ed many a recondite confidence, and each
carried many a melody in his breast.

On the friends' final journey he went to A_dh_irbayjan, and there,
throwing caution to the winds, he roared out the Greatest Name: "Ya
Baha'u'l-Abha!" The unbelievers there joined forces with his relatives,
and they lured that innocent, that man in his ecstasy, away to a garden.
Here, they first put questions to him and listened to his answers. He
spoke out; he expounded the secret verities of the Faith, and set forth
conclusive proofs that the Advent had indeed come to pass. He recited
verses from the Qur'an, and traditions handed down from the Prophet
Muhammad and the Holy Imams. Following that, in a frenzy of love and
longing rapture, he began to sing. It was a _sh_ahnaz melody he sang; the
words were from the poets, to say that the Lord had come. And they killed
him; they shed his blood. They wrenched and hacked his limbs apart and hid
his body underneath the dust.

As for Haji Muhammad-Ja'far, the gently born, he too, like his brother,
was bewitched by the Blessed Beauty. It was in 'Iraq that he entered the
presence of the Light of the World, and he too caught fire with Divine
love and was carried away by the gentle gales of God. Like his brother, he
was a vendor of small wares, always on a journey from one place to the
next. When Baha'u'llah left Ba_gh_dad for the capital of Islam, Haji
Ja'far was in Persia, and when the Blessed Beauty and His retinue came to
a halt in Adrianople, Ja'far and Haji Taqi, his brother, arrived there
from A_dh_irbayjan. They found a corner somewhere and settled down. Our
oppressors then stretched out arrogant hands to send Baha'u'llah forth to
the Most Great Prison, and they forbade the believers to accompany the
true Beloved, for it was their purpose to bring the Blessed Beauty to this
prison with but a few of His people. When Haji Ja'far saw that they had
excluded him from the band of exiles, he seized a razor and slashed his
throat.(73) The crowds expressed their grief and horror and the
authorities then permitted all the believers to leave in company with
Baha'u'llah--this because of the blessing that came from Ja'far's act of
love.

They stitched up his wound but no one thought he would recover. They told
him, "For the time being, you will have to stay where you are. If your
throat heals, you will be sent on, along with your brother. Be sure of
this." Baha'u'llah also directed that this be done. Accor