At that supreme affliction, [Baha’u’llah’s ascension] that
shattering calamity, Nabíl sobbed and trembled and cried out to Heaven. He
found that the numerical value of the word “shidád”—year of stress—was 309, and
it thus became evident that Bahá’u’lláh foretold what had now come to pass. [1]
Utterly cast down, hopeless at being separated from
Bahá’u’lláh, fevered, shedding tears, Nabíl was in such anguish that anyone
seeing him was bewildered. He struggled on, but the only desire he had was to
lay down his life. He could suffer no longer; his longing was aflame in him; he
could stand the fiery pain no more. And so he became king of the cohorts of
love, and he rushed into the sea.
Before that day when he offered himself up, he wrote out the
year of his death in the one word: “Drowned.” [2] Then he threw down his life
for the Well-Beloved, and was released from his despair, and no longer shut
away.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Memorials of the Faithful’)
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Memorials of the Faithful’)
[1] According to the abjad reckoning, the letters of
“shidád” total 309. 1892, the date of Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension, was 1309 A.H.
[2] Gharíq. The letters composing this word total 1310,
which Hijra year began July 26, 1892.
