Mirza Muhammad-`Ali's opposition to the Centre of the Covenant, has cost him the loss of the right to succeed Baha'u'llah

Equally unaware were the believers that Shoghi Effendi was the distinguished Branch appointed by `Abdu’l-Baha to lead the Baha’i world after Him. Mirza Muhammad-`Ali, whose opposition to the Centre of the Covenant, had cost him the loss of the right to succeed Him, was hard at work to present himself as the leader of the Baha’i community.

The Greatest Holy Leaf’s Unparalleled Role in Religious History and the Significance of the Arc, the Site of Her Resting Place by Baharieh Rouhani Ma`ani

https://bahai-library.com/maani_holy_leaf_role

Read More

NSA Explains Deprivation of Voting Rights

Although this subject has been explained many times, it seems necessary for the National Spiritual Assembly to clarify once more what is meant when a Baha'i is deprived of his voting rights.

Whether it is reported that a Baha'i has been "deprived of Baha'i membership," "deprived of voting rights," or "removed from Baha'i membership," it means the same thing, namely, that the individual is no longer a member of the local or national Baha'i community and therefore cannot attend or vote at Nineteen-Day Feasts, local annual elections, state conventions or any other gatherings intended for registered Baha'is only.

It does not mean, however, that such an individual is to be regarded as a Covenant-breaker. Only the Guardian, and now the Hands of the Faith, can declare an individual a Covenant-breaker, a condition which deprives him of his spiritual status. Since deprivation of membership and voting rights is an administrative action, it is always possible for one who has been deprived of these privileges to be restored to Baha'i membership when he has satisfied the National Spiritual Assembly that he has corrected the condition which led to the deprivation of these rights.

Unless an individual has been declared a Covenant-breaker, association with a former member of the Baha'i community is not forbidden.

-NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY

(Baha'i News, U.S. Supplement, No. 27, Baha'i Year 117, May 1960)

Read More

Is this partisan politics?

In 1975 the Shah founded the Rastakhiz (Resurrection) Party, the only government authorized political party. In the face of government pressure to join, Bahá’ís refused, in adherence to the Bahá’í principle of non-involvement in political activities.

(17 October 1979, Message from the Universal House of Justice)

Read More

Different policy for enrolling Baha'is in Australia

With the formation of the National Assembly, however, the character of the Baha'i community in Australia changed from that of a 'movement' toward a more codified religious body. It was decided that investigators and applicants for enrolment in the Baha'i community had first to remain in association with Baha'is for one year, before meeting a Local Assembly, which would decide if the applicant was sufficiently versed in the laws and teachings to be admitted as a voting member.

(Graham Hassall, The Baha'i Faith in Australia 1920-47)

Read More

Grand secretary of the Masonic lodges of Tasmania was a Baha'i for 6 years.

Mr H. A. Wilkinson, grand secretary of the Masonic lodges of Tasmania, had chaired a world religion day observance organized by the Baha’is in 1950, and had joined the community in 1952. When a 1954 article in the U.S. publication Baha’i News stated that Baha’is could not be Freemasons, the Hobart Assembly asked the National Spiritual Assembly for clarification. In its March 1956 Baha’i Bulletin the National Spiritual Assembly noted Shoghi Effendi’s directive that Baha’is not be involved in such secret societies as the Freemasons and in November 1957 reported its concern that some Australian Baha’is continued their adherence to Freemasonry, International Co-Freemasonry, and the Rosicrucian Order. Despite the clear instruction that Baha’is could not participate in secret societies, Wilkinson chose to remain a member of his Masonic lodge and in 1958 was deprived of his voting rights.

(Graham Hassall, The Baha’i Faith in Australia 1947–1963)

Read More

How to withdraw the membership from the Baha'i faith

Membership Withdrawn

Miss Annabelle Ivory, Erie, Pa., has voluntarily withdrawn from the Baha'i Faith and has requested publication in BAHA'I NEWS of the fact that she wishes no contact whatsoever with Baha'is.

-U.S. NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY

(Baha'i News, U.S. Supplement, No. 27, Baha'i Year 117, May 1960)

Read More

IT IS AN INJUSTICE TO HOLD ANY RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ILL-DOINGS OF ANY ONE OF ITS MEMBERS

THE VAST MAJORITY OF IRANIAN BAHÁ’ÍS ARE OF THE POORER CLASSES LIVING IN VILLAGES. FEW ARE WEALTHY, AND AMONG THEM A NUMBER WERE BUSINESSMEN WHO PROVIDED FACILITIES FOR EMPLOYMENT OF THOUSANDS OF WORKERS. THE FEW WHO RIGHTLY OR WRONGLY ARE BEING ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION AND OTHER OFFENCES SHOULD NOT BE REGARDED AS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE. IT IS AN INJUSTICE TO HOLD ANY RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ILL-DOINGS OF ANY ONE OF ITS MEMBERS WHO FAILS TO REFLECT THE PRINCIPLES PROMULGATED BY THAT RELIGION.

(Message from the Universal House of Justice, 17 October 1979)

Read More

Influential Baha'is in Iran

THE FACTS ARE THAT HOVEIDA'S GRANDFATHER WAS A BAHÁ’Í, HIS FATHER WAS EXPELLED FROM THE BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY BECAUSE HE BECAME INVOLVED IN POLITICAL ACTIVITY, AND HOVEIDA HIMSELF WAS NEVER A BAHÁ’Í. ROUHANI'S FATHER WAS A BAHÁ’Í, HIS MOTHER A DEVOUT MUSLIM, BUT ROUHANI WAS NEVER A BAHÁ’Í. SABETI'S [Director-General of 'SAVAK' that functioned as the Iranian secret police during the Shah's reign] PARENTS WERE BAHÁ’ÍS, AND THEY REGISTERED HIM IN THE COMMUNITY AS A BAHÁ’Í CHILD. HOWEVER, WHEN HE CAME OF AGE HE DID NOT HIMSELF REGISTER AS A BAHÁ’Í AND NEVER BECAME A MEMBER OF THE COMMUNITY UNLIKE CHILDREN OF OTHER RELIGIONS, BAHÁ’Í CHILDREN DO NOT AUTOMATICALLY INHERIT THE FAITH OF THEIR PARENTS. WHEN THEY COME OF AGE THEY MUST OF THEIR OWN VOLITION EXPRESS THEIR BELIEF IN BAHÁ’U’LLÁH AND HIS TEACHINGS. DR AYADI, HOWEVER, IS A BAHÁ’Í HE HELD TWO POSITIONS: ONE AS DIRECTOR OF THE ARMY MEDICAL SERVICE; THE OTHER AS PRIVATE PHYSICIAN OF THE COURT. NEITHER OF THESE TWO POSITIONS WAS REGARDED BY THE BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY AS POLITICAL IN NATURE.

(Message from the Universal House of Justice, 17 October 1979)

Read More

Hindu and Zoroastrian Baha'is continued to live as the members of their religious communities. And how the first Americans were converted to the Baha'i faith

The context Garlington chooses is that of depressed caste conversions in India. Garlington argues that, in contrast to the other three cases he considers, conversion to the Baha'i faith fulfilled no specific caste ambition, and there were no prominent individuals who provided model converts for the masses. In addition, he contrasts the devaluation of Hinduism in the other cases with Baha'is' acceptance of Hinduism as a valid spiritual tradition simply in need of some reform. In practical terms, this meant that Baha'u'llah was presented in a Hindu context and that converts were not required to break totally with their Hindu roots; converts could remain Hindus who believed in Baha'u'llah.

Although Garlington sees this approach to Baha'i conversion as a pattern initiated in the 1950s, there are interesting parallels in Stiles's description of late nineteenth-century conversions among Zoroastrians. Here Baha'u'llah was presented as the fulfillment of Zoroastrian prophecies and as a descendant of Yazdigird III, the last of the Sassanian monarchs, and converts here too continued to live as members of the Zoroastrian community. It was only when the Zoroastrian clergy expelled the Baha'is from the Zoroastrian community that they became a distinct group.

Richard Hollinger focuses his attention on Ibrahim George Kheiralla, a Syrian immigrant responsible for many early conversions among Americans. The 1890s were a time of many popular religious movements in the United States, and Kheiralla attracted converts by teaching the Baha'i faith in a graded series of esoteric classes especially designed to be compatible with Christianity. The faith that he taught, however, contained a number of superstitions, misinterpretations, and inaccuracies (at least by the standards of today's Baha'is). 

