And finally, I was cast by the transgressors into the
prison-city of Akká, and my kindred were made captives in Baghdád. The power of
Thy might beareth me witness, O my God! Every trouble that hath touched me in
Thy path hath added to my joy and increased my gladness. I swear by Thee, O
Thou Who art the King of Kings! None of the kings of the earth hath power to
hinder me from remembering Thee or from extolling Thy virtues. Were they to be
leagued—as they have been leagued—against me, and to brandish their sharpest
swords and most afflictive spears against me, I would not hesitate to magnify
Thy name before all them that are in Thy heaven and on Thy earth. Nay rather, I
would cry out and say: “This, O my Beloved, is my face which I have offered up
for Thy face, and this is my spirit which I have sacrificed for Thy spirit, and
this is my blood that seetheth in my veins, in its longing to be shed for love
of Thee and in Thy path.”
- Baha’u’llah (‘Prayers and Meditations by
Baha’u’llah’)
