SHAME to Iranian.Com, Jahanshah Javid and the hokey foundation funded and contrived letter of apology
Ruhaniya
In reply please quote ref no:
OPM/CD
3 April 2002
Mr Hamid Taheri
19 Dunbar Rd
CLAREMONT WA 6010
[(08) 938-45246]
Dear Baha'i Friend,
The National Spiritual Assembly understands that you are involved in a
weekly Iranian television programme in Perth, sponsored by an Iranian
Muslim.
As you would undoubtedly be aware the House of Justice calls for
Baha'is to exercise great caution in their relations with the Iranian
community. The National Assembly has determined that your involvement
in this programme is not wise. In the best interests of the Faith you
should immediately cease your participation in this television
programme.
Due to the need to protect the Faith in Australia the National
Assembly feels it necessary to warn you that failure to comply with
this instruction will result in the removal of your administrative
rights. The National Assembly looks forward to receiving confirmation
that you have discontinued this activity.
We take this opportunity to recommend that you re-familiarize yourself
with the guidance of the Universal House of Justice in its letter
dated June 18, 1999. A copy of this letter is enclosed.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE BAHA'IS OF AUSTRALIA INC.
Stephen Hall
Secretary
Ruhaniya
Dear Friends,
I read your letter dated 20/08/02 with disgust and have decided to
respond to you in English and set the record straight concerning the
violation of my human and Baha'i rights and your continued coercive
and intimidatory behaviour.
Your initial correspondence to this servant contained false and
inaccurate allegations. You failed to conduct an independent enquiry
and find out the merits of the case presented to you. You recorded as
factual the rumours forwarded to you by a number of ill-intentioned
and attention-seeking individuals, some of whom are regarded as the
"learned!". You accepted the unsubstantiated gossips of wrong-doers
and did not bother to hear my side of the argument. On this count you
have failed in one of the basic teachings of our beloved faith: the
Independent Investigation of the Truth.
You demanded from me, to recant my alleged association with an
organisation I know nothing about and threatened me with sanctions of
I did not comply. Though I objected to your bias and prejudice so
clearly evident from the tone of your letter, I drafted a short reply
and complied with your wishes. I did so purely out of my love for
Baha'u'llah and the martyrs of the Faith, whom I had the pleasure of
knowing.
Yet in your most recent reply, you once again threaten me with
sanctions even though I have complied with your every request. I take
refuge in God from your harassments. Your tactics of thought control,
inquisition, violation of my individual rights (innocent until proven
guilty), intimidation, threats and sanctions are in complete violation
of the role and function of a Spiritual Assembly as foretold by Abd'ul-
Baha and Shoghi Effendi. Your actions resemble the 14th century
Inquisition by the Roman Catholic priests.
Your continued harassment of this servant on false charges, have drawn
a wedge in our family and resulted in the desertion of the Faith by my
daughter - something even the mullahs were incapable of doing.
You have demonstrated to be a puppet in the hands of a few un-elected
evil individuals with fancy titles. Persons who can say what they like
and commit what wrong-doings they can without being questioned. I ask
you, to whom shall we turn to, if these individuals one day rape our
children? Why are they above the law?
Anyone who questions their evil methods and intentions, is labelled a
"covenant breaker" and cast out of the Faith. Disagreement with them
is seen as "trying to build a following" or "campaigning against the
covenant". Free speech and expressions of opinion are stifled through
the imposition of a soviet style conformity with the system. One is
persecuted for thinking independently and threatened with sanctions.
Big Brother is watching every where and George Orwell's 1984 is re-
lived before our very eyes.
In the mean time "Entry by Troops" becomes "Desertion by Troops" and
even the thought-police are not able to halt the un-precendented
desertions from the faith that we are witnessing today. Justice and
equality amongst the Bahai's has given way to the creation of a new
class of clergy with unlimited powers to silence any signs of
independent thinking or free enquiry.
In attempting to impose their vain imaginings on individuals, the
racist policies of Apartheid and Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party are
practiced in disguise.
For the record, I wish to state the following:
1 - If you intend to cast me out of the faith (and yet have no solid
reason for doing so), feel free to let me know. My daughters and I
will happily resign en masse and grant your wish.
2 - If this event takes place, I reserve my full rights as an
Australian citizen and a free individual to raise my case and demand
justice through other sources / authorities.
You can never control my heart and faith. I came a Baha'i many decades
ago and successfully endured countless sessions of thought-trials
with
the mullahs. Your continued threats and intimidations pale
insignificance compared with what I endured in the Islamic prisons for
being a Baha'i.
I make a clear distinction between the Faith of Baha'u'llah and the
evil intentions of those who seek leadership positions within the
Baha'i administration. Oppression will always be evident in the light
of history.
You have failed to be the "loving shepherds" you are meant to be.
Choosing to play politics and please the un-elected few is in direct
contravention of what you are elected for.
Regards,
Ahmad Karimpour
Perth - WA
Ruhaniya
(Liability of members limited)
Phone: (02) 99113 2771 SECRETARIAT Fax: (02) 9970 7275 Email:
aus...@bahai.org.au
4 November 1997
The Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the Gold Coast PO Box
833 Southport 4215
Dear Baha’i Friends,
RE: MR. NIMA HAZINI
The National Spiritual Assembly of Australia has been informed by the
National Spiritual Assembly of the United States that Mr. Nima Hazini
occasionally spends time in Australia visiting parents and often
associates with the Baha’i youth here. As Mr. Hazini’s parents are
members of your community we are sharing the following information
(which has been provided by the National Assembly of the United
States) with your Assembly:
"…It is important for you to know that Mr. Hazini withdrew his Baha’i
membership in December 1996 after expressing his strong
dissatisfaction with the Baha’i community and our National Spiritual
Assembly. Shortly after his withdrawal was accepted, Mr. Hazini wrote
to the National Spiritual Assembly stating that he had not withdrawn
from the Baha’i Faith but had withdrawn only from the Baha’i
community. He provided a copy of his letter to the Universal House of
Justice…When Mr. Hazini received a copy of the Universal House of
Justice’s letter, he chose not to pursue reinstatement of his Baha’i
membership. The last information that we had about him was that he had
decided to become a follower of Sufism."
At one stage Mr. Hazini was transferred to the United States as a
Baha’i in good standing. However, in light of the information given by
the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States we have made the
necessary changes in our records about his status. Your Spiritual
Assembly is advised to be alert to Mr. Nima Hazini’s activities in
your area, when he comes to Australia to visit his parents, especially
his association with the Baha’i youth.. Thanking you for your
cooperation and with loving Baha’i greetings.
Gul Williams for the Secretariat Reg.
Office: Baha’i National Centre, 173 Mona Vale Road, Ingleside, NSW
Ruhaniya
Department of Secretariat
20 February 2003
Transmitted by email: om...@iinet.net.au
Mr. Omeed Taheri
Australia
Dear Baha'i Friend,
Your email letter of 21 December 2002, sent on behalf of your
sisters Mrs Mahshid Taheri-Jones and Dr. Guity Taheri in addition to
yourself, has been received. We have been asked to provide the
following response.
The Universal House of Justice understands your distress at the
action taken by the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia in
removing the administrative rights of your father, Mr Hamid Taheri,
and your ardent desire to have this action rescinded. However, it has
decided, after a detailed examination of this matter, that the
decision of the National Assembly should be upheld and that he should
remain deprived of these rights.
In accordance with the procedure set out in Section VIII of the By-
Laws to "The Constitution of the Universal House of Justice", an
appeal against such a National Spiritual Assembly decision should be
made by the individual concerned, who would, in the first instance,
approach his National Spiritual Assembly for reconsideration or
submission of his appeal to the House of Justice. In this instance,
the House of Justice decided to investigate the circumstances
surrounding the removal of Mr. Taheri's rights, despite the fact that
there was no indication of his having initiated an appeal.
Mr Taheri's administrative rights were removed in August 2002 for
his failure to adhere to a commitment to the National Assembly in May
2002 in which he signed. Just before the National Assembly took this
action its Secretary had ascertained, through a telephone call to Mr.
Taheri, that he was determined not to follow the Assembly's
instructions and that he was aware of the possible consequences of his
disobedience.
Following its receipt of your letter, the House of Justice asked
the National Assembly to inquire further into Mr Taheri's attitudes.
From statements made directly to the National Assembly Chairman, it is
clear that he remains unrepentent about his actions and that he
continues to manifest an intense animosity toward the Baha'i
administrative bodies.
The House of Justice is most concerned about Mr. Taheri's attitude
to the institutions of the Cause. It hopes that his own study of the
authoritative texts of the Faith concerning the Covenant and the
institutions to which it gives rise will enable him to make the
necessary changes in attitudes and conduct which would open the way to
restoration of his rights. Your own example of unyielding adherence to
the principles of the Faith, as well as your wholehearted support of
the decisions of the National Assembly, could well play an important
role in encouraging him to make the required alterations to his
thinking.
Your letter raises the issue of the plan of the National Assembly
to publish in the national Baha'i newsletter an announcement of the
removal of his administrative rights. In general such matters are left
to the discretion of a National Spiritual Assembly, which is asked to
consider the particular circumstances in each instance, including the
possibility of the believer concerned visiting other Baha'i
communities which might not be aware of his Baha'i status.
As regards Mr Taheri, there is good reason for an announcement to
be published in the national newsletter, in light of his recent
extensive travels.
The Universal House of Justice recognizes that you are apprehensive
about the effect on members of the family when it becomes more widely
known that your father's administrative rights have been removed. It
urges your to reflect on the seriousness of his actions, and to strive
to obtain a deeper insight into the damaging effect that his attitude
towards the Baha'i institutions could have on other believers who
might not be well deepened in the Faith, if they are not aware of his
Baha'i status.
Your are assured of the prayers of the Universal House of Justice
in the Holy Shrines at this time of difficulty for you.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
Department of the Secretariat
cc. National Spiritual Assembly of Australia (by email)
Ruhaniya
August 1999
Transmitted by email: XXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXX
U.S.A.
Dear Baha'i Friend,
The Universal House of Justice has reviewed the letter of 8 May
1999
to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United
States,
signed by you on behalf of VVVVV Press and copied for the House of
Justice, on the subject of the manner in which VVVVV has promoted to
Baha'is
Juan Cole's book, Modernity and the Millennium. We have been asked to
write
as follows.
A good deal of the work of VVVV Press, which you have ably
directed
during the twenty or so years of the firm's existence, has constituted
a
significant contribution to the advancement of the Cause we all love
and
seek to serve. It is clear, too, that, beyond the administration of
VVVVV's
activities, this valued contribution owes a great deal to your own
creativity and professional talents. These circumstances move the
House of
the
Justice to share with you candidly the deep concern it feels regarding
your
relationship with the Baha'i Faith.
