As to thy question concerning the 54th chapter of Isaiah. This
chapter refers to the Most Exalted Leaf, the mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. As a proof
of this it is said: ‘For more are the children of the desolate, than the
children of the married wife.’ Reflect upon this statement, and then upon the
following: ‘And thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate
cities to be inhabited.’ And truly the humiliation and reproach which she suffered
in the path of God is a fact which no one can refute. For the calamities and
afflictions mentioned in the whole chapter are such afflictions which she
suffered in the path of God, all of which she endured with patience and thanked
God therefor and praised Him, because He had enabled her to endure afflictions
for the sake of Bahá. During all this time, the men and women
(Covenant-breakers) persecuted her in an incomparable manner, while she was
patient, God-fearing, calm, humble and contented through the favor of her Lord
and by the bounty of her Creator.”
(‘Abdu’l-Baha, quoted by Shoghi Effendi in a
letter dated December 21,
1939; ‘Messages to America’)
