“So intoxicated were those who had quaffed from the cup of
Bahá’u’lláh’s presence,” is yet another testimony from the pen of Nabíl, who
was himself an eye-witness of most of these stirring episodes, “that in their
eyes the palaces of kings appeared more ephemeral than a spider’s web.... The
celebrations and festivities that were theirs were such as the kings of the
earth had never dreamt of.” “I, myself with two others,” he relates, “lived in
a room which was devoid of furniture. Bahá’u’lláh entered it one day, and,
looking about Him, remarked: ‘Its emptiness pleases Me. In My estimation it is
preferable to many a spacious palace, inasmuch as the beloved of God are
occupied in it with the remembrance of the Incomparable Friend, with hearts
that are wholly emptied of the dross of this world.’” His own life was
characterized by that same austerity, and evinced that same simplicity which
marked the lives of His beloved companions. “There was a time in ‘Iráq,” He
Himself affirms, in one of His Tablets, “when the Ancient Beauty ... had no
change of linen. The one shirt He possessed would be washed, dried and worn
again.”
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