As you are aware, such concern prompted earlier efforts,
including
those made by Counsellor Stephen Birkland and Dr. Pierre-Yves
Mocquais, a
member of the Auxiliary Board, in their interview with you and your
wife,
Dr. GGGGGGGG, in May of 1996, to draw to your attention the serious
dangers
of the course you have long been following. At that time, you
expressed to
Mr. Birkland your deep regret over actions on your part that were seen
by
the House of Justice to be clearly in conflict with the beliefs you
profess
as a follower of Baha'u'llah, as well as your firm assurance that
your
actions would not again give cause for such intervention.
It is impossible to reconcile professions of this kind with the
arguments made by you in the 8 May letter. The inappropriateness of
the
promotional statements and of the approach taken in the letter serves
as an
illustration of the attitude and behavior on your part that have long
been
a source of difficulty. It is these personal elements that the House
of
Justice has asked us to address.
Clearly, no one would dispute the right of Dr. Cole to write
and
publish whatever work a publisher is prepared to handle. Nor has
anyone
questioned the right of a Baha'i who is interested in such a book to
purchase it. To suggest that the House of Justice is saying otherwise
would
be to seriously misconstrue
the nature of its concern. The book itself is incidental to the
problem of
Mr. XXXXXXX 3
August 1999
Page
2
attitude on your part that the National Assembly was asked to raise
with
you. As a participant in various Internet discussion groups over the
past
five years, and particularly in the last year or two, you cannot but
be aware from these exchanges that Dr. Cole has embarked on a
deliberate
assault against the Baha'i Cause, in which he has not hesitated to
attack
its institutions, to misrepresent its fundamental teachings, and to
abuse
the trust of Baha'is who had been led to believe that they were
engaged with
him in a detached and scholarly search for the truth. These same
Internet
exchanges exposed you, like other participants, to a flood of calumny
and
invective against a great many of your fellow believers, on the part
of Dr.
Cole, that is
scarcely credible in rational discourse.
Had such a book as Modernity and the Millennium been written by
a
disinterested non-Baha'i scholar, its misconception of the nature of
Baha'u'llah's Mission and its other shortcomings would have
represented no
more than understandable weaknesses of an honest attempt to explore a
religious phenomenon as yet little understood in the West. Indeed, in
this
context, such an attempt to make the Baha'i Faith comprehensible to
the
Western academic mind, however inadequate it might appear to
knowledgeable
Baha'i scholars, would surely have earned its author a measure of
genuine
Baha'i appreciation for the writing and research skills deployed in
devising
it.
As you -- like other participants in certain Internet
discussion
groups -- are well aware, however, the book's author is not a
disinterested
scholar. Rather, he is a deeply embittered individual who, as his book
was
in
preparation, had just denounced in the most intemperate language an
apparent
twenty-year allegiance to Baha'u'llah, in the wake of a failed attempt
on
his part to impose his private ideological agenda on the Baha'i
community's study of Baha'u'llah's Message. Modernity and the
Millennium
represents an effort to provide the current stage of this long-
running
scheme with the underpinnings of scholarly rationalization.
What is this rationalization? Although distorted by its evasion
of
Baha'i Texts that contradict its main assertions, and blurred by
reliance on
speculations peculiar to its author's purpose, the thesis appears to
run
somewhat as follows: Baha'u'llah's work and Writings represent
essentially
one of several efforts by Middle East thinkers to work out a
"response" to
the challenges posed by European modernity in the form of
rationalism, revolution, nationalism, economic upheaval, feminism and
other
contemporary developments.
Although Oriental in origin, this particular "response", in contrast
to
various others, was unusually "progressive", "liberal", "idealistic",
even
"radical". Because it "grew up" in a congenial modernist era, its
Author was
able gradually to adjust and revise the ideas with which He had been
"grappling", through benefiting (in a manner generally insinuated
rather
than explicitly stated) from successive interactions with other
thinkers and
movements. By 1862, apparently in order to deal with the problem of
religious exclusivity
in the Muslim world, and in response to some form of "private
mystical
experience", He "decided to make a prophetic claim of his own".
As mentioned above, if such a view had represented the
interpretation
of Baha'u'llah's Mission arrived at by a non-Baha'i as the result of
his
objective study of the sources, no Baha'i institution could have an
objection. Its relevance to the concern of the House of Justice about
your
behavior arises rather from your long-standing and widely recognized
involvement with a few present and former members of the Faith who
seek to
foist this caricature of
Mr. XXXXXX 3
August 1999
Page
3
the Cause on the Baha'i community, and your perceived identification
with
their purpose.
The Covenant, the distinguishing feature of Baha'u'llah's
Revelation,
has been made the central target of this effort (a maneuver that Dr.
Cole's
book is at particular pains to shore up). Although forced to
acknowledge
the appointments of `Abdu'l-Baha and the Guardian as Interpreters of
Baha'u'llah's Message, every effort has been made to call such
authoritative
interpretation into question wherever it presents a problem for the
notions
being promoted. Similarly, although ostensibly acknowledging that the
Universal House of Justice is Head of the Baha'i Faith today, this
opposition has tried by every means possible to undermine the broad
authority conferred in Baha'u'llah's own words and emphasized in the
Master's Will and Testament. (In
Dr. Cole's book, this agenda makes its appearance in the conclusion:
namely, that the Faith founded by Baha'u'llah has failed in its
mission
because, like "the Khomeinist state in Iran", it has been somehow
captured
by "fundamentalists", by which term Dr. Cole has repeatedly
characterized
the members of the Universal House of Justice.)
Why would a Baha'i or a Baha'i publisher who is genuinely
devoted to
advancing Baha'i scholarship and to encouraging confirmation of
believers in
Baha'u'llah's Covenant seek to persuade his Baha'i readers that
a device intended as the mainspring of an attack on their Faith is
"an
indispensable book for any serious student of Baha'i history"? How
could an
effort to represent to the Baha'i community such a work as "a
brilliant,
scholarly analysis of the life and teachings of Baha'u'llah" serve the
Cause
of God? What moral benefit do you imagine a Baha'i reader could
conceivably
derive from taking seriously the theories of an individual whose
apparently
ungovernable malice has made his activities the focal point of
contention
and disharmony among any believers unwise enough to be influenced by
him?
Indeed, what relevance do Dr. Cole's academic credentials, so
strongly
emphasized in your letter of 8 May, have to the moral and spiritual
issue
raised in the letter from the National Spiritual Assembly? Clearly,
no
reader, Baha'i or otherwise, would be interested in reading a
supposedly
scholarly study whose author lacked the relevant scholarly
qualifications.
Nor, presumably, would any publisher, Baha'i or otherwise, promote a
work from such an unqualified source. It is both meaningless and
disingenuous to argue that these qualifications, however valid in
themselves, assure that a publication meets the moral and spiritual
standards that are made explicitly clear in the Writings of the Faith
whose
interests VVVVV's activities are ostensibly designed to serve.
The assumption of Baha'i institutions is that the purpose
motivating a
group of believers to create a publishing house that enjoys
privileged
access to the Baha'i community is in order to promote the advancement
of the
Baha'i Cause. The House of Justice has always assumed -- as is no
doubt the
case
with Baha'is generally -- that this was the desire that motivated you
and
your associates to create VVVV Press. If some different conception
of
purpose underlies the VVVVV enterprise, then it is essential that you
advise
the United States National Spiritual Assembly of the facts of the
situation,
frankly, unequivocally, and without delay.
Mr. XXXXXX 3
August 1999
Page
4
The House of Justice calls on you to meditate profoundly on the
questions raised in the foregoing, as these issues bear directly on
the
relationship that binds you to your Lord. Does not the Master in His
Will
and Testament itself, specifically warn: "According to the direct
and
sacred command of God we are forbidden to utter slander, are commanded
to
show forth peace and amity, are exhorted to rectitude of conduct,
straight-forwardness and harmony with all the kindreds and peoples of
the
world"? Does He not, in that same foundation document of the Cause,
counsel
all of us: "O ye beloved of the Lord! Strive with all your heart to
shield
the Cause of God from the onslaught of the insincere, for souls such
as
these cause the straight to become crooked and all benevolent efforts
to
produce contrary results"?
The impressive services that you have rendered the Faith, with
GGGG's
loving support, represent for you a spiritual treasure. God forbid
that so
precious a capital should be squandered. While there is yet time,
the
House of Justice earnestly appeals to you to turn away from the course
on
which you have long been set, a course that has been marked by steady
spiritual deterioration and that will lead to grievous loss in both
this
world and the next. As you will recall, because the matter was of
direct
concern to her, GGGG asked urgently to be included in your discussion
with
Mr. Birkland and Dr. Mocquais. Because these issues continue to bear
so
immediately on the well-being of your family, you need to recognize
your
moral obligation to take her fully into your confidence also on the
contents
of this present letter.
In the past, you have expressed bewilderment that your actions
should
have required the intervention of senior Baha'i institutions. The
House of
Justice expects that you have now understood clearly what is at stake
and
that you will resolve, unambiguously and at once, to abandon the
course you
have, alas, been pursuing.
The House of Justice will pray ardently at the Holy Threshold
that you
will be granted the courage and will to meet the spiritual challenge
you
face.
Ruhaniya
Baha'i Assassinations
1. Assassinations by Baha's Men
Baha started out his pretensions at Edirne, They were preceded and
followed by murders committed by Baha's men to remove prominent
BÁBi's, who rejected his pretensions. Baha's men included "those
servants who fled into exile with God, and beyond them those brought
nigh."
In his letter "revelation" at Acre Baha called a halt to these act of
violence perpetuated by his 'Party of God (Hezb-ul'llah)' and enjoined
self-constraint upon them." See section 3 of this topic.
This was Baha's "Era of the Most Great Peace."
Aqa Sayyid Ali the Arab was murdered in Tabriz:
Subh-i-Azal's brother-in-law Mirza Nasrullah, who was honoured with a
letter of commendation from Baha (Baha's amanuensis Mirza Aqa Jan of
Kashan's letter to Mirza Nasrullah) was poisoned in Edirne on the eve
of Baha's departure to Acre.
Mirza Aqa Jan's letter to Mirza Nasrullah:
The BÁB's brother-in-law Mulla Rajab Ali Qahir was murdered in
Karbala.
The BÁB's brother-in-law Aqa Ali Muhammad (brother of Ghahir) was
killed in Baghdad.
See the accounts of sssassinations of Qahir & Seraj .
Hajji Mirza Ahmad of Kashan, brother of Mirza Jani of Kashan, author
of Nuqtatul Kaf was assassinated in Baghdad.
PP. 40-41, Prof. Browne's Persian Introduction to Mirza Jani of
Kashan's Nuqtatul Kaf; P. 306, & P. 308, the Hasht Bihisht;
P. 35, Materials for the study of the BÁBi religion by Prof. Browne;
pp. 119-126, the Kashful-Hiyal, 3rd impression vol. III; the Kitab-i-
Subhi, P. 120.
