Radiant Acquiescence

Ásiyih Khánum, the wife of Bahá’u’lláh, Bahiyyih Khánum, their lovely daughter, Muniríh Khánum, the Holy Mother, and the four daughters of the Master, have never bemoaned the difficulties of their daily lives. The conditions of suffering in all the prison period called forth a superhuman patience and self-sacrifice in trying to mitigate the misery of their fellow-exiles. The fortitude of these gentle ladies never wavered in face of incredible hardships -- endured for others' good -- in that sorrow-laden time, when the days lengthened out into years of privation, where the simplest comforts of life were lacking. Radiant acquiescence met all the incredible vicissitudes of the life in 'Akká, from their arrival in 1868 to the release of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá forty years later. None of these difficulties seemed to them worthy of being remembered; they were all a matter of course, even as the air they breathed; it never occurred to them to mention them; it is only by inference that we have glimpse into the depths of the pain which has been theirs, which has made up their laborious days. Upheld by that holy preoccupation of the spirit, its courage and its joy, they are calm and loving to all, yet aloof, dwelling consciously in that "Peace which passeth understanding" in the presence of God, in Whose path all the sufferings and persecutions, heaped upon them by uncomprehending persons, count as less than nothing. It is this attitude of theirs, this spirit, which is more arresting, more amazing, than the mere events; this spirit it is that gives the great significance, which envelops all the episodes and incidents of their existence with its radiant atmosphere.