Táhirih Speaks Up

*A retelling for children, based on **The Chosen Highway** by Lady Blomfield (George Ronald), drawing on 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own childhood memories. The words in quotation marks are Táhirih's own, as the account records them.*

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Long ago there lived a woman named Táhirih, and she was remarkable. She was a poet whose words could fill a room, and a scholar so wise that even the most learned men could not out-argue her. She was the only woman among the Báb's very first followers, and she was brave all the way to the end of her life.

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One day, in a house in Baghdád, Táhirih sat in a parlor with a little boy on her knee. The boy was named 'Abbás — and one day he would be known to the whole world as 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He never forgot her kind, shining face and the music of her voice.

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In the next room, behind a curtain, some learned men were having a long discussion with Bahá'u'lláh — going back and forth, quoting this and debating that, the way scholars love to do.

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Táhirih could hear them. And she could not stay quiet. She lifted her voice so it carried right through the curtain, and cut through all the back-and-forth with one bright, brave sentence:

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> It is the time for deeds!

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This was not the moment for endless arguing, she was saying. The Promised One had come! What the world needed now was not more talk, but courage — people willing to stand up and *do* something about what they believed.

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That was Táhirih. She teaches us that being clever is good, but being brave is better — and that there comes a time when we have to stop just talking about doing the right thing, and actually do it.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["The Time for Deeds"](/stories/ch-the-time-for-deeds).*

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