Already nine months before His ascension Bahá’u’lláh, as
attested by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, had voiced His desire to depart from this world. From
that time onward it became increasingly evident, from the tone of His remarks
to those who attained His presence, that the close of His earthly life was
approaching, though He refrained from mentioning it openly to any one. On the
night preceding the eleventh of Shavval 1309 A.H. (May 8, 1892) He contracted a
slight fever which, though it mounted the following day, soon after subsided.
He continued to grant interviews to certain of the friends and pilgrims, but it
soon became evident that He was not well. His fever returned in a more acute
form than before, His general condition grew steadily worse, complications
ensued which at last culminated in His ascension, at the hour of dawn, on the
2nd of Dhi’l-Qádih 1309 A.H. (May 29, 1892), eight hours after sunset, in the
75th year of His age. His spirit, at long last released from the toils of a
life crowded with tribulations, had winged its flight to His “other dominions,”
dominions “whereon the eyes of the people of names have never fallen,” and to
which the “Luminous Maid,” “clad in white,” had bidden Him hasten, as described
by Himself in the Lawḥ-i-Ru’yá (Tablet of the Vision), revealed nineteen years
previously, on the anniversary of the birth of His Forerunner.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