Peter Smith focuses on the Baha'i magazine Reality published in New York City during the 1920s. The history of this magazine illustrates the conflict between Baha'is of that era over whether the movement should remain more a "spiritual attitude than a distinct religion" (p. 137- one to which any humanitarian could be said to belong—or whether religious exclusivity should be promoted. While most Baha'is eventually opted for the latter, Reality magazine became ever more extreme in its promotion of the former, until the magazine finally ceased to make much reference to the Baha'i faith.

(Patricia J. Higgins, Review : From Iran East & West: Studies in Babi and Baha'i History. Edited by Juan R. Cole and Moojan Momen. Los Angeles: Kalimat Press, 1984)

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/iranian-studies/article/abs/from-iran-east-west-studies-in-babi-and-bahai-history-edited-by-juan-r-cole-and-moojan-momen-los-angeles-kalimat-press-1984-xiii-205-pp/17B2433BF683473C13C4BC0AE95B6D48

Read More

American Interests in 1939 and the mention of Baha'i faith

On the eve of World War II , American interests in Iran were not sizable. There were slightly more than two hundred American citizens residing in Iran, more than half of whom were native-born Americans. About twenty American citizens reportedly worked with the Anglo- Iranian Oil Company at Abadan, but the consulate at Teheran did not even have them on the register. Most of the American citizens were connected with the work of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in six mission stations at Tabriz, Kermanshah, Hamadan, Resht, Meshed, and Teheran. Each station had a hospital, and seven schools in all were still operating. Total capital invested in missionary properties was estimated at $2,577,000, about two-thirds of it in Teheran. Other small enterprises were the Farman Industrial School and Orphanage of Kermanshah, owned and operated by the former missionary, the Reverend F. M. Stead, with a staff of two Americans and twenty-five students. Virtually inoperative by this time were the Seventh-Day Adventist Mission at Teheran, the Sultanabad mission of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, and the Bahai School for Girls (Tarbiat-ol-Banat).

American University of Beirut

The best indicator of the university’s impact is the role of its graduates and former students. Demands throughout the Midde East for trained men and women far exceeded the supply and taxed the university beyond its capacity. A.U.B. men and women were requested by mandate officials, foreign and local business, and native governments and firms. In 1939 the government of Iraq needed thirty more graduates for teaching positions than it was possible to supply. Urgent need for doctors, pharmacists, dentists, nurses, chemists, secretaries, and accountants could not be met fully. In 1928 President Dodge reported that 721 graduates were physicians either in government service or private practice, with 151 physicians, pharmacists, dentists, and nurses employed by the governments of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Trans-Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Sudan. Others were in educational, religious, journalistic, or legal work. One graduate headed the Bahai religion in Haifa; two were leading judges in Palestine and Khartoum; another was a leading newspaper editor in Cairo; one served as inspector of education in Iraq. Others were in comparable positions of responsibility. Between the wars, graduates at Jaffa initiated the export of oranges which, with Jewish help, proved to be a principal source of wealth for Palestine. Graduates also contributed to introducing fruit preserving and dairy enterprise in Lebanon, an up-to-date water supply and large cement factory for Damascus, ten cent stores, soda fountains, and talking movies. Some were agents for American auto firms or employees of Shell, Socony-Vacuum, or the Iraq Petroleum Company.

(John A. DeNovo, American Interests and Policies in the Middle East 1900-1939, The University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis)

Read More

Circumambulating Baha'u'llah

Bahá'u'lláh dismissed us from His presence, saying : "Go in God's care." Every one of us prostrated at His blessed feet and circumambulated His bed. We left the room in deepest sorrow, burning from separation from the Beloved.

(Moments with Baháʼuʼlláh - Memoirs of the Hand of the Cause of God Ṭarázuʼlláh Samandarí)

'Abdu'l-Bahá was present too; as I recall He was standing. He directed us to circumambulate the bed. Those of us in our group simply walked around Bahá'u'lláh's bed, and He said to us: "Fí amánu'lláh-go in God's care." We went out of the room. That was the very last time that I was present at the meeting with God.

(Moments with Baháʼuʼlláh - Memoirs of the Hand of the Cause of God Ṭarázuʼlláh Samandarí)

“By the one true God, Elijah hath hastened unto My court and hath circumambulated in the day time and in the night season My throne of glory.” “Solomon in all his majesty circles in adoration around Me in this day, uttering this most exalted word: ‘I have turned my face towards Thy face, O Thou omnipotent Ruler of the world! I am wholly detached from all things pertaining unto me, and yearn for that which Thou dost possess.’”

(Selections from the writings of Shoghi Effendi about Bahá’u’lláh published in The Bahá’í World, Volume 14)

When the ship reached Haifa the very thought of prostrating ourselves at His threshold and attaining His presence which the Prophets and His chosen ones had wished to attain invoked such eagerness and excitement in our hearts that with tears streaming down our cheeks, we were transported into a different world. We arrived at a spot where the souls of all the Manifestations of God were circumambulating day and night around His Blessed Person.

(The Revelation of Baháʼuʼlláh by Adib Taherzadeh - 1988)

‘Andalib, overtaken by grief and with tears flowing, exclaimed, ‘O, Baha! O, Baha!’ He gave us permission to leave. Immersed in sorrow and with hearts consumed with grief, we prostrated ourselves at His feet, circumambulated Him, and left the room.

(Ṭarázu’lláh Samandarí, Lights of Fortitude)

Read More

A 'capable and devoted' Baha'i, Husayn Ruhi, was a capable British agent.

He appears as a bit character in generally British-focused narratives of the Revolt, and intelligence during the First World War. T. E. Lawrence briefly refers to Ruhi as “more like a mandrake than a man” (perhaps in reference to his multiple wives and numerous children). Storrs, who spent many more months with Ruhi, gave him the codename “the Persian Mystic” and described Ruhi as “a fair though not profound Arabist, and a better agent than scholar.” Ruhi himself, a petite spy, translator, poet, and textbook author spent decades working for British officials, diplomats, spies, and educationalists, including a fifteen-year stint in the Department of Education of the Mandate for Palestine.

His interactions with colleagues in the Mandate bureaucracy, as well as the British individuals who had hired him, point to the chameleon-like character of the man himself.

Ruhi grew up in Persia after the death of his father, and received some schooling in Chicago as part of a Baha’i mission to that city, earning a license in the English language. Upon his return, Ruhi taught English in Cairo at a variety of schools, and published a bi-weekly magazine that promoted the Baha’i religion.

By 1912, Ruhi had married two of the three wives he would marry (possibly simultaneously), and had fathered two of the twelve children he would raise. Ruhi founded two schools in Egypt, one for boys and one for girls, which closed at the end of the First World War.

While Storrs [Sir Ronald Storrs (Britain’s Oriental Secretary, spy, and later governor of Jerusalem)] viewed him as Persian, Ruhi’s colleague Abdul Latif Tibawi, a fellow inspector of education in the Mandate for Palestine, defined him in passing as Arab, although in later works described Ruhi in more detail as an Egyptian “of Persian origin” and an “Arabic-speaking Persian.”

...a lack of attachment both to the Ottoman Empire and to the Arab community among whom Ruhi lived (and married) facilitated his career with different British administrations. Ronald Storrs preferred employing Baha’i individuals, believing them to be naturally suited to intelligence (one would presume due to their frequent need to keep their religion secret).* Ruhi’s fitness for his post as an intelligence officer, from the point of view of his employers, is clear.

*[Storrs noted that the “leading Persian of Jedda, a Bahai,” not only protected British agents, but also supplied the British with information himself. Ronald Storrs, “Hejaz Events, Excerpt from Diary,” 27 September 1916, Middle East Politics and Diplomacy, 1904–1950: The Papers of Sir Ronald Storrs (1881–1956) from Pembroke College, Cambridge (Marlborough, Wiltshire [England]: Adam Matthew Publications, 1999), Reel 5, Section II, Box 4. Storrs also employed a Baha’i doctor, asserting that this doctor, “being of Ruhi’s spiritual persuasion – can be trusted to keep you well and intimately informed on professional and non-professional matters.” Letter from Ronald Storrs to Colonel Wilson, 1 August 1916. Middle East Politics and Diplomacy, Reel 5, Section II, Box 4.]

From 1914 to 1920, Husayn Ruhi, and briefly his father-in-law, worked as agents for the British government across the Middle East.

