Think, for example,
how the enemy had completely hemmed in the Fort, [Fort Tabarsi] and were
endlessly pouring in cannon balls from their siege guns. The believers… went
eighteen days without food. They lived on the leather of their shoes. This too
was soon consumed, and they had nothing left but water. They drank a mouthful
every morning, and lay famished and exhausted in their Fort. When attacked,
however, they would instantly spring to their feet, and manifest in the face of
the enemy a magnificent courage and astonishing resistance, and drive the army
back from their walls. The hunger lasted eighteen days. It was a terrible
ordeal. To begin with, they were far from home, surrounded and cut off by the
foe; again, they were starving; and then there were the army’s sudden
onslaughts and the bombshells raining down and bursting in the heart of the
Fort. Under such circumstances to maintain an unwavering faith and patience is
extremely difficult, and to endure such dire afflictions a rare phenomenon.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Memorials of the Faithful’)
