Pages

July 12, 2010

Hearing Baha’u’llah Chanting Verses of God -- an experience recalled by Haji Mirza Haydar 'Ali

Haji Mirza Haydar-'Ali [designated by 'Abdu'l-Baha as the 'Angel of Mount Carmel'] describes the effect of being in the presence of Bahá'u'lláh when He chanted a Tablet He had revealed for him:

This Tablet... was chanted by the Beauty of the All-Bountiful [Baha’u’llah]. What an effect it had on me! To what a world did I ascend! To what a paradise did I enter! What did I see! In what way did I hear that voice and that melody!... These I cannot tell. I entered that Paradise which no eye had seen, and no ear had heard, nor any heart had felt. I saw the Kingdom of grandeur and majesty, and felt the might, the transcendent power, the glory, and the sovereignty of the ever-living, the ever-abiding, the incomparable God. But to speak of it, write about it, give an image or likeness of it, exalt and sanctify it, allude to it, extol and praise it, or describe and narrate it, all these are impossible for this humble servant or anyone else in the world. We have only access to words and terms, whereas that experience and condition are exalted above all things. They cannot be put into words or described by talks. No one can interpret the inner feelings of one's conscience... But this condition remains only for a single moment. It is a fleeting experience. Its manifestation within the human being is due to a special bounty of God. Its duration, varying from the twinkling of an eye to a longer period, depends upon one's capacity to become the recipient of this bounty. The deeds and actions of the person demonstrate its existence. But it has never been heard that this condition lasted for three or four months in a person except in Badi' (the youth that carried Baha’u’llah’s Message to the King of Persia) … (Haji Mirza Haydar-'Ali, quoted by Adib Taherzadeh in ‘The Revelation of Baha'u'llah v 3’, p. 182)