Husayn Ruhi translated documents; wrote clandestine reports on the local situation in Cairo, Mecca, and Jeddah; carried messages and funds from the British to the Hijaz and back again; and generally contributed to the fomenting of the Arab Revolt. Ruhi’s official title was “confidential secretary,” working from 1914 to 1916 for Ronald Storrs, then British Oriental Secretary living in Cairo. From 1916 to 1918, Ruhi became the “confidential secretary to the British Agency Jeddah,” under Colonel Cyril Wilson. In transferring Ruhi’s services, Storrs commended Ruhi to Wilson: “he is delivered over to you body and soul. He is to consider himself not only your eyes and ears, but also if necessary your hands and feet. He may even, should an especially unsavoury occasion present itself, be called upon to represent your nose.”

Ruhi is best known for his translation of the Husayn-McMahon correspondence.

Elie Kedourie in particular criticized Ruhi’s Arabic as “shaky” with “grammatical mistakes” that indicated a lack of the necessarily facility to deal with the correspondence. Kedourie argues that certain mistranslations of difficult words led to confusion over the territory promised to Sharif Husayn. Kedourie also attributes to Ruhi the “florid style” of McMahon’s letters to Husayn, citing a British representative at Jeddah’s statement that “Ruhi used to address the King (Hussein) with the most extravagant titles when he wanted anything out of him.” It seems that the Sharif returned the favor, as Ruhi’s translation of one letter of the Sharif reads, “To our most ingenious, respectable and honourable [M]ister [S]torrs. Verily, I present to you my propensity and I ask for your health and rejoice.” Leaving aside the question of Ruhi’s Arabic, his English indicates a lack of fluency. Ruhi’s reports and his translations of Sharif Husayn’s correspondence, written in pen, are replete with crossed out words and phrases, words inserted after having completed a line, misspelled words, and prepositions used incorrectly.

One British captain noted Ruhi’s invaluable services, lauding his ability to find information due to “his energy, unique knowledge of the workings of men of the stamp concerned in this conspiracy and his selection of agents.” The captain further praised Ruhi’s dedication to his job, stating that “at great personal risk, underlying extreme discomfort and abuse, being imprisoned on several occasions he (Ruhi) traversed the whole [Suez] canal zone gaining information of the greatest value.” Ruhi not only collected intelligence, he also offered “disconcerting suggestions” of tactics that could be employed against those who were not friendly to the Revolt or the British. Ruhi told Storrs to “take strict measures” to prevent Rashid Rida from travelling to the Hijaz and convincing the people to “ignore the English.” Ruhi floated the idea of deporting Rida to Malta.

In his own evaluation of his espionage abilities, Ruhi boasted to Storrs, “I am known here as an Alem or Mohammedan Theologian as I went into mosques and delivered lectures and interpreted some verses. …All of the great people here are my friends. I picked some of them whom I found really pro-English and they may be a great help to our work.” It is of course impossible to verify Ruhi’s account of his own exploits. It is interesting that Ruhi sold himself as being able to pass as a Muslim scholar, despite the fact that he was Baha’i, and a somewhat lackluster academic overall. Ruhi’s infiltration of Mecca and ability to preach in a mosque would also likely have appealed to British officials’ overarching focus on religious affiliation as the primary motivating factor behind Middle Easterners’ actions.

Ruhi’s motivations for working for the British, beyond his paycheck, remain obscure. However, in that same report to Ronald Storrs in which Ruhi boasted of his ability to charm the Sharif, and indeed pull the wool over the eyes of the citizens of Mecca, he begged Storrs to support his school, by convincing others to support it. Ruhi’s passion for the school he had founded clearly increased his need for funds. He claimed the school could be propped up by Egyptian awqaf. Ruhi asserted that he would “live loyal to the British government” for his entire life, so long as they supported his school, claiming, “If my school will fall I will be the saddest fellow upon earth.”

Sadly, for Ruhi, both the boys and girls sections of the school he founded would close during the war, due to “force of circumstance.” But Ruhi was able to find new work in education: He maintained a certain loyalty to the British, and continued his tendency to inform, in his new post as an inspector of education in Mandate Palestine.

In 1917, Hussein Ruhi was awarded 100 pounds in lieu of a title, which was feared would preclude him from ever working again secretly on behalf of the British government.

Ruhi also became the focus of some international ire: the French mission in the Hijaz complained that Ruhi was spying on them.

Ruhi apparently ceased his work in espionage in 1919. He received the titles of Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) and Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). In March of 1920, he became an inspector with the Department of Education in Jerusalem.

Ruhi’s unique career demonstrates the variety of experiences government educators’ possessed, but also points to the complications of post-Ottoman nationality. Although Ruhi, like many others, was now a citizen of Palestine, the category of Palestinian nationality – and, to some degree, nationality itself as a way of defining identity – ill fitted him, due to his languages, birthplace, family, and religion.

In returning to the profession of education, Ruhi also authored Arabic language textbooks specifically focused on Palestine for use in its government schools. Ruhi’s texts illustrate his unique perspective and perhaps a desire to pander to British preferences, as the books concentrate on the specific territory of Palestine, as opposed to either Greater Syria or the Arab world, and include Jewish as well as Arab narratives. His history of Palestine, al-Mukhtasar fi al-ta’rikh, printed in 1922, listed its most important sources as the Qur’an and other holy books, contemporary American and Middle Eastern works of history and literature, as well as Titus Flavius Josephus’s writings. Ruhi’s history begins with the story of Abraham and ends with Ibrahim Pasha. It also contains a surprisingly positive portrayal of certain aspects of Jewish history in the region, describing the Maccabees, for example, as a family of patriotic heroes. Ruhi’s geography of Palestine (al-Mukhtasarfi Jughrafiyat Filastin) was written up briefly in al-Muqtaṭaf, which noted that the book included the political, natural, and administrative geography of Palestine as well as more than twenty maps. This work begins with a Muslim blessing (bismillah al-rahman al-rahim) and includes a discussion of Palestine’s Jewish colonies and an overview of its educational system, as well as a somewhat pointed drill that required students to calculate the meager proportion of Palestine’s inhabitants attending school at all. Husayn Ruhi even drew some of the book’s maps himself. Moreover, in another unique turn, this Arabic language geography was published by the London Jews Society, a British missionary society geared toward converting Jews to Christianity and encouraging Jews’ resettling in Palestine.

In the Mandate, Ruhi’s presence was in some ways an affront to his peers. One Palestinian academic derided Ruhi as simply Ronald Storrs’s “protégé,” whose appointment in the education department was incongruous at best. Khalil al-Sakakini, who also worked as an inspector in the Mandate Department of Education and authored grammar textbooks, held up Ruhi as an example of problems with the department as a whole. In a somewhat lengthy series of complaints to his son, Sakakini listed individuals employed by the British administration in Palestine whom he thought were undeserving of their salaries and status, specifically including Husayn Ruhi.

Husayn Ruhi retired from service in the Mandate for Palestine in 1935. He returned to Cairo where he founded a school, as he had before his service with the British. Ruhi died in 1960. Ruhi remains best remembered for his translations and reports. Yet, his preference for British-backed governments continued in the careers of two of his sons. ‘Ali Husayn Ruhi and Hasan Husayn Ruhi followed their father’s example working as educators and government officials in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. ‘Ali taught in Transjordan from 1928 to 1945. He composed several mathematics and science textbooks used by Arabic-speaking students throughout the region, specifically in the government schools of Transjordan and Palestine. ‘Ali seems to have also renounced his father’s faith, or at least hidden it, as he defined himself as Muslim on his application to teach in Transjordan.

Husayn Ruhi’s journey from education to espionage and back is hardly characteristic of educators or ethnic or religious minorities in the Middle East. However, his story raises (although does not answer) a number of questions and issues connecting to schooling, governance, and intelligence in the twentieth-century Middle East. By choosing Ruhi, a Baha’i of unclear nationality, the British presumed, to some degree correctly, that they could command a greater sway over Ruhi’s loyalties than those of other Egyptians, Persians, or Palestinians.

(Hilary Falb Kalisman - The Little Persian Agent in Palestine: Husayn Ruhi, British Intelligence, and World War I, Jerusalem Quarterly 66)

Read complete article here :
https://www.academia.edu/28212491/The_Little_Persian_Agent_in_Palestine_Husayn_Ruhi_British_Intelligence_and_World_War_I

https://www.nli.org.il/en/articles/RAMBI990005858830705171/NLI

Additional points from Baha'i sources:

The journey began after Mirza Asadu'llah had returned to Persia from the Holy Land and had recovered the casket (of the Bab's remains) from its hiding place in Tehran. He then set off with the assistance of other believers, including a ‘capable and devoted’ Baha'i named Husayn Ruhi, who was the son of Haji ‘Ali-‘Askar, a distinguished Bahai who had attained the presence of the Bab. Like his father, Husayn Ruhi had been in prison in Acre with Baha'u'llah.

