God Passes By Part 13

And again: "Your mission is unspeakably glorious. Should success crown your enterprise, America will a.s.suredly evolve into a center from which waves of spiritual power will emanate, and the throne of the Kingdom of G.o.d, will in the plenitude of its majesty and glory, be firmly established." And finally, this stirring affirmation: "The moment this Divine Message is carried forward by the American believers from the sh.o.r.es of America, and is propagated through the continents of Europe, of Asia, of Africa and of Australasia, and as far as the islands of the Pacific, this community will find itself securely established upon the throne of an everlasting dominion... Then will the whole earth resound with the praises of its majesty and greatness."

Little wonder that a community belonging to a nation so abundantly blessed, a nation occupying so eminent a position in a continent so richly endowed, should have been able to add, during the fifty years of its existence, many a page rich with victories to the annals of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. This is the community, it should be remembered, which, ever since it was called into being through the creative energies released by the proclamation of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah, was nursed in the lap of 'Abdu'l-Baha's unfailing solicitude, and was trained by Him to discharge its unique mission through the revelation of innumerable Tablets, through the instructions issued to returning pilgrims, through the despatch of special messengers, through His own travels at a later date, across the North American continent, through the emphasis laid by Him on the inst.i.tution of the Covenant in the course of those travels, and finally through His mandate embodied in the Tablets of the Divine Plan. This is the community which, from its earliest infancy until the present day, has unremittingly labored and succeeded, through its own unaided efforts, in implanting the banner of Baha'u'llah in the vast majority of the sixty countries which, in both the East and the West, can now claim the honor of being included within the pale of His Faith. To this community belongs the distinction of having evolved the pattern, and of having been the first to erect the framework, of the administrative inst.i.tutions that herald the advent of the World Order of Baha'u'llah. Through the efforts of its members the Mother Temple of the West, the Harbinger of that Order, one of the n.o.blest inst.i.tutions ordained in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, and the most stately edifice reared in the entire Baha'i world, has been erected in the very heart of the North American continent. Through the a.s.siduous labors of its pioneers, its teachers and its administrators, the literature of the Faith has been enormously expanded, its aims and purposes fearlessly defended, and its nascent inst.i.tutions solidly established. In direct consequence of the unsupported and indefatigable endeavors of the most distinguished of its itinerant teachers the spontaneous allegiance of Royalty to the Faith of Baha'u'llah has been secured and unmistakably proclaimed in several testimonies transmitted to posterity by the pen of the royal convert herself. And finally, to the members of this community, the spiritual descendants of the dawn-breakers of the Heroic Age of the Baha'i Dispensation, must be ascribed the eternal honor of having arisen, on numerous occasions, with marvelous alacrity, zeal and determination, to champion the cause of the oppressed, to relieve the needy, and to defend the interests of the edifices and inst.i.tutions reared by their brethren in countries such as Persia, Russia, Egypt, 'Iraq and Germany, countries where the adherents of the Faith have had to sustain, in varying measure, the rigors of racial and religious persecution.

Strange, indeed, that in a country, invested with such a unique function among its sister-nations throughout the West, the first public reference to the Author of so glorious a Faith should have been made through the mouth of one of the members of that ecclesiastical order with which that Faith has had so long to contend, and from which it has frequently suffered. Stranger still that he who first established it in the city of Chicago, fifty years after the Bab had declared His Mission in _Sh_iraz, should himself have forsaken, a few years later, the standard which he, single-handed, had implanted in that city.

It was on September 23, 1893, a little over a year after Baha'u'llah's ascension, that, in a paper written by Rev. Henry H. Jessup, D.D., Director of Presbyterian Missionary Operations in North Syria, and read by Rev. George A. Ford of Syria, at the World Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago, in connection with the Columbian Exposition, commemorating the four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America, it was announced that "a famous Persian Sage," "the Babi Saint," had died recently in Akka, and that two years previous to His ascension "a Cambridge scholar" had visited Him, to whom He had expressed "sentiments so n.o.ble, so Christ-like" that the author of the paper, in his "closing words," wished to share them with his audience. Less than a year later, in February 1894, a Syrian doctor, named Ibrahim _Kh_ayru'llah, who, while residing in Cairo, had been converted by ?aji 'Abdu'l-Karim-i-?ihrani to the Faith, had received a Tablet from Baha'u'llah, had communicated with 'Abdu'l-Baha, and reached New York in December 1892, established his residence in Chicago, and began to teach actively and systematically the Cause he had espoused. Within the s.p.a.ce of two years he had communicated his impressions to 'Abdu'l-Baha, and reported on the remarkable success that had attended his efforts. In 1895 an opening was vouchsafed to him in Kenosha, which he continued to visit once a week, in the course of his teaching activities. By the following year the believers in these two cities, it was reported, were counted by hundreds. In 1897 he published his book, ent.i.tled the Babu'd-Din, and visited Kansas City, New York City, Ithaca and Philadelphia, where he was able to win for the Faith a considerable number of supporters. The stout-hearted Thornton Chase, surnamed _Th_abit (Steadfast) by 'Abdu'l-Baha and designated by Him "the first American believer," who became a convert to the Faith in 1894, the immortal Louisa A. Moore, the mother teacher of the West, surnamed Liva (Banner) by 'Abdu'l-Baha, Dr. Edward Getsinger, to whom she was later married, Howard Mac.n.u.tt, Arthur P. Dodge, Isabella D. Brittingham, Lillian F. Kappes, Paul K. Dealy, Chester I. Thacher and Helen S. Goodall, whose names will ever remain a.s.sociated with the first stirrings of the Faith of Baha'u'llah in the North American continent, stand out as the most prominent among those who, in those early years, awakened to the call of the New Day, and consecrated their lives to the service of the newly proclaimed Covenant.

