The Childhood of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
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When in Bahá'í history
Baghdád (today: Baghdad, Iraq)
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, then only eight years old, was broken-hearted at the ruthless treatment of His adored Father. The child suffered agonies, as a description of the tortures was related in His hearing - the cruel scourging of the feet, the long miles Bahá’u’lláh had to walk afterwards, barefooted, heavy chains cutting into the delicate flesh, the loathsome prison; the excruciating anxiety lest His very life should be taken - made a load of suffering, piteous for so young and sensitive a child to endure.
All the former luxury of the family was at an end, deserted as they were by relations and friends. Homeless, utterly impoverished, engulfed in trouble, and misery, suffering from sheer want and extraordinary privations - such were the conditions under which His childhood's life was spent.
These things counted not at all whilst He was with His Father; so that the exile and the earlier days in Baghdad were happy, in spite of outside miseries. But when Bahá’u’lláh retreated into the wilderness of Sulaymaniyyih the dear child was beside Himself with grief. He occupied Himself with copying those Tablets of the Báb which had remained with them. He tried to help His dear mother, Ásíyih Khánum, in her arduous tasks.
During this time He was taken by His uncle, Mírzá Músá, to some of the meetings of the friends. There He spoke to them with a marvellous eloquence, even at that early age of eleven or twelve years. The friends wondered at His wisdom and the beauty of His person, which equalled that of His mind.
He prayed without ceasing for the return of Bahá’u’lláh. He would sometimes spend a whole night through praying a certain prayer. One day after a night so spent they found a clue! Very soon the Beloved One returned! Now His joy was as great as His grief had been!
Many were the gatherings of the friends on the banks of the Tigris, to which the young boy was taken by His Father. … He drank in the teaching of divine things which were to educate the world, with an understanding of universal conceptions astounding in such a young child. So life went on; He grew into a beautiful youth, beloved by all who knew Him.
Source: Lady Blomfield, The Chosen Highway, Part II (“Bahá’u’lláh: A Spoken Chronicle”), chapter on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, paraphrasing what Munírih Khánum related.
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: abdul-baha-childhood).
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