One day, near a village in the mountains, Bahá’u’lláh saw a young boy weeping bitterly
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Studio narration for this story is coming — it’ll be generated by the cloud-TTS pipeline (voice: auto-selected from the source author).
When in Bahá'í history
Sulaymáníyyih (today: Sulaymaniyah, Iraq)
One day, near a village in the mountains, Bahá’u’lláh saw a young boy weeping bitterly. My father, always compassionate for anyone in sorrow, especially if it were a child, said, "Little man, why art thou weeping?" The boy looked up at the one who spoke, and saw a dervish! "Oh Sir!" and he fell to weeping afresh. "The schoolmaster has punished me for writing so badly. I cannot write, and now I have no copy! I dare not go back to school" "Weep no longer. I will set a copy for thee, and show thee how to imitate it. And now thou canst take this; show it to thy schoolmaster.' When the schoolmaster saw the writing which the boy had brought, he was astonished, for he recognized it as of the royal penmanship, this amazing script. "Who gave this to thee?" said the master. "He wrote it for me, the dervish on the mountain." "He is no dervish the writer of this, but a royal personage," said the schoolmaster. This story being noised abroad, caused certain of the people to set out to find this one, of whom many wonderful things were said. So great was the throng which pressed in upon him, that he had to go further away; again and again, he moved from place to place, hiding himself from the crowds, in the caves of the mountains, and in the desert places of that desolate land.
Source: Lady Blomfield, The Chosen Highway
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: bahaullah-sulaymaniyyih).
Discuss this story
For adults
- Where do you see compassion appearing — visibly or quietly — in this passage?
- How does this story illustrate the practice of compassion?
- Read the closing lines once more. What single phrase stays with you?
For teens
- If you were in Lady Blomfield's place, what might you have done?
- What does this story teach about compassion?
Reflection
- Sit quietly for a moment after reading. What does this story stir in you?
- Take one line from this story and let it stay with you today.
- What in this account feels timely? What feels timeless?
Comprehension quiz
Which source is "One day, near a village in the mountains, Bahá’u’lláh saw a young boy weeping bitterly" drawn from?
Where does this story take place?
What period of Bahá'í history does this story belong to?
Which historical figure is featured most prominently in this story?
Which virtue does this story most clearly illustrate?
Cite this story
Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/bahaullah-sulaymaniyyih
Record yourself reading this story
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