By 1898 Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, the well-known philanthropist (wife of Senator George F. Hearst), whom Mrs. Getsinger had, while on a visit to California, attracted to the Faith, had expressed her intention of visiting 'Abdu'l-Baha in the Holy Land, had invited several believers, among them Dr. and Mrs. Getsinger, Dr. _Kh_ayru'llah and his wife, to join her, and had completed the necessary arrangements for their historic pilgrimage to Akka. In Paris several resident Americans, among whom were May Ellis Bolles, whom Mrs. Getsinger had won over to the Faith, Miss Pearson, and Ann Apperson, both nieces of Mrs. Hearst, with Mrs.

Thornburgh and her daughter, were added to the party, the number of which was later swelled in Egypt by the addition of Dr. _Kh_ayru'llah's daughters and their grand-mother whom he had recently converted.

The arrival of fifteen pilgrims, in three successive parties, the first of which, including Dr. and Mrs. Getsinger, reached the prison-city of Akka on December 10, 1898; the intimate personal contact established between the Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant and the newly arisen heralds of His Revelation in the West; the moving circ.u.mstances attending their visit to His Tomb and the great honor bestowed upon them of being conducted by 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself into its innermost chamber; the spirit which, through precept and example, despite the briefness of their stay, a loving and bountiful Host so powerfully infused into them; and the pa.s.sionate zeal and unyielding resolve which His inspiring exhortations, His illuminating instructions and the multiple evidences of His divine love kindled in their hearts-all these marked the opening of a new epoch in the development of the Faith in the West, an epoch whose significance the acts subsequently performed by some of these same pilgrims and their fellow-disciples have amply demonstrated.

"Of that first meeting," one of these pilgrims, recording her impressions, has written, "I can remember neither joy nor pain, nor anything that I can name. I had been carried suddenly to too great a height, my soul had come in contact with the Divine Spirit, and this force, so pure, so holy, so mighty, had overwhelmed me... We could not remove our eyes from His glorious face; we heard all that He said; we drank tea with Him at His bidding; but existence seemed suspended; and when He arose and suddenly left us, we came back with a start to life; but never again, oh! never again, thank G.o.d, the same life on this earth." "In the might and majesty of His presence," that same pilgrim, recalling the last interview accorded the party of which she was a member, has testified, "our fear was turned to perfect faith, our weakness into strength, our sorrow into hope, and ourselves forgotten in our love for Him. As we all sat before Him, waiting to hear His words, some of the believers wept bitterly. He bade them dry their tears, but they could not for a moment. So again He asked them for His sake not to weep, nor would He talk to us and teach us until all tears were banished..."

..."Those three days," Mrs. Hearst herself has, in one of her letters, testified, "were the most memorable days of my life... The Master I will not attempt to describe: I will only state that I believe with all my heart that He is the Master, and my greatest blessing in this world is that I have been privileged to be in His presence, and look upon His sanctified face... Without a doubt Abbas Effendi is the Messiah of this day and generation, and we need not look for another." "I must say," she, moreover, has in another letter written, "He is the most wonderful Being I have ever met or ever expect to meet in this world... The spiritual atmosphere which surrounds Him and most powerfully affects all those who are blest by being near Him, is indescribable... I believe in Him with all my heart and soul, and I hope all who call themselves believers will concede to Him all the greatness, all the glory, and all the praise, for surely He is the Son of G.o.d-and 'the spirit of the Father abideth in Him.'"

Even Mrs. Hearst's butler, a negro named Robert Turner, the first member of his race to embrace the Cause of Baha'u'llah in the West, had been transported by the influence exerted by 'Abdu'l-Baha in the course of that epoch-making pilgrimage. Such was the tenacity of his faith that even the subsequent estrangement of his beloved mistress from the Cause she had spontaneously embraced failed to becloud its radiance, or to lessen the intensity of the emotions which the loving-kindness showered by 'Abdu'l-Baha upon him had excited in his breast.

The return of these G.o.d-intoxicated pilgrims, some to France, others to the United States, was the signal for an outburst of systematic and sustained activity, which, as it gathered momentum, and spread its ramifications over Western Europe and the states and provinces of the North American continent, grew to so great a scale that 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself resolved that, as soon as He should be released from His prolonged confinement in Akka, He would undertake a personal mission to the West.

