Bahá’u’lláh’s return from Sulaymáníyyih to Baghdád established “a firm anchorage …such as the Faith had never known in its history”

The return of Bahá’u’lláh from Sulaymáníyyih to Baghdád marks a turning point of the utmost significance in the history of the first Bahá’í century. The tide of the fortunes of the Faith, having reached its lowest ebb, was now beginning to surge back, and was destined to roll on, steadily and mightily, to a new high water-mark, associated this time with the Declaration of His Mission, on the eve of His banishment to Constantinople. With His return to Baghdád a firm anchorage was now being established, an anchorage such as the Faith had never known in its history. Never before, except during the first three years of its life, could that Faith claim to have possessed a fixed and accessible center to which its adherents could turn for guidance, and from which they could derive continuous and unobstructed inspiration. No less than half of the Báb’s short-lived ministry was spent on the remotest border of His native country, where He was concealed and virtually cut off from the vast majority of His disciples. The period immediately after His martyrdom was marked by a confusion that was even more deplorable than the isolation caused by His enforced captivity. Nor when the Revelation which He had foretold made its appearance was it succeeded by an immediate declaration that could enable the members of a distracted community to rally round the person of their expected Deliverer. The prolonged self-concealment of Mírzá Yaḥyá, the center provisionally appointed pending the manifestation of the Promised One; the nine months’ absence of Bahá’u’lláh from His native land, while on a visit to Karbilá, followed swiftly by His imprisonment in the Síyáh-Chál, by His banishment to ‘Iráq, and afterwards by His retirement to Kurdistán—all combined to prolong the phase of instability and suspense through which the Bábí community had to pass. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 8)

Bahá’u’lláh terminated the period of His retirement and returned to Baghdad on March 19, 1856

Deciding to terminate the period of His retirement Bahá’u’lláh bade farewell to the shaykhs of Sulaymáníyyih, who now numbered among His most ardent and, as their future conduct demonstrated, staunchest admirers. Accompanied by Shaykh Sulṭán, He retraced His steps to Baghdád, on “the banks of the River of Tribulations,” as He Himself termed it, proceeding by slow stages, realizing, as He declared to His fellow-traveler, that these last days of His retirement would be “the only days of peace and tranquillity” left to Him, “days which will never again fall to My lot.”

On the 12th of Rajab 1272 A.H. (March 19, 1856) He arrived in Baghdád, exactly two lunar years after His departure for Kurdistán. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

The “pleadings of His own kindred and friends, particularly His twelve-year old Son, ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá”

No less urgent were the pleadings of His own kindred and friends, particularly His twelve-year old Son, ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, Whose grief and loneliness had so consumed His soul that, in a conversation recorded by Nabíl in his narrative, He had avowed that subsequent to the departure of Bahá’u’lláh He had in His boyhood grown old. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Mírzá Yahyá “had…insistently and in writing, besought” Bahá’u’lláh to return

Mírzá Yahyá, realizing full well to what a pass his unrestrained leadership of the Faith had brought him, had, moreover, insistently and in writing, besought Him to return. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Bahá’u’lláh explains to one of the believers what prompted Him to return to Baghdad from Kurdistan

The tragic situation that had developed in the course of His two years’ absence now imperatively demanded His return. “From the Mystic Source,” He Himself explains in the Kitáb-i-Íqán, “there came the summons bidding Us return whence We came. Surrendering Our will to His, We submitted to His injunction.” “By God besides Whom there is none other God!” is His emphatic assertion to Shaykh Sultán, as reported by Nabíl in his narrative, “But for My recognition of the fact that the blessed Cause of the Primal Point was on the verge of being completely obliterated, and all the sacred blood poured out in the path of God would have been shed in vain, I would in no wise have consented to return to the people of the Bayán, and would have abandoned them to the worship of the idols their imaginations had fashioned.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

1856: Bahá’u’lláh “refused for some time to leave His house”

Such was the sadness that overwhelmed Him on His arrival that He refused for some time to leave His house, except for His visits to Káẓimayn and for His occasional meeting with a few of His friends who resided in that town and in Baghdád. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

1856: Bahá’u’lláh describes the condition of the Bábi community upon His return

Little wonder that on His return to Baghdád Bahá’u’lláh should have described the situation then existing in these words: “We found no more than a handful of souls, faint and dispirited, nay utterly lost and dead. The Cause of God had ceased to be on any one’s lips, nor was any heart receptive to its message.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

