Suffer Not This Woman to Be Disappointed
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When in Bahá'í history
Tihrán (today: Tehran, Iran)
Nabíl-i-A'zam, in his narrative history of the early days of the Faith, The Dawn-Breakers, gives this account of the treatment of Bahá’u’lláh after His arrest in the district of Shimírán:
From Shimírán to Tihrán, Bahá’u’lláh was several times stripped of His garments, and was overwhelmed with abuse and ridicule. On foot and exposed to the fierce rays of the midsummer sun, He was compelled to cover, barefooted and bareheaded, the whole distance from Shimírán to the dungeon already referred to. All along the route, He was pelted and vilified by the crowds whom His enemies had succeeded in convincing that He was the sworn enemy of their sovereign and the wrecker of his realm. Words fail me to portray the horror of the treatment which was meted out to Him as He was being taken to the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán.
As He was approaching the dungeon, an old and decrepit woman was seen to emerge from the midst of the crowd, with a stone in her hand, eager to cast it at the face of Bahá’u’lláh. Her eyes glowed with a determination and fanaticism of which few women of her age were capable. Her whole frame shook with rage as she stepped forward and raised her hand to hurl her missile at Him. "By the Siyyidu'sh-Shuhada, I adjure you," she pleaded, as she ran to overtake those into whose hands Bahá’u’lláh had been delivered, "give me a chance to fling my stone in his face!"
"Suffer not this woman to be disappointed," were Bahá’u’lláh's words to His guards, as He saw her hastening behind Him. "Deny her not what she regards as a meritorious act in the sight of God."
Source: The Dawn-Breakers (Nabíl-i-A‘ẓam), pp. 606–608.
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: bullying).
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