"The Khayyat-Bashi [chief tailor] [Muhammad Khan] and Hajji Ibrahim
were murdered in the Carawansaray of the corn-sellers [in Acre] and
buried in the quick-time under the platform, which was only mortared
up over their bodies. After a while, however the smell of the
composing bodies corpses became so offensive that the other
inhabitants of the Carwansaray complained to the local authorities,
who instituted a search and discovered the bodies." The Traveller's
Narrative, English Translation, Vol II, Professor Browne's Note W.
In his Kitab-i-Subhi, P. 120, author Subhi Fadlullah Muhtadi, one time
Persian scribe to Sir Abbas Effendi and a Bahai missionary confirms
the Hasht-Bihisht version and adds: The owner of the Carwansaray is
stated to have reported to the local authorities that the victims had
died of plague and the matter was hushed up to avoid panic among the
local inhabitants.
In his Kashf-al-Hiyal, Vol, I, 6th impression, P.36author Abd-al-
Husayn-Ayati surnamed Awara, one time member of "the Hands of the
Cause" and a prominent Bahai missionary, confirms the Hasht-Bihisht
account and adds : The assassins were Ustad Muhammad Ali the Barber
[of Isfahan] and his accomplices. These two men were billed because
they had presumptuously told Baha's brother Mirza Musa that
remittances were being procured from Iran by way of deceit, fraud and
blackmail and that their share was denied to them. The text sums as
follows:
« و سبب قتلشان این بوده که به کلیم برادر بهاء جسارت کرده گفته اند پول
ها را به مکر و حیله و شارلاتانی از ایران میطلبد و با بهره نمیدهد.»
In the Kashf-al-Hiyal Vol. III, 3rd impression, PP. 114-115, the
author adds : "the murder was hushed up upon production of a medical
report furnished by a priest physician an old friend of Sir Abbas
Effendi, to the local authorities to the effect that the victims had
died of plague. The physician received a handsome sum from Sir Abbas
Effendi for his service.
Incidentally there two victims were of "these servant's who fled with
into exile with god."
In his introduction to the Materials for the Study of the BÁBi
Religion, P. x (PP. 154) Professor Browne says: 'Khayrullah's
narrative of the treat addressed to him on account of his apostasy
from [i.e. Abbas Effendi Abdul Baha] by Mirza Hasan-i-Khurassani [Sir
Abbas Effendi's special envoy, and the history of the sad fate of
Mirza Yahya at Jeddah (PP. 156-167) [who had transferred his
allegiance to Sir Abbas Effendi's half-brother Mirza Muhammad Ali
whose sad fate Sir Abbas Effendi is stated to have foretold, and who
was poisoned] read like extracts from the history of the assassins of
Alamut and 'the old man of the mountain'."
When Baha, members of his family and his partisans were banished from
Edirne to Acre in the holy land, three of Subh-i-Azal's followers
namely Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan, Subh-i-Azal's brother-in-law; Mirza
Rida Quli of Tafrish and Aqa Jan Beg Kaj-Kulah, were also exiled to
Acre.
Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan, Mirza Rida Quli of Tafrish, and Aqa Jan
Beg Kaj Kulah, were murdered by Baha's men in Acre, in 1872, the
assassins included Ustad Muhammad Ali, the Barber of Isfahan. Mirza
Jawad's Historical Epitome, Materials for the Study of the BÁBi
Religion, by Prof. Browne, PP. 52-58.
The murder of Haji Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan is alluded in a passage
of Baha's Kitab-i Aqdas (the Most Holy Book) addressed to Subh-i-Azal
wherein he says: “God hath taken him who led thee astray.”
Baha describes “Hajji Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan as a man possessed of
utmost degree of atheism or ditheism (Jandaqa), placing him in the
same category as Munira Khanum, wife of Abdul Baha.” P. 14, Ibn-al-
Baha Badiullah's Memoirs;
In his letter penned in his own hand writing, facsimile of which is
attached to and referred to below, and addressed to a partisan of Baha
in Iran. At the time, Sir Abbas Effendi seeks to condone and justify
the murders on the ground that Mirza Rida Quli of Tafrish conducted
hostile propaganda against Baha and his partisans among the local
inhabitants, drank wine and ate pork. … and the divine might struck
across his back like a shooting star.
In his reference to the murder of these three men, the Kashf-al-Hiyal
volume III, 3rd impression, P.117, the author says Sir Abbas Effendi
Himself was positively as accountable [in the murder of these three
men], nay, he led the murder [gang] and the order [to kill] was issued
by his father. Not only that, but in the early days Bahai argument or
reasoning Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan was killed by Sir Abbas Effendi
himself and for this reason Sir Abbas Effendi was the Messiah and
Sayyid Muhammad Antichrist. Because on the strength of an Islamic
tradition Antichrist is to be slain with the sword of the Messiah.
When it was realised that this reasoning or argument was scandalous,
it was passed over in silence. The text sums as follows:
« چنانچه مکرر اشاره شد جنایات بهاء و پسرانش خیلی بیش از اینهاست راجع
به همین سه نفر هم به طور حتم خود عباس افندی شریک بلکه پیش قدم در قتل
بوده و فرمان از پدرش صادر شده. در اوایل استدلال میکرده شاند که سید
محمد را خود عباس افندی کشته است و باین واسطه او مسیح و سیّد محمد دجال
است که در اخبار اسلامی است که دجال به شمشیر مسیح کشته خواهد شد بعد
دیدند این استدلال موجب افتضاح است مسکوت گذاشتند. »
P. 125, ibid : All the Bahais say that Baha issued the epistle of
wrath “Where are your swords of vengeance, O, Dominant of the world's
[see 12.4.6, in which I have quoted Baha's revelation calling halt to
acts of violence committed by his men. A similar passage appears in
the text] and the friends [i.e. “those servants who fled into exile
with god] understood that the slaying of these men [i.e. Sayyid
Muhammad of Isfahan, Mirza Rida Quli of Tafrish, and Aqa Jan Beg Kaj
Kulah] was incumbent upon them.
The text sums as follows:
« همه گوسفندان بهاء میگویند که بهاء الله لوح قهریّه صادر کرد که « این
اسیاف انتقامک یا قهار العالمین » و احباب دانستند که کشتن آن اشخاص لازم
است و یکی از قاتلین استاد محمد علی سلمانی را من خودم 21 سال پیش در عشق
آباد دیدم و شرح حبس چندین ساله خود را برایم گفت و گفت وقتیکه تصمیم بر
قبل آن مخالفین گرفتم من از جمال مبارک (بهاء ) اجازه خواستم با تبسم و
شوخی فرمودند اگر اجازه ندهم چه میکنی عرض کردم اگر اجازه ندهید من شرکت
در قتلشان خواهم کرد تبسمی نموده فرمودند مگر از خدا نمیترسی ؟ عرض کردم
خدائی غیر از شما نیست که از او بترسم دیدم وجهة مبارک شاد و خندان شد و
فرمودند مرحبا موفق باشی!»
“I personally met one of the killers being ‘Muhammad Ali the chief
barber’ 21 years ago in Ishq-Abad (of Russia). He told me about his
imprisonment which lasted for a few years and said: “When I decided on
killing those opposing (Baha), I asked for permission from the blessed
Beauty (i.e. Baha). With a simle on his face he asked me what I would
do if he did not give me the permission. In response I said that I
woul (still) take part in their killing. He smiled and asked “Aren’t
you afraid of God?”, I said: “There is no god but you to be afraid
of.”. His blessed face became jubilant and happy and said “Well done!
Good luck to you!”.
Mirza Rida Quli's murder “was justified on the grounds that he “drank
wine & ate pork.”. Abdul Baha's letter reproduced in facsimile in the
Kitab-i Subhi, pp. 184-186, and the Kashf-al-Hiyal pp. 122-123, 3rd
impression, vol. III.
With the blood of the victims land at his door, Baha alleged against
Subh-i-Azal an attempted fratricide of which, according to Subh-i-
Azal, he was in reality himself the author. Baha produced as evidence
“those servants who fled into exile with god [i.e. Baha], and beyond
then those brought nigh and one of my attendants.” Baha's Sura-i
Haykal, pp. 205-207.
“One of my attendants” is identified “as Ustad Muhammad Ali, the
barber of Isfahan, whose ears had been cut off for theft and other
crimes by the Governor of Isfahan, who, having fled thence to Baghdad,
had become one of Baha's chosen associates, and the source of manifold
evils and mischiefs” P. 305, the Hasht Bihisht, “who was one of the
assassins of the Azalis in Acre.” P. 55, Mirza Jawad's Historical
Epitome, Materials for the Study of the BÁBi Religion by Professor
Browne, who “received Baha's blessing on the eve of the commission of
his crime”, pp. 125-126, the Kashf-al-Hiyal, 3rd impression, Vol II,
and who was apparently recipient of the title “the Barber of the
Truth,” in Baha's Honour list., p. 309, the Hasht Bihisht, & How Baha
referred to his Members of family.
Baha suffered from dystaxia. P. 65 the Tanbihun Naimin (The Sleeper
Awakened). This infinity affected Baha's hands which had become shaky.
Traces of this disease were noticeable in Baha's writings written with
a shaky hand.
To cover up Baha's infinity with some sort of excuse in the eyes of
his followers Abdul Baha invented this canard: “Subh-i-Azal
administered poison to Baha, who not wishing to break the former's
heart, took the poison. But for the poison to work Baha's blessed will
was not forthcoming. So Baha escaped death; but his hand remains
shaky.”, pp. 78-79, Kashf-al-Hiyal, sixth impression, Vol. I.
Avareh dismisses Baha's allegation of attempted fratricide as a
fabrication. P. 321, Kashf-al-Hiyal, 3rd impression, vol III.
“… If they be true [i.e. charges of assassinations of the Azalis by
Bahais; they were confirmed by Prof. Browne in his Introduction to the
Tarikh-i-Jadid (The New History), pp. vviii-xxiv, and in his Persian
Introduction to Mirza Jani of Kashan's Nuqtatul Kaf, pp. 40-41] on
whole view of the tendencies and probable influences of Baha's
teachings must necessarily be greatly modified, for of what we are the
noblest and most humane utterances if they be associated with deeds
such as here alleged.” Professor Brown's comment in Note W. p. 364,
Abdul Baha's “A Traveller's Narrative,” vol ii, English translation.
“Baha is not [the Imam] Husayn but Hasan [Sabah, History of the
Assassins of Alamut and the old man of the mountain] returned.” PP.
28-38, the Kashf-al Hiyal. 6th impression, vol I.