The amazing “decline” in the Bábís fortune in Baghdad

Such was the decline in their fortunes that they hardly dared show themselves in public. Kurds and Persians vied with each other, when confronting them in the streets, in heaping abuse upon them, and in vilifying openly the Cause which they professed. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

circa 1854-56: “twenty-five persons…declare themselves to be the Promised One foretold by the Báb”

Such was the audacity and effrontery of these demoralized and misguided Bábís that no less than twenty-five persons, according to ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá’s testimony, had the presumption to declare themselves to be the Promised One foretold by the Báb! 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

“The depths of degradation” of the “so-called adherents of the Faith of the Báb” versus “the sublime renunciation shown by the conduct of the companions of Mullá Husayn”

The depths of degradation to which these so-called adherents of the Faith of the Báb had sunk could not but evoke in Nabíl the memory of the sublime renunciation shown by the conduct of the companions of Mullá Ḥusayn, who, at the suggestion of their leader, had scornfully cast by the wayside the gold, the silver and turquoise in their possession, or shown by the behavior of Vaḥíd who refused to allow even the least valuable amongst the treasures which his sumptuously furnished house in Yazd contained to be removed ere it was pillaged by the mob, or shown by the decision of Ḥujjat not to permit his companions, who were on the brink of starvation, to lay hands on the property of others, even though it were to save their own lives. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

The shameful acts of Siyyid Muhammad and his “band of ruffians”

As to Siyyid Muhammad, now given free rein by his master, Mírzá Yahyá, he had surrounded himself, as Nabíl who was at that time with him in Karbilá categorically asserts, with a band of ruffians, whom he allowed, and even encouraged,

• to snatch at night the turbans from the heads of wealthy pilgrims who had congregated in Karbilá,
• to steal their shoes,
• to rob the shrine of the Imám Husayn of its divans and candles,
• and seize the drinking cups from the public fountains. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Mírzá Yahyá’s devilish scheme: - to murder a “cousin of the Báb”

He even, as a further evidence of the enormity of his crimes, ordered that the cousin of the Báb, Mírzá ‘Alí-Akbar, a fervent admirer of Dayyán, be secretly put to death—a command which was carried out in all its iniquity. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Mírzá Yahyá’s devilish scheme: - “to perpetrate himself, and permit Siyyid Muḥammad to repeat after him”

His shamelessness and effrontery had waxed so great as to lead him to perpetrate himself, and permit Siyyid Muhammad to repeat after him, an act so odious that Bahá’u’lláh characterized it as “a most grievous betrayal,” inflicting dishonor upon the Báb, and which “overwhelmed all lands with sorrow. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Mírzá Yahyá’s devilish scheme: - “attempt on the life of the sovereign”

In his folly he had, furthermore, induced Mírzá Áqá Ján to proceed to Núr, and there await a propitious moment when he could make a successful attempt on the life of the sovereign. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Mírzá Yahyá’s devilish scheme: - “dispatched… one of his supporters” to murder “Dayyán, the ‘repository of the knowledge of God’”

In his fear of any potential adversary he had dispatched Mírzá Muḥammad-i-Mázindarání, one of his supporters, to Ádhirbáyján for the express purpose of murdering Dayyán, the “repository of the knowledge of God,” whom he surnamed “Father of Iniquities” and stigmatized as “Ṭághút,” and whom the Báb had extolled as the “Third Letter to believe in Him Whom God shall make manifest.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

“a campaign designed [by Mírzá Yahyá] to utterly discredit Bahá’u’lláh”

Mírzá Yahyá, closeted most of the time in his house, was secretly directing, through his correspondence with those Bábís whom he completely trusted, a campaign designed to utterly discredit Bahá’u’lláh. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

While Bahá’u’lláh was in Kurdistan: - the “situation of the Bábí community was rapidly going from bad to worse”

While the foundations of Bahá’u’lláh’s future greatness were being laid in a strange land and amidst a strange people, the situation of the Bábí community was rapidly going from bad to worse. Pleased and emboldened by His unexpected and prolonged withdrawal from the scene of His labors, the stirrers of mischief with their deluded associates were busily engaged in extending the range of their nefarious activities. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

‘Abdu’l-Baha’s reference to Bahá’u’lláh’s period of His retirement in Kurdistan

“In a short time,” is ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá’s own testimony, “Kurdistán was magnetized with His love. During this period Bahá’u’lláh lived in poverty. His garments were those of the poor and needy. His food was that of the indigent and lowly. An atmosphere of majesty haloed Him as the sun at midday. Everywhere He was greatly revered and loved.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Bahá’u’lláh’s reference to His Revelation during the period of His retirement in Kurdistan

