The Blessed Beauty of Abha—May the divine souls of the existence be a ransom to His friends!—endured personally, all kinds of calamities and bore the most violent ordeals. There remained no torture which did not come to His holy body and no suffering which did not descend upon His pure spirit. How many nights He could not take rest, under the chains and heaviness of fetters, and how many days He gave Himself not a minute's repose because of the burden of fetters and chains!
From Niyavaran to Teheran that pure spirit, who was brought up on a bed of down, was forced to run, with bare head and bare feet, under chains and fetters, and, in a dark and narrow subterranean prison, He was put with murderers, thieves, criminals and malefactors; at every moment a new torture was inflicted upon Him and at every moment His martyrdom was expected by all.
After a long time, He was sent from the city of His residence to foreign countries. For many years, in Baghdad, at every moment a new arrow was darted toward His holy breast, and at every instant a sword was bent on His pure body. At no instant was there any hope for safety and security, and the enemies, with utmost dexterity, were attacking the blessed soul from all sides, and He alone, personally, resisted them all.
After all these hardships and calamities, He was sent from Baghdad in Asia to Europe, and in that terrible exile, great affliction, vehement torture and constant attack, the plots, calumniations, enmity, rancor and hatred of the people of the Bayan were added to those which came from the people of the Qur’an, The pen is unable to explain it all, but surely you have heard and learned about it.
After twenty-four years in the greatest prison, Acca, His life was ended in great trouble and hardship.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Star of the West, vol. 7, no. 5, June 5, 1916)