The Old Woman with a Stone
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When in Bahá'í history
Tihrán (today: Tehran, Iran)

Bahá’u’lláh was stripped of His outer garments and His hat snatched off His head. Barefoot and in chains He was forced to walk to the dungeon of Tihrán in the heat of the midsummer sun. Crowds of people lined the streets, shouting abuse at Him. One old woman, with a ferocity and anger that belied her years, thrust her way through the crowds. “By the Siyyidu’sh-Shuhadá, I adjure you, give me a chance to fling my stone in His face!” Bahá’u’lláh said to His guards, “Suffer not this woman to be disappointed. Deny her not what she regards as a meritorious act in the sight of God.”
Source: Ruhi Institute, Book 4. The events are recorded in Nabíl, The Dawn-Breakers, ch. XXVI, pp. 606–608, and in Bahá’u’lláh’s own words in Epistle to the Son of the Wolf.
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