The faith and assurance of the author's wife, and in those accompanying Bahá'u'lláh's exile, and those that complained
One night at dinner, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke joyfully of my wife as one endowed with great Faith. He testified to her sincerity, faithfulness and assurance in the most impressive tone of voice. He ended by saying: "This is the meaning of Faith! This is but true Faith. She is indeed possessed with perfect assurance. She shall indeed rest, she shall enjoy perfect peace."
Speaking at length concerning true faith, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke thus: "When man has faith, even the mountains of the world can not oppose him, nay, he bears every trial and calamity, and nothing can conduce to his weakness. But one who is not a true believer, and does not possess real faith will lament over the least disappointment and complain of the slightest thing which may mar his peace and pleasure. When in company with the Blessed Perfection we arrived in Constantinople as exiles, we were all filled with joy and gladness and enjoyed great peace of mind. Then when we were removed to Adrianople we still continued in the same spirit in our new place of exile. None among us offered any complaint, except three persons: Mirza Yahya (Azal) who was extremely downhearted and confused: Siyyid Muhammad of Isfahan; and Haji Mirza Ahmad of Kashan. (* The latter two also finally denied Bahá'u'lláh and became Azalis. *) These three constantly complained of the hardships and bothered and troubled the believers. At least Mirza Yahya and <41> Haji Siyyid Muhammad of Isfahan appeared morbid and sullen without complaining openly to others; they only seemed dissatisfied and lost in melancholy. But Haji Mirza Ahmad, though a brother of Jinabi Zabih (one of the great Bahá'í Martyrs) constantly troubled the believers with fits of impatience, complained of the violence of the cold weather, and the severity of the snow and frost, often saying sarcastically: 'Though I often said at Baghdad that this Shaykh Abdul Husayn Mujtahid is busily engaged in making trouble for us, in company with the Persian Consul, working for our exile, no one listened or headed my warnings. Now you all see how they brought about our exile to this wretched place, and afflicted us with great calamities in these cold countries. And now we are God's faithful servants and must need suffer these trials! etc.
"To be brief, He so constantly found fault with everything and showed impatience, that on several occasions the believers were provoked to the point of beating him, so that he might perhaps abandon us and leave the place. But each time I prevented them from so doing. But the rest of us, who were over fifteen in number and yet were obliged to live in one single room, were nevertheless filled with joy and composure, for we were blessed with exile for the sake of the Cause of God. And in order to pass the time, each day one of us cooked a certain dish for the rest to enjoy. So the severe winter went by and in the course of a few months the snow and cold passed away and the famous delectable spring-time of Rumelia came on. Then the weather was so delightful, that even the above Haji Mirza Ahmed began to praise the glorious air of Rumelia. <42>
"To be brief; as he had no faith, he could not endure the winter or restrain himself from complaining and remain patient until the cold weather would be superseded by fine weather.
"Now this is the difference between a man of Faith and one without Faith. A man of Faith endures every hardship and suffering with patience and self-restraint. But one without Faith bewails and mourns, and utters complaint. He has no power to endure hardships and fails to think of the future when better times will come as a substitute for present hardships. (* In these utterances we later saw a prophetic vision into the suffering my wife was to endure in Persia, during her long illness, the perfect patience she showed during that period and the coming of spring-time which brought on sufficient change for the better in the invalid, to allow our return to this country, where once again she was restored to perfect health. These words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá proved my chief stand-by during the many weeks when I was in constant attendance in my wife's sick-room. For nothing but the prophetic nature of these words spoken months before, could convince me that my wife would survive what seemed to be unfailing signs of an imminent death! *)
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