How Parrots Are Taught to Speak

Muḥammad-Qulí Khán Nakha'í was an influential and wealthy man of Khusf, near Birjand, who believed in Bahá’u’lláh. As a result of his acceptance of the Faith, most of his relatives also became Bahá’ís.

He went on pilgrimage to 'Akká to attain the presence of Bahá’u’lláh. On the first and second days he went with the other pilgrims. But when he returned to the pilgrim house he thought to himself that he had borne the hardships and burdens of a six-month journey hoping to witness some extraordinary and divine happening, yet Bahá’u’lláh spoke and gave instructions and teachings as other men did. "There is perhaps nothing extraordinary or miraculous here," he thought.

He was immersed in these thoughts when, on the third day, one of the servants told him that Bahá’u’lláh wished to see him alone. He went at once to the presence of the Blessed Beauty. As he lifted aside the curtain of the room and bowed, he saw the Blessed Beauty as an incredibly bright and dazzling Light, and so intense was his experience of this Light that he fell and lost consciousness. All he recalled was that Bahá’u’lláh said, "Fí amáni'lláh", which means "Go in God's safekeeping."

The servants dragged him to the corridor and then took him to the pilgrim house. For two days he could not eat or sleep. It was as if he beheld Bahá’u’lláh's Presence everywhere, and he kept telling the other pilgrims that He was there. His fellow pilgrims grew tired of this and asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to help him.

Two days later the servant came again and took him to Bahá’u’lláh's presence. Bahá’u’lláh poured forth loving-kindness and gracious words, and bade him be seated. Then, as the pilgrim remembered it, Bahá’u’lláh said: "Janáb-i-Muḥammad-Qulí Khán! The Manifestations of the Divine Essence are forced to appear in human attire and clothes. If Their true Being, that which is behind the veil of concealment, if that were to appear, then all humanity, like your good self, will lose consciousness and swoon to the unconscious realm."

Then Bahá’u’lláh asked, "Do you know how parrots are taught to speak?" He bowed and said, "I do not know."

Bahá’u’lláh explained: "The parrot owners have a parrot within a cage. Then they bring a big mirror in front of the cage. And then a man hides behind the mirror and starts repeating phrases and talking… The parrot sees that there is another parrot identical to itself talking in the cage in front (reflected in the mirror) and imagining that it is the reflected parrot that is doing the talking it too starts mimicking and learns to speak. Now if the person who is actually behind the mirror should reveal himself from the start, then the parrot will never learn to speak. It is thus that the Manifestations of the Divine should come into the world in human attire and human clothes so that They will not frighten mankind with Their awesome Being."

Muḥammad-Qulí Khán returned home transformed, and to the end of his days he was engaged in teaching others. He attained such spiritual insight that he foretold the night of his own passing.

Source: Hádí Raḥmání Shírází, "How Parrots Are Taught to Speak", Payám-i-Bahá'í no. 366 (May 2010), pp. 60–61, translated by Khazeh Fananapazir (bahai-library.com). The account was first told by a relative of the pilgrim, Ḥájí Mullá Yúsufí Nakha'í Khúsifí, and reached the author through Mírzá Kúchak Khán. Like all pilgrims' recollections, the words attributed to Bahá’u’lláh here are not part of the authenticated Bahá'í Writings.

Collected from bahaistories.com.

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/manifestations