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Such was the audacity and effrontery of these demoralized and misguided Babis that no less than twenty- five persons, according to Abdu'l- Baha's testimony, had the presumption to declare themselves to be the Promised One foretold by the Bab! Such was the decline in their fortunes that they hardly dared show themselves in public. Kurds and Persians vied with each other, when confronting them in the streets, in heaping abuse upon them, and in vilifying openly the Cause which they professed. Little wonder that on His return to Baghdad Baha'u'llah should have described the situation then existing in these words: "We found no more than a handful of souls, faint and dispirited, nay utterly lost and dead. The Cause of God had ceased to be on any one's lips, nor was any heart receptive to its message." Such was the sadness that overwhelmed Him on His arrival that He refused for some time to leave His house, except for His visits to Kazimayn and for His occasional meeting with a few of His friends who resided in that town and in Baghdad.
(125:1)
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