Upon my arrival
in 'Akka my mind was filled with pain caused by the vivid description I had
heard in Paris of another terrible martyrdom of Baha'is that had occurred in
Persia. These martyrdoms continued from the period, of the Báb's Declaration
until the advent of the present Shah of Persia, who put an end to all religious
persecutions. The description of these particular atrocities was so detailed
that finally I could bear no more and cried out my protest, exclaiming
"but don't you realize that the martyrs are in a state of bliss from the
moment the torture begins, and feel none of the pain inflicted upon them?"
Where upon the assembled company tuned upon me in deep disgust,
and reproached me severely saying: "How dare you say such things! You are
taking away all the glory of martyrdom!"
I remained abashed but not convinced, and felt that I must
ask 'Abdu'l-Baha for the settlement of this disturbing question, but I never asked
it. The first morning that He came into my little room He did not sit down, but
walked back and forth in the narrow space and presently remarked, while I
listened with awe:
"There are many kinds of martyrdom. How many times have I prayed for it, but instead of that I have lived on in prison as if with the sword of Damocles suspended by a hair over my head! Each morning as I waken I feel that before the day ends I may be dragged to the public square and shot to death. But nevertheless I have been very happy in this long martyrdom, for no victim suffers from the cruelties inflicted upon him. The instant the torture begins he is in a state of bliss, and feels nothing but the joy of Heaven which surrounds him."
He paused, looking out through the wide windows at the blue
Mediterranean, the view of which beyond the huge walls seemed to eliminate their
imprisoning power. Then he added:
"So Christ never suffered upon the cross. From the time
the crucifixion began His soul was in Heaven and He felt nothing but the Divine
Presence. He did not say, speaking in Aramaic: 'O God; O God why hast Thou
forsaken me?' But this word Sabacthani is similar in sound to another which
means glorify, and he
actually murmured, 'O God! O God! How thou dost glorify me.'”
Then He repeated to me such a story of martyrdom as I have
never heard elsewhere and which I have not time to relate here. But I can never
forget its dramatic expression of joyous deathlessness.
(Mary Hanford Ford,
Star of the West, vol. 24, no, 4, July 1933)
