That which can harm Me is the conduct of those who love Me, who claim to be related to Me, and yet perpetrate what causeth My heart and My pen to groan.

In the Siyah-Chal in Tihran and in His exile from His homeland, Baha’u’llah had endured the onslaughts of external enemies. In Adrianople the severest test ever to befall the infant Faith had been an internal one. This time, in ‘Akka, the assault was threefold, from the Ottoman authorities, from the Azalis and from the misguided followers of Baha’u’llah Himself.

It was the latter group, His own disobedient followers, who caused Baha’u’llah the most anguish. “My captivity’, He wrote, ‘cannot harm Me. That which can harm Me is the conduct of those who love Me, who claim to be related to Me, and yet perpetrate what causeth My heart and My pen to groan.’

(Day of Glory, The Life of Baha’u’llah, by Mary Perkins, George Ronald, p 154)