Disgusted with the crimes laid at the door of the Bahai hierarchy,
some BÁBis renounced their BÁBi faith and composed the following
distich:
“If Husayn Ali [i.e. Baha, his real name Husayn Ali is written as one
word in Persian and not as two separate words] is the manifestation of
Husayn Ali [i.e. the third Imam, and son of Ali Ibn Ali Talib; Baha
claims to be the Imam Husayn returned; the Imam's name Husayn Ali is
written in Persian as two separate words] then may god grant heavenly
bless thousand times to the pure soul of Yazid [i.e. the second Caliph
of dynasty of Ommiades, son of Mu'awiya, having instigated the murder
of the Imam Ali's two sons, Hasan & Husayn, his name is cursed by
Moslems; his name is synonymous with a wicked and execrable person].
Husayn [i.e. the Imam] was the wronged-one (Mazlum) and not the
wrongdoer [Yazid].” P. 16, The Tanbih Naimin.
Death to Haifan Bahaism
Baha'i Assassinations
2. Murder of Bayanis By Baha's Men - A Year Amongs The Persians
(Prof. Browne)
Professor Browne in his 'A Year Amongst the Persians' queries a Bahai
in the town of Yazd on the murder of the Bayanis by Baha's men in Acre
who describes the killings and Abbas Effendi's efforts to release the
murderers from prison which he succeeds:
I said, when we were alone, "will you tell me more fully about the
murder of the seven Ezelis who were sent with Beha and his followers
to Acre? You mentioned the fact a few days ago, and added that you had
seen the assassins yourself during your stay there, and that they
still received their prison allowance, though at large, and wore gyves
on their ankles."
"Yes," replied the Sheykh, who had drunk enough 'arak' to render him
communicative, and not enough to make him incoherent, "they were
twelve in number who slew the Ezelis, and nine of them were still
living when I was at Acre. This was the way of it. When Beha advanced
his claim at Adrianople, and his half-brother, Subh-i-Ezel, refused to
admit it, the Babis were divided into two factions, some going with
the former, and some holding fast to the latter. So high did the
feeling run that the matter ended in open strife, and two Ezelis and
one Beha'i were killed. So the Turkish Government determined to
separate the two, and arranged to banish Mirza Yahya (Subh-i- Ezel)
and his followers to a town in Cyprus near the sea-shore, of which I
cannot now remember the name, and Mirza Huseyn 'Ali (Beha'u'llah),
with his family and adherents, to Acre. But, knowing the two factions
to be on the worst possible terms, it occurred to them that it would
be advantageous to themselves to keep a few of each in the stronghold
of the other, so that, should any Persian or other traveller come to
Acre or Cyprus with the intention of visiting Beha or Ezel, these
adherents of the rival claimant to supreme power might co-operate with
the governrnent in throwing obstacles in his way. So they sent three
of Beha's followers (one of whom, Mushkin-Kalam, so-called from his
extraordinary skill in calligraphy, is still [1892] alive) to Cyprus
with Ezel, and seven Ezelis with Beha to Acre.
"Now as far as concerned Ezel this plan worked well enough, for
Mushkin-Kalam set up a little coffee-house at the port where
travellers must needs arrive, and whenever he saw a Persian land, he
would invite him in, give him tea or coffee and a pipe, and gradually
worm out of him the business which had brought him thither. And if his
object were to see Subh-i-Ezel, off went Mushkin-Kalam to the
authorities, and the pilgrim soon found himself packed out of the
island. But at Acre it was different. The seven Ezelis: Aka Jan,
called 'Kaj-Kulah' ('Skew-Cap') who had served with distinction in the
Turkish artilley; Haji Seyyid Muhammad of Isfahan, one of the original
companions of the Bab; Mirza Riza, nephew of the last, and a scion of
the same royal race of the Safavis (for both were descended from Shah
'Abbas the Great); Mirza Haydar 'Ali of Ardistan, a wonderful fire-
brand (atashi gharib), beside whom our mutual friend Mirza Muhammad
Bakir of Bawanat was no more than a spark; Haji Seyyid Huseyn of
Kashan; and two others, whose names I forget--lived all together in a
house situated near the gate of the city. Well, one night, about a
month after their arrival at Acre, the twelve Beha'is of whom I have
spoken determined (but without having received instructions from Beha)
to kill them, and so prevent them from doing any mischief. So they
went at night, armed with swords and daggers, to the house where the
Ezelis lodged, and knocked at the door. Aka Jan came down to open to
them, and was stabbed before he could cry out or offer the least
resistance. He was a young man, but very strong, so that once in the
Russian war he had without aid picked up a cannon-ball and thrown it
into the mouth of the gun. Then they entered the house and killed the
other six.
"When the Turks heard what had been done, they imprisoned Beha and all
his family and followers in the Caravansaray, but the twelve assassins
came forward and surrendered themselves, saying, 'We killed them
without the knowledge of our Master or any of our brethren; punish us,
then, not them.' So they were imprisoned for a while; but afterwards,
at the intercession of 'Abbas Effendi, Beha's eldest son, were
suffered to be at large, on condition only of remaining in Acre, and
wearing steel fetters on their ankles for a time."
"It was a horrible deed," I remarked.
Death to Haifan Bahaism
http://bayanic.com/notes/assas/as03.html
Baha'i Assassinations
3. Murder of Bayanis By Baha's Men - Mirza Jawad's Account
The following account is the translation of Mirza Jawad's account of
the murder of the Bayanis at Acre included in his Historical Epitome
and translated by Professor Browne in his 'Materials For The Study of
The Babi Religion'.
Mirza Jawad was one of Baha's disciples and a resident of Acre who
took side with Mirza Muhammad Ali, the half-brother of Abbas Effendi
after Baha's death. Mirza Jawad admits to have been involved with the
planning of the murders but claims to have withdrawn when Baha
allegedly did not approve the plan:
"Now, those who were agreed to execute the plan which has been
mentioned were Ustad Abdul-Karim the turner, Ustad Muhammad Ali the
barber of Isfahan, Ustad Ahmad and his nephew Mirza Husayn the
carpenter of Kashan, Mirza Jafar of Yazd and Aqa Husayn of Kashan the
cook. These began to consort with the malignants under a sembalance of
sympathy and concord, for the better execution of their plans, and
continued for some time to converse and associate with them. Then they
came in unto them one afternoon in a house which was opposite to the
dwelling of the mutasarrif of the town and killed Sayyed Muhammad, Aqa
Jan and Mirza Riza Quli afore-mentioned on the 12th of Dhu'l-Qa'da,
A.H. 1288 (January 22, 1872)."
Death to Haifan Bahaism
Baha'i Assassinations - Browne's Remarks
4. Murder of Bayanis By Baha's Men - Browne's Remarks
The following is an extract from Note W. of the appendix to Browne's
translation of Traveller's Narrative. Professor Browne suggests that
"There is no evidence to prove that the assassins acted under orders".
Whilst there is no written statement signed and sealed by Baha to have
instructed his followers to murder the Bayanis at Acre, it is obvious
as noted by Browne that the killings were met with favour with Baha
and his son Abbas Effendi:
As to the assassination of the three Ezelís, Áká Ján Bey, Hájí Seyyid
Muhammad of Isfahán, and Mírzá Rizá-Kulí of Tafrísh, by some of Behá's
followers at Acre, there can, I fear, be but little doubt; for the
account of this event which I published at p. 517 of my first paper on
the Bábís in the J. R. A. S. for 1889 was given to me by a Behá'í who
had during his visit to Acre seen, and, I think, conversed with some
of the perpetrators of this deed. It is curious that he, so far from
attempting to minimize the matter, raised the number of the victims
and assassins from three and four to seven and twelve respectively.
Subh-i-Ezel's account (B. ii, pp. 995-6) agrees with that contained in
the Hasht Bihisht. There is, however, no evidence to prove that the
assassins acted under orders, though the passage in the Kitáb-i-Akdas
alluding (apparently) to Hájí Seyyid Muhammad's death, which is quoted
at the foot of p. 93 supra, proves that Behá'u'lláh regarded this
event with some complaisance. His son 'Abbás Efendí would also seem to
have interceded for the murderers (B. i, p. 517).
Mr Oliphant in his work entitled Haifa (see supra, pp. 209-210), after
speaking of the mystery which surrounds Behá'u'lláh and the difficulty
of seeing him, says, in a passage which appears to bear reference to
these assassinations (op. cit., p. 107):-
"Not long ago, however, public curiosity was gratified, for one of his
[i.e. Behá'u'lláh's] Persian followers stabbed another for having been
unworthy of some religious trust, and the great man himself was
summoned as a witness.
"'Will you tell the court who and what you are?' was the first
question put.
"'I will begin,' he replied, 'by telling you who I am not. I am not a
camel-driver' - this was an allusion to the Prophet Mohammad - 'nor am
I the son of a carpenter' - this in allusion to Christ. 'This is as
much as I can tell you to-day. If you will now let me retire, I will
tell you tomorrow who I am.'
"Upon this promise he was let go; but the morrow never came. With an
enormous bribe he had in the interval purchased an exemption from all
further attendance at court."
Death to Haifan Bahaism
Baha'i Assassinations
5. Baha And Abbas Effendi Condone Assassination of the Bayanis In
Acre
Following an autograph letter of Sir Abbas Effendi who signed himself
A&A during the lifetime of Baha (The Dawn Breakers, Nabil's Narrative,
glossary, P. 674) addressed to a fellow Bahai named Lutfullah in Iran,
in which Sir Abbas Effendi condons and justifies the murder of Mirza
Riza Quli of Tafrish on the grounds that he condemned anti Bahai
propaganda, ate pork and drank wine, the letter speaks for itself.