(Michael Day, Journey to a Mountain - The Story of the Shrine of the Bab)

Ruhi's father 'Ali-'Askar-i-Tabrizi?

Haji Haji 'Ali-'Askar was one of the notable merchants of Tabriz, and a believer from the time of the Bab. At last the persecutions forced him to leave his home town and he emigrated with his brother and family to Adrianople, where he settled down and made a living by peddling small wares. He was arrested and sent with Baha'u'llah to 'Akka, where he passed away in AH 1291 (AD 1874)....

...Muhammad-Javad-i-Qazvini next records in his tract the murder of two other men, previous to the murder of Siyyid Muhammad-i-Isfahani and his two accomplices. He names them as Husayn-'Ali of Kashan, known as Khayyat-Bashi, and Haji Ibrahim, also of Kashan; but he does not name those who murdered them. Apparently, these two men of Kashan, who had always been fickle, had been in communication with the Azalis, although they lived with the companions in Khan al-'Umdan. Muhammad-Javad writes that one day, in the bazar, Haji Ibrahim denounced Aqay-i-Kalim, in his presence, before the Mufti. This reprehensible behaviour roused the ire of the companions, and some of them (unnamed) murdered those two, and buried them in a room in the inn. This happened at a time when Baha'u'llah, because of the mounting animosity of the Azalis, had ceased admitting anyone into His presence. However, Siyyid Muhammad had noted their disappearance and had reported it to the authorities. But, at the time, there was no reason to suspect any crime. After the murder of the three Azalis, during the interrogation of the companions, the murder of the two Kashanis came to light. Again, Muhammad-Javad does not mention any names, but merely records that the authorities were told that the two had died of cholera, and lest all should be taken away and put into quarantine, they had been immediately and quietly interred in a room of the inn. The authorities exhumed their corpses and had them buried beside the Azalis.

Another point worth noting in the tract by Muhammad-Javad-i-Qazvini is that whereas the wife of Mirza Yahya, sister of Mirza Rida-Quliy-i-Tafrishi, has been named elsewhere as Badri-Jan, Muhammad-Javad calls her Badr-i-Jahan. And the sixteen men detained in the Khan-i-Shavirdi for six months are named as follows: Haji 'Ali-'Askar-i-Tabrizi, his son, Husayn-Aqa, and his brother, Mashhadi Fattah; Haji Ja'far and his brother, Haji Taqi; Muhammad-Javad-i-Qazvini, himself; Aqa Faraj-i-Sultanabadi; Aqa Riday-i-Shirazi; Mirza Mahmud-i-Kashani; Haji Faraju'llah-i-Tafrishi; Aqa 'Azim-i-Tafrishi; Aqa Muhammad-'Aliy-i-Isfahani; Aqa Muhammad-'Aliy-i-Yazdi; Darvish Sidq-'Aliy-i-Qazvini; Aqa Muhammad-Ibrahim-Nayrizi, known as Amir-i-Nayrizi; and Haji Aqay-i-Tabrizi.

(Baha'u'llah - The King of Glory by Hasan Balyuzi)

For some time 'Abbás Effendi bore with these alarming circumstances, until latterly he set himself to stir up the fanaticism of a man named Hájji Mírzá Hasan of Khurásán, one of the leading Bábís in Egypt, and commissioned him to proceed to America to repair this rupture. The latter obediently accepted this commission, took with him as interpreter Husayn Rúhí the son of Hájji Mullá 'Ali of Tabriz, and went to America, where he remained some time. At first he tried to bring back Ibráhím Khayru'lláh to Abbás Effendi, but, not succeeding in his efforts, he busied himself for a while in declaring and proving to his friends the sanctity of 'Abbás Efendi. But he failed to achieve his object, and returned to Egypt, where he was stricken with imbecility, and is at present under treatment in Egypt.

https://books.google.com/books?id=eLnR-tJO5MQC&pg=PA146&dq=%22Husayn+ruhi%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjLs8LJ4JX9AhXYEogKHZzZAQ4Q6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Husayn%20ruhi%22&f=false

Read More

O Thou the Desire of the Divine Messengers! (different prophets and manifestations about the greatness of Baha'u'llah)

Had Muhammad, the Apostle of God, attained this Day, He would have exclaimed: "I have truly recognized Thee, O Thou the Desire of the Divine Messengers!" Had Abraham attained it, He too, falling prostrate upon the ground, and in the utmost lowliness before the Lord thy God, would have cried: "Mine heart is filled with peace, O Thou Lord of all that is in heaven and on earth! I testify that Thou hast unveiled before mine eyes all the glory of Thy power and the full majesty of Thy law! I bear witness, moreover, that through Thy Revelation the hearts of the faithful are well assured and contented." Had Moses Himself attained it, He, likewise, would have raised His voice saying: "All praise be to Thee for having lifted upon me the light of Thy countenance and enrolled me among them that have been privileged to behold Thy face!"

-Summons of the Lord of Hosts by Bahá’u’lláh, Súriy-i-Ra’ís (Tablet to the Chief)

“By the one true God, Elijah hath hastened unto My court and hath circumambulated in the day time and in the night season My throne of glory.” “Solomon in all his majesty circles in adoration around Me in this day, uttering this most exalted word: ‘I have turned my face towards Thy face, O Thou omnipotent Ruler of the world! I am wholly detached from all things pertaining unto me, and yearn for that which Thou dost possess.’”

(Selections from the writings of Shoghi Effendi about Bahá’u’lláh published in The Bahá’í World, Volume 14)

Read More

Prostrating and kissing at the Bab, Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha's feet.

They implored His blessings, and kissed His feet. The Bab expressed his appreciation towards each one of them individually and assured them that He would pray for them.

(The Herald and His Heroes)

Mulla Husayn needed no further proof. With tears in his eyes, he prostrated himself before the Manifestation of God.

(The New Garden)

...passing one day before its gates, paused and gazing in saw Bahá'u'lláh seated beneath the shade of the mulberry tree, 'that canopy not made with hands,' and remembering the prophecy in the Qur'an, he recognized his Lord and hastened to prostrate himself at His feet.

When Varqa heard this, he was so filled with joy and excitement that he fell prostrate at Bahá'u'lláh's feet and begged Him to make it possible for him and one of his sons to lay down their lives in the path of the Master. Bahá'u'lláh favoured him with His acceptance. When he returned to Persia, Varqa wrote to Bahá'u'lláh and renewed his plea for martyrdom, a plea to which He again favourably responded. And, as we shall see later, this happened; he was martyred during the Ministry of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

Referring to the perversity of people, and especially religious leaders, Bahá'u'lláh in a Tablet to Mulla 'Ali-Akbar asserts that these unfortunate beings are unaware of the truth of the Cause of God. If only they could attain His presence during the time of revelation when the verses of God are being sent down, each one of them would be so carried away as to become humble and prostrate himself at the feet of his Lord.

When the ship reached Haifa the very thought of prostrating ourselves at His threshold and attaining His presence which the Prophets and His chosen ones had wished to attain invoked such eagerness and excitement in our hearts that with tears streaming down our cheeks, we were transported into a different world. We arrived at a spot where the souls of all the Manifestations of God were circumambulating day and night around His Blessed Person.

One day before sunrise a servant of Bahá'u'lláh's household informed us that His Blessed Person would be coming to our house. On hearing this news tears of joy flowed from our eyes With infinite joy we hastened to Him. He was coming toward our house with great majesty and grandeur. We all prostrated  ourselves and kissed His feet.

(The Revelation of Baháʼuʼlláh by Adib Taherzadeh - 1988)

This time I went forward immediately, stepping on the backs of people who lay prostrate in front of me, until I reached Him. I prostrated myself at His feet and kissed them.

(The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh Volume 3 by Adib Taherzadeh)

...On most occasions when we were summoned to the presence of ‘Abdu’l-Baha in His reception-room, I noticed that an old man, short in stature, with a white beard and brown complexion, arrived in the room after everyone else. First he would prostrate himself at the threshold of the room [‘Abdu’l-Baha’s], then he would enter, bow to the waist and, when ‘Abdu’l-Baha acknowledged him, sit at the threshold.

