O Maryam! From the land of Tá,[1] after countless
afflictions, We reached ‘Iráq, at the bidding of the Tyrant of Persia,[2]
where, after the fetters of Our foes, We were afflicted with the perfidy of Our
friends. God knoweth what befell Me thereafter! At length, abandoning My home
and all that was therein, and renouncing My life and all that pertained
thereunto, I retired alone and companionless. I roamed the wilderness of
resignation, travelling in such wise that in My exile every eye wept sore over
Me, and all created things shed tears of blood because of My anguish. The birds
of the air were My companions and the beasts of the field My associates. In
such wise did I, even as the flash of the spirit, pass over this fleeting
world. For two years or rather less, I shunned all else but God, and closed
Mine eyes to all except Him, that haply the fire of hatred may die down and the
heat of jealousy abate.
O Maryam! To divulge the heavenly secrets would be
unbefitting, and to disclose the celestial mysteries would be unseemly. By
“secrets” is meant naught other than the treasuries enshrined within Mine own
Being. By the righteousness of God! I have borne what no man, be he of the past
or of the future, hath borne or will bear.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Days of Remembrance’)
[1] Tihrán.
[2] Násiri’d-Dín Sháh
