After a time the Government liberated Him and exiled Him and His family to Baghdád, where He remained for eleven years. During this time He underwent severe persecutions, being surrounded by the watchful hatred of His enemies.
He bore all evils and torments with the greatest courage and fortitude. Often when He arose in the morning, He knew not whether He would live until the sun should set. Meanwhile, each day, the priests came and questioned Him on religion and metaphysics.
At length the Turkish Governor exiled Him to Constantinople, whence He was sent to Adrianople; here He stayed for five years. Eventually, He was sent to the far off prison fortress of St. Jean d’Acre. Here He was imprisoned in the military portion of the fortress and kept under the strictest surveillance. Words would fail me to tell you of the many trials He had to suffer, and all the misery He endured in that prison. Notwithstanding, it was from this prison that Bahá’u’lláh wrote to all the Monarchs of Europe, and these letters with one exception were sent through the post.
The Epistle of Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh was confided to a Persian Bahá’í, Mírzá Badí Khurásání, who undertook to deliver it into the Sháh’s own hands. This brave man waited in the neighbourhood of Ṭihrán for the passing of the Sháh, who had the intention to journey by that way to his Summer Palace. The courageous messenger followed the Sháh to his Palace, and waited on the road near the entrance for several days. Always in the same place was he seen waiting on the road, until the people began to wonder why he should be there. At last the Sháh heard of him, and commanded his servants that the man should be brought before him.
‘Oh! servants of the Sháh, I bring a letter, which I must deliver into his own hands’, Badí said, and then Badí said to the Sháh, ‘I bring you a letter from Bahá’u’lláh!’
He was immediately seized and questioned by those who wished to elicit information which would help them in the further persecutions of Bahá’u’lláh. Badí would not answer a word; then they tortured him, still he held his peace! After three days they killed him, having failed to force him to speak! These cruel men photographed him whilst he was under torture.[7]
The Sháh gave the letter from Bahá’u’lláh to the priests that they might explain it to him. After some days these priests told the Sháh that the letter was from a political enemy. The Sháh grew angry and said, ‘This is no explanation. I pay you to read and answer my letters, therefore obey!’
The spirit and meaning of the Tablet to Náṣiri’d-Dín Sháh was, in short, this: ‘Now that the time has come, when the Cause of the Glory of God has appeared, I ask that I may be allowed to come to Ṭihrán and answer any questions the priests may put to Me.
‘I exhort you to detach yourself from the worldly magnificence of your Empire. Remember all those great kings who have lived before you—their glories have passed away!’
The letter was written in a most beautiful manner, and continued warning the King and telling him of the future triumph of the Kingdom of Bahá’u’lláh, both in the Eastern and in the Western World.