(The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh Volume 1 by Adib Taherzadeh)

And when he [Aqa ‘Azizu’llah] attained the presence of Baha’u’llah, he went down on his knees to kiss His feet.

(Eminent Bahá’ís in the time of Bahá’u’lláh)

‘Andalib, overtaken by grief and with tears flowing, exclaimed, ‘O, Baha! O, Baha!’ He gave us permission to leave. Immersed in sorrow and with hearts consumed with grief, we prostrated ourselves at His feet, circumambulated Him, and left the room. Mr Samandari recalled the verse Baha'u'llah repeated that day from the Most Holy Book: Be not dismayed, O peoples of the world, when the daystar of My beauty is set, and the heaven of My tabernacle is concealed from your eyes. Arise to further My Cause, and to exalt My Word amongst men. We are with you at all times, and shall strengthen you through the power of truth.

(Ṭarázu’lláh Samandarí, Lights of Fortitude)

His blessed Person we beheld, coming with all power and glory towards our house. We all prostrated ourselves and kissed His feet. We made the earth trodden by His blessed feet the kohl of our eyes...

(Bahá’u’lláh - The King of Glory)

At first he prostrated himself at the entrance to the corridor, then approached the room and again prostrated himself at its threshold. He  He then entered, bowed low before ‘Abdu’l Baha and stood there until ‘Abdu’l-Baha indicated to him to be seated...

(The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh Volume 1 by Adib Taherzadeh)

He (Dayyan) recognized the station of Baha’u’llah, acknowledged His Faith and prostrated himself at His feet.

(The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh Volume 1 by Adib Taherzadeh)

Many of them prostrated themselves at His feet and kissed them. 

(The Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh)

When my turn came I prostrated myself as I entered, kissed the threshold and kneeled before ‘Abdu’l-Baha He pointed to a chair and invited me to sit on it. 

(Against Incredible Odds)

The Master came forward, while my husband prostrated himself and the Master embraced him...

(Visiting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Volume 1)

D’Evelyn, a devoted Baha’i, came running as soon as he saw the Master and prostrated himself at His feet.

(Maḥmúd’s Diary)

I read a letter from Haji Mirza Haydar-‘Ali and, on his behalf, prostrated myself at the feet of the Master.

(Maḥmúd’s Diary)

She would prostrate herself at the Master’s feet and beg him tearfully to allow her to go to Persia and proclaim the Faith as Táhirih had done...

(Lua Getsinger)

Haji Mirza Haydar-‘Ali, upon hearing of Covenant-breaking activity in London, had thrown himself at the Master’s feet and begged to be sent there in spite of his 88 years.

(Visiting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Volume 2)

The novelty of seeing American women prostrate themselves before the Baha’i leader, clad in long flowing robe and turban was a sensation for the patrons of the hotel. 

(The Apostle of Peace Volume One)

At first, the pilgrims tried to prostrate themselves at the feet of the Guardian as they would have done with ‘Abdu-Baha, but Shoghi Effendi quickly prevented the action...

(Shoghi Effendi Through the Pilgrim’s Eye, Vol 1)

And I knew that in his station he was “protected from error”. Ali Kuli Khan had told me that he had prostrated himself before the Guardian and had been told to rise.

(Fires in Many Hearts)

...according to the text of the Kitab-i-Aqdas it is prohibited to prostrate before any individual  (whosoever it may be), except the Almighty God...

(Siyyid Muṣṭafá Rúmí)

Read More

Mirza Ahmad Kirmani was connected with the Babis

Mirza Ahmad Kirmani was arrested and sent to Tehran in about 1875, where he spent a year in prison before returning to Kirman. After this, he appears to have become somewhat deranged. His wild and unpredictable behaviour can to some extent be explained by the fact that at this time he became addicted to large quantities of alcohol and drugs. He would frequently attack the Baha'i Faith and yet repeatedly wrote letters of repentance to Baha'u'llah. He aligned himself with the Azalis at times and at others made claims for himself. He travelled through Iran in the 1880s spreading chaos and vexation among Bahai communities in places such as Faran (vol. 1:208), Rasht (vol. 1:336) and Barfurush through his contradictory actions. He also visited Istanbul where he joined up with the Azalis. Eventually he moved to Tehran, put forward certain religious claims of his own and became a supporter of the reform movement. In 1891, at the height of the turbulence caused by the activities of Sayyid Jamalu'd-Din 'al-Afghani', he wrote and distributed leaflets against the government which appeared to be by the Baha’is, thus leading to the arrest of Haji Amin and Haji Akhund (vol. 1:53-5). Mirza Rida Kirmani, the assassin of Nasirud-Din Shah, stayed with him immediately before he shot the shah in 1896. Mirza Ahmad then fled Tehran for Hamadan. Here he persuaded a certain Sayyid Hasan to claim to be the Imam Mahdi. The two of them were arrested and Mirza Ahmad died in prison in Tehran in about 1314/1896.

(Moojan Momen, The Baha’i Communities of Iran 1851-1921 Volume 2 - Kirman)

Read More

it becomes again subject to the payment of Huqúqu’lláh.

As to the question raised by Mr. …, kindly inform him that in a letter to an individual believer the beloved Guardian explained that Huqúqu’lláh is payable only once on a given property, whether personal or real, but should this property pass from one person to another, such as through inheritance, it becomes again subject to the payment of Huqúqu’lláh.

(1 June 1983, written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly)

Read More

Making ablution, praying and opening the letters from Shoghi Effendi

Dhikrullah Khadem, Hand of the Cause of God says:

Friends, the beloved Shoghi Effendi gave me many assignments, One of the assignments that I had was to be as errand for the God, a peon to send His, to announce His cables or to deliver to the National Assembly, to the individuals, to different countries and that was, that continued for over 22-23 years all the time. And that was the most joyful times of my life. When I went home and I asked, “Was there any cable?” Yes. [‘’counting’’] One, two, three, four, five. Sometimes five cables a day and I simply acknowledge by cable. I made ablution. I prayed and opened these gates and sent and delivered to whoever it was addressed. This was one of the assignments that I had and until the time that he passed, the beloved Shoghi Effendi passed.

https://bahai.works/Transcript:Dhikrullah_Khadem/Address_from_the_Hand_of_the_Cause

Read More

The grandson of the bitterest enemy of the Faith becomes Baha'i. This is the miracle of the Faith!

Dhikrullah Khadem, Hand of the Cause of God says:

We had another Baháʼí, [?] who was very learned and descendant of Sheikh [?]. This is the miracle of the Faith. Sheikh [?] , who was responsible for the exile of Bahá’u’lláh from Baghdad, the bitterest enemy of the Faith. From his family, his grandson became a wonderful Baháʼí [?] and a prominent Baháʼí teacher. And when he read this Tablet of the Guardian and the style, he cried and he said, “So far we knew the Guardian through the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. But from now on, I know him because of his writing.” Where did he learn his Persian and English and Arabic? He’d never been in Persia.

https://bahai.works/Transcript:Dhikrullah_Khadem/Address_from_the_Hand_of_the_Cause

Read More

Abha Kingdom

Dhikrullah Khadem, Hand of the Cause of God says:

And I tell you, these wonderful souls, many of them in the Abhá Kingdom now. They enjoy the presence of their beloved Shoghi Effendi, in the presence of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

https://bahai.works/Transcript:Dhikrullah_Khadem/Address_from_the_Hand_of_the_Cause

Read More

... he offered $100,000 ... Can any of the past religions show such devotion from, shown by anyone of these wonderful souls?

Dhikrullah Khadem, Hand of the Cause of God says:

Fred Schopflocher. Again, Canadian. That wonderful man, this great man. I met him in Chicago at the Intercontinental Conference, and I heard that there was a time that the House of Worship, the building was stopped because of lack of money. And he was in the presence of the Guardian. In the presence of the beloved Shoghi Effendi, he offered $100,000 at that time that the building be continued, and that brought tears to the eyes of the beloved Shoghi Effendi. And we were sitting together, and when I mentioned to him, he just pressed my hand and changed the subject. He didn't want that to be mentioned. These are our heroes and heroines. These are the treasures of the Cause in this Revelation, just igniting “Yá Bahá'u'l-Abhá”. Can any of the past religions show such devotion from, shown by anyone of these wonderful souls? 

https://bahai.works/Transcript:Dhikrullah_Khadem/Address_from_the_Hand_of_the_Cause

Read More

Oh, God, my God. This is the style of ʿAlī, the Imam ʿAlī... if there was one person in the whole world to write good Persian, it’s Shoghi Effendi.

