Why God’s Teachers Suffer
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When in Bahá'í history
'Akká (today: Acre, Israel)
Early in 1904 Ethel Rosenberg made her second pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Still confined to the city of ‘Akká the Master and His family were living in the prison house. For eight months Ethel stayed there as His guest. She wrote, “To sit at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s table, in His simple home with Christians, Muslim, Jews, and those of other faiths, all of them breathing forth the spirit of living brotherhood is a privilege not readily forgotten.”
During her visit enemies of the Cause became particularly vicious in the attacks against ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and caused Him and His loyal followers enormous problems and indescribable grief. Deeply distressed by this fact, she asked the Master why He, a perfect Man, had to go through such sufferings. He answered her, “How could they (God’s teachers) teach and guide others in the way if they themselves did not undergo every species of suffering to which other human beings are subjected?”
Source: Annamarie Honnold, Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, no. 49, pp. 34–35.
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: suffering).
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