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Featured in: The Ascension of Abdu’l-Baha
Abdu’l-Baha was the eldest son of Baha’u’llah who referred to Him as “the Mystery of God” and “a shelter for all mankind”, however Abdu’l-Baha preferred to be called “Abdu’l-Baha” which means “the Servant of Baha” in reference to His servitude to Baha’u’llah. When Abdu’l-Baha passed away on 28 November 1921, He was eulogized as One who led humanity to the “Way of Truth,” as a “pillar of peace” and the embodiment of “glory and greatness.”
At the commemoration of the centenary of Abdu’l-Baha’s visit to Montreal in 2012, I witnessed something profound at an event organized at St. James Methodist Church – the last place where the Master spoke publicly during His brief sojourn in Montreal. The current minister talked about the admirable qualities of Abdu’l-Baha and the unifying impact of His visit. I have never seen a person of authority of another religion lovingly praise this Cause at such length in their own place of worship. A feeling of unity between the congregation of the church and all the visiting Baha’is was palpable. I thought, this is what it must have been like in 1912!
Historical accounts of the life of the Master are bursting with similar exaltations and expressions of amity. Everywhere He went, notable religious leaders praised Him publicly and people were united in their love for Him. Perhaps most moving, is the symphony of tributes after His passing on November 28th, 1921 and the common grief everyone felt over losing Him. In his biography on the life of the Master, Hasan Balyuzi writes:
In the land we know as the Holy Land, in all its turbulent history of the last two thousand years, there had never been an event which could unite all its inhabitants of diverse faiths and origins and purposes, in a single expression of thought and feeling, as did the passing of Abdu’l-Baha. Jews and Christians and Muslims and Druzes, of all persuasions and denominations; Arabs and Turks and Kurds and Armenians and other ethnic groups were united in mourning His passing, in being aware of a great loss they had suffered.
Hasan Balyuzi. Abdu’l-Baha: The Centre of the Covenant of Baha’u’llah. Oxford: 1971. p.453
Balyuzi’s book is a wealth of information about what happened in the hours and days after His ascension. He quotes extensively from an account written by Shoghi Effendi and Lady Blomfield called The Passing of Abdu’l-Baha and includes this descriptive passage:
The High Commissioner of Palestine, Sir Herbert Samuel, the Governor of Jerusalem, the Governor of Phoenicia, the Chiefs Officials of the Government, the Consuls of various countries, resident in Haifa, the heads of various religious communities, the notables of Palestine, Jews, Christians, Moslems, Druses, Egyptians, Greeks, Turks, Kurds, and a host of his American, European and native friends, men, women and children, both of high and low degree, all, about ten thousand in number, mourning the loss of their Beloved One.
Ibid. p.466
This throng of mourners wended its way up the slopes of Mount Carmel, carrying the precious remains of the Master. After two hours of walking, they reached the Shrine of the Bab where the casket was placed on a table covered in white linen at which point “some on the impulse of the moment, others prepared, raised their voices in eulogy and regret, paying their last homage of farewell to their loved one. So united were they in their acclamation of him, as the wise educator and reconciler of the human race in this perplexed and sorrowful age, that there seemed nothing left for the Baha’is to say.”1
Shoghi Effendi also wrote about this sorrowful event in his seminal work, God Passes By. He includes a report of Sir Ronald Storrs, Jerusalem’s Governor at the time, which stated:
I have never known a more united expression of regret and respect than was called forth by the utter simplicity of the ceremony.
Ibid. p.312
What followed the funeral was characteristic of the Master’s loving generosity. Shoghi Effendi writes:
During the week following His passing, from fifty to a hundred of the poor of Haifa were daily fed at His house, whilst on the seventh day corn was distributed in His memory to about a thousand of them irrespective of creed or race. On the fortieth day an impressive memorial feast was held in His memory, to which over six hundred of the people of Haifa, ‘Akka and the surrounding parts of Palestine and Syria, including officials and notables of various religions and races, were invited. More than one hundred of the poor were also fed that day.
Ibid. p. 313
At that fortieth day feast, the Governor of Phoenicia addressed those gathered. He said:
Hail to ‘Abba, the pride and glory of the East, in an age that has witnessed the rise of knowledge and the fall of prejudice; he who has attained the glorious summit of greatness; he whom the Standards of triumph have hastened to welcome; he whose star arose in Persia, shedding light upon the minds of men, the signs of which have multiplied in the heaven of glory till it set in full radiance on this our horizon; he whose principles have humbled the peoples and kindreds of the world even as Baha himself had done before him…
Let us then in our thoughts and meditations pay our tribute to him. And though the other day at his door I made you weep, yet now it is my duty to appeal and ask you to forget your sorrow and refrain from lamentation and cease from shedding tears. Truly, Sir ‘Abbas departed from us in body, but he ever lives with us in his abiding spirit, in his wondrous deeds. Though he has passed away, yet he has left us a glorious heritage in the wisdom of his counsels, the rectitude of his teachings, the benevolence of his deeds, the example of his precious life, the sublimity of his effort, the power of his will, his patience and fortitude, his steadfastness to the end.
Balyuzi. p.481-2
Years prior to His passing, Abdu’l-Baha revealed a tablet that is now recited when visiting His shrine and by Baha’is all over the world in commemoration of His ascension. The preface of this prayer states:
…whoso reciteth this prayer with lowliness and fervor will bring joy and gladness to the heart of this servant; it will be even as meeting him face to face.
Ibid. p.482
While I struggle to pray with increasing sincerity, devotion and pure-mindedness, I can admit that what I experienced in Montreal on that commemorative day felt as if 1912 was only yesterday.
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Thanks!
Rooplall (November 11, 2014 at 12:08 AM)
Eloquently expounded dear Sonjel and Naysan
Perhaps our sincerest tribute in these days of universal enlightenment and advanced technology is to apprehend the requests He penned while among those notables in the Holy Land, to obey His authoritative musts and if for some good reason the latter are no longer valid to consult at length as to why not.
Baha’i love
Paul
Paul Desailly (November 11, 2014 at 12:11 AM)
Lovely presentation.
César (November 11, 2015 at 10:08 PM)
Thank you Sonjel and Naysan, My heart so needed to read this today especially as the commemoration of the Master’s passing comes to a close. It refocuses me on the most important vs the important in this increasingly busy world.
With love and prayers, Linda
Linda (November 11, 2018 at 12:09 PM)
Thank you for your kind, loving and encouraging words, Linda!
Sonjel Vreeland (December 12, 2018 at 11:40 PM)
Nice piece Sonia, thanks for sharing.
Gordon (January 1, 2021 at 2:11 PM)