هوالله
جناب لطف الله انشاء الله در پناه حق بذکرالله و ثنائه و حبه و جله و
شوقه محمود و مشغول بوده و هستید و از ماسوای الله منقطع و بعزة یوثقی
متشبث مدتیست که در شما خبری نرسیده عریضه و رحمت اقدس حاضر شده البته صد
البته در کل ادوان مکتوب بفرست و کیفیت احوال خود را مرقوم دار. حاجی فرج
الله الحمد الله در ظل حق بمنتهای صحت و سلامت محفوظ و مسرور و بیاد شما
مشغول بسیار مشتاق دیدار شماست و متصلا مستدعی ؟؟ در این سفر نبودی تا
ملاحظه کنی که میرزا رضای قلی چه غل و بغضائی بر حق ظاهر شد و جمیع انبیا
و اولیای الهی را سب و لعن نمود و برد در مجلس حاکم این شهر و گفت مذهب
بابیها اینست و من چون مطلع شدم بیزاری جستم و کل آن اعمال خبیثه که در
ایران مرتکب شده بود و همچنین در سایر محلها کل را به جمال مبارک نسبت
داد و حال آنکه شمامیدانید که بندگان و خدام این درگاه از نفوسی که مرتکب
اعمال خبیثه هستند بیزارند. و اول ؟؟؟ باو رسید بجهت شرب خمر و اکل گوشت
خنزیربود با وجود ؟ این افعال شنیعه را ؟؟ افترا بست و شما میدانید که من
با او به چه نحو محبت و مهربانی مینمودم و بعد از رفتن شما صد درچه
تمامتر نمودم ولکن فوالله الذی لا اله الا هو انچه بیشتر مهربانی نمودم
بغض و عداوتش بیشتر شد آخر امر را به چائی رساند که کل اهل این شهر را
اغوا نمود که بغتته شورش نمایند و کل را صغیرا و کبیرا و ذکورا و اناثا
هلاک نمایند تا عاقبت کار به این قسم واقع شد وفی الحقیقه این میگفت امری
بود که ابدا کسی گمان نمیکرد و قوتش را ولکن سطوت قهر الهی چون شهاب ثاقب
بر کمرش زد. اول در اینجا بنا نمود در نزد احباب به کنایه و استعاره نسبت
بانبیای الهی بی ادبی نمودن و از برای هر مظهری از مظاهر مقدسه اثبات
قصور و ذنب نمودن و بر جمیع افترا بستن باز علم حق را مشاهده نمود و
بیشتر از پیشتر اظهار طغیان کرد عاقبت رفت بناکرد نصارا و الواط اسلام را
شبها به شرب خمر دعوت نمود و اساس مجلس ترغیب و تحریض بر قتل کل این
طائفه در این ؟ هستند. بیهوده میگفت اینها دشمن حضرت موسی و دین یهودند و
به نصاری میگفت اینها معتقد به این هسنتد که نعوذ بالله حضرت روح از
ابناء فلان بوده و مبنی مذهبشان اینست که کل ؟ را باید کشت
خ ط ع ب ا س ا ف ن د ی
و با سلام میگفت اینها میخواهند خانه کعبه را و ضریح مبارک حضرت رسول و
کل انبیا را خراب کنند و جمیع انبیا را باطل میدانند و منکرند و من اول
نه باب را میشناختم و نه بابیها را من را گول زدند حال که داخل شدم تا
آنکه کتاب بیان بدست من آمد تبرا جستم بعد کتاب بیان را از سید محمد
گرفته برد در نزد شخصی از علمای سنه و گفت اینست به بینید با وجود این
نشسته اید و حضرات را هلاک نمیکنید باری فرصت نیست که تفصیل بنویسم شما
در ادرنه گفتید که این حرفها را میرزا قلی میزند انشاء الله من بعد مطلع
خواهید شد البته البته مکتوب بنویس و انشاء الله امیدواریم که اسباب
ملاقات فراهم شود
Sir Abbas Effendi 's autograph letter in which he condones the Acre
assassinations is reproduced in the Kitab-i Subhi by Mirza Subhi
Fazlullah Muhalati, one time Persian Scribe of the Abbas Effendi (pp.
184-186) as well as in the Kashf-al-Ghita (Vol. II 3rd in Persian, PP.
121-123) by Mirza Abd-al-Hussayn Ayati surnamed Awara former prominent
Bahai proselytiser.
Assassinations By Baha's Hezbullah (Party of God)
Baha takes up a similar attitude to condone as a whole the
assassinations committed by his followers on the strength of the
earlier utterances of the "Supreme Pen", the obvious sense of which
Baha admits conflicts with his new divine cause.
It was on the strength of the passages or the verse and the like
thereof (see previous section) “revealed from the Supreme Pen in the
early days” and quoted in the tablet that most of the BÂBis, including
the two brothers of the Point’s second-wife, who withstood Baha’s
pretensions, were sought out and slain wherever they chanced to be by
members of the (Hezb’u’llah) “sect of god”.
Baha's revelation in which he calls a halt to such acts of violence
and calls upon the "servants of God" to disregard such utterances, and
to exercise self-restraint, henceforth appears in his Ishraqat,
Tarazat, Tajaliat, tablets of Baha'u'llah. PP.14-15.
The text sums as follows :
قل یا حزب الله بیقین مبین بدانید فساد و نزاع و قتل و غارت در شأن
درندگان ارض است و انسان شأنش بعلم و عمل است در اکثر الواح عباد را از
مایضرهم منع و بماینفعهم امر نمودیم. یا حزب الله با جمیع احزاب عالم
بمحبت و مودت معاشدت نمائید فساد و شئونات آن طرّاُ نهی شده و ؟ عظیماُ
فی کتاب الله رّب العالمین اگر چه در اوّل ایّام از قلم اعلی نازل شد
آنچه ظاهرش مخالف امر جدید الهی است از جمله امثال این فقرات قد ؟ الا ؟
بالنفاقه این اسیاق قدرتک یا قطر العالمین ولکن مقصود از آن نزاع و فساد
نبوده بلکه مقصود اظهار مراتب ظلم ظالمین و شقاوت مشرکین تا کل بدانند
ظلم فراعنه ارض بمقامی رسیده که از قلم اعلی امثال این آیه نازل و حال
وصیت مینمائیم عبادالله را که از بعد ببعض بیانات تمسک ننمائید و سبب ضّر
عباد نشوند نصرت در این ظهور اعظم منحصر است بحکمت و بیان جندالله طاهره
و اخلاق مقدسه مرضیه بوده و هست.
It was on the strangest of this "utterances" and the likes of it that
the "servants of god" sought out and obeyed prominent BÁBis, who
understood Baha's pretensions, wherever they chanced to be, amongst
them being Mulla Rajab Ali Ghahir, and his brother Aqa Ali Muhammad of
Isfahan, brother in law of Sayyid Ali Muhammad, the BÁB, the point who
was married to their sister Fatima.
The strange part of is Baha according to him was "Sayyid Ali Muhammad
returned again." Prof. Browne's Art., xii, J.R.A.S. October 1889, p.
952. The strange part of it is these assassinations are entirely
flashed out in Abbas Effendi's Traveller's Narrative.
The strange part of it is that Mirza Muhammad Jawad of Qazwin in his
historical epitome dealt with only one particular case of murder at
Acre, in which he was an accessory before the facts.- Materials for
the study of the BÁBi Religion by Prof. Browne, pp. 52-55.
Baha's letters of the Baghdad period in categorical denial of charges
of apostasy and deflection from Sayyid Ali Muhammad and Subh-i Azal
preferred against him by prominent BÁBis, and in the reaffirmation of
his allegiance and fealty to Sayyid Ali Muhammad and Subh-i Azal;
Baha's will and testament of the Baghdad period in the same sense;
allegation of fratricide at Edirne; Baha's information against Subh-i
Azal lodged with the Ottoman authorities at Edirne, falsely accusing
him of conspired to revolt against the established authority; Baha's
Epistle to the kings and the ultimate fate of Sayyid Ali Muhammad's
writings will be noticed in due course in their historical background
on the documentary evidence of none other person than Baha himself.
Mirza Hussayn Ali's self-assumed and unauthorised title of Baha or
Baha'u'llah will be noticed in the documentary evidence of Sayyid Ali
Muhammad, the granter of titles.
Baha should be evaluated in the height of these documents, which Prof.
Browne had no access.
Death to Haifan Bahaism
Baha's Change of Heart on Assassinations
Says Baha in the tablet of the Ishraqat, Tarazat, Tajaliat, P.1; P.
12; PP.14-15.
“O party of god! Know for evidence surely that sedition, strife,
slaying and plunder are the state of the wild beasts of the earth. The
station of man and his state are through knowledge and work. In most
of the tablets we forbade [god's] servants that which will hurt them,
and enjoined on them that which will advantage them. O party of god!
Associate with all sects of the world in love and friendship. Sedition
and its states are, one and all, forbidden in the Book of god, the
lord of worlds, with a stringent prohibition. Though in the early days
there had been revealed from the Supreme Pen what is obviously
repugnant to the new Cause, for instance passages such as these ‘the
necks have stretched out in discord, where are the swords of thy power
O Dominant of the worlds!' but for the object thereof was not strife
and sedition; rather the object was to show forth circumstances of
oppression of oppressors and of villainy of those who associate
partners with god, so that all may know that the oppression of the
earth has reached such a pitch that the likes of this verse had been
revealed from the Supreme Pen. And now, we exhort god's servants not
to adhere to some of the utterances and not to become a cause of hurt
to [their fellow] servants of god.”
The Ishraqat, Tarazat, Tajaliyyat were printed in a book form. It also
contains a great number of tablets addressed to Baha by a number of
his partisans. The book runs into 298 pages. The first tablet in the
book consists of 32 pages. The burden of Baha's discourse in the
tablet is the extract supra in the first page of the tablet. In page
12 Baha says that through exhortations and counsels extending over a
period of “fourty years” he forbade god's servants to engage in
quarrels, seditions and disputes. On p.44 in another tablet combined
in the same book Baha says that for “about forty years” he forbade
god's servant to engage in sedition, quarrels and murder; in the same
tablet, P.45 Baha says that upon his arrival in Baghdad from Teheran
he forbade all to engage in sedition and quarrels. These passages
clearly show that the tablet referred to in Enclosure I was composed
by Baha about a few years before his death in 1892.
It was on the strength of the passages or the verse and the like
thereof (see previous sections) “revealed from the Supreme Pen in the
early days” and quoted in the tablet that most of the BÁBis, including
the two brothers of the BÁB's second-wife, who withstood Baha's
pretensions, were sought out and slain wherever they chanced to be by
members of the (Hezb'u'llah) paryt of god”.
Death to Haifan Bahaism
Baha'i Assassinations
7. Allegation of “Shedding Baha's Most Pure Blood
Sir Abbas Effendi does not state when and where was the most pure
blood shed with impunity!
In the flower of his age, Sir Abbas Effendi wrote the Traveller's
Narrative. In the Narrative he cited himself for himself as authority
to support his father's pretensions. In the Narrative, he blacked out
all Bahai assassinations. In the Narrative, he did not breathe a word
about the allegations.
In his senility Sir Abbas Effendi wrote his Will and Testament, with
his foot in the grave, he fabricated the allegation [that Baha's blood
was shed] broke the record. It appears that Bahaism batters on
falsehood.
7.1 The Cause of Baha's shaky Hand
"For long years", to quote from the Tanbih-al-Naimin (Awakening of the
Sleepers, P.65," the disease ) of hernia was inseparable from the
person of Baha, and those present and absent were an eyewitness to his
hand's shaking continuously from palsy."
The text sums as follows:
« سالهای دراز جناب ابوی را مرض فتق ملازم رکاب و رعشة دست شاهد حضور و
غیاب »
Traces of Baha's palsic hand are observed on his own writings penned
in his own handwriting:
a) in the Iqlim-i-Nur by Mirza Muhammad Ali Malik Khosravi, a Bahai
writer, P.253, facsimile is reproduced of a document dated 1262 A.H
(1845-6), to which Baha subscribed as a witness. Baha inscribed upon
the document a statement penned in his own handwriting and sealed with
his own seal 'Hussayn Ali'. The document containing Baha's inscription
was reproduced as a specimen of Baha's handwriting and sealed at the
time. Traces of Baha's palsic hand are observed in the statement
inscribed upon the document.
b) traces of Baha's palser hand are also discerned in the colophons
penned in his own handwriting in his Will and Testament in the Baghdad
period.
