…in His interpretation of the letter “Há,” He [the Báb]
craved martyrdom, saying: “Methinks I heard a Voice calling in my inmost being:
‘Do thou sacrifice the thing which Thou lovest most in the path of God, even as
Ḥusayn, [Imam Husayn] peace be upon him, hath offered up his life for My sake.’
And were I not regardful of this inevitable mystery, by Him, Who hath my being
between His hands even if all the kings of the earth were to be leagued
together they would be powerless to take from me a single letter, how much less
can these servants who are worthy of no attention, and who verily are of the
outcast... That all may know the degree of My patience, My resignation, and
self-sacrifice in the path of God”…
In this very verse there lieth concealed a breath of
detachment, which if it were to be breathed full upon the world, all beings
would renounce their lives, and sacrifice their souls.
- Baha’u’llah (‘The
Kitab-i-Iqan’)
