Chapter XVI: Epilogue

_I am the Primal Point from which have been generated all
created things.... I am the Countenance of God Whose
splendour can never be obscured, the Light of God Whose
radiance can never fade.... I am one of the sustaining
pillars of the Primal Word of God. Whosoever hath recognised
Me, hath known all that is true and right, and hath attained
all that is good and seemly._
--The Báb

On the third day after the martyrdom of the Báb, His remains, inextricably united with those of His heroic, faithful disciple, were placed in a casket and taken to a locality which was safe and secure.

What happened, during the next fifty years, to the remains of the Báb cannot be better summarized than in the words of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith:

Subsequently, according to Bahá'u'lláh's instructions, they
were transported to Ṭihrán and placed in the shrine of
Imám-Zádih Ḥasan. They were later removed to the
residence of Ḥájí Sulaymán [_Kh_]án[FN] himself in the
Sar-[_Ch_]a[_sh_]mih quarter of the city, and from his house
were taken to the shrine of Imám-Zádih Ma`ṣúm, where they
remained concealed until the year 1284 A.H. (1867-1868),
when a Tablet, revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in Adrianople,
directed Mullá `Alí-Akbar-i-[_Sh_]ahmírzádí[FO] and
Jamál-i-Burújirdí to transfer them without delay to some
other spot, an instruction which, in view of the subsequent
reconstruction of that shrine, proved to have been
providential.

Unable to find a suitable place in the suburb of [_Sh_]áh
`Abdu'l-`Aẓím, Mullá `Alí-Akbar and his companion
continued their search until, on the road leading to
[_Ch_]a[_sh_]mih-`Alí [the `Alí Springs], they came upon the
abandoned and dilapidated Masjíd-i-Ma[_sh_]á'u'lláh, where
they deposited, within one of its walls, after dark, their
precious burden, having first re-wrapt the remains in a
silken shroud brought by them for that purpose. Finding the
next day to their consternation that the hiding-place had
been discovered,[FP] they clandestinely carried the casket
through the gate of the capital direct to the house of Mírzá
Ḥasan-i-Vazír, a believer and son-in-law of Ḥájí Mírzá
Siyyid `Alíy-i-Tafri[_sh_]í, the Majdu'l-A[_sh_]ráf, where
it remained for no less than fourteen months.[FQ] The
long-guarded secret of its whereabouts becoming known to the
believers, they began to visit the house in such numbers
that a communication had to be addressed by Mullá `Alí-Akbar
to Bahá'u'lláh, begging for guidance in the matter. Ḥájí
[_Sh_]áh Muḥammad-i-Man[_sh_]ádí, surnamed Amínu'l-Bayán,
was accordingly commissioned to receive the Trust from him,
and bidden to exercise the utmost secrecy as to its
disposal.

Assisted by another believer, Ḥájí [_Sh_]áh Muḥammad
buried the casket beneath the floor of the inner sanctuary
of the shrine of Imám-Zádih Zayd, where it lay undetected
until Mírzá Asadu'lláh-i-Iṣfahání was informed of its
exact location through a chart forwarded to him by
Bahá'u'lláh. Instructed by Bahá'u'lláh to conceal it
elsewhere, he first removed the remains to his own house in
Ṭihrán, after which they were deposited in several other
localities such as the house of
Ḥusayn-`Alíy-i-Iṣfahání and that of
Muḥammad-Karím-i-`Aṭṭár, where they remained hidden
until the year 1316 (1899) A.H., when, in pursuance of
directions issued by `Abdu'l-Bahá, this same Mírzá
Asadu'lláh, together with a number of other believers,
transported them by way of Iṣfahán, Kirmán[_sh_]áh,
Ba[_gh_]dád and Damascus, to Beirut and thence by sea to
`Akká, arriving at their destination on the 19th of the
month of Ramaḍán 1316 A.H. (January 31, 1899), fifty
lunar years after the Báb's execution in Tabríz.[1]

[Footnote FN: He was, as we have seen, instrumental in
rescuing the remains of the Báb.]

[Footnote FO: Also known generally as Ḥájí Á[_kh_]und. He
was a Hand of the Cause, appointed by Bahá'u'lláh.]

[Footnote FP: Thieves must have seen Ḥájí Á[_kh_]und and
Jamál-i-Burújirdí place the casket in a niche and brick it
up. Whoever they were, they moved some of the bricks and
broke open the casket, but finding that it did not contain
any valuables they left it alone.]

[Footnote FQ: In the house of Mírzá Ḥasan-i-Vazír, the
remains were either deposited in a new casket, or the
original broken casket was put inside a larger one. Some
pieces of blood-stained and torn linen must have fallen out,
when the remains were being secured. Many years later, Dr.
Yúnis [_Kh_]án-i-Afrú[_kh_]tih, in the course of professional
attendance upon the family of Majdu'l-A[_sh_]ráf, learned
that they had in their possession pieces of linen soaked with
the blood of the Báb. Dr. Afrú[_kh_]tih persuaded them to
part with those precious relics. They are now in the
International Archives of the Bahá'í Faith.]

Forty years after the martyrdom of the Báb, on a day in spring, Bahá'u'lláh was standing under the shade of a cluster of cypress trees on the slopes of Mount Carmel. In front of Him stretched the curve of the Bay of Haifa, beyond which loomed a sinister sight, the grim citadel of `Akká--His first abode when He was brought, a Prisoner and an Exile, to the Holy Land. In darkest days He had told His people not to grieve, the prison gates would open and He would raise His tent on the fair mountain across the bay.

He it was Whose advent the Báb had come to herald. For Him--He Whom God shall make manifest--the young Martyr-Prophet had suffered tribulations, had sacrificed His life. In His Dispensation, the Dispensation of His Forerunner had found its fulfilment, regained its splendour. And now as Bahá'u'lláh--the Lord of Hosts--looked at the expanse of rock below those cypress trees (which today still stand, firm and proud), He told His Son, `Abdu'l-Bahá, who would shortly wield authority in His Name, that a mausoleum should be raised on that mountain-mass to receive the remains of the Báb.

A decade went by before `Abdu'l-Bahá could carry out that command. The sons of Bahá'u'lláh, who had strayed away from His Covenant, strove hard to block the enterprise. But at last the land was secured, the access route was obtained, the foundation-stone was laid, and construction work had begun. Then the mischief wrought by those violators of the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh led to the incarceration of `Abdu'l-Bahá within the walls of `Akká. His life was in peril, but though, for a while, all His activities were either curtailed or stopped, the work of constructing that mausoleum on Mount Carmel was never allowed to lapse.

In the year 1908, the despotism of the Ottoman rulers came to an end, and `Abdu'l-Bahá found His freedom. The next year on Naw-Rúz Day--March 21st--in a vault beneath the building which He had raised with undaunted resolution and with heart-ache, He deposited the casket containing the remains of the Báb within a marble sarcophagus, the gift of the Bahá'ís of Rangoon. Nearly forty years later, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, undertook to adorn the Shrine of the Báb with a superstructure, both strong and beautiful, crowned with a golden dome. Today it shines dazzlingly in the heart of Mount Carmel--the Mountain of God--a spiritual home for a flourishing world community and a beacon of hope for the whole of mankind.