When the Muslims conquered Persia, the chief of the
Zoroastrian high priests went to drink wine. According to Muslim law wine is
forbidden, and he who drinks it must be punished by eighty-one strokes of the
whip. Therefore, the Muslims arrested the high priest and whipped him. At that
time the Arabs were considered very low and degraded by the Persians, scarcely
to be accounted as human beings. As Muhammad was an Arab, the Persians looked
upon Him with disdain; but when the high priest saw the evidences of a power in
Muhammad which controlled these despised people, he cried out, “O thou Arabian
Muhammad, what hast thou done? What hast thou done which has made thy people
arrest the chief high priest of the Zoroastrians for committing something
unlawful in thy religion?” By this circumstance the prejudice which caused the
Zoroastrian to shun the Muslim had been overcome, for he recognized in what had
happened to him the great influence Muhammad exercised over these people.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk, 22 April 1912, Washington D.C.; ‘The Promulgation
of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His Visit to the
United States and Canada in 1912’)