Small wonder that Bahá’u’lláh Himself should have, in the Lawḥ-i-Maryam, pronounced the period of His retirement as “the mightiest testimony” to, and “the most perfect and conclusive evidence” of, the truth of His Revelation. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

How people of Kurdistan showed “esteem and respect” towards Bahá’u’lláh

Such was the esteem and respect entertained for Him that some held Him as One of the “Men of the Unseen,” others accounted Him an adept in alchemy and the science of divination, still others designated Him “a pivot of the universe,” whilst a not inconsiderable number among His admirers went so far as to believe that His station was no less than that of a prophet. Kurds, Arabs, and Persians, learned and illiterate, both high and low, young and old, who had come to know Him, regarded Him with equal reverence, and not a few among them with genuine and profound affection, and this despite certain assertions and allusions to His station He had made in public, which, had they fallen from the lips of any other member of His race, would have provoked such fury as to endanger His life. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Bahá’u’lláh “disclosed new vistas” to the people of Kurdistan

Through His [Bahá’u’lláh’s] numerous discourses and epistles He disclosed new vistas to their eyes, resolved the perplexities that agitated their minds, unfolded the inner meaning of many hitherto obscure passages in the writings of various commentators, poets and theologians, of which they had remained unaware, and reconciled the seemingly contradictory assertions which abounded in these dissertations, poems and treatises. 

- Shoghi Effendi (God Passes By’, chapter 7)

The revelation of the Qasídiy-i-Varqá’íyyih (Ode of the Dove) greatly increased the fascination and interest of those who had “congregated in the seminaries of Sulaymáníyyih and Karkúk”

This episode, by far the most outstanding among the events that transpired during the two years of Bahá’u’lláh’s absence from Baghdád, immensely stimulated the interest with which an increasing number of the ‘ulamás, the scholars, the shaykhs, the doctors, the holy men and princes who had congregated in the seminaries of Sulaymáníyyih and Karkúk, were now following His daily activities. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

At the request of some of the “most eminent doctors and most distinguished students” in Kurdistan Bahá’u’lláh revealed a poem containing “no less than two thousand verses”, “out of which He selected one hundred and twenty-seven, which He permitted them to keep” – this constitute the Qasídiy-i-Varqá’íyyih (Ode of the Dove)

Amazed by the profundity of His insight and the compass of His understanding, they were impelled to seek from Him what they considered to be a conclusive and final evidence of the unique power and knowledge which He now appeared in their eyes to possess. “No one among the mystics, the wise, and the learned,” they claimed, while requesting this further favor from Him, “has hitherto proved himself capable of writing a poem in a rhyme and meter identical with that of the longer of the two odes, entitled Qasídiy-i-Tá’íyyih composed by Ibn-i-Fárid. We beg you to write for us a poem in that same meter and rhyme.” This request was complied with, and no less than two thousand verses, in exactly the manner they had specified, were dictated by Him, out of which He selected one hundred and twenty-seven, which He permitted them to keep, deeming the subject matter of the rest premature and unsuitable to the needs of the times. It is these same one hundred and twenty-seven verses that constitute the Qasídiy-i-Varqá’íyyih, so familiar to, and widely circulated amongst, His Arabic speaking followers.

Such was their reaction to this marvelous demonstration of the sagacity and genius of Bahá’u’lláh that they unanimously acknowledged every single verse of that poem to be endowed with a force, beauty and power far surpassing anything contained in either the major or minor odes composed by that celebrated poet. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Though Bahá’u’lláh hadn’t seen the book that He was requested to elucidate “He was able to resolve their perplexities in so amazing a fashion”

“God is My witness,” was Bahá’u’lláh’s instant reply to the learned delegation, “that I have never seen the book you refer to. I regard, however, through the power of God, … whatever you wish me to do as easy of accomplishment.” Directing one of them to read aloud to Him, every day, a page of that book, He was able to resolve their perplexities in so amazing a fashion that they were lost in admiration. Not contenting Himself with a mere clarification of the obscure passages of the text, He would interpret for them the mind of its author, and expound his doctrine, and unfold his purpose. At times He would even go so far as to question the soundness of certain views propounded in that book, and would Himself vouchsafe a correct presentation of the issues that had been misunderstood, and would support it with proofs and evidences that were wholly convincing to His listeners. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

