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Siyah-Chal

Síyáh-Chál – The Black Pit

Oh it is so cold in here tonight… so like that night so long ago.

I’m just an old man. My name is of no importance, but I have a story to tell you; a most wondrous story. A story you may not believe. But it’s true! I was there. I was in that horrible, horrible dungeon in the cold and darkness with the horrible smells and cries. They called it the Síyáh-Chál, the Black Pit. It was underground – it used to be a reservoir. And the only way to get into it was down these steep and narrow steps.

We were there when they brought them in. Some were so young. We could not understand what they had done to be thrown into this horrible place, where there was so much horrible stuff on the floors. We were all chained to the benches and never allowed to move and were fed only bread and water. And most of us were, well, we were criminals. That’s why we were there. But these, this other group… they were different. They suffered as we did; their backs were bent with the pain and the cutting of the chains. They were cold as we were and could not sleep at night just like us. But their faces were radiant with joy. And they kept looking at this one Man – they called him the Blessed Beauty. And he was worse off than the others. His chain was even heavier than the others. So heavy was it that they built wooden support so that he would not fall face first into the muck on the floor and drown. Because the chains were so heavy that he could not hold them up. The only way he could rest was to lean over and place his hand into the muck up to his elbow. But it was to this One that they all looked.

Today I could not tell you what he looked like, because when I think of those nights all I can think of is the radiance and joy. Now I am not a religious person, but I know how it must feel to be in the presence of God.

The ones with them, they called them. . . They called them Babi’s, yes! That’s what they called them. They did nothing as far as we know to deserve this punishment. Yet they were so radiant with love for the Blessed Beauty that you would think they were in a blissful place like heaven.

At night! Ah, the night was the worst. During the day, the time was passed. We got fed during the day. But at night when normally you would lay on a couch to sleep we could not, there were 150 of us in this little dungeon pressed each one next to one another. Each time one person would move the chains would scrape across our backs. Some of us barely had clothes on, many of us had no shoes. One night, this wondrous Blessed Beauty this wondrous Lover of God taught the prisoners a short prayer. And that’s how we got through the night. You may know this prayer.

God is sufficient unto me – He verily is the all sufficing – in Him let the trusting trust.

And this went on all night… that’s how we got through the night. That’s how I got through my night. I was very ill. I was in so much pain. I would just listen to them chant.

Every morning from among that group, from among the Bábís, the guards would come down those steps and call out a name and take them up the steps and kill them! If they’d called out my name, I would have screamed and pleaded and begged for my life! But not them, the guards would call out a name and the Bábí would be freed from his chains and and jump up in joy and hug all the other prisoners. Lastly, Bahá'u'lláh would take them in His arms and hold them to His chest. The love that radiated from the Bábí’s face, I almost envied them that I could not have had that embrace as well. And then they would turn and walk joyfully and lightly up the steps and were martyred.

One morning, one of the youngest of them, a beautiful young man went to the Blessed Beauty and said, I had a dream last night. It was a most incredible dream. I dreamed I was so free and I was soaring in the heavens almost like I had wings and I was so full of love and joy and rapture that in a moment I could go anywhere I wanted to go. Oh, Bahá’u’lláh what is this wondrous dream mean?

And Bahá'u'lláh reached out to him and gently said, "This dream is telling you that today, this morning, your name will be called." Then Bahá'u'lláh embraced this youth one more time and he walked up the steps one last time, never to be seen by us again. And they all were so loved. I just cannot find the words. The Blessed Beauty’s Son wrote some increadibly beautiful prayers especially about these very martyrs.

"O ye illumined loved ones and ye handmaids of the Merciful! At a time when the somber night of ignorance, of neglect of the divine world, of being veiled from God, had overspread the earth, a bright morning dawned and a rising light lit up the eastern sky. Then rose the Sun of Truth and the splendours of the Kingdom were shed over east and west. Those who had eyes to see rejoiced at the glad tidings and cried out: 'O blessed, blessed are we!', and they witnessed the inner reality of all things, and uncovered the mysteries of the Kingdom. Delivered then from their fancies and their doubts, they beheld the light of truth, and so exhilarated did they become from draining the chalice of God's love, that they utterly forgot the world and their own selves. Dancing for joy they hastened to the place of their own martyrdom and there, where men die for love, they flung away their heads and hearts." (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 33)