Donkey

One night while at Bahji, Victoria was in the gardens enjoying the moonlight on the Shrine, when two men came toward her. One she recognized as Mirza Muhammad-‘Ali, the Arch-breaker of Baha'u'llah’s Covenant. For a moment they looked at each other, then Mirza Muhammad-‘Ali asked, ‘Who are you, and what do you want?’ She replied that she was staying there that night and, after a silent pause, the men walked away. The next day, Victoria wrote about the ‘Nakazeen Donkey’. ‘The pilgrims were going to a Druse village, but there weren't enough donkeys to carry everyone. Munavvar Khanum said that they would have to borrow one from the Covenant-breakers, the ‘Nakazeen’. All the pilgrims exclaimed that they would not ride a nacazin donkey, they would rather not go.

(Shoghi Effendi Through the Pilgrim’s Eye, Vol. 1 by Earl Redman)

Abdul-Baha, had a donkey upon which he was accustomed to ride about the town daily upon his philanthropic missions. An American woman who was his guest at one time was terribly annoyed at the nightly braying of this creature, which she declared prevented her from sleeping, but when she discovered that it was the donkey upon which Abdul-Baha visited the sick, its braying suddenly assumed a musical character, and no longer disturbed her.

(Star of the West, Volume 8 - Issue 1)

When ‘Abdu’l-Baha was in Chicago in 1912, He gave a talk to four maid-servants of the Faith, warning them of Violators of the Covenant in that city. At its conclusion one of them questioned: “‘Abdu’l-Baha, how shall we know a Violator?” ‘Abdu’l-Baha asked, in reply, if she would know a donkey if she were to see one.

(World Order, The Baha'i Magazine, Volume 8 - Issue 9, Dec. 1942)