Compare versions: Flour Instead of Bread

The same event, told by different sources. The canonical version below is what we publish; the alternate accounts are preserved for scholarly comparison and for noticing where retellings differ.

Canonical version

Flour Instead of Bread

Secondary RetellingVarious · bahaistories.com archive

In Europe, on one occasion, remembering the desperate days in Ṭihrán when Bahá’u’lláh was incarcerated, their home sacked and their properties confiscated, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá could yet say, “Detachment does not imply lack of means; it is marked by the freedom of the heart. In Ṭihrán, we possessed everything at a nightfall, and on the morrow we were shorn of it all, to the extent that we had no food to eat. I was hungry, but there was no bread to be had. My mother poured some flour into the palm of my hand, and I ate that instead of bread. Yet, we were contented.”

Source: Honnold, Annamarie, Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 164

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: contentment).

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Alternate account · 94% similar

In Europe, on one occasion, remembering the desperate days in Tihran

Various · bahaistories.com archive

In Europe, on one occasion, remembering the desperate days in Tihran when Bahá’u’lláh was incarcerated, their home sacked and their properties confiscated, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá could yet say, ‘Detachment does not imply lack of means; it is marked by the freedom of the heart. In Tihran, we possessed everything at a nightfall, and on the morrow we were shorn of it all, to the extent that we had no food to eat. I was hungry, but there was no bread to be had. My mother poured some flour into the palm of my hand, and I ate that instead of bread. Yet, we were contented.’

Source: Honnold, Annamarie, Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 164

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: detachment).

Read the original

Why are alternate accounts kept? Different retellings of the same event often vary in emphasis, detail, and tone. Scholars and devotional readers can notice these differences and trace the trustworthiness of each retelling.