Undeflected in its course by the devastating crisis which the ambition of Dr. _Kh_ayru'llah had, upon his return from the Holy Land (December, 1899) precipitated; undismayed by the agitation which he, working in collaboration with the arch-breaker of the Covenant and his messengers, had provoked; disdainful of the attacks launched by him and his fellow-seceders, as well as by Christian ecclesiastics increasingly jealous of the rising power and extending influence of the Faith; nourished by a continual flow of pilgrims who transmitted the verbal messages and special instructions of a vigilant Master; invigorated by the effusions of His pen recorded in innumerable Tablets; instructed by the successive messengers and teachers dispatched at His behest for its guidance, edification and consolidation, the community of the American believers arose to initiate a series of enterprises which, blessed and stimulated a decade later by 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself, were to be but a prelude to the unparalleled services destined to be rendered by its members during the Formative Age of His Father's Dispensation.

No sooner had one of these pilgrims, the afore-mentioned May Bolles, returned to Paris than she succeeded, in compliance with 'Abdu'l-Baha's emphatic instructions, in establis.h.i.+ng in that city the first Baha'i center to be formed on the European continent. This center was, shortly after her arrival, reinforced by the conversion of the illumined Thomas Breakwell, the first English believer, immortalized by 'Abdu'l-Baha's fervent eulogy revealed in his memory; of Hippolyte Dreyfus, the first Frenchman to embrace the Faith, who, through his writings, translations, travels and other pioneer services, was able to consolidate, as the years went by, the work which had been initiated in his country; and of Laura Barney, whose imperishable service was to collect and transmit to posterity in the form of a book, ent.i.tled "Some Answered Questions,"

'Abdu'l-Baha's priceless explanations, covering a wide variety of subjects, given to her in the course of an extended pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Three years later, in 1902, May Bolles, now married to a Canadian, transferred her residence to Montreal, and succeeded in laying the foundations of the Cause in that Dominion.

In London Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper, as a consequence of the creative influences released by that never-to-be-forgotten pilgrimage, was able to initiate activities which, stimulated and expanded through the efforts of the first English believers, and particularly of Ethel J. Rosenberg, converted in 1899, enabled them to erect, in later years, the structure of their administrative inst.i.tutions in the British Isles. In the North American continent, the defection and the denunciatory publications of Dr.

_Kh_ayru'llah (encouraged as he was by Mirza Mu?ammad-'Ali and his son _Sh_u'a'u'llah, whom he had despatched to America) tested to the utmost the loyalty of the newly fledged community; but successive messengers despatched by 'Abdu'l-Baha (such as ?aji 'Abdu'l-Karim-i-?ihrani, ?aji Mirza ?asan-i-_Kh_urasani, Mirza Asadu'llah and Mirza Abu'l-Fadl) succeeded in rapidly dispelling the doubts, and in deepening the understanding, of the believers, in holding the community together, and in forming the nucleus of those administrative inst.i.tutions which, two decades later, were to be formally inaugurated through the explicit provisions of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Will and Testament. As far back as the year 1899 a council board of seven officers, the forerunner of a series of a.s.semblies which, ere the close of the first Baha'i Century, were to cover the North American Continent from coast to coast, was established in the city of Kenosha. In 1902 a Baha'i Publis.h.i.+ng Society, designed to propagate the literature of a gradually expanding community, was formed in Chicago. A Baha'i Bulletin, for the purpose of disseminating the teachings of the Faith was inaugurated in New York. The "Baha'i News," another periodical, subsequently appeared in Chicago, and soon developed into a magazine ent.i.tled "Star of the West." The translation of some of the most important writings of Baha'u'llah, such as the "Hidden Words," the "Kitab-i-iqan," the "Tablets to the Kings," and the "Seven Valleys,"

together with the Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Baha, as well as several treatises and pamphlets written by Mirza Abu'l-Fadl and others, was energetically undertaken. A considerable correspondence with various centers throughout the Orient was initiated, and grew steadily in scope and importance. Brief histories of the Faith, books and pamphlets written in its defence, articles for the press, accounts of travels and pilgrimages, eulogies and poems, were likewise published and widely disseminated.

Simultaneously, travellers and teachers, emerging triumphantly from the storms of tests and trials which had threatened to engulf their beloved Cause, arose, of their own accord, to reinforce and multiply the strongholds of the Faith already established. Centers were opened in the cities of Was.h.i.+ngton, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Seattle, St. Paul and in other places. Audacious pioneers, whether as visitors or settlers, eager to spread the new born Evangel beyond the confines of their native country, undertook journeys, and embarked on enterprises which carried its light to the heart of Europe, to the Far East, and as far as the islands of the Pacific. Mason Remey voyaged to Russia and Persia, and later, with Howard Struven, circled, for the first time in Baha'i history, the globe, visiting on his way the Hawaiian Islands, j.a.pan, China, India and Burma.

Hooper Harris and Harlan Ober traveled, during no less than seven months, in India and Burma, visiting Bombay, Poona, Lah.o.r.e, Calcutta, Rangoon and Mandalay. Alma k.n.o.bloch, following on the heels of Dr. K. E. Fisher, hoisted the standard of the Faith in Germany, and carried its light to Austria. Dr. Susan I. Moody, Sydney Sprague, Lillian F. Kappes, Dr. Sarah Clock, and Elizabeth Stewart transferred their residence to ?ihran for the purpose of furthering the manifold interests of the Faith, in collaboration with the Baha'is of that city. Sarah Farmer, who had already initiated in 1894, at Green Acre, in the State of Maine, summer conferences and established a center for the promotion of unity and fellows.h.i.+p between races and religions, placed, after her pilgrimage to Akka in 1900, the facilities these conferences provided at the disposal of the followers of the Faith which she had herself recently embraced.

