While in the barracks, Bahá’u’lláh set apart a special night
and He dedicated it to Darvísh Sidq-‘Alí. He wrote that every year on that
night the dervishes should bedeck a meeting place, which should be in a flower
garden, and gather there to make mention of God. He went on to say that
“dervish” does not denote those persons who wander about, spending their nights
and days in fighting and folly; rather, He said, the term designates those who
are completely severed from all but God, who cleave to His laws, are firm in
His Faith, loyal to His Covenant, and constant in worship. It is not a name for
those who, as the Persians say, tramp about like vagrants, are confused,
unsettled in mind, a burden to others, and of all mankind the most coarse and
rude.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Memorials of the Faithful’)
