In the years which immediately followed His departure from
Persia, Bahá’u’lláh gave priority to the needs of the Bábí community which had
gathered in Baghdad, a task which had devolved on Him as the only effective
Bábí leader to have survived the massacres. The death of the Báb and the almost
simultaneous loss of most of the young faith’s teachers and guides had left the
body of the believers scattered and demoralized. When His efforts to rally
those who had fled to Iraq aroused jealousy and dissension, He followed the
path that had been taken by all of the Messengers of God gone before Him, and
withdrew to the wilderness, choosing for the purpose the mountain region of
Kurdistan. His withdrawal, as He later said, had “contemplated no return.” Its
reason “was to avoid becoming a subject of discord among the faithful, a source
of disturbance unto Our companions.” Although the two years spent in Kurdistan
were a period of intense privation and physical hardship, Bahá’u’lláh describes
them as a time of profound happiness during which He reflected deeply on the
message entrusted to Him: “Alone, We communed with Our spirit, oblivious of the
world and all that is therein.”
(‘Baha’u’llah’; A statement prepared by the
Bahá'í International Community Office of Public Information, at the request of
the Universal House of Justice and published in 1992)
