Bahá’u’lláh’s comments about Nabil's empty room

“I, myself with two others,” he [Nabil] relates, “lived in a room which was devoid of furniture. Bahá’u’lláh entered it one day, and, looking about Him, remarked: ‘Its emptiness pleases Me. In My estimation it is preferable to many a spacious palace, inasmuch as the beloved of God are occupied in it with the remembrance of the Incomparable Friend, with hearts that are wholly emptied of the dross of this world.’” 

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

The “stirring episodes” of those who were “intoxicated“ by quaffing “from the cup of Bahá’u’lláh’s presence” – Nabil being “an eye-witness

“So intoxicated were those who had quaffed from the cup of Bahá’u’lláh’s presence,” is yet another testimony from the pen of Nabíl, who was himself an eye-witness of most of these stirring episodes, “that in their eyes the palaces of kings appeared more ephemeral than a spider’s web.… The celebrations and festivities that were theirs were such as the kings of the earth had never dreamt of.” 

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

The story of Siyyid Ismá‘íl, surnamed Dhabíh (the Sacrifice) – “King and Beloved of Martyrs”, “No blood…has, till now, been poured upon the earth as pure as the blood he shed.”

From such a treasury of precious memories it will suffice my purpose to cite but a single instance, that of one of His ardent lovers, a native of Zavárih, Siyyid Ismá‘íl by name, surnamed Dhabíḥ (the Sacrifice), formerly a noted divine, taciturn, meditative and wholly severed from every earthly tie, whose self-appointed task, on which he prided himself, was to sweep the approaches of the house in which Bahá’u’lláh was dwelling. Unwinding his green turban, the ensign of his holy lineage, from his head, he would, at the hour of dawn, gather up, with infinite patience, the rubble which the footsteps of his Beloved had trodden, would blow the dust from the crannies of the wall adjacent to the door of that house, would collect the sweepings in the folds of his own cloak, and, scorning to cast his burden for the feet of others to tread upon, would carry it as far as the banks of the river and throw it into its waters. Unable, at length, to contain the ocean of love that surged within his soul, he, after having denied himself for forty days both sleep and sustenance, and rendering for the last time the service so dear to his heart, betook himself, one day, to the banks of the river, on the road to Káẓimayn, performed his ablutions, lay down on his back, with his face turned towards Baghdád, severed his throat with a razor, laid the razor upon his breast, and expired. (1275 A.H.)

1853-1863: Various people’s interactions with Bahá’u’lláh during those “poignant years” in Baghdad

Numerous and striking are the anecdotes which have been recounted by those whom duty, accident, or inclination had, in the course of these poignant years, brought into direct contact with Bahá’u’lláh.

• Many and moving are the testimonies of bystanders who were privileged to gaze on His countenance, observe His gait, or overhear His remarks, as He moved through the lanes and streets of the city, or paced the banks of the river;
• of the worshippers who watched Him pray in their mosques;
• of the mendicant, the sick, the aged, and the unfortunate whom He succored, healed, supported and comforted;
• of the visitors, from the haughtiest prince to the meanest beggar, who crossed His threshold and sat at His feet;
• of the merchant, the artisan, and the shopkeeper who waited upon Him and supplied His daily needs;
• of His devotees who had perceived the signs of His hidden glory;
• of His adversaries who were confounded or disarmed by the power of His utterance and the warmth of His love;
• of the priests and laymen, the noble and learned, who besought Him with the intention of either challenging His authority, or testing His knowledge, or investigating His claims, or confessing their shortcomings, or declaring their conversion to the Cause He had espoused. 

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

Happenings during “that immortal period, intervening between the birth hour of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation and its announcement on the eve of His departure from ‘Iráq”

• The joyous feasts which these companions, despite their extremely modest earnings, continually offered in honor of their Beloved;
• the gatherings, lasting far into the night, in which they loudly celebrated, with prayers, poetry and song, the praises of the Báb, of Quddús and of Bahá’u’lláh;
• the fasts they observed; the vigils they kept; the dreams and visions which fired their souls, and which they recounted to each other with feelings of unbounded enthusiasm;
• the eagerness with which those who served Bahá’u’lláh performed His errands, waited upon His needs, and carried heavy skins of water for His ablutions and other domestic purposes;
• the acts of imprudence which, in moments of rapture, they occasionally committed;
• the expressions of wonder and admiration which their words and acts evoked in a populace that had seldom witnessed such demonstrations of religious transport and personal devotion—

these, and many others, will forever remain associated with the history of that immortal period, intervening between the birth hour of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation and its announcement on the eve of His departure from ‘Iráq. 

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

Another Persian prince “describing the atmosphere which pervaded that reception-room” in Bahá’u’lláh’s House in Baghdad

“I know not how to explain it,” another prince, Zaynu’l-‘Ábidín Khán, the Fakhru’d-Dawlih, describing the atmosphere which pervaded that reception-room, had affirmed, “were all the sorrows of the world to be crowded into my heart they would, I feel, all vanish, when in the presence of Bahá’u’lláh. It is as if I had entered Paradise itself.” 

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