22 of 61

|

In moments, locusts had covered the tall mulberry trees which Baha'u'llah loved to sit beneath. Abu'l-Qasim ran to Him. 'My Lord!', He gasped, the locusts have come, and are eating away your shade ... please have them depart'. Baha'u'llah smiled, and said. 'The locusts must be fed; let them be.' But Abu'l-Qasim could not bear it and he implored again.
Baha'u'llah came out into the garden and stood under the rustling trees. He said, 'Abu'l-Qasim does not want you; God protect you.' Then he lifted the hem of His robe and shook it. All the locusts rose up from the trees together and gathered into a thick brown cloud again. Then they all flew away.

Sue Podger is descended from the early Dutch settlers of the Cape of Good Hope, known as Afrikaners. She is the first of this people to become a Baha'i and her maiden surname is Hofmeyr. She was trained at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town. An accomplished watercolourist, she uses a range of styles to portray a sensitive and accurate picture of the years when Baha'u'llah was amongst us. The images of one set of her paintings shown on this website were painted for a hard cover book, 'The Incomparable Friend', a history of the life of Baha'u'llah told in stories, which sold out and was out of print for some years. Shirin Sabri, it's author, and Sue, wishing to see it more widely available, have published it as a free...