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April 13, 2014

Being in the presence of Bahá'u'lláh -- Varqá recalled his unique experiences

Mirza ‘Ali-Muhammad surnamed Varqá became one of the Apostles of Bahá'u'lláh. He has related the following two incidents that took place during his first pilgrimage in around 1878-9.

The first time he gazed upon the face of His Lord Varqá was surprised, because he thought that he had previously seen Him somewhere, but he could not remember the occasion or the place. He was puzzled by this until one day after several times coming into His presence, Bahá'u'lláh said to him, 'Varqá! Burn away the idols of vain imaginings!' On hearing these words, Varqá immediately recalled a dream he had had when he was a child. He was in a garden playing with some dolls when 'God' arrived, took the dolls from him and burned them in the fire. When he told this dream to his parents they pointed out to him that no one can see God. However, he had completely forgotten this dream until that day when the words of Bahá'u'lláh exhorting him to burn the idols aroused his memory, and he knew that he had seen Bahá'u'lláh in his dream as a child.

The other incident took place during one of the occasions when Varqa was in the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. On that occasion a thought entered into his mind as he gazed in adoration upon the countenance of Bahá'u'lláh. He said to himself, 'I know that Bahá'u'lláh is the supreme Manifestation of God, but I wish He would give me a sign to this effect.' At that same instant the following verse from the Qur'án flashed into Varqa's mind: