Consider how the sacred breast of the Exalted One—may my life
be a sacrifice unto Him—was made a target for a hundred thousand bullets, and
how the holy body of Quddús—may my life be offered up for Him—was torn to
pieces. Consider the galling of the chains and fetters that weighed upon the
blessed neck of the Most Great Name—may my soul be offered up for His loved
ones—and how He was taken, in that condition, bare-headed and bare-footed, all
the way from Níyávarán to Tihrán. Many a trial befell that Sacred Beauty for
well-nigh fifty years, such that the pen trembleth at their mention. The first
was the exile from Persia; the second, the banishment from Iraq to the Ottoman
capital; the third, the exile from that city to European Turkey and Bulgaria;
[1] and the fourth, the banishment of the Beauty of the All-Merciful to the
depths of the Most Great Prison. Throughout this period, a myriad other
tribulations also befell Him from within and without.
Likewise, call thou to mind the Bábu’l-Báb [2] —may the
souls of the well-favoured of the Lord be offered up for him—and consider what
trials and tribulations that luminous candle and radiant orb suffered, and what
woes he endured in the path of God. Consider how, in the fort of adversity, he
finally quaffed the brimful cup of martyrdom, and what injuries were inflicted upon
his kin.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a Tablet; ‘Light of the World’)
[1] A reference to Adrianople.
[2] Mullá Husayn-i-Bushrú’í.
