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Behold the apostles of Christ! They had many trials. The friends of Baha'o'llah in Persia have undergone unspeakable calamities; their possessions were seized and destroyed, their children captured, their lives sacrificed; yet at the hour of martyrdom they danced with joy, for they were completely detached from the life of this world. Trials have never prevented men from knowing the happiness of the beyond. Nay, rather, this is the path. (70:3) Consider what fiery ordeals Baha'o'llah was called to endure! After a long incarceration he was exiled; yet day and night he diffused the light and guided men to truth. Baha'o'llah was imprisoned in an underground cell where he was chained for four months, then exiled to Baghdad, Constantinople, Adrianople and finally to Acca. One knows the prison there. For two years he lived in a dark cell and for seven years in one room. A number of pilgrims from Persia came to Acca expecting to see him liberated. They arrived at the very moment when he was being conducted from his cell to the fortress where he lived seven years. After these nine years he was allowed more liberty, and, on parole, lived in a house in the fortressed town.
(70:4)
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