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Hello
I will continue the story about Tahirih here.
While she was in Tihran, "The government sent a special delegation to question her about her Faith. They held seven conferences with her in which she offered proofs showing that the Bab was the expected Messenger of God, (The Promised return of the disappeared Imam Husayn ,= in Christendom the Prophet Elijah. Malaki 4:5)
She quoted from their own Holy Book (just as I am now doing for you, dear audience)to convince them. During the last of these conferences, Tahirih became exasperated with their obstinate refusal to accept anything but the most literal interpretation of sacred scripture, and especially certain prophecies.
"How long will you cling to these follies and lies? When will you lift your eyes toward the Sun of Truth?" she aexclaimed.
Her accusers were shocked by her attitude. They returned to their homes, wrote out a denunciation of Tahirih, saying that she refused to give up her faith, and upon the recommendation of this delegation, Tahirih was sentenced to death.
Tahirih was now placed in strict confinement in a single room in the house of the Mayor of Tihran, the same Mahmud Khan. The wife of the mayor, while not a follower of the Bab, became very attached to her. Before Tahirih was taken away to be slain, this woman became a devoted friend. She has left the following account:
"One night I went to her room and found her dressed in a gown of snow-white silk. I expressed my surprise.
"She said:'I am preparing to meet my Beloved, and wish to free you from the cares and anxieties of my imprisonment.'
"I was startled at first and began to weep at the thought of separation from her.
"She comforted me, saying:'Weep not. The hour when I shall be condemned to suffer martyrdom is fast approaching. It is my wish that my body shall be thrown in a pit, and the pit be filled with earth and stones.
"My last request is that you permit no one to enter my chamber. Until the time I shall be summoned to leave this house, let no one be allowed to disturb my devotions. I intend to fast, a fast which I shall not break until I am brought face to face with my Beloved.*
"With these words, she bade me lock the door of her chamber and not to open it until the hour of departure would strike.
"I locked her door, and retired to my room in a state of uncontrollable sorrow. I lay sleepless and disconsolate upon my bed. The thought of her approaching martyrdom was more than I could bear. Unable to contain myself, several times I arose and stole quietly to the threshold of her room. I was enchanted by the melody of her voice as she intoned the praise of her Beloved.
Tahirih prayed throughout the night that she might be worthy of meeting Almighty God in Whose service she longed to give her life.
The hour of her death is recalled by the mayor's wife in the following words:"Four hours after sunset, I heard a knocking at the door. I hastened to my son and told him of the last wishes of Tahirih. He pledged his word that he would fulfill every instruction. My son opened the door. He told me that the attendants of Aziz Khan-i-Sardar, who was to execute her, were standing at the gate, demanding that Tahirih be delivered into their hands.
"I was struck with terror at the news, and as I tottered to her door and with trembling hands, unlocked it, I found her veiled and ready to leave her apartment. As soon as she saw me, she came and kissed me. She placed in my hand the key to her chest, in which she had left for me a few trivial things as a remembrance of her stay in my house.
"'Whenever you open this chest.', she said, 'and behold the things it contains, I hope you will remember me and rejoice in my gladness.'
"with these words she bade me her last farewell. What pangs of anguish I felt at that moment as I beheld her beauteous form fade away in the distance. She mounted the steed which AzizKhan-i-Sardar had sent for her, and with my son and a number of attendants on each side , rode away."
They led Tahirih to a garden outside the gates of Tihran. Aziz-i-Khan and his lieutenants were in the midst of a drunken brawl when they arrived. Flushed with wine and roaring with laughter, they were unaware of Tahirih's approach. Tahirih dismounted and turned to the mayor's son who had accompanied her as a friend. she asked him to act as an intermediary with 'Aziz Khan.
"They will wish to strangle me," she said. "I set aside, long ago, a silken handkerchief which I hoped would be used for this purpose. I deliver it into your hands. I am disinclined to address my slayers in the midst of their revelry."
The mayor's son approached 'Aziz Khan. As the boy came up to him, he waved him aside.
"Do not interrupt the gaiety of our fwestival! he cried. Then he laughed uproariously and turned back to his party "Let that miserable wretch be strangled," he mouthed to his attendants,"and throw her body into a pit."
The boy gave the attendants the kerchief. This young man has, himself, given an eye witness account of that fateful moment.
"They consented to grant her request," he reported. "That same kerchief was wound round her neck and was made the instrument of her martyrdom.
I hastened immediately afterwards to the gardener and asked him whether he could suggest a place where I could conceal the body. He directed me to a well that had been dug recently and left unfinished. With the help of a few others, I lowered Tahirih into her grave and filled the well up with earth and stones in the manner she herself requested. Those who saw her in those last moments were profoundly affected."
The very last words she uttered were: "You can kill me when you wish but you can never stop the emancipation of women!"
I am still filled with indignation and sorrow at these happenings,it cannot be cured, but I believe in a comforting hope the Christian world will one day wake up to search out the true and dramatic circumstances that surrounded the Coming of Elijah who was to come before "the great and terrible day of the Lord" in "the latter days."
So I am asking you: Will you remember this account about Tahirih, " the Pure One"
as a sign of What God hath wrought in the East?
When the West was looking up into the sky for Jesus, forgetting all about Elijahs coming, and Who was to come"that I might not, when I come, shall strike the country with annihilation." Malaki 4:6.
This is all for today
Bye for now
Kind regards to you my faithful audience
Laila
Bye for now
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