While in exile in Kurdistan, some of the “most eminent doctors and most distinguished students” requested Bahá’u’lláh to elucidate “the abstruse passages” in a famous religious book

That seat of learning [theological seminary that Bahá’u’lláh was staying at] had been renowned for its vast endowments, its numerous takyihs, and its association with Saláhi’d-Dín-i-Ayyúbí and his descendants; from it some of the most illustrious exponents of Sunní Islám had gone forth to teach its precepts, and now a delegation, headed by Shaykh Ismá‘íl himself, and consisting of its most eminent doctors and most distinguished students, called upon Bahá’u’lláh, and, finding Him willing to reply to any questions they might wish to address Him, they requested Him to elucidate for them, in the course of several interviews, the abstruse passages contained in the Futúhát-i-Makkíyyih, the celebrated work of the famous Shaykh Muḥyi’d-Dín-i-‘Arabí. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Bahá’u’lláh’s impact on the people of Kurdistán

Not long after Baha’u’llah’s arrival in Kurdistán, Shaykh Sultán [The father-in-law of Áqáy-i-Kalím, Bahá’u’lláh’s brother] has related, He was able, through His personal contacts with Shaykh ‘Uthmán, Shaykh ‘Abdu’r-Rahmán, and Shaykh Ismá‘íl, the honored and undisputed leaders of the Naqshbandíyyih, the Qádiríyyih and the Khálidíyyih Orders respectively, to win their hearts completely and establish His ascendancy over them. The first of these, Shaykh ‘Uthmán, included no less a person than the Sulṭán himself and his entourage among his adherents. The second, in reply to whose query the “Four Valleys” was later revealed, commanded the unwavering allegiance of at least a hundred thousand devout followers, while the third was held in such veneration by his supporters that they regarded him as co-equal with Khálid himself, the founder of the Order. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

The father-in-law of Áqáy-i-Kalím, Bahá’u’lláh’s brother, arrived in Sulaymáníyyih when He had moved to that town

Meantime His friends in Baghdád had discovered His whereabouts, and had dispatched Shaykh Sultán, the father-in-law of Áqáy-i-Kalím, to beg Him to return; and it was now while He was living in Sulaymáníyyih, in a room belonging to the Takyiy-i-Mawláná Khálid (theological seminary) that their messenger arrived. “I found,” this same Shaykh Sulṭán, recounting his experiences to Nabíl, has stated, “all those who lived with Him in that place, from their Master down to the humblest neophyte, so enamoured of, and carried away by their love for Bahá’u’lláh, and so unprepared to contemplate the possibility of His departure that I felt certain that were I to inform them of the purpose of my visit, they would not have hesitated to put an end to my life.”

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Bahá’u’lláh transferred His residence to the town of Sulaymáníyyih

Shortly after this contact was established, [a certain Shaykh, a resident of Sulaymáníyyih] Shaykh Ismá‘íl, the leader of the Khálidíyyih Order, who lived in Sulaymáníyyih, visited Him, and succeeded, after repeated requests, in obtaining His consent to transfer His residence to that town. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

As a result of a dream a resident of Sulaymáníyyih sought Bahá’u’lláh out while He was living in caves of Kurdistán

Bahá’u’lláh was still pursuing His solitary existence on that mountain when a certain Shaykh, a resident of Sulaymáníyyih, who owned a property in that neighborhood, sought Him out, as directed in a dream he had of the Prophet Muhammad. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

“the first fruits of His [Bahá’u’lláh’s] Divine Pen”: “Tablet of Kullu’ṭ-Ṭa‘ám and the poem entitled Rashh-i-‘Amá, revealed in Tihrán”

These initial and impassioned outpourings of a Soul struggling to unburden itself, in the solitude of a self-imposed exile (many of them, alas lost to posterity) are, with the Tablet of Kullu’t-Ta‘ám and the poem entitled Rashh-i-‘Amá, revealed in Tihrán, the first fruits of His Divine Pen. They are the forerunners of those immortal works—the Kitáb-i-Íqán, the Hidden Words and the Seven Valleys—which in the years preceding His Declaration in Baghdád, were to enrich so vastly the steadily swelling volume of His writings, and which paved the way for a further flowering of His prophetic genius in His epoch-making Proclamation to the world, couched in the form of mighty Epistles to the kings and rulers of mankind, and finally for the last fruition of His Mission in the Laws and Ordinances of His Dispensation formulated during His confinement in the Most Great Prison of ‘Akká. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Themes that “poured from His [Bahá’u’lláh’s] sorrow-laden soul” during the time in Kurdistán

