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Baha'u'llah's ministry was carried out against the backdrop of a series of exiles and incarcerations which brought Him eventually from His native land of Persia, to the cities of Baghdad, Constantinople, Adrianople, and finally to the Turkish penal colony of Akka. Fulfilling the stages foretold by the Hebrew prophet, Baha'u'llah, persecuted by a relentless clergy which continued to poison the mind of the government, completed the sacred, the arduous and sorrowful journey, ordained, from time immemorial, by the Father, to be trodden by Him. Such a migration, and such a persecution, has no parallel in the annals of religion: (158:5) By the righteousness of God! Every morning I arose from My bed, I discovered the hosts of countless afflictions massed behind My door; and every night when I lay down, lo! My heart was torn with agony at what it had suffered from the fiendish cruelty of its foes. With every piece of bread the Ancient Beauty breaketh is coupled the assault of a fresh affliction, and with every drop He drinketh is mixed the bitterness of the most woeful of trials. He is preceded in every step He taketh by an army of unforeseen calamities, while in His rear follow legions of agonizing sorrows. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, pp. 119-120 (158:6) Trying as were the circumstances of His earthly life, they could not, however, eclipse His super-human radiance, nor stay the ultimate consummation of His mission
(158:7)
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