When Bahá’u’lláh departed from Ba_gh_dád, and traveled to Rumelia, the friends remained behind. The inhabitants of Ba_gh_dád then rose up against those helpless believers, sending them away as captives to Mosul. Ustád was old and feeble, but he left on foot, with no provisions for his journey, crossed over mountains and deserts, valleys and hills, and in the end arrived at the Most Great Prison. At one time, Bahá’u’lláh had written down an ode of Rúmí’s for him, and had told him to turn his face toward the Báb and sing the words, set to a melody. And so as he wandered through the long dark nights, Ustád would sing these lines:
I am lost, O Love, possessed and dazed, Love’s fool am I, in all the earth. They call me first among the crazed, Though I once came first for wit and worth.
O Love, who sellest me this wine,(13) O Love, for whom I burn and bleed, Love, for whom I cry and pine— Thou the Piper, I the reed.
If Thou wishest me to live, Through me blow Thy holy breath. The touch of Jesus Thou wilt give To me, who’ve lain an age in death.
Thou, both End and Origin, Thou without and Thou within— From every eye Thou hidest well, And yet in every eye dost dwell.
He was like a bird with broken wings but he had the song and it kept him going onward to his one true Love. By stealth, he approached the Fortress and went in, but he was exhausted, spent. He remained for some days, and came into the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, after which he was directed to look for a lodging in Haifa. He got himself to Haifa, but he found no haven there, no nest or hole, no water, no grain of corn. Finally he made his home in a cave outside the town. He acquired a little tray and on this he set out rings of earthenware, and some thimbles, pins and other trinkets. Every day, from morning till noon, he peddled these, wandering about. Some days his earnings would amount to twenty paras,(14) some days thirty; and forty on his best days. Then he would go home to the cave and content himself with a piece of bread. He was always voicing his thanks, always saying, “Praise be to God that I have attained such favor and grace; that I have been separated from friend and stranger alike, and have taken refuge in this cave. Now I am of those who gave their all, to buy the Divine Joseph in the market place. What bounty could be any greater than this!”