And last but not least, inspired by the example set by their fellow-disciples in I_sh_qabad, who had already commenced the construction of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Baha'i world, and afire with the desire to demonstrate, in a tangible and befitting manner, the quality of their faith and devotion, the Baha'is of Chicago, having pet.i.tioned 'Abdu'l-Baha for permission to erect a House of Wors.h.i.+p, and secured, in a Tablet revealed in June 1903, His ready and enthusiastic approval, arose, despite the smallness of their numbers and their limited resources, to initiate an enterprise which must rank as the greatest single contribution which the Baha'is of America, and indeed of the West, have as yet made to the Cause of Baha'u'llah. The subsequent encouragement given them by 'Abdu'l-Baha, and the contributions raised by various a.s.semblies decided the members of this a.s.sembly to invite representatives of their fellow-believers in various parts of the country to meet in Chicago for the initiation of the stupendous undertaking they had conceived. On November 26, 1907, the a.s.sembled representatives, convened for that purpose, appointed a committee of nine to locate a suitable site for the proposed Temple. By April 9, 1908, the sum of two thousand dollars had been paid for the purchase of two building lots, situated near the sh.o.r.e of Lake Michigan. In March 1909, a convention representative of various Baha'i centers was called, in pursuance of instructions received from 'Abdu'l-Baha. The thirty-nine delegates, representing thirty-six cities, who had a.s.sembled in Chicago, on the very day the remains of the Bab were laid to rest by 'Abdu'l-Baha in the specially erected mausoleum on Mt.

Carmel, established a permanent national organization, known as the Baha'i Temple Unity, which was incorporated as a religious corporation, functioning under the laws of the State of Illinois, and invested with full authority to hold t.i.tle to the property of the Temple and to provide ways and means for its construction. At this same convention a const.i.tution was framed, the Executive Board of the Baha'i Temple Unity was elected, and was authorized by the delegates to complete the purchase of the land recommended by the previous Convention. Contributions for this historic enterprise, from India, Persia, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Russia, Egypt, Germany, France, England, Canada, Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, and even Mauritius, and from no less than sixty American cities, amounted by 1910, two years previous to 'Abdu'l-Baha's arrival in America, to no less than twenty thousand dollars, a remarkable testimony alike to the solidarity of the followers of Baha'u'llah in both the East and the West, and to the self-sacrificing efforts exerted by the American believers who, as the work progressed, a.s.sumed a preponderating share in providing the sum of over a million dollars required for the erection of the structure of the Temple and its external ornamentation.

Chapter XVII: Renewal of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Incarceration

The outstanding accomplishments of a valiant and sorely-tested community, the first fruits of Baha'u'llah's newly established Covenant in the Western world, had laid a foundation sufficiently imposing to invite the presence of the appointed Center of that Covenant, Who had called that Community into being and watched, with such infinite care and foresight, over its budding destinies. Not until, however, 'Abdu'l-Baha had emerged from the severe crisis which had already for several years been holding Him in its toils could He undertake His memorable voyage to the sh.o.r.es of a continent where the rise and establishment of His Father's Faith had been signalized by such magnificent and enduring achievements.

This second major crisis of His ministry, external in nature and hardly less severe than the one precipitated by the rebellion of Mirza Mu?ammad-'Ali, gravely imperiled His life, deprived Him, for a number of years, of the relative freedom He had enjoyed, plunged into anguish His family and the followers of the Faith in East and West, and exposed as never before, the degradation and infamy of His relentless adversaries. It originated two years after the departure of the first American pilgrims from the Holy Land. It persisted, with varying degrees of intensity, during more than seven years, and was directly attributable to the incessant intrigues and monstrous misrepresentations of the Arch-Breaker of Baha'u'llah's Covenant and his supporters.

Embittered by his abject failure to create a schism on which he had fondly pinned his hopes; stung by the conspicuous success which the standard-bearers of the Covenant had, despite his machinations, achieved in the North American continent; encouraged by the existence of a regime that throve in an atmosphere of intrigue and suspicion, and which was presided over by a cunning and cruel potentate; determined to exploit to the full the opportunities for mischief afforded him by the arrival of Western pilgrims at the prison-fortress of Akka, as well as by the commencement of the construction of the Bab's sepulcher on Mt. Carmel, Mirza Mu?ammad-'Ali, seconded by his brother, Mirza Badi'u'llah, and aided by his brother-in-law, Mirza Majdi'd-Din, succeeded through strenuous and persistent endeavors in exciting the suspicion of the Turkish government and its officials, and in inducing them to reimpose on 'Abdu'l-Baha the confinement from which, in the days of Baha'u'llah, He had so grievously suffered.