Dhikrullah Khadem, Hand of the Cause of God says:

We had a [?]. The nonBaháʼís custodian of the mosque of Sepahsālār, which is the greatest mosque in Tehran, the mosque and school. The Shah of Persia is custodian. He was acting for the Shah. I don't mention his name just in order to avoid anything for the family or if he's alive. He attended the presence of the Guardian, and coming back to Persia to Tehran, he sent a message to the National Assembly that he wanted to meet some of the Baháʼís just to express his gratitude to the beloved Shoghi Effendi that he had bounty to be in his presence. So he was invited, that great Mullah, well known. And when he came and the National Assembly arranged for a meeting, he discussed, he told us about the beloved Shoghi Effendi and he said, “I don't know where did he go learn Persian. He’d never been in Persia.” And he spoke about the gardens of the Holy Shrine of the Báb. He said if you employ 100 gardens, gardeners, they cannot make such a beautiful job that the beloved Shoghi Effendi has done only with two gardeners. This was amazing. And after this, he said, “I haven't heard any of the writings of the beloved Guardian. Have you any?” We had that Centenary Tablet. And when it was recited, it was chanted, he became so humble, this great Mullah, the greatest. And then he said, “Oh, God, my God. This is the style of ʿAlī, the Imam ʿAlī. I can’t see any difference.” And the words that he said, I put it down and it was mentioned to the Guardian, reported to him. He said, “The owner, the one who wrote these passages has [?], has innate knowledge from God.” That was his expression about the Guardian.

Another one, the writer, newspaper man, in a meeting in the court of the Shah, the members were there, and some of the writers, some of the ministers in the Cabinet. The man came and they asked him to speak about his trip. He said the thing that I can share with you is that I've been in the presence of the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi. And then he said, “Just imagine Saadi.” Like Shakespeare to the British and English people. He said, “I just could see and you can see that Saadi was sitting there and speaking with that fellow [?].” That was his expression about the beloved Shoghi Effendi. And the Dean of the University of Literature in Persian literature, again I don't mention his name, he announced in the university that if there was one person in the whole world to write good Persian, it’s Shoghi Effendi. Through his messages and through that knowledge that this Mullah said, the innate knowledge of the Guardian, we have all these writings of the Guardian, and the guidance until next manifestation of Bahá’u’lláh.

https://bahai.works/Transcript:Dhikrullah_Khadem/Address_from_the_Hand_of_the_Cause

Read More

"valuable public services" to convert more and more people to the Baha'i faith

Medical camps operating through the devoted efforts of Bahá’í physicians and traveling teachers in Bangladesh have led to a large number of enrollments in addition to carrying out a valuable public service.

Last November 19, the Ruhí Camp, named after a recent martyr in Iran, treated 150 patients, 54 of whom embraced the Cause.

Four days later, the Faizí Camp treated more than 100 patients and enrolled 35 of them.

The Farhangi Medical Camps, initiated early last year, are still functioning; the most recent was reportedly held last November 21.

Also in November the Haqíqí Medical Project, also named after a recent martyr, treated more than 200 patients and enrolled 110 new believers including the residents of one entire village.

https://bahai.works/Baha%27i_News/Issue_698/Text

Read More

Baha'i - Azali conflict and the business of Afnan family

Haji Shaykh Muhammad-'Ali, known as Nabil Ibn Nabil, was a brother of Shaykh Kazim of Qazvin, to whom Baha'u'llah gave the surname Samandar (Salamander). Both brothers were merchants of high repute. Their father, Shaykh Muhammad, known as Nabil, espoused the Faith of the Bab in early days, and passed away in Baghdad, one year before the Declaration of Baha'u'llah. What caused Haji Shaykh Muhammad-'Ali, Nabil Ibn Nabil, to commit suicide were the intrigues of the followers of Mirza Yahya in Constantinople, and here is the story (as much as the present writer has been able, with documentary evidence, to construct it) of their disgraceful proceedings.

The Afnans, relatives of the Bab, had extensive commercial interests. Haji Mirza Muhammad-'Ali, a son of Haji Mirza Siyyid Muhammad (a maternal uncle of the Bab), was resident in Hong Kong; his brother, Haji Mirza Muhammad-Taqi, the Vakilu'd-Dawlih, resided in Yazd (later in 'Ishqabad). There were also always one or two of the Afnans in Bombay, where they managed a prosperous publishing house and printing press, from which the first Baha'i books ever to be printed were issued, such as Kitab-i-Iqtidarat* and Kitab-i-Mubin,[The contents of these books Were Tablets of Baha'u'llah.] in the handwriting of Mishkin-Qalam. Aqa Mirza Aqa, Nuri'd-Din, was in Port Sa'id, trading under the name of Nuri'd-Din Hasan; Haji Mirza Siyyid Hasan, Afnan-i-Kabir (the Great Afnan), a brother of the wife of the Bab, and his son Haji Siyyid 'Ali, married to Furughiyyih Khanum, a daughter of Baha'u'llah, were in Beirut.

In addition, the Afnans had partners or agents in a number of other commercial centres. Aqa 'Ali-Haydar-i-Shirvani (before he moved to Tihran) was a partner in Caucasia; Haji Shaykh Muhammad-'Ali, another partner in Istanbul. A third partner in the Ottoman capital was Aqa Muhammad-'Aliy-i-Isfahani. This man gradually fell under the influence of the supporters of Subh-i-Azal. Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ruhi and Mirza Aqa Khan-i-Kirmani were the most prominent of these followers of Mirza Yahya. But there were others, equally as active and mischief-making, such as Shaykh Muhammad-i-Yazdi, Aqa Muhammad-'Aliy-i-Tabrizi (who had been expelled by Baha'u'llah, because of his continuously-repeated misdeeds), and Najaf-'Ali Khan, who had connections with the Persian Embassy. Allied with Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ruhi and Mirza Aqa Khan-i-Kirmani, in furthering the aims of Siyyid Jamalu'd-Din-i-Asadabadi (Afghani), was Haji Mirza Hasan Khan, the Khabiru'l-Mulk (sometime the Persian consul-general in Istanbul), but it cannot be ascertained whether he too was an Azali or not. Eventually all the three suffered the same fate together. They were beheaded in Tabriz, in the year 1896, in the presence and on the orders of Muhammad-'Ali Mirza (later Shah), the Crown-Prince of Persia. Although, before long, there came a break between Mirza Aqa Khan and Aqa Muhammad-Tahir, the founder and owner of the newspaper Akhtar, at the height of the crisis resulting from the activities of the Azalis this paper was completely dominated by Mirza Aqa Khan and his associates. Strangely enough, it seems that the break was caused by the marriage of a daughter of Aqa Muhammad-Tahir with Mirza Husayn-i-Sharif-i-Kashani, a son of Mulla Muhammad-Ja'far-i-Naraqi, one of the ardent supporters of Subh-i-Azal in earlier times. Mulla Muhammad-Ja'far (author of a book entitled Tadhkiratu'l-Ghafilin - A Reminder to the Heedless - which he wrote in refutation of Baha'u'llah), after roving round 'Iraq in search of Mirza Yahya, who had not bothered to inform his zealous champion of his departure, had taken refuge in Kazimayn. But this township, adjacent to Baghdad, was always teeming with pilgrims, and because Mulla Muhammad-Ja'far was known to be a Babi, Kazimayn was not, in the estimation of Mirza Buzurg Khan, the Persian consul-general, a safe place for Mulla Muhammad-Ja'far. Therefore, in the year 1869, when Mirza Buzurg Khan was returning to Iran, he took with him Mulla Muhammad-Ja'far together with his son, Mirza Husayn, then a boy young in years, as well as Mirza Nuru'llah,[1] a son of Mirza Yahya then stranded in 'Iraq. In Kirmanshah, Mulla Muhammad-Ja'far fell ill and was unable to travel. Mirza Buzurg Khan was forced to abandon him and the two boys, and leave them in charge of Prince Imam-Quli Mirza, the 'Imadu'd-Dawlih, Governor of Kirmanshah. When Mulla Muhammad-Ja'far had recovered, 'Imadu'd-Dawlih sent the three, under escort, to Tihran, where they were taken to the Siyah-Chal. Mulla Muhammad-Ja'far was poisoned in the gaol and the boys were set free.

