Posts

Showing posts from June, 2020

Death of the Purest Branch in Akka

Image
Death of the Purest Branch in Akka June 23rd, 1870,  Mirza Mihdi (the Purest Branch, Baha'u'llah's youngest son) falls through a skylight in the prison. Baha'u'llah offers to heal him but Mirza Mihdi instead offers his life as a sacrifice so that those who desire may undertake pilgrimages. Baha'u'llah accepts and the Purest Branch dies at age 22. 70 years later, his body is entombed in the Monument Gardens on Mount Carmel.     Bahá’u’lláh referred to Mírzá Mihdí on the day of his death as "he that was created by the light of Bahá" and described his dying "at a time when he lay imprisoned at the hands of his enemies" as a "martyrdom." In the same tablet, Bahá’u’lláh extols Mírzá Mihdí’s station: "Happy art thou in that thou hast been faithful to the Covenant of God and His Testament, until Thou didst sacrifice thyself before the face of thy Lord, the Almighty, the Unconstrained. Thou, in truth, hast been wronged, and to this

Mort de la Branche-la-plus-pure

Image
Deux années étaient presque passées depuis que Baha'u'llah avait été emprisonné dans la caserne, lorsque soudainement survint un événement des plus tragique. Ce fut le décès prématuré de Mirza Mihdi, nommé la Branche-la-plus-pure, le plus jeune frère de 'Abdu'l-Baha qui fut grièvement blessé lorsqu'il tomba du toit de la caserne. En 1848, à une époque où les disciples du Bab étaient submergés par les souffrances et les persécutions, naquit un fils de Baha'u'llah et de son illustre femme Asiyih Khanum, nommée Navvab (voir vol.1). Il avait quatre ans de moins que 'Abdu'l-Baha et reçut le nom de Mihdi, du nom d'un frère de Baha'u'llah, cher à son coeur, et qui était décédé un an auparavant. Par la suite, la Plume du Très-Haut donna à son fils le titre de Ghusnu'llahu'l-Athar (la plus pure Branche). Contrairement à 'Abdu'l-Baha, Mirza Mihdi ne pouvait pas bien se remémorer la vie luxueuse de Téhéran, car son père avait été emp
Image
The Focal Centre "three incomparably precious souls " The Transfer of the Remains of his Body    The long years of preparation - outside in the body of the Bahá'í world through the erection of the machinery of the Administrative Order, inside its heart through the erection of the superstructure of the Shrine of the Báb and the general consolidation of the World Centre - had involved the creation of a Spot suitable to form the "focal centre", as Shoghi Effendi termed it, of the mightiest institutions of the Faith. This Spot was no less than the resting-places of the mother, sister and brother of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, those "three incomparably precious souls", as he called them, "who, next to the three Central Figures of our Faith, tower in rank above the vast multitude of the heroes, Letters, martyrs, hands, teachers and administrators of the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh." It had long been the desire of the Greatest Holy Leaf to lie near her m

MIRZA MIHDI

Image
...And lastly, there should be mentioned, as a further evidence of the blessings flowing from the Divine Plan, the transfer, a few years later, to that same hallowed spot, after a separation in death of above half a century, and notwithstanding the protests voiced by the brother and lieutenant of the arch-breaker of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant, of the remains of the Purest Branch, the martyred son of Bahá'u'lláh, "created of the light of Bahá," the "Trust of God" and His "Treasurer" in the Holy Land, and offered up by his Father as a "ransom" for the regeneration of the world and the unification of its peoples. (God Passes By, Page 347)    The Purest Branch, the martyred son, the companion, and amanuensis of Bahá'u'lláh, that pious and holy youth, who in the darkest days of Bahá'u'lláh's incarceration in the barracks of 'Akká entreated, on his death-bed his Father to accept him as a ransom for those of His l