This very brother, Mirza Mu?ammad-'Ali's chief accomplice, in a written confession signed, sealed and published by him, on the occasion of his reconciliation with 'Abdu'l-Baha, has borne testimony to the wicked plots that had been devised. "What I have heard from others," wrote Mirza Badi'u'llah, "I will ignore. I will only recount what I have seen with my own eyes, and heard from his (Mirza Mu?ammad-'Ali) lips." "It was arranged by him (Mirza Mu?ammad-'Ali)," he, then, proceeds to relate, "to dispatch Mirza Majdi'd-Din with a gift and a letter written in Persian to n.a.z.im Pa_sh_a, the Vali (governor) of Damascus, and to seek his a.s.sistance....

As he (Mirza Majdi'd-Din) himself informed me in Haifa he did all he could to acquaint him (governor) fully with the construction work on Mt. Carmel, with the comings and goings of the American believers, and with the gatherings held in Akka. The Pa_sh_a, in his desire to know all the facts, was extremely kind to him, and a.s.sured him of his aid. A few days after Mirza Majdi'd-Din's return a cipher telegram was received from the Sublime Porte, transmitting the Sul?an's orders to incarcerate 'Abdu'l-Baha, myself and the others." "In those days," he, furthermore, in that same doc.u.ment, testifies, "a man who came to Akka from Damascus stated to outsiders that n.a.z.im Pa_sh_a had been the cause of the incarceration of Abbas Effendi. The strangest thing of all is this that Mirza Mu?ammad-'Ali, after he had been incarcerated, wrote a letter to n.a.z.im Pa_sh_a for the purpose of achieving his own deliverance.... The Pa_sh_a, however, did not write even a word in answer to either the first or the second letter."

It was in 1901, on the fifth day of the month of Jamadiyu'l-Avval 1319 A.H. (August 20) that 'Abdu'l-Baha, upon His return from Bahji where He had partic.i.p.ated in the celebration of the anniversary of the Bab's Declaration, was informed, in the course of an interview with the governor of Akka, of Sul?an 'Abdu'l-?amid's instructions ordering that the restrictions which had been gradually relaxed should be reimposed, and that He and His brothers should be strictly confined within the walls of that city. The Sul?an's edict was at first rigidly enforced, the freedom of the exiled community was severely curtailed, while 'Abdu'l-Baha had to submit, alone and unaided, to the prolonged interrogation of judges and officials, who required His presence for several consecutive days at government headquarters for the purpose of their investigations. One of His first acts was to intercede on behalf of His brothers, who had been peremptorily summoned and informed by the governor of the orders of the sovereign, an act which failed to soften their hostility or lessen their malevolent activities. Subsequently, through His intervention with the civil and military authorities, He succeeded in obtaining the freedom of His followers who resided in Akka, and in enabling them to continue to earn, without interference, the means of livelihood.

The Covenant-breakers were unappeased by the measures taken by the authorities against One Who had so magnanimously intervened on their behalf. Aided by the notorious Ya?ya Bey, the chief of police, and other officials, civil as well as military, who, in consequence of their representations, had replaced those who had been friendly to 'Abdu'l-Baha, and by secret agents who traveled back and forth between Akka and Constantinople, and who even kept a vigilant watch over everything that went on in His household, they arose to encompa.s.s His ruin. They lavished on officials gifts which included possessions sacred to the memory of Baha'u'llah, and shamelessly proffered to high and low alike bribes drawn, in some instances, from the sale of properties a.s.sociated with Him or bestowed upon some of them by 'Abdu'l-Baha. Relaxing nothing of their efforts they pursued relentlessly the course of their nefarious activities, determined to leave no stone unturned until they had either brought about His execution or ensured His deportation to a place remote enough to enable them to wrest the Cause from His grasp. The Vali of Damascus, the Mufti of Beirut, members of the Protestant missions established in Syria and Akka, even the influential _Sh_ay_kh_ Abu'l-Huda, in Constantinople, whom the Sul?an held in as profound an esteem as that in which Mu?ammad _Sh_ah had held his Grand Vizir, ?aji Mirza Aqasi, were, on various occasions, approached, appealed to, and urged to lend their a.s.sistance for the prosecution of their odious designs.

Through verbal messages, formal communications and by personal interviews the Covenant-breakers impressed upon these notables the necessity of immediate action, shrewdly adapting their arguments to the particular interests and prejudices of those whose aid they solicited. To some they represented 'Abdu'l-Baha as a callous usurper Who had trampled upon their rights, robbed them of their heritage, reduced them to poverty, made their friends in Persia their enemies, acc.u.mulated for Himself a vast fortune, and acquired no less than two-thirds of the land in Haifa. To others they declared that 'Abdu'l-Baha contemplated making of Akka and Haifa a new Mecca and Medina. To still others they affirmed that Baha'u'llah was no more than a retired dervish, who professed and promoted the Faith of Islam, Whom Abbas Effendi, His son, had, for the purpose of self-glorification, exalted to the rank of G.o.d-head, whilst claiming Himself to be the Son of G.o.d and the return of Jesus Christ. They further accused Him of harboring designs inimical to the interests of the state, of meditating a rebellion against the Sul?an, of having already hoisted the banner of Ya Baha'u'l-Abha, the ensign of revolt, in distant villages in Palestine and Syria, of having raised surrept.i.tiously an army of thirty thousand men, of being engaged in the construction of a fortress and a vast ammunition depot on Mt. Carmel, of having secured the moral and material support of a host of English and American friends, amongst whom were officers of foreign powers, who were arriving, in large numbers and in disguise, to pay Him their homage, and of having already, in conjunction with them, drawn up His plans for the subjugation of the neighboring provinces, for the expulsion of the ruling authorities, and for the ultimate seizure of the power wielded by the Sul?an himself.