The inscription on the document and the colophons of the Will and
Testament belie Sir Abbas Effendi's allegation, avowedly intended to
cover up physical defects.
7.2 Allegation of Poisoning Baha
Mirza Muhammad Jawad of Qazwin, author of the Historical Epitome
incorporated in the Materials for the Study of the BÁBi Religion by
Prof. Browne, underwent a term of imprisonment at Tabriz, Iran. He
does not state why he was arrested and having secured his release from
imprisonment he betook himself to Edirne … Materials, ibid, P.25. He
accompanied Baha to Acre.
On his own admission Mirza Muhammad Jawad of Qazwin was an accessory
before the fact in the murder of Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan, Mirza
Rida Quli of Tafrish, and Aqa Jan Beg Kaj Kulah. Materials, ibid P.54.
Contradicting Sir Abbas Effendi that Baha allegedly took the poison in
order not to disappoint Subh-i-Azal, Mirza Jawad alleges that the
attempt to poison Baha was by means of a cup of tea with milk
containing poison which Baha drank some of it, which version is in
turn contradicted by Baha's daughter Bahiyya Khanum who alleges that
the attempt was made by means of a dish, one half of which was mixed
with poison. Baha himself alleged victim, advances no such allegation.
Those conflicting and contradictory versions of one and the same
allegation are in themselves sufficient to dismiss the allegation as
false and devoid of foundation.
Mirza Jawad and Baha's daughter [Bahiyya Khanum] have identical views
as regards to the allegation to have Baha assassinated in the Bath.
Baha refers to would be assassin as "one of my attendants" without
naming him.
As admitted by Shoghi Effendi also, god passes by, p.114, Subh-i Azal
and members of his family lived in a dilapidated quarter of the city.
Their meals were provider from Baha's kitchen. The Awakening of
Sleepers (Tanbihun-Naimin), PP. 18-19.
The Hasht-Bihisht (“the Eight Paradises”), PP. 304-305:
“The first juggle and trick of sorcery which he [i.e. Baha] outlined
was this, that he brought to Hazrat-i Azal [i.e. Subh-i Azal] a dish
of plain food, with one side of which he had mixed with some poison,
intending to poison His Holiness. For hitherto the apportioned
breakfast and supper of His Holiness the Fruit [Hazrat-i Thamara, one
of the titles conferred on Subh-i Azal by the Point] had been from the
house of Mirza Husayn Ali [i.e. Baha]. When that poisoned dish was
placed before His Holiness, Mirza Husayn Ali pressed him to partake of
it. By a fortunate chance the smell of onions was perceptible in the
food, and His Holiness, being averse to taste it. Mirza Husayn Ali
continued to press him urgently to eat. He replied, “it smells of
onions, I will not eat it; if it is so good, eat it yourself. From
this answer Mirza Husayn Ali supposed that His Holiness had divined
his evil design, and, simply put the view of disguising the truth and
putting a better appearance on the matter, ate a little from the other
side [i.e. the unpoisoned side] of the dish, in order that the
suspicion of His Holiness might perhaps be dispelled and he might eat
the poisoned side. But His Holiness, because of the smell of onion
would not eat.”
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Death to Haifan Bahaism
Baha'i Assassinations
8. Alleged Attempt on Baha's life in the Bath
Star witness “Ustad Muhammad Ali, the barber of Isfahan's ears had
been cut off for theft and other crimes by the governor of Isfahan. He
fled from there to Baghdad and became one of Mirza Husayn Ali's
[Baha's] chosen associate, and the source of manifold evils and
mischief.” The Hasht Bihisht (the Eight Paradises, printed, P. 305).
The text runs as follows:
محمد علی دلاک اصفهانی که گوشش را حاکم اصفهان بواسطه دزدی و جنایت بریده
بود از آنجا فرار کرده در بغداد از خواص اصحاب میرزا حسینعلی و مصدر
هزارگونه شرارت و فساد گشت.
Bahai account of alleged attempted Fratricide are contrary and
contradicting :
a) according to Baha "he desired to eat my flesh, and drink my blood,
whereunto been witness those servants who fled into exile with god,
and beyond them those brought nigh. And herein he took counsel with
one of my attendants, tempting him unto this. Then god helped me with
the hosts of the invisible and the visible, and presided me by the
truth, and revealed unto me that which withhold him from what he
purposed, and brought to naught the device of these who denied the
signs of the merciful [god]." The Traveller's Narrative, English
Translation, note W, to Prof. Browne, Sura-i-Haykal, PP. 306-367. Baha
does not designate his attendant by name.
b) According to Sir Abbas Effendi in his Will and Testament (see
section 5 of this topic) he even shed the most pure blood [of Baha
with impunity." There is no mention of this allegation in Sir Abbas
'Traveller's Narrative.'
c) According to Sir Abbas Effendi quoted in the Kashf-al-Haykal by
Mirza Abd-al-Husayn Ayati surnamed Awara, Vol I, 6th impression, PP.
78-79, "Subh-i-Azal offered poison to Baha. Baha did not want to
disappoint him. He took the poison, but the assent of the blessed will
of Baha was not forthcoming for the poison to work. Therefore Baha
escaped death and only unsteadiness survived in the blessed hand. This
explanation, Awara says is intended to account for Baha's unsteady
hand, traces of which are observed in his writings. The text sums as
follows:
«عموم بهائیان معترفند بر اینکه بهاء رعشه دست داشته است و این اعتراف بر
این است که چون آن لغزش در خطوط او موجود است این را نتوانسته اند انکار
نمایند ولی عبدالبهاء به عذر غریبی تشبث کرده که گوسفندان هم پزیرفته اند
و آن این است که گفته است: « ازل ایشان را زهر داد و نخواستند دل او را
بشکند زهر را میل کردند ولی اراده مبارک تعلق نگرفت که آن زهر کازگر شود
لهذا از هلاک رستند و تنها رعشه در دست مبارک باقی ماند.»
d) According to Baha's daughter Bahiyya or Sultan Khanum surnamed
Supreme Leaf, The Chosen Highway by Lady Blomfield, P. 60, "He invited
Baha to a feast and shared a dish with him, one half of which he had
mixed with poison. For twenty one days Baha was seriously ill from the
effect of the poison. Incensed at this failure, Subh-i-Azal tried
another plan. He asked the bath attendant (for a bribe) to assassinate
Baha whilst he should be taking his bath, suggesting how easily it
could be done without fear of detection. This man so shocked and
horrified that he rushed into the street mockery.
e) according to Mirza Muhammad Jawad of Qazwin in his Historical
Epitome, Materials for the Study of the BÂBi Religion by Prof. Browne,
PP. 22-23, Mirza Yahya [i.e. Subh-i-Azal one day invited Baha to his
house to drink tea with tea according to the customs of the Persians;
and had arranged this before the arrival of Baha, so when one of the
cups above-mentioned was offered to him, he drank some of it, and gave
the remainder to one of the wives of Mirza Yahya who was present. and
had set apart certain special cups for Baha. She drank of it, and
subsequently there appeared in her symptoms of poisoning, though the
poison was not sufficient quantity to threaten her life. After the
above-mentioned event, the health of Baha was gently disordered. The
elbow of Baha continued for a long while, but eventually, his health
was restored ….. One day Mirza Yahya entered the bath attended by
master Muhammad Ali of Isfahan the barber according to custom. And in
the bath Mirza Yahya endeavoured to persuade attendant to kill his
holiness our master Bahaullah, saying, 'when thou waitest upon his
holiness Bahaullah in the bath and art preparing to shave his throat,
cut it, but Muhammad Ali after leaving the bath reported the master."
f) According to Mirza Abu-al-Fadhl of Gulpaygan, 'the Brilliant Proof'
Chicago, 1912, PP.10-11, "Mirza Yahya [Subh-i-Azal] repeatedly planned
to murder Baha. Again he sought Baha in Edirne, and accordingly to
trustworthy authorities, attempted to do so twice but failed to
accomplish his design. There he arose and resumed his task, stricken
weakened carrying the traces of poison for the rest of his life.”
g) According to Baha in his Epistle to the Son of Wolf Juli Chamler’s
translation, P.130, “then the Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan famed him
[i.e. Subh-i-Azal] secretly, and their activities resulted in the
greatest calamity. Why have you not questioned the officials of the
government? The deeds of Mirza Yahya [i.e. Subh-i-Azal] in this
country [i.e. Edirne] passed the bounds of manifestation.”
All these Bahai authorities have vied with one another, and have given
free rein to their imagination in giving conflicting and contradictory
accounts of the allegations. When these allegations are examined this
boils down to (a) an alleged attempt to poison Baha and (b) an alleged
attempt to assassinate Baha.
Principal witness are:
a) Baha,
b) Sir Abbas Effendi
c) Mirza Muhammad Jawad of Qazwin; and
d) Ustad [master] Muhammad Ali, the barber of Isfahan.
Antecedents and Credibility of Witness
Baha alleges that "Subh-i-Azal desired to eat my flesh and drink my
blood" and produces no evidence, "those servants who fled into exile
with god, and beyond them those brought nigh; and one of my
attendants." identified by Mirza Muhammad Jawad of Qazwin as 'Ustad
Muhammad Ali, the barber of Isfahan."
Star witness Ustad Muhammad Ali, the barber of Isfahan, was one of
“those servants who fled into exile with God.” Star Witness Ustad
Muhammad Ali, the Barber of Isfahan, was ‘one of the assassins, who
murdered “two of those servants who fled into exile with God.” (See
section 5 and section 1)
Death to Haifan Bahaism
9.1 Epistle to the Son of Wolf
In the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Juli Chamler's translation, P.
130, Baha says: "There, the Sayyid Muhammad [of Isfahan murdered at
Acre see section 1 of this topic] joined him [i.e. Subh-i-Azal] and
their activities resulted in the greatest calamity. Why have you not
questioned the officials of the government, the deeds of Mirza Yahya
[Subh-i-Azal] in this country [i.e. Edirne], passed the bounds of
imagination?
9.2 Abbas Effendi's Will & Testament
In his Will and Testament (P. 6) Sir Abbas Effendi says: "What
sedition and intrigue stirred up whilst in the land of mystery [i.e.
Edirne]. At last he wrought that which caused the Day-Star of
Splendour [i.e. Baha] to be sent as exile to this, the most great
prison [i.e. Acre]."
