O ye Cohorts of God! His Highness, the Supreme—may my life
be a sacrifice to Him! —hath given up His life, and at every moment the Blessed
Perfection in His own life sacrificed hundreds of lives, endured dire
calamities and oppression. Laden with fetters He was thrown into the dark
dungeon, He was exiled and banished to distant lands and finally passed His
days in the Most Great Prison . Likewise a multitude of friends drank the sweet
chalice of martyrdom and sacrificed soul, possession, family and relatives for
the Cause. How many houses were overthrown! How many residences were pillaged
and rapined! How many magnificent palaces were turned into a desolate tomb! All
these phenomena transpired only that the world of humanity may become a
luminous realm; ignorance be changed into wisdom, human souls become merciful,
warfare and bloodshed be destroyed to their very foundation, and the Kingdom of
Peace become paramount over all men. Now strive ye, that perchance this Beloved
of Hopes appear in the assemblage of the world and this Providence become a
realized fact. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, vol. 1’)
