You must become impervious to criticism, unconscious of attack and abuse, nay, rather welcoming persecution, hostility and bitterness as the means of testing and increasing your supreme faith in God; even as His Holiness Christ instructed His disciples "Bless them that curse you; pray for them that despitefully use you." Be therefore as spiritual adamant against these darts, arrows and swords of infliction.
We will help each other to bear them. First by love and increased zeal in the Heavenly Cause. For by exercise the spirit grows stronger, more capable of withstanding, just as the muscle of the outer body increases its fiber through continual action. You must help me and I will help you to increase our service in the Cause of Baha’u’llah. Secondly, we will help each other grow more and more accustomed to punishment and persecution.
Years ago in Baghdad the usual punishment for offenders and lawbreakers was the bastinado. The governor noticed that a certain band of men came repeatedly before him for trial. They were regularly found guilty of breaking the law, sentenced and whipped upon the feet. While the bastinado was being inflicted they appeared quite comfortable and evidently unconscious of pain. In a few days these same offenders would be back again, going through the same process. The governor made careful inquiry about them. It was learned that they lived together in a house and that every day it was their custom to bastinado each other until the skin upon their feet had become so hardened to the whip that the legal bastinado gave them no inconvenience whatever.
Now we, as offenders against the opinions of our friends and enemies, must assist each other to become impervious to their criticism, unconscious of attack, welcoming their whips. You must beat me and I will beat you with the whips of love. The more we beat each other the more capable of withstanding we will become. When the enemies find they are increasing our love, enkindlement and service in the pathway of Baha’u’llah, they will wonder and say, "How is this? Our words have no effect upon them except to make them love us more and give thanks to God for our scourging."
The Blessed Beauty Baha’u’llah won the hearts of His jailers and tormentors. No one could withstand Him. The intense flame of His love melted the hardest stone of hearts. The more chains of iron they put upon His body, the more He imprisoned them in chains of love. They looked upon Him in wonder; they became His followers.
(Words of Abdul-Baha delivered during his sojourn in
America; Star of the West, vol. 4, no. 6, June 1913)