Through misrepresentation and bribery they succeeded in inducing certain people to affix their signatures as witnesses to the doc.u.ments which they had drawn up, and which they despatched, through their agents, to the Sublime Porte.

Such grave accusations, embodied in numerous reports, could not fail to perturb profoundly the mind of a despot already obsessed by the fear of impending rebellion among his subjects. A commission was accordingly appointed to inquire into the matter, and report the result of its investigations. Each of the charges brought against 'Abdu'l-Baha, when summoned to the court, on several occasions, He carefully and fearlessly refuted. He exposed the absurdity of these accusations, acquainted the members of the Commission, in support of His argument, with the provisions of Baha'u'llah's Testament, expressed His readiness to submit to any sentence the court might decide to pa.s.s upon Him, and eloquently affirmed that if they should chain Him, drag Him through the streets, execrate and ridicule Him, stone and spit upon Him, suspend Him in the public square, and riddle Him with bullets, He would regard it as a signal honor, inasmuch as He would thereby be following in the footsteps, and sharing the sufferings, of His beloved Leader, the Bab.

The gravity of the situation confronting 'Abdu'l-Baha; the rumors that were being set afloat by a population that antic.i.p.ated the gravest developments; the hints and allusions to the dangers threatening Him contained in newspapers published in Egypt and Syria; the aggressive att.i.tude which His enemies increasingly a.s.sumed; the provocative behavior of some of the inhabitants of Akka and Haifa who had been emboldened by the predictions and fabrications of these enemies regarding the fate awaiting a suspected community and its Leader, led Him to reduce the number of pilgrims, and even to suspend, for a time, their visits, and to issue special instructions that His mail be handled through an agent in Egypt rather than in Haifa; for a time He ordered that it should be held there pending further advice from Him. He, moreover, directed the believers, as well as His own secretaries, to collect and remove to a place of safety all the Baha'i writings in their possession, and, urging them to transfer their residence to Egypt, went so far as to forbid their gathering, as was their wont, in His house. Even His numerous friends and admirers refrained, during the most turbulent days of this period, from calling upon Him, for fear of being implicated and of incurring the suspicion of the authorities. On certain days and nights, when the outlook was at its darkest, the house in which He was living, and which had for many years been a focus of activity, was completely deserted. Spies, secretly and openly, kept watch around it, observing His every movement and restricting the freedom of His family.

The construction of the Bab's sepulcher, whose foundation-stone had been laid by Him on the site blessed and selected by Baha'u'llah, He, however, refused to suspend, or even interrupt, for however brief a period. Nor would He allow any obstacle, however formidable, to interfere with the daily flow of Tablets which poured forth, with prodigious rapidity and ever increasing volume, from His indefatigable pen, in answer to the vast number of letters, reports, inquiries, prayers, confessions of faith, apologies and eulogies received from countless followers and admirers in both the East and the West. Eye-witnesses have testified that, during that agitated and perilous period of His life, they had known Him to pen, with His own Hand, no less than ninety Tablets in a single day, and to pa.s.s many a night, from dusk to dawn, alone in His bed-chamber engaged in a correspondence which the pressure of His manifold responsibilities had prevented Him from attending to in the day-time.

It was during these troublous times, the most dramatic period of His ministry, when, in the hey-day of His life and in the full tide of His power, He, with inexhaustible energy, marvelous serenity and unshakable confidence, initiated and resistlessly prosecuted the varied enterprises a.s.sociated with that ministry. It was during these times that the plan of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Baha'i world was conceived by Him, and its construction undertaken by His followers in the city of I_sh_qabad in Turkistan. It was during these times, despite the disturbances that agitated His native country, that instructions were issued by Him for the restoration of the holy and historic House of the Bab in _Sh_iraz. It was during these times that the initial measures, chiefly through His constant encouragement, were taken which paved the way for the laying of the dedication stone, which He, in later years, placed with His own hands when visiting the site of the Mother Temple of the West on the sh.o.r.e of Lake Michigan. It was at this juncture that that celebrated compilation of His table talks, published under the t.i.tle "Some Answered Questions," was made, talks given during the brief time He was able to spare, in the course of which certain fundamental aspects of His Father's Faith were elucidated, traditional and rational proofs of its validity adduced, and a great variety of subjects regarding the Christian Dispensation, the Prophets of G.o.d, Biblical prophecies, the origin and condition of man and other kindred themes authoritatively explained.

