamenting Him, and tributes in verse and prose arrived from as far as Damascus, Aleppo, Beirut and Cairo, all submitted to 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

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During His illness Bahá'u'lláh had told His family that He had given them direction in a document entrusted to 'Abdu'l-Bahá. On the ninth day after the ascension this document, the *Kitáb-i-'Ahd* (the *Book of the Covenant*), written in His own hand, was read aloud before nine witnesses, and again that afternoon at His tomb before a large gathering of the friends. It left no doubt that 'Abdu'l-Bahá was the Centre of the Covenant.

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The room where Bahá'u'lláh was laid to rest is today the *Qiblih* of the Bahá'í world, the point toward which Bahá'ís turn in their daily obligatory prayers.

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With the ascension, Taherzadeh writes, the revelation of the verses of God came to an end, after almost forty years.

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*A retelling based on **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Vol. 4 — Mazra'ih and Bahjí 1877-92** (Adib Taherzadeh), chapter 26, "The Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh", which quotes Nabíl's account and Shoghi Effendi's God Passes By. For the fuller account, see the original.*

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