In his reply addressed to Mons Edgard Blochet (see section 12.4.1.5]
Subh-i-Azal refers to the forged letters circulated by Baha, which
brought about the banishment.
http://bayanic.com/notes/assas/as09.html
9.3 Starving of Subh-i Azal's Family
Baha cut off supplies and means of subsistence to Subh-i Azal in a
forlorn hope to starve him and members of the family into submission.
In his footnote 1 in P. 99 in the Traveller's Narrative, Vol II,
English Translation Professor Browne writes: "Subh-i Azal appears to
have been almost left without supporters in Adrianopole, so that
according to his own account, he and his boy were compelled to go
themselves to the market to buy their daily food.”
In one of his Persian writings, Subh-i Azal states that “one of the
members of my family called on the district authorities, and
complained without my permission.” This accounts for Baha's outburst
in his statement of claim that “he dishonoured me ….”
Mirza Jawad refers to this matter in his Historical Epitome, Materials
for the Study of the BÁBi Religion by Prof. Browne, P. 24; but he
suppressed entirely the true facts of the cause and gave a different
slant to it.
http://bayanic.com/notes/assas/as10.html
. Other Murders by Baha’s Men
Aqa Abul Jasim of Kashan, also had accompanied Subh-i Azal to Baghdad
and for whom the latter had written the Akhlaq-al-Ruhaniyyin, was
murdered by Baha’s men during the Baghdad period of the BÂBi exiles;
because he had reported to Subh-i Azal that he heard that Baha’s
pretension was that he was the return of the Imam Hussein. Baha was
administered and reprimanded, which put him to flight to Kurdistan.
During the same period Haji Mirza Muhammad Rida maternal uncle of Haji
Sayyid Muhammad of Isfahan murdered by Baha’s men at Acre, one of the
administrators of reprimand to Baha was also murdered by Baha’s men.
Old BÂBi manuscripts. Apparently Dr. Browne did not know that these
murders were committed during the Baghdad period, subsequent to Baha’s
return from Edirne.
Death to Haifan Bahaism
Abbas Effendi the Murderer: Chief Exemplar of the Baha'i Technique
From the statement of one Mirza Hasan Khurasani (undated but located
sometime between June 1898 and November 1900) in possession of
Ibrahim
George Khayrullah who forwarded it to Professor Edward Granville
Browne at Cambridge University on February 26, 1901, together with
other related items, who translated them all in his Materials for the
Study of the Babi Religion (Cambridge: 1916), pp.154-167.
"I came here especially to bring you back to your allegiance to Abbas
Effendi, and am prepared to stay ten years if necessary. If you
return
to Abbas Effendi, I will cause the American believers to follow you
as
head in everything even better than heretofore. If you will not
listen
to me and become a follower of Abbas, your abode will be in the
bowels
of the earth. I come here because of pity for you, and to save you.
If
you will not listen, your life will be short. If Abbas Effendi should
give me the word to cut you to pieces, or tear your eyes out, or to
kill you, I will do so at once. I fear not the consequences to
myself.
You know that I am from Khurasan, and that the sword of Khurasan is
so
powerful that if a blow is struck with it, it will cut from above the
stars to the depth of the earth, and will cut even the fishes of the
sea.'
"He then repeated to me the fate of Mirza Yahya of Jedda, and
offered
me a copy of a pamphlet published by himself entitled ‘the Great
Miracle of Abbas Effendi.' The above is the substance of what he said
to me on Friday, November 30, 1900.
"On Saturday, December 1st, 1900, Mirza Hassan-i-Khurasani again
called in the company of Mirza Asadu'llah, and their interpretor
Mirza
Husayn [Ruhi]. We all discussed the difference of faith for about
eight hours in the presence of my son-in-law Amir Hani Shihab and his
wife Mrs Shihab (my daughter), also my daughter Labiba, and my son
George Kheyrullah M.D. During this discussion Mirza Hasan-i-Khurasani
mentioned to those present that the day before, while talking to me
alone, he had plainly told me the consequences of not acceding to
their wishes. Upon this I repeated to all present the threatening
words he had uttered the day before, and he acknowledged before all
that he had said the words above reported to me.
"I.J.K." [Kheyrullah's initials]
Enclosed with this were translations of two letters and the original
Arabic of a third written from Akka by one Mahmud, a partisan of
Muhammad Ali, to Ibrahim Khayru'llah. The first two both seem to have
been written at Akka on October 20, 1900, and received a month later
by Khayr'ullah at Chicago. The shorter one is a s follows:
"Lately, in this present week, three American ladies and a
gentleman
arrived by the regular steamer via Beyrout, and are stopping at the
Kraft, a German hotel at Haifa. Up to the present time they have not
spoken to any of the Unitarians , because they are prevented in the
ways you know."
The longer letter, of which I have somewhat emended the style
(which
is clumsy and loaded with parentheses) runs as follows:
"He is Al-Bahiyyu'l-Abha, Great is His Splendour!
{Here follow the usual compliments, etc.]
"I have already informed you that some of the followers of Abbas
Effendi, our opponents, have left here for America. One of them is
Mirza Asadu'llah of Isfahan, of whose cunning and shrewdness of
intrigue you cannot fail to be aware, and who is the brother-in-law
and secretary of Abbas Effendi, and in all matters his most trusted
and confidential agent. To no one else does Abbas reveal his hidden
secrets, and these people are the most unscrupulous, and will
hesitate
at nothing and fear no consequences, being resolved to accomplish
their purpose and spread abroad their vicious principles, even by the
shedding of blood and the destruction of lives by hidden methods and
secret intrigues. This obliges me to explain to you a certain cruel
deed which they accomplished not long since. It is one of their many
deeds which inspire detestation and break the heart with horror.
"Now therefore I say that there was in the port of Jedda a
certain
man of the Unitarians named Mirza Yahya, who was the son-in-law of
one
Hajji Mirza Husayn of Lar, the Persian vice-consul at Jedda, a
merchant noted for his wealth. As is well known to you these people
take great and exquisite pains to attract to themselves persons of
wealth and influence. When, therefore, they discovered that Mirza
Yahya openly confessed his faith, and that he was of the part of the
true Unitarians, and was wont to discuss with his father-in-law the
questions at issue and the differences between the two parties, they
were afraid that in the future the words of the son-in-law would
influence the father-in-law, to wit the Hajji above mentioned, and
eventually be the cause of depriving them of his money and wealth.
They were moreover convinced of the impossibility of bringing Mirza
Yahya over to their faction.
"One of the followers of Abbas Effendi named Mirza Mansur, who
is now
in India, was therefore commanded by his master to proceed to Jedda
and there conspire with the Hajji above mentioned for the destruction
of Mirza Yahya. At that time the said Hajji was also at Akka, but
whether the plot was concocted there or at Jedda I am unable to say.
To be brief, one night Mirza Mansur succeeded in administering to
Mirza Yahya a poison which killed him at once. The subtlety of this
plot lay in the perpetration of this horrid deed in such a city as
Jedda (where the crime would pass easily unnoticed, as, in fact, was
the case).
"Before the conspiracy had accomplished its purpose, Abbas
Effendi
had written written from Akka to one of his friends informing him
that
some calamity would befall Mirza Yahya, and that he would be
punished.
Hajji Mirza Hassan of Khurasan published in Cairo a pamphlet
concerning this event and the ‘Great Miracle' wrought herein by Abbas
Effendi. It is unnecessary to send you this lengthy pamphlet, our
object being merely to make known to you the character of these
peoples' intrigues. You must employ every needful precaution, for,
should they be unsuccessful or disappointed in inducing you to return
to their party, they will endeavour by every means and without
scruple
to injure you. Concerning what befell Mirza Yahya we have heard from
certain persons who were at Jedda at the time that as he had no
heirs,
and as his father-in-law, the said Hajji, was of Abbas Effendi's
party, and was also the Persian vice-consul at Jedda, no one appeared
to demand an enquiry into the causes of his death.
I therefore entreat you carefully to avoid taking from the
hands of
these people any food, drink, or other thing, although we know that
the Lord (Glory be to Him) is the Protector and Sustainer, and will
without a doubt protect His friends and shelter those who love Him,
especially him who has displayed the greatest energy, and has fought
so faithfully in preaching to the people the Manifestation of His
Most
Great Name al-Abha.
"Mirza Abu'l-Fazl [of Gukpayagan] and Hajji Mirza Hasan [of
Khurasan]
and the others, while they were here recently, did not visit any of
the Unitarians, neither the Blessed Branches (Aghsan) nor the others.
They neither wrote nor spoke to them concerning the differences of
faith, and some of them used even to avert their faces from them if
they happened to pass each other in the street."
The translation of the last of Mahmud's letters, of which the
Arabic
text was communicated to me, is as follows:
"I inform you also of an event which happened in these days,
which is
that Husayn the Confectioner (Shakarij), who has a shop opposite to
the Government House at Hayfa, as you will remember, died of poison
on
the eve of Saturday the 28th of Ramazan in the house of His Holiness
the Most Mighty branch [Al-Ghusn al-A'zam, i.e. Abbas Effendi
Abdu'l-Baha]. He was seen by the municipal doctor, who reported that
he died of poison. This is as much as we heave heard hitherto, but
should we obtain more detailed information, we will, please God,
communicate it to you."
"He who prays for you, Mahmoud. – January 30th, 1901.
It is my good fortune to possess a copy of Hajji Mirza Hasan
Khurasani's pamphlet above mentioned, which, was sent to me on March
12, 1901, by Ibrahim George Khayru'llah. It only contains 27 pages
measuring 5 1/5 by 3 ½ inches, is entitled Risala-I-Bushra wa
Aya-I-Kubra ("the Tract of Good Tidings and the Most Great Sign"),
was
printed at the Hindiyya Press in Egypt, and was completed on Rajab 9,
1316 (November 23, 1898). My copy is signed and sealed on the last
page by the author, so that there is no doubt about its authenticity.
It opens with a brief doxology, in which Abbas Effendi is spoken of
as
"the Lord of the World and Goal of the Peoples, the Most Noble
Mystery
of God [Sirr'ullah], the Most Mighty Branch of God and His Enduring
Proof in the World," designated to succeed himself by Baha'u'llah
since "God, great is His Glory, arrived in the luminous city of
Akka."
Texts from the Kitab-i-Aqdas and from Baha's Testament are cited in
proof of this assertion and the action of those who "broke the
Covenant" (i.e. who sided with Abbas Effendi's half-brother, Muhammad
Ali) is deplored and denounced. "Our object at present," continues
the
author, "is not, however, to discuss these matters, which are not
hidden or concealed from any one, but to gladden the friends the
Friends of God with good tidings of a wonderful event which happened
in the city of Jedda, and of a clear sign and evident miracle from
the
writings of the holy pen of His Holiness Abdu'l-Baha…(may the Life of
the Worlds be a sacrificed to the dust of his footsteps!)." After
this
brief introduction, the author proceeds to describe as follows the
life and death of Mirza Yahya of Isfahan, and the words of Abbas
Effendi wherein that death was foreshadowed.
