Not for an instant did He [Baha’u’llah] rest; not for a
moment did His sacred heart find tranquillity. How many a night did He pass
under the weight of chains, enduring until dawn a hundred thousand hardships,
even as a captive seized within a hostile land. He met the darts of injustice
with the target of faithfulness, and quaffed the poison of affliction as if it
were the honeyed draught of immortality. He kissed the sharpened blade as
though it were a brimming cup, and fervently yearned for the harrowing prison
as if it were a loving embrace. He was exiled from His land and became a
wanderer in the wilderness of adversity. He was banished to Iraq and
Adrianople, and was finally incarcerated in the most desolate of cities. At
last, despite all these afflictive calamities and toilsome tribulations, He
planted the Tree of Oneness in the paradise of this new Cycle and raised the
tabernacle of unity, peace, and reconciliation above the highest of all
standards. - ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Light of the World’)
