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The Russian Minister, as soon as he was informed of the Imperial decision, expressed the desire to take Baha'u'llah under the protection of his government, and offered to extend every facility for His removal to Russia. This invitation, so spontaneously extended, Baha'u'llah declined, preferring, in pursuance of an unerring instinct, to establish His abode in Turkish territory, in the city of Baghdad. "Whilst I lay chained and fettered in the prison," He Himself, years after, testified in His Epistle addressed to the Czar of Russia, Nicolaevitch Alexander II, "one of thy ministers extended Me his aid. Whereupon God hath ordained for thee a station which the knowledge of none can comprehend except His knowledge. Beware lest thou barter away this sublime station." "In the days," is yet another illuminating testimony revealed by His pen, "when this Wronged One was sore- afflicted in prison, the minister of the highly esteemed government (of Russia)-- may God, glorified and exalted be He, assist him!-- exerted his utmost endeavor to compass My deliverance. Several times permission for My release was granted. Some of the ulamas of the city, however, would prevent it. Finally, My freedom was gained through the solicitude and the endeavor of His Excellency the Minister. ...His Imperial Majesty, the Most Great Emperor-- may God, exalted and glorified be He, assist him!-- extended to Me for the sake of God his protection-- a protection which has excited the envy and enmity of the foolish ones of the earth."
(106:1)
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