It was during the darkest hours of this period that, in a communication addressed to the Bab's cousin, the venerable ?aji Mirza Mu?ammad-Taqi, the chief builder of the Temple of I_sh_qabad, 'Abdu'l-Baha, in stirring terms, proclaimed the immeasurable greatness of the Revelation of Baha'u'llah, sounded the warnings foreshadowing the turmoil which its enemies, both far and near, would let loose upon the world, and prophesied, in moving language, the ascendancy which the torchbearers of the Covenant would ultimately achieve over them. It was at an hour of grave suspense, during that same period, that He penned His Will and Testament, that immortal Doc.u.ment wherein He delineated the features of the Administrative Order which would arise after His pa.s.sing, and would herald the establishment of that World Order, the advent of which the Bab had announced, and the laws and principles of which Baha'u'llah had already formulated. It was in the course of these tumultuous years that, through the instrumentality of the heralds and champions of a firmly inst.i.tuted Covenant, He reared the embryonic inst.i.tutions, administrative, spiritual, and educational, of a steadily expanding Faith in Persia, the cradle of that Faith, in the Great Republic of the West, the cradle of its Administrative Order, in the Dominion of Canada, in France, in England, in Germany, in Egypt, in 'Iraq, in Russia, in India, in Burma, in j.a.pan, and even in the remote Pacific Islands. It was during these stirring times that a tremendous impetus was lent by Him to the translation, the publication and dissemination of Baha'i literature, whose scope now included a variety of books and treatises, written in the Persian, the Arabic, the English, the Turkish, the French, the German, the Russian and Burmese languages. At His table, in those days, whenever there was a lull in the storm raging about Him, there would gather pilgrims, friends and inquirers from most of the afore-mentioned countries, representative of the Christian, the Muslim, the Jewish, the Zoroastrian, the Hindu and Buddhist Faiths. To the needy thronging His doors and filling the courtyard of His house every Friday morning, in spite of the perils that environed Him, He would distribute alms with His own hands, with a regularity and generosity that won Him the t.i.tle of "Father of the Poor."

Nothing in those tempestuous days could shake His confidence, nothing would be allowed to interfere with His ministrations to the dest.i.tute, the orphan, the sick, and the down-trodden, nothing could prevent Him from calling in person upon those who were either incapacitated or ashamed to solicit His aid. Adamant in His determination to follow the example of both the Bab and Baha'u'llah, nothing would induce Him to flee from His enemies, or escape from imprisonment, neither the advice tendered Him by the leading members of the exiled community in Akka, nor the insistent pleas of the Spanish Consul-a kinsman of the agent of an Italian steams.h.i.+p company-who, in his love for 'Abdu'l-Baha and his anxiety to avert the threatening danger, had gone so far as to place at His disposal an Italian freighter, ready to provide Him a safe pa.s.sage to any foreign port He might name.

So imperturbable was 'Abdu'l-Baha's equanimity that, while rumors were being bruited about that He might be cast into the sea, or exiled to Fizan in Tripolitania, or hanged on the gallows, He, to the amazement of His friends and the amus.e.m.e.nt of His enemies, was to be seen planting trees and vines in the garden of His house, whose fruits when the storm had blown over, He would bid His faithful gardener, Isma'il aqa, pluck and present to those same friends and enemies on the occasion of their visits to Him.

In the early part of the winter of 1907 another Commission of four officers, headed by arif Bey, and invested with plenary powers, was suddenly dispatched to Akka by order of the Sul?an. A few days before its arrival 'Abdu'l-Baha had a dream, which He recounted to the believers, in which He saw a s.h.i.+p cast anchor off Akka, from which flew a few birds, resembling sticks of dynamite, and which, circling about His head, as He stood in the midst of a mult.i.tude of the frightened inhabitants of the city, returned without exploding to the s.h.i.+p.

No sooner had the members of the Commission landed than they placed under their direct and exclusive control both the Telegraph and Postal services in Akka; arbitrarily dismissed officials suspected of being friendly to 'Abdu'l-Baha, including the governor of the city; established direct and secret contact with the government in Constantinople; took up their residence in the home of the neighbors and intimate a.s.sociates of the Covenant-breakers; set guards over the house of 'Abdu'l-Baha to prevent any one from seeing Him; and started the strange procedure of calling up as witnesses the very people, among whom were Christians and Moslems, orientals and westerners, who had previously signed the doc.u.ments forwarded to Constantinople, and which they had brought with them for the purpose of their investigations.

The activities of the Covenant-breakers, and particularly of Mirza Mu?ammad-'Ali, now jubilant and full of hope, rose in this hour of extreme crisis, to the highest pitch. Visits, interviews and entertainments multiplied, in an atmosphere of fervid expectation, now that the victory was seen to be at hand. Not a few among the lower elements of the population were led to believe that their acquisition of the property which would be left behind by the deported exiles was imminent. Insults and calumnies markedly increased. Even some of the poor, so long and so bountifully succored by 'Abdu'l-Baha, forsook Him for fear of reprisals.

'Abdu'l-Baha, while the members of the Commission were carrying on their so-called investigations, and throughout their stay of about one month in Akka, consistently refused to meet or have any dealings with any of them, in spite of the veiled threats and warnings conveyed by them to Him through a messenger, an att.i.tude which greatly surprised them and served to inflame their animosity and reinforce their determination to execute their evil designs. Though the perils and tribulations which had encompa.s.sed Him were now at their thickest, though the s.h.i.+p on which He was supposed to embark with the members of the Commission was waiting in readiness, at times in Akka, at times in Haifa, and the wildest rumors were being spread about Him, the serenity He had invariably maintained, ever since His incarceration had been reimposed, remained unclouded, and His confidence unshaken. "The meaning of the dream I dreamt," He, at that time, told the believers who still remained in Akka, "is now clear and evident. Please G.o.d this dynamite will not explode."

