‘Abdu’l-Ghaffar [one of the four companions condemned to go with Mirza Yahyá to

‘Abdu’l-Ghaffar [one of the four companions condemned to go with Mirza Yahyá to Cyprus] was a close and agreeable companion. He served as interpreter for the entire company, for he spoke excellent Turkish, a language in which none of the friends was proficient . . . He was terrified and shouted for help, for he longed to be with us in the Most Great Prison. When they held him back by force, from high up on the ship he threw himself into the sea. This had no effect whatever on the brutal officers. After dragging him from the water they held him prisoner on the ship, cruelly restraining him, and carrying him away by force to Cyprus. He was jailed in Famagusta, but one way or another managed to escape and hastened to 'Akká. Here, protecting himself from the malevolence of our oppressors, he changed his name to ‘Abdu’l-lah. Sheltered within the loving-kindness of Bahá’u’lláh, he passed his days at ease, and happy. But when the world's great Light had set, to shine on forever from the All-Luminous Horizon, ‘Abdu’l-Ghaffar was beside himself and a prey to anguish. He no longer had a home. He left for Damascus and spent some time there, pent up in his sorrow, mourning by day and night. He grew weaker and weaker. We despatched Haji Abbas there, to nurse him and give him treatment and care, and send back word of him every day. But ‘Abdu’l-Ghaffar would do nothing but talk, unceasingly, at every hour, with his nurse, and tell how he longed to go his way, into the mysterious country beyond. And at the end, far from home, exiled from his Love, he set out for the Holy Threshold of Bahá’u’lláh. He was truly a man long-suffering, and mild; a man of good character, good acts, and goodly words. Greetings and praise be unto him, and the glory of the All-Glorious. His sweet-scented tomb is in Damascus.

Source: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Memorials of the Faithful, p. 59-61

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: self-pity).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/self-pity