The convoy of the lovers went on; it reached Constantinople; it passed to
Adrianople, and finally to the Akka prison. Sidq-'Ali was present
throughout, faithfully serving its Commander.

While in the barracks, Baha'u'llah set apart a special night and He
dedicated it to Darvi_sh_ Sidq-'Ali. He wrote that every year on that
night the dervishes should bedeck a meeting place, which should be in a
flower garden, and gather there to make mention of God. He went on to say
that "dervish" does not denote those persons who wander about, spending
their nights and days in fighting and folly; rather, He said, the term
designates those who are completely severed from all but God, who cleave
to His laws, are firm in His Faith, loyal to His Covenant, and constant in
worship. It is not a name for those who, as the Persians say, tramp about
like vagrants, are confused, unsettled in mind, a burden to others, and of
all mankind the most coarse and rude.

This eminent dervish spent his whole life-span under the sheltering favor
of God. He was completely detached from worldly things. He was attentive
in service, and waited upon the believers with all his heart. He was a
servant to all of them, and faithful at the Holy Threshold.

Then came that hour when, not far from his Lord, he stripped off the cloak
of life, and to physical eyes passed into the shadows, but to the mind's
eye betook himself to what is plain as day; and he was seated there on a
throne of lasting glory. He escaped from the prison of this world, and
pitched his tent in a wide and spacious land. May God ever keep him close
and bless him in that mystic realm with perpetual reunion and the beatific
vision; may he be wrapped in tiers of light. Upon him be the glory of God,
the All-Glorious. His grave is in Akka.

AQA MIRZA MAHMUD AND AQA RIDA

These two blessed souls, Mirza Mahmud of Ka_sh_an and Aqa Rida of
_Sh_iraz, were like two lamps lit with God's love from the oil of His
knowledge. Encompassed by Divine bestowals from childhood on, they
succeeded in rendering every kind of service for fifty-five years. Their
services were countless, beyond recording.

When the retinue of Baha'u'llah left Ba_gh_dad for Constantinople, He was
accompanied by a great crowd of people. Along the way, they met with
famine conditions. These two souls strode along on foot, ahead of the
howdah in which Baha'u'llah was riding, and covered a distance of seven or
eight farsa_kh_s ever