Meanwhile the members of the Commission had, on a certain Friday, gone to Haifa and inspected the Bab's sepulcher, the construction of which had been proceeding without any interruption on Mt. Carmel. Impressed by its solidity and dimensions, they had inquired of one of the attendants as to the number of vaults that had been built beneath that ma.s.sive structure.

Shortly after the inspection had been made it was suddenly observed, one day at about sunset, that the s.h.i.+p, which had been lying off Haifa, had weighed anchor, and was heading towards Akka. The news spread rapidly among an excited population that the members of the Commission had embarked upon it. It was antic.i.p.ated that it would stop long enough at Akka to take 'Abdu'l-Baha on board, and then proceed to its destination.

Consternation and anguish seized the members of His family when informed of the approach of the s.h.i.+p. The few believers who were left wept with grief at their impending separation from their Master. 'Abdu'l-Baha could be seen, at that tragic hour, pacing, alone and silent, the courtyard of His house.

As dusk fell, however, it was suddenly noticed that the lights of the s.h.i.+p had swung round, and the vessel had changed her course. It now became evident that she was sailing direct for Constantinople. The intelligence was instantly communicated to 'Abdu'l-Baha, Who, in the gathering darkness, was still pacing His courtyard. Some of the believers who had posted themselves at different points to watch the progress of the s.h.i.+p hurried to confirm the joyful tidings. One of the direst perils that had ever threatened 'Abdu'l-Baha's precious life was, on that historic day, suddenly, providentially and definitely averted.

Soon after the precipitate and wholly unexpected sailing of that s.h.i.+p news was received that a bomb had exploded in the path of the Sul?an while he was returning to his palace from the mosque where he had been offering his Friday prayers.

A few days after this attempt on his life the Commission submitted its report to him; but he and his government were too preoccupied to consider the matter. The case was laid aside, and when, some months later, it was again brought forward it was abruptly closed forever by an event which, once and for all, placed the Prisoner of Akka beyond the power of His royal enemy. The "Young Turk" Revolution, breaking out swiftly and decisively in 1908, forced a reluctant despot to promulgate the const.i.tution which he had suspended, and to release all religious and political prisoners held under the old regime. Even then a telegram had to be sent to Constantinople to inquire specifically whether 'Abdu'l-Baha was included in the category of these prisoners, to which an affirmative reply was promptly received.

Within a few months, in 1909, the Young Turks obtained from the _Sh_ay_kh_u'l-Islam the condemnation of the Sul?an himself who, as a result of further attempts to overthrow the const.i.tution, was finally and ignominiously deposed, deported and made a prisoner of state. On one single day of that same year there were executed no less than thirty-one leading ministers, pa_sh_as and officials, among whom were numbered notorious enemies of the Faith. Tripolitania itself, the scene of 'Abdu'l-Baha's intended exile was subsequently wrested from the Turks by Italy. Thus ended the reign of the "Great a.s.sa.s.sin," "the most mean, cunning, untrustworthy and cruel intriguer of the long dynasty of U_th_man," a reign "more disastrous in its immediate losses of territory and in the certainty of others to follow, and more conspicuous for the deterioration of the condition of his subjects, than that of any other of his twenty-three degenerate predecessors since the death of Sulayman the Magnificent."

Chapter XVIII: Entombment of the Bab's Remains on Mt. Carmel

'Abdu'l-Baha's unexpected and dramatic release from His forty-year confinement dealt a blow to the ambitions cherished by the Covenant-breakers as devastating as that which, a decade before, had shattered their hopes of undermining His authority and of ousting Him from His G.o.d-given position. Now, on the very morrow of His triumphant liberation a third blow befell them as stunning as those which preceded it and hardly less spectacular than they. Within a few months of the historic decree which set Him free, in the very year that witnessed the downfall of Sul?an 'Abdu'l-?amid, that same power from on high which had enabled 'Abdu'l-Baha to preserve inviolate the rights divinely conferred on Him, to establish His Father's Faith in the North American continent, and to triumph over His royal oppressor, enabled Him to achieve one of the most signal acts of His ministry: the removal of the Bab's remains from their place of concealment in ?ihran to Mt. Carmel. He Himself testified, on more than one occasion, that the safe transfer of these remains, the construction of a befitting mausoleum to receive them, and their final interment with His own hands in their permanent resting-place const.i.tuted one of the three princ.i.p.al objectives which, ever since the inception of His mission, He had conceived it His paramount duty to achieve. This act indeed deserves to rank as one of the outstanding events in the first Baha'i century.

As observed in a previous chapter the mangled bodies of the Bab and His fellow-martyr, Mirza Mu?ammad-'Ali, were removed, in the middle of the second night following their execution, through the pious intervention of ?aji Sulayman _Kh_an, from the edge of the moat where they had been cast to a silk factory owned by one of the believers of Milan, and were laid the next day in a wooden casket, and thence carried to a place of safety.