(Baha'u'llah - The King of Glory by Hasan Balyuzi - p. 389-390)

Read More

In one dream recounted by him, he believed that he was granted permission to transmit knowledge by each of the twelve Imams.

There is evidence of neo-Qarmaṭī influence in the al-Aḥsā region after the 1760s, but the possibility of links with the shaikh remains purely speculative. He himself indicated that, from early childhood, he developed a predilection for introspection, seclusion, and asceticism. At an unspecified age—probably during adolescence—he experienced a series of dreams and visions, of the type familiar to Shiʿite piety, in which the Imams or the Prophet figured as transmitters of supernatural knowledge. In one dream recounted by him, he believed that he was granted eǰāza or permission to transmit knowledge by each of the twelve Imams.

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ahsai-shaikh-ahmad

Read More

Flight of Baha'i Central Figures

Baha'u'llah fled to Kurdistan

On the morning of April 10th, 1854, to their utmost surprise, Bahá'u'lláh's household awoke to find Him gone. He had left Baghdad for the mountains of Sulaymáníyyih in the heart of Kurdish Iraq.

https://bahai-library.com/masumian_bahaullah_kurdistan

Abdul Baha fled to Tiberias

Suddenly the Master went to Tiberias to spend some time in retreat. He was accompanied by one servant only.

Now, whilst the Master was in retreat at Tiberias, we, the ladies of the household, were in much distress because of being without any man in the family to make whatever necessary arrangements were required from time to time, to which we, because of being veiled, were unable to attend. Our difficulties grew and increased.

-The Chosen Highway, Page 112

Shoghi Effendi fled to Switzerland

Then came a time when his sorrow was so great that he fled to Switzerland and tried to come to grips with what God has strapped on his back.

https://bahai-library.com/rkhanum_kampala_1958_jan

Read More

There is no objection that the believers look at the picture of Baháʼu'lláh

Shoghi Effendi, wrote:

"There is no objection that the believers look at the picture of Baháʼu'lláh, but they should do so with the utmost reverence, and should also not allow that it be exposed openly to the public, even in their private homes."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, December 6, 1939, republished in Lights of Guidance, p. 540)

Shoghi Effendi has also written in the Directives from the Guardian regarding the portrait of the Báb:

"The portrait of the Báb should be regarded as an inestimable privilege and blessing to behold, as past generations were denied a glimpse of the Face of the Manifestation, once He had passed on."

(Shoghi Effendi, Directives from the Guardian, p. 43)

Read More

British intelligence and the role of Abbas Effendi

Plans were also made for the handling of agents during the advance. Alexander Aaronsohn in Advanced Intelligence prepared a list of potential agents in Zichron Ya'akov and in nearby Arab villages whom he believed could be recruited once the EEF arrived and sent forward to obtain real-time information. Aaronsohn also made a second list of Jews and Arabs who might assist in counterespionage missions, and a third which named suspects to be detained and houses billeting enemy headquarters considered worth searching. He also singled out several Bahai notables in Haifa and in Zahla, Lebanon, including the leader of the Bahais, 'Abbas Effendi, who would be willing to collaborate with the arriving British. He even received a password from a local Bahai which could serve as a 'useful introduction'.*

*CAB 314: 115B, GS, memo, App. 11 to 'Report and Appendices of an Enquiry by the Standing Sub-Committee of the CID with the Responsibility of the Navy and the Army for the Defence of the Suez Canal', 2 June 1910; WO 106/212: Hoskins to WO, 2 June 1910; WO 106/211: GS, Army of Occupation, Major A. Solly-Flood probably to DMI (Cairo), 22 Aug. 1910.

(Yigal Sheffy, British Military Intelligence in the Palestine Campaign, 1914–1918, Routledge (1998))

Read More

This Muslim intellectual respects Abbas Effendi but the Baha'i leaders hate the so-called covenant-breakers!

To underline ‘Abduh’s irenic attitude, Arslan not only mentions his regular contacts with Christian dignitaries but also the esteem in which he held his own Druze community. ‘Abduh comes across in his account as somebody who was more impressed by a person’s erudition and cosmopolitan outlook than their religious background. Arslan highlights this attitude in particular when he introduces ‘Abduh’s relationship with ‘Abbas Eff endi. Also known as ‘Abd al-Baha’ (1844–1921), ‘Abbas Effendi was the son of Husayn ‘Ali Nuri Baha’ Allah (1817– 1892), an Iranian aristocrat who was then exiled in ‘Akka, Palestine, at that time leader of the Babi movement out of which the Baha’i Faith emerged. Arslan mentions the particular enmity ‘Abduh’s teacher Afghani exhibited towards the Babis in order to point that despite the doctrinal differences that might have existed between the two, ‘Abduh held ‘Abbas Effendi in high esteem and enjoyed his company and erudition. 98 Th at ‘Abbas Effendi’s father as founding figure of a new religious movement made claims to post-Qur’anic revelation did not concern ‘Abduh in particular. In a conversation with his disciple Rida later in his life, ‘Abduh appears unaware of the nature of the Baha’i Faith and the prophetic claims of its founder and rather praises ‘Abbas Effendi’s character. 

-Oliver Scharbrodt, Muhammad ‘Abduh - Modern Islam and the Culture of Ambiguity, I. B. Tauris (2022)

Read More

This Holy Land is the happy hunting-ground of cranks and visionaries of all stripes, Oriental and Occidental.

One Christian missionary who visited Syria in the early 1900s, writes his observation:

In December an American woman was brought ashore from a steamer and placed in St. John’s Hospital in Beirut in a state of collapse. When sufficiently revived to speak, she said she was Mrs. ____ of Chicago, and had left contrary to her husband’s request to visit the Bab Incarnation, Abbas Effendi of Acre. She was literally starved through seasickness, and before her death, she moaned and mourned her folly in leaving her husband and home to visit the “Master” Abbas. An autopsy revealed perforation of the coats of the stomach. The poor woman had taken this long journey alone and must have suffered untold agonies, ignorant of the language and helpless through seasickness in a winter voyage. Yet to what lengths of exposure will religious delusion drive people ! This Holy Land is the happy hunting-ground of cranks and visionaries of all stripes, Oriental and Occidental.

One of the recent woman pilgrims to the shrine of Abbas Effendi was an English-speaking woman who stated that she had been successively an Agnostic, Christian Scientist, and Theosophist and now was going to try Abbasism. Palestine, whether it ever witnesses the turning of the Jews from Europe and America to their old fatherland or not, is certainly now witnessing the "turning of the cranks."

(Henry Harris Jessup, Fifty-Three Years In Syria, Volume 2, Page 605)

Read More

is this the tomb of a dead Holy Ghost ?

One Christian missionary who visited Syria, states:

In March, 1901, Rev. Mr. Bray of Wisconsin dined with Mohammed Ali and Bedea Effendi, brothers of Abbas. They showed him the tomb of their father, Beha Allah, who they insisted was an incarnation of the Holy Ghost "What," said Mr. Bray, "is this the tomb of a dead Holy Ghost ?" Mohammed Effendi was perplexed and made no reply.

Any religious system which depends on the life of one man or family must tumble one day from its foundation of sand.

I left Abbas Effendi with the painful feeling that he was accepting divine honours from simple-minded women from America and receiving their gifts of gold, without a protest or rebuke.

I hear that his younger brother, Bedea, has become reconciled to him, but I would not guarantee that his main object is not to gain his share of the money which is in the possession of Abbas Effendi. It is not long since he was threatening to kill Abbas,and assassination is an old fashion of Persian fanatics.

(Henry Harris Jessup, Fifty-Three Years In Syria, Volume 2, Page 688)

Read More

A Christian missionary encounters Baha'ism

In October I received a letter from Chicago inquiring about Mr. Ibrahim Khairullah, the Syrian, who was attempting to propagate Babism in the United States. I sent to Mr. Stowell a "Life of Mr. Ibrahim Khairullah," written by his relative and intimate friend in Beirut I give here a copy of my letter, but the "Memoir" is not of sufficient value to be reproduced. His temporary success in the occult art business is only another instance of the gullibility of human nature. Three years later I visited Abbas Effendi in Haifa and an account of the interview was published in the Outlook of June 22, 1901. A recent book by M. H. Phelps of New York, 1904, gives a very fair account of this Persian bubble, showing that it is nothing new in religious history but a revamp of ancient Pantheistic theories. Mr. Phelps' summary of Abbas Effendi’s teaching as "Love to God and Man" shows it to be as old as Christ and Moses. It is the essence of New Testament ethics, and there are millions of Christians to-day living according to this standard as far as they can by the aid of divine grace. Abbas Effendi is almost a Christian. But his latitudinarian views that all men, pagans, idolaters, and all are accepted of God, would seem to make any attempt to propagate Babism a work of supererogation.