In the odes He revealed, whilst wrapped in His devotions during those days of utter seclusion, and in the prayers and soliloquies which, in verse and prose, both in Arabic and Persian, poured from His sorrow-laden soul, many of which He was wont to chant aloud to Himself, at dawn and during the watches of the night, He

• lauded the names and attributes of His Creator,
• extolled the glories and mysteries of His own Revelation,
• sang the praises of that Maiden that personified the Spirit of God within Him,
• dwelt on His loneliness and His past and future tribulations,
• expatiated upon the blindness of His generation, the perfidy of His friends and the perversity of His enemies,
• affirmed His determination to arise and, if needs be, offer up His life for the vindication of His Cause,
• stressed those essential pre-requisites which every seeker after Truth must possess, and
• recalled, in anticipation of the lot that was to be His,
• the tragedy of the Imám Husayn in Karbilá,
• the plight of Muhammad in Mecca,
• the sufferings of Jesus at the hands of the Jews,
• the trials of Moses inflicted by Pharaoh and his people and
• the ordeal of Joseph as He languished in a pit by reason of the treachery of His brothers.

(Shoghi Effendi, ‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Bahá’u’lláh recalls those painful days during His retirement

At times His dwelling-place was a cave to which He refers in His Tablets addressed to the famous Shaykh ‘Abdu’r-Rahmán and to Maryam, a kinswoman of His. “I roamed the wilderness of resignation” He thus depicts, in the Lawh-i-Maryam, the rigors of His austere solitude, “traveling in such wise that in My exile every eye wept sore over Me, and all created things shed tears of blood because of My anguish. The birds of the air were My companions and the beasts of the field My associates.” “From My eyes,” He, referring in the Kitáb-i-Íqán to those days, testifies, “there rained tears of anguish, and in My bleeding heart surged an ocean of agonizing pain. Many a night I had no food for sustenance, and many a day My body found no rest.… Alone I communed with My spirit, oblivious of the world and all that is therein.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Bahá’u’lláh retired to the wilderness of Kurdistán, attired “in the garb of a traveler, coarsely clad, taking with Him nothing but his kashkúl (alms-bowl) and a change of clothes”

View of the mountains where Bahá’u’lláh
stayed in Sulaymaniyyih, 1940 (Baha'i Media Bank)

Attired in the garb of a traveler, coarsely clad, taking with Him nothing but his kashkúl (alms-bowl) and a change of clothes, and assuming the name of Darvísh Muḥammad, Bahá’u’lláh retired to the wilderness, and lived for a time on a mountain named Sar-Galú, so far removed from human habitations that only twice a year, at seed sowing and harvest time, it was visited by the peasants of that region. Alone and undisturbed, He passed a considerable part of His retirement on the top of that mountain in a rude structure, made of stone, which served those peasants as a shelter against the extremities of the weather. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

April 10, 1854: Bahá’u’lláh suddenly left the city of Baghdad “without informing any one even among the members of His own family”

Suddenly, and without informing any one even among the members of His own family, on the 12th of Rajab 1270 A.H. (April 10, 1854), He departed, accompanied by an attendant, a Muhammadan named Abu’l-Qásim-i-Hamadání, to whom He gave a sum of money, instructing him to act as a merchant and use it for his own purposes. Shortly after, that servant was attacked by thieves and killed, and Bahá’u’lláh was left entirely alone in His wanderings through the wastes of Kurdistán, a region whose sturdy and warlike people were known for their age-long hostility to the Persians, whom they regarded as seceders from the Faith of Islám, and from whom they differed in their outlook, race and language. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

Bahá’u’lláh confirms later that He ““contemplated no return, and Our separation hoped for no reunion.”

Finally, discerning, as He Himself testifies in the Kitáb-i-Íqán, “the signs of impending events,” He decided that before they happened He would retire. “The one object of Our retirement,” He, in that same Book affirms, “was to avoid becoming a subject of discord among the faithful, a source of disturbance unto Our companions, the means of injury to any soul, or the cause of sorrow to any heart.” “Our withdrawal,” He, moreover, in that same passage emphatically asserts, “contemplated no return, and Our separation hoped for no reunion.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)