Speaker Prep

Opening

Exiled and dispossessed, Bahá'u'lláh spent ten years in Baghdád showering kindness upon all who came to Him — the poor, the lowly, the learned, and even those who had wished Him harm. By the time a fresh banishment drove Him on to Constantinople, the whole city had come to love Him; and on the day He rode away, men and women of every rank wept in the streets and pressed forward to embrace His stirrups.

God Passes By · Shoghi Effendi

Middle

In the green province of Mázindarán, in the ancestral district of Núr, the young Bahá'u'lláh was known and loved long before His ministry began. The Dawn-Breakers remembers a Nobleman of singular wisdom and kindness whom the people of His homeland honoured and cherished — a love that prepared the way for the day He would bring them the greatest of all gifts.

The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation · Nabíl-i-A'ẓam

Closing

Withdrawing alone into the mountains of Kurdistán to spare His companions from discord, Bahá'u'lláh lived for two years among proud and warlike tribes and the learned of Sulaymáníyyih as a nameless stranger. He asked nothing of them and pressed His claims on no one; yet His gentleness, wisdom, and unfailing kindness so won their hearts that the whole region came to revere Him — and grieved to lose Him when at last He was called back.

The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh (4 volumes) · Adib Taherzadeh