The letter to Mr, Stowell is as follows :

I received yours of September 24th in due time, and last week sent your letter to a reliable person in Beirut who is a relative of the man you mention. It is evident that the man has been at his wit’s end to know how to make a living and is now trying a new religion. The enclosed brief chronicle you can rely upon as being correct.

"The book you speak of as 'Bab el Din' Revelation from the East, is either that mongrel mass of stuff written by the Greek priest, Christofory Jebara, for the World’s Parliament of Religions, in which the author would bring about a union between Christianity and Islam by our all becoming Moslems; or some new rehash of Professor Browne of Cambridge, England, on the 'Episode of the Bab,' the Persian delusion whose head man , Beha-ullah in Acre claimed to be an incarnation of God and on his death a few years ago his son, Abbas Effendi, succeeded him and is running the 'incarnation' fraud for all that it is worth, and that is worth a good deal, as pilgrims constantly come from the Babite sect in Persia and bring their offerings of money with great liberality.

"Such men as Jebara and the Babites of Persia turn up now and then in the East, 'go up like a rocket and down like the stick.' The priest Jebara made no converts as far as I can learn, unless Mr. Khairullah be one. The fact is there was nothing to be converted to. You can’t love or pray to a mere negation.

"The Babite movement in Persia started out as an attempt at a reform of Islam and ended by the leader claiming to be divine and invulnerable in battle, but when he died, another was found ready to succeed to his pretensions.

"They teach a strange mixture of truth and error, of extreme liberality and unscrupulous persecution of those obnoxious to them. I had a friend a few years ago, a learned Mohammedan of Bagdad, who was feeling his way to Christianity. His father, a wealthy man, died when he was young, and his uncle, a Babite, determined to train up the lad as a Babite. But the boy as he grew up refused to accept Babism. The uncle then robbed him of his property and drove him out of Bagdad. A few years ago he came here, professed Christianity, and was baptized in Alexandria, Egypt. While here, he went down to Acre to visit one of the Babites whom he had formerly known. After remaining there a few days, he found out that his uncle had written to Acre about him and one night he received word that his life was in danger if he stayed through the night and he escaped to Beirut in great terror.

"Some months ago, an elderly Persian Babite called at our press in Beirut, and some time after brought a beautiful gilt motto on a large wall card which he gave us. He said he prayed to that motto for twelve years, and now, after reading the Bible, he has decided to give up such folly. (On the card was written in Arabic 'O glory of the most glorious,'—the mystic prayer of the Babites.)

"The Greek Jebara wants the Moslem lion and the Christian lamb to lie down together, only the lamb must be inside the lion.

"The Babites want all to become lambs, even if they have to use force to make them so. Their blasphemous claim that the Acre sheikh is God is quite enough to condemn them.

"I earnestly pray that Mr. Khairullah may be led by God’s Spirit back to the pure faith of his youth when he covenanted to take the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour.

"It is easy to be specious and plausible but secret religious sects are dangerous and secret propagandism which you say is his method, is a confession of weakness. Truth loves the light and if the 'Bab el Din' is afraid of the light and of open discussion, it should be avoided by every God-fearing man and woman.

(Henry Harris Jessup, Fifty-Three Years In Syria, Volume 2, Page 637)

Read More

Threatened for not converting to Bahaism

One Christian missionary, in his book, writes:

In February of this year (1905), another professed convert from Islam to Christianity came to Beirut. His name is Ibrahim Effendi from Bagdad—a man about thirty-five years of age, of scholarly bearing, refined and courteous. He said he was the brother of the wife of Abbas Effendi, the new Babi religious head, who last year succeeded Beha Allah in Acre. Threatened three years ago in Bagdad because he would not become a Babi, he fled to Deir on the Euphrates and practiced pharmacy, and from there came to Beirut. He was looking for a place where he could work for Moslems without restriction from the government. I wrote to Mr. Zwemer at Bahrein about him, and on reaching Alexandria, April 28th, I found him there an attendant on the religious services of Rev. Dr. Ewing.

(Henry Harris Jessup, Fifty-Three Years In Syria, Volume 2, Page 605)

Read More

Based on the Arabic version, Subh Azal added twenty eight units to the Persian Bayan

The Arabic Bayan, written at the same time period as the Persian version, and with identical structure, was completed up to end of the unit 11. Based on the Arabic version, Subh Azal added twenty eight units to the Persian Bayan which brought it to the end of unit 11. He left the rest incomplete for the time of glory (izza), as the Bab have requested. Baha’ullah’s Iqan and later Aqdas are both viewed by the early Baha'is as addendum to the Bayan.

(Abbas Amanat, Religious Texts in Iranian Languages: Symposium Held in Copenhagen May 2002)

https://books.google.com/books/about/Historisk_filosofiske_meddelelser.html?id=SPqCwAEACAAJ

Read More

At the time of writing the Bayan, the Bab was familiar with the new Persian translation of the New Testament

At the time of writing the Bayan, the Bab was familiar with the new Persian translation of the New Testament and therefore must have read John’s Book of Revelation. Yet, it is doubtful that he was inspired by it in his composition of the Bayan or in the choice of the title.

(Abbas Amanat, Religious Texts in Iranian Languages: Symposium Held in Copenhagen May 2002)

https://books.google.com/books/about/Historisk_filosofiske_meddelelser.html?id=SPqCwAEACAAJ

Read More

Selling lands to the Jewish National Fund

In the late nineteenth century, Badi'a Effendi of Acre (one of the principal benefactors of the Bahai faith) began buying into Isfiyya's masha'a lands with the consent of the Mukhtar and the village elders. Ultimately he acquired about one fourth of the total. In the mid 1920's he sold the titles to the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet) without consulting the villagers (cf. Granovsky 1931:table 8). When the villagers discovered this they decided to end the periodic redistributions of the land in order to benefit from the law granting title to anyone who could prove continuous cultivation for ten years.

(Scott Atran, Hamula Organisation and Masha'a Tenure in Palestine, 1986)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2803160

Read More

Wealthy Baha'i community

The German Colony was built in the 19th century by German Templars as a model agricultural community. Its main north-south artery links the sea to Mount Carmel via the newly rehabilitated Bahai Gardens. Haifa Municipality began restoring the area in the late 1990s with funds from the Ministry of Tourism, assisted by the wealthy Bahai community’s newly developed and extended Gardens. The aim was to attract the anticipated millennium tourists.

The German Colony is still an important axis in Haifa, linking the sea with Mount Carmel via the recently restored Bahai Gardens. After many years of inertia, Haifa Municipality began restoration in the late 1990s during the euphoric days following the Oslo Accord. The project, funded by the Ministry of Tourism and fuelled by the newly developed Bahai Gardens, consisted mainly of restoring the public infrastructure in the hope of attracting private investors to continue restoration of the buildings. Following the Palestinian Intifadas and the escalation of terrorist attacks, the almost completed project was about to collapse, but little by little new bars and restaurants have been opened by local Arab investors. The former farm buildings and gardens have been transformed into leisure spaces – restaurants and cafes with open terraces suited to the Mediterranean climate (Fig. 6).

Today this area attracts Arab and Jewish Israelis from all over the country, but it is mainly a place of leisure for the Palestinians of Haifa and northern Israel, and a popular destination for middle-class and educated adults. In the context of the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it offers an unthreatening ‘‘Arabness” attractive to Israeli Jews seeking everyday informal encounters with Palestinians. In a recent analysis of the German Colony for Palestinians, most approved were of its qualities as a place of leisure, safe, and providing the privacy that does not exist in other Arab cities (Jabareen, 2008). In contrast to the mostly residential Wadi Nisnas, where leisure establishments and night activities are not welcome, and to Arab settlements where the sale of alcohol is usually forbidden, the German Colony has been dubbed ‘‘Arab alcohol valley”.

(Rachel Kallus, Reconstructed urbanity: The rebirth of Palestinian urban life in Haifa, 2013)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257727493_Reconstructed_urbanity_The_rebirth_of_Palestinian_urban_life_in_Haifa

Read More