The Abhá Beauty Himself—may the spirit of all existence be
offered up for His loved ones—bore all manner of ordeals, and willingly
accepted for Himself intense afflictions. No torment was there left that His
sacred form was not subjected to, no suffering that did not descend upon Him.
How many a night, when He was chained, did He go sleepless because of the
weight of His iron collar; how many a day the burning pain of the stocks and
fetters gave Him no moment’s peace. From Níyávarán to Ṭihrán they made Him
run—He, that embodied spirit, He Who had been accustomed to repose against
cushions of ornamented silk—chained, shoeless, His head bared; and down under
the earth, in the thick darkness of that narrow dungeon, they shut Him up with
murderers, rebels and thieves. Ever and again they assailed Him with a new
torment, and all were certain that from one moment to the next He would suffer
a martyr’s death. After some time they banished Him from His native land, and
sent Him to countries alien and far away. During many a year in ‘Iráq, no
moment passed but the arrow of a new anguish struck His holy heart; with every
breath a sword came down upon that sacred body, and He could hope for no moment
of security and rest. From every side His enemies mounted their attack with
unrelenting hate; and singly and alone He withstood them all. After all these
tribulations, these body blows, they flung Him out of ‘Iráq in the continent of
Asia, to the continent of Europe, and in that place of bitter exile, of
wretched hardships, to the wrongs that were heaped upon Him by the people of
the Qur’án were now added the virulent persecutions, the powerful attacks, the
plottings, the slanders, the continual hostilities, the hate and malice, of the
people of the Bayán. My pen is powerless to tell it all; but ye have surely
been informed of it. Then, after twenty-four years in this, the Most Great
Prison, in agony and sore affliction, His days drew to a close.
To sum it up, the Ancient Beauty was ever, during His
sojourn in this transitory world, either a captive bound with chains, or living
under a sword, or subjected to extreme suffering and torment, or held in the
Most Great Prison. Because of His physical weakness, brought on by His
afflictions, His blessed body was worn away to a breath; it was light as a
cobweb from long grieving.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (‘Selections from the Writings of
‘Abdu’l-Baha’)
