Virtue and a Good Appetite
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When in Bahá'í history
'Akká (today: Acre, Israel)
Ṭáhirih loved pretty clothes, and perfumes, and she loved to eat. She could eat sweets all day long. Once, years after Ṭáhirih had gone, an American woman traveled to ‘Akká and sat at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s table; the food was good, and she ate plentifully, and then asked the Master’s forgiveness for eating so much. He answered, “Virtue and excellence consist in true faith in God, not in having a small or a large appetite for food. . . . Jináb-i-Ṭáhirih had a good appetite. When asked concerning it, she would answer, ‘It is recorded in the Holy Traditions that one of the attributes of the people of paradise is “partaking of food, continually”.’”
Source: Marzieh Gail, “The White Silk Dress,” World Order, vol. 7, no. 8 (November 1941); reprinted in The Bahá’í World, vol. 9 (1940–1944).
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: eating-disorders).
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