When Bahá’u’lláh along with His family and a number of His companions

When Bahá’u’lláh along with His family and a number of His companions were travelling from Baghdad to Constantinople an incident took place near the city of Mardin which provides us with a wonderful example of Bahá’u’lláh's high sense of justice, a principle greatly stressed in His Revelation. The caravan had encamped for the night at a small village below the town. “There, during the night, two mules, belonging to an Arab travelling with the caravan, were stolen.

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The owner was beside himself with grief. Bahá’u’lláh asked the official who accompanied the caravan to try and find the missing animals. Other officials were called in, but no animal was forthcoming. As the caravan was on the point of departing, the poor Arab went crying to Bahá’u’lláh. ‘You are leaving,’ he moaned, ‘and I shall never get back my beasts.’ Bahá’u’lláh immediately called off the resumption of the journey.

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‘We will go to Firdaws [a nearby estate] and stay there’, He said, ‘until this man's mules are found and restored to him.’  “. . . The Mutasarrif [local Governor] threatened the headman of the village, where the mules had been stolen, with imprisonment if the animals were not found. The headman offered a sum of money in lieu of the mules. But Bahá’u’lláh insisted that the Arab was entitled to have his beasts restored to him.

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On the second day the headman came with a promissory note guaranteed by higher officials, offering to pay 60 pounds within a month, the value of the two mules. But Bahá’u’lláh refused this offer too. Then the headman realized that the game was up, sent for the animals and gave them to their distraught owner. People were amazed, for such a thing had never happened before. No stolen property had ever been retrieved, nor restitution made to the rightful owner.

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Aqa Husayn-i-Ashchi, in his reminiscences some four decades later, recalled that various officials went to Bahá’u’lláh to speak of the part they had played in retrieving the beasts and received suitable rewards. The Mutasarrif was given a costly cashmere shawl, the Mufti an illuminated copy of the Qur'an, the head of the horsemen a sword with bejewelled scabbard.”

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