Visit TO THE Tomb

In the afternoon we drove to the Tomb of the Blessed Perfection, passing out through the narrow gateway of the city and following the road toward the Ridván for a short distance. Then a sharp turn to the left toward the Lebanons took us more inland and away from the sea. It seemed to a be a holiday or festival occasion; a great number of people were seen along the roads and highways. Bright colors prevailed in the peasant costumes, natives coming and going in picturesque little groups of twos and threes. Some of the Arab girls were dressed like the boys, hardly to be distinguished one from the other. They wore wide pantaloons of a very bright colored cotton fabric, this costume no doubt being cheaper and requiring less material than the voluminous gowns of the older women. We drove on through a village of mud huts built very low and surrounded by a squalor and filth most unpleasant to foreign eyes and nostrils. People and animals were living or rather herding under the same roof. Dogs looking like wolves vigilantly guarded these hovels and savagely attacked visitors. Here and there upon the filthy ground we saw groups of men sitting and lying, intent upon games of cards. The women were busily working. Women and donkeys bear the domestic burdens of the East and shoulder the full quota of suffering. Altogether, these Arab villagers were wild, almost desperate looking creatures. Beyond the villages we drove across a beautiful level plain carpeted with red anemones, the Bahá'í flower. Finally, we came to the Bahjí, a very large white mansion in which Bahá‘u'lláh lived and from which His Spirit passed into the Supreme Concourse. The room was pointed out to us as we stopped and looked from the outside. We entered the Tomb, which adjoins Bahjí, the “Palace of Joy.” Flowers were growing abundantly all around the Sacred Shrine. In the center of the building is a court where orange trees and rare plants were growing. We removed our shoes at the entrance. The passageways surrounding this court were covered with soft and costly Persian rugs. Then we stood at the Tomb itself where the Blessed Perfection sleeps. Lamps and beautiful vases were placed about the room, loving gifts and tokens from Bahá'í believers in all parts of the world. A great slab in the floor marked the place of burial. Here we knelt and prayed in solemn silence, communing with the great and glorified Spirit which had ascended from earth to the Supreme Horizon. Then we silently withdrew to a small side room at the opposite end of the building where some ladies served tea and related experiences of other pilgrims and believers who had visited the Tomb. Upon the anniversary of the Blessed Perfection's birthday they remain all night at the Tomb, chanting and praying without intermission and standing throughout the ceremonies. During the last few years ‘Abdu'l-Bahá has not been able to attend this holy celebration. After receiving flowers from the ladies in attendance we bade them loving good-bye and drove home across the flower-carpeted plain, another spiritual visit accomplished, another priceless spiritual experience fixed in our memories. Ahead of us mounted upon donkeys were a number of elder pilgrims and believers also returning from a visit to the Tomb. As they rode along, they looked like the old Jewish prophets and the Disciples of Jesus. Among them were Haydar-‘Alí, Mírzá Asadu'lláh, and eight or nine others of those faithful devoted souls who love God, serve humanity, and follow the Revelation of Bahá‘u'lláh. We entered the city, still silent, still wondering, still communing with the Glorified Spirit which shed Its Light down upon us from the Supreme Concourse.

Source: Julia M. Grundy, Ten Days in the Light of Akka (1907). Available at bahai-library.com.

Grundy, J. M.. (1907). *Ten Days in the Light of Akka*. https://bahai-library.com/grundy_ten_days_akka