PASSING OF PHIL LUCAS

MOUNT YOUR STEED O HEROES OF GOD



From Sue Emmel in New York State

Following the passing of Native American Baha'i Phil Lucas this past Sunday, Joel Smith of Florida has posted some video footage of Phil's presentation at the 1990 Green Lake Baha'i Conference in Wisconsin http://youtube.com/watch?v=2RDJdGwfH24.

What a fitting and appropriate permanent memorial to celebrate Phil's life! As 'Abdu'l-Baha said in Tablets of the Divine Plan: "Attach great importance to the indigenous population of America... should they be educated and guided, there can be no doubt that they will become so illumined as to enlighten the whole world."

May Phil's lifelong efforts raise up a whole new generation of souls who will pick up and carry the torch wherever it is needed. The song he wrote 40 years ago applies to the youth of today: "Mount your steeds, O heroes of God..." calling "Ya Sahibu'z-Zaman!" O Thou Lord of the Age!

"We remember with thrilling hearts that memorable encounter when, at the cry "Mount your steeds, O heroes of God!" Mullá Husayn, accompanied by two hundred and two of the beleaguered and sorely-distressed companions, and preceded by Quddús, emerged before daybreak from the Fort, and, raising the shout of "Yá Sáhibu'z-Zamán!", rushed at full charge towards the stronghold of the Prince, and penetrated to his private apartments, only to find that, in his consternation, he had thrown himself from a back window into the moat, and escaped bare-footed, leaving his host confounded and routed. We see relived in poignant memory that last day of Mullá Husayn's earthly life, when, soon after midnight, having performed his ablutions, clothed himself in new garments, and attired his head with the Báb's turban, he mounted his charger, ordered the gate of the Fort to be opened, rode out at the head of three hundred and thirteen of his companions, shouting aloud "Yá Sáhibu'z-Zamán!", charged successively the seven barricades erected by the enemy, captured every one of them, notwithstanding the bullets that were raining upon him, swiftly dispatched their defenders, and had scattered their forces when, in the ensuing tumult, his steed became suddenly entangled in the rope of a tent, and before he could extricate himself he was struck in the breast by a bullet which the cowardly Abbás-Qulí Khán-i-Laríjaní had discharged, while lying in ambush in the branches of a neighboring tree. We acclaim the magnificent courage that, in a subsequent encounter, inspired nineteen of those stout-hearted companions to plunge headlong into the camp of an enemy that consisted of no less than two regiments of infantry and cavalry, and to cause such consternation that one of their leaders, the same Abbás-Qulí Khán, falling from his horse, and leaving in his distress one of his boots hanging from the stirrup, ran away, half-shod and bewildered, to the Prince, and confessed the ignominious reverse he had suffered. Nor can we fail to note the superb fortitude with which these heroic souls bore the load of their severe trials; when their food was at first reduced to the flesh of horses brought away from the deserted camp of the enemy; when later they had to content themselves with such grass as they could snatch from the fields whenever they obtained a respite from their besiegers; when they were forced, at a later stage, to consume the bark of the trees and the leather of their saddles, of their belts, of their scabbards and of their shoes; when during eighteen days they had nothing but water of which they drank a mouthful every morning; when the cannon fire of the enemy compelled them to dig subterranean passages within the Fort, where, dwelling amid mud and water, with garments rotting away with damp, they had to subsist on ground up bones; and when, at last, oppressed by gnawing hunger, they, as attested by a contemporary chronicler, were driven to disinter the steed of their venerated leader, Mullá Husayn, cut it into pieces, grind into dust its bones, mix it with the putrified meat, and, making it into a stew, avidly devour it." - from God Passes By, pages 40-41 http://www.bahai-library.com/writings/shoghieffendi/gpb/36-40.html
Mount Your Steeds - words and music by Phil Lucas
(from the CD "Lift Up Your Voices and Sing, Vol 3"

Mount your steeds, oh heroes of God
The Promised Day has come!
Heed not your weakness or your frailties
Fix your gaze on the Almighty!

Mount your steeds, oh heroes of God!
The Promised Day has come!
A hundred years have passed us by
Since the Blessed Beauty raised His cry!

Mount your steeds, oh heroes of God
The Promised Day has come!
Heed not your weakness or your frailties
Fix your gaze on the Almighty!

Mount your steeds, oh heroes of God
The Promised Day has come!
The veils of glory have been cast down
The Promised One has come, now circle round!

Mount your steeds, oh heroes of God
The Promised Day has come!
Heed not your weakness or your frailties
Fix your gaze on the Almighty!