This Mirza Yahya was originally an Azali, but in the year of
Baha'u'llah's "Ascension" (i.e. death), 1892, he came to Akka, met
Abbas Effendi, by whom he was very warmly received, and wrote a
refutation of Subh-i-Azal. After a while he departed to Jedda (the
port of Mecca on the Red Sea), where he became intimate with a
well-known Baha'i named Hajji Mirza Husayn of Lar, whose daughter he
presently asked and received in marriage. When the dispute between
Abbas Effendi and his half-brother Muhammad Ali became acute, and the
Baha'i community was rent asunder by this schism, Mirza Yahya became
the trusted agent and fervent supporter of Muhammad Ali, in whose
favor he carried on an active propaganda. "It is a curious fact,"
observes the author, "that the ‘Covenant-breakers' (naqizin) became
the devoted admirers and faithful friends of every atheist, Azali and
Sophist, and of such as deny God's Holy Law and and disobey His
command, and are the kind of frienda dn congenial intimates of every
part except the true believers…, so that the truth of the tradition,
‘Infidelity constitutes a single church [i.e. all misbelievers have a
natural sympathy for one another, and form, as it were, a coherent
community]' might become apparent and manifest." So Yahya grew even
bolder in his opposition to Abbas Effendi, "the Great Mystery of God,
and the Branch derived from the Ancient Stock," until God's patience
was exhausted and His Anger moved to destroy the offender, and a
"Tablet" (Lawh) was sent by Abbas Effendi to Hajji Mulla Husayn of
Lar, of which a copy was forwarded to the author enclosed in a letter
dated the 2nd of Jumada 1, 1316 (= September 18, 1898), This
"Tablet,"
which Hajji Mirza Hasan read aloud at the time of its arrival to a
circle of fellow believers in Cairo, is of considerable length and
partly in Arabic. The prophetic threats are contained in the later
Persian portion, of which a translation is here appended.
"The glance of [Divine] Favor embraceth that friend, and all
good is
predestined in respect to him, but a great barrier hath intervened
[between us and him], a formidable obstacle hath appeared; and God
controlleth [men's] secret thoughts. Praise be to God, during the Day
of the Theophany that friend attained to the honour of meeting and
secured the distinction of listening to the address. You will
ultimately appreciate the worth of this Pearl of Great Price of the
Divine Covenant. For the unique Pearl was nourished in the embrace of
the shell of the Most Glorious Kingdom (Malakut-i-Abha) and included
in the range of the Supreme Pen, and hath had no peer or like since
the beginning of Creation. But certain children, having gathered
together, have vainly thought to cast the Joseph of the Covenant into
the Pit of Oblivion, and so themselves to become famous throughout
the
city and the market-place, and to sell this Precious Pearl for a few
dirhams, and to endeavour to give currency to their own potsherds,
heedless of the fact that the Beloved (`Aziz) of the Divine Egypt
hath
come forth from the bottom of the pit in despite of every envious and
obstinate foe, and by the Favor of the Most Splendid Beauty
(Jamal-i-Abha) hath reached the zenith of the moon. Soon you will see
that by the aid of the Most Glorious Kingdom (Malakut-i-Abha) the
Standard of the Promise will wave above the Pole of the Horizons,
while the Lamp of thw Covenant will shine so brightly through the
glass of Contingent Being that the darkness of the Violation of the
Covenant will altogether disappear, and the cry of ‘By God, verily
God
hath prefered Him over all mankind' wil be heard. If a little
consideration and reflection be exercised concerning past events, the
truth of the matter will become plain and proved. Say, ‘O Shaykh,
this
Covenant is the Ligt of the Horizons, and this is the Promise of God,
not the plaything of children.' Say, ‘So shall ye behold yourselves
in
manifest loss, while damage shall result and be evident, and injury
shall shortly overthrow the edifice.' Say, ‘The first hurt, please
God, will be a warning to you, [making you reflect] what was the
cause
of this hurt and what the reason of this loss.' At all events do you
observe with new and sharpened sight, so that you may find your way
to
the aims of these plotters and destroyers. Consider of whom it is
said
in the Quran, ‘They say with their tongues what is not in their
hearts.' Explain for them [the verse] ‘And when they see those who
believe, they say "We believe"; but when they withdraw privily to
their devils, they say, "We are only scoffers!" Elucidate the meaning
of, "But God shall mock at them, an continue them in their impiety;
they shall wander in confusion' Say to him who was alive and is soon
to die: ‘Like the covenant-breakers the children of Israel wrought
for
themselves Samiri and the [Golden] Calf. Was not Joshua the son of
Nun
divinely designated?' Thou didst err and make a grievous mistake when
thou didst so vehemently belittle and contemn the divinely designated
Center [of Authority]. If the eternal Beauty [Baha'u'llah] should say
to thee, ‘How didst thou call the Center of My Covenant, the Branch
derived from my Ancient Stock, him who was explicitly designated in
my
Perspicuous Book, and the Exemplar of that Book, "a [Golden] Calf?"
what answer, O shameful Yahya, wilt thou give? If thou would'st not
be
the salve, why be the sore? Was not the Kitab al-Aqdas revealed
thirty
years ago? Did I not summon all to obey the derived Branch? Did I not
direct all to submission, calling him the Expositor of the
Perspicuous
Book? Did I not awaken most of the Friends, and did I not dissociate
him before all from what is beneath him? Did I not engage his
Covenant
and Compact in the writings of the Supreme Pen, and did I not in
plain
language command all the Branches (Aghsan) and Twigs (Afnan) and
Kinsmen generally to have regard and look to him? What more could I
do? How could I further strengthen the matter? O shameful Yahya, how
could'st thou sanction so cruel a slander against this great
Designate? What hurt had'st thou suffered at his hands that thou
did'st desire for him such abasement, or what injury had'st thou
experienced from him that thou did'st display such great hatred?'
What
answer wilt thou give? At all events, while it is yet time express
regret, and manifest repentance and remorse, and bareheaded in the
mountain and the desert cry out that ye be not touched, and pour
forth
from thine eyes like the Oxus-flood tears and blood, and become the
associate of lamentation and remorse, that perchance the breeze of
forgiveness may blow, the grossness of thy sin may decrease, the
Ocean
of Mercy may be stirred, and the Cloud of Pardon may pour forth its
rain, so that this filfth of Covenant-breaking may be removed. For if
not, then expect the Divine Vengeance, and look for blackness of face
[disgrace] in both worlds. As God liveth, verily humiliation shall
flee from thee by reason of its abudance, and loss shall take refuge
from thee with the All-Merciful, and thou shalt behold thyself in the
lowest depths of Hell. For abasement, remorse and disgrace shall be
the portion of those who violate the Covenant of the High, the
Mighty."
[Abdu'l-Baha Abbas] ´ ´
The author, Hajji Mirza Hasan of Khurasan, next quotes the covering
letter (or "Tablet") addressed to himself by `Abbas Effendi, and
dated
("contrary to what is customary") the 2nd of Jumada 11, 1316
(September 18, 1898). The latter portion of this runs as follows:
"O Friend, you wrote about Yahya, who supposed that `Abdu'l-
Baha was
heedless of his evil intentions and intrigues. Therefore a little
while ago a letter was written to Jedda, of which a copy is enclosed.
Read it, that thou may'st be assured that the clemency of `Abdu'l-
Baha
is great and his patience strong, but that, when the Command comes,
he
speaks and writes and cries, ‘This is the Truth, and after the Truth
is naught save error. O Friend, so proclaim the Covenant that the
deaf ears of the [Covenant-]breakers may hear, and so shine in the
Assembly of Constancy that the blind eyes of the perjured ones may
see. And the Glory [Baha] be upon every one who is steadfast in the
Covenant of they Lord the Mighty." ´ ´
Not long after the receipt of this letter, which was read
aloud to
the faithful in Egypt, a letter dated 27th of Jumada 1, 1316
(=October
13, 1898), a letter dated the 27th of Jumada 1, 1316 (= Ocotober 13,
1898) was received from Hajji Mulla Husayn of Lar from Jedda by Hajji
Mirza Hasan of Khurasan declaring that "God, mighty is His Glory, had
removed Yahya, that incorrigible Covenant Breaker, and had opened
before his face the Door of fierce threats of the All-Glorious Lord,
which are explicitly mentioned in the Two Holy Tablets. The simoon of
Divine Wrath blew, and the gale of Celestial Anger breathed, and his
(Yahya's) darkened spirit, fulfilled with envy and hatred, descended
in the abyss of Hell." Here follows Mulla Husayn of Lar's narrative
of
what took place, as communicated by him in a letter to Hajji Mirza
Hasan of Khurasan:
"Touching the Tablet which was vouchsafed from the Land of
Heart's
Desire, in truth if anyone should possess the eye of discernment,
these same Blessed Words which were thus fulfilled are a very great
miracle. But what profits it, since the discerning eye is lacking?
"I read the Tablet to Mirza Yahya, and he listened. I said:
‘Aussredly thou sayest in they heart, "I do not believe in the words
thereof."' He answered, ‘It is even so; I have no sort of belief
either in him or his father.' I said, ‘If that which has issued from
the Blessed Pen does not speedily overtake you, it were well that
they
should shave off my beard.' Then he rose up and departed to his own
house.
"A few nights later towards the dawn one knocked at the door
of my
house. ‘Who is it?' I cried. Then, seeing that it was a maid-servant,
I added, ‘What wilt thou?' She replied, ‘Mirza Yahya is done for.' I
at once ran thither. Hajji Muhamad Baqir also was present. I saw that
blood was flowing from his (Mirza Yahya's) throat, and that he was
unable to move. By this time it was morning. I at once brought
thither an Indian doctor. He examined him and said, ‘A blood vessel
in
his lung is ruptured. He must lie still for three days and not move,
and then he willrecover.' He then gave him some medicine. The
haemorhage stopped for two days, and his condition improved. In spite
of this he was not admonished to return to the Truth. After two days
there was a second flow of blood from his throat, and he was nearly
finished. The doctor came again and gave him medicine, but ultimately
it profited him nothing. Twice again he vomited undiluted blood, and
then surrendered his spirit to the Angel of Torment.
"This even was in truth a warning to all beholders, that is to
say
such as see and read this Tablet. Please God you have read it in its
entirety and found your way to the meaning thereof. One individual
hath He thus swiftly removed. Assuredly hereafter the Lord wil
accomplish every promise that He hath uttered. I take refuge with God
from the wrath of God. I seek from the Truth that He will aid us to
stand firm in His Covenant and Compact! In a little while the
Covenant-breakers will be overtaken by calamities such that they
shall
flee bare-headed to the mountains and the deserts, but shall find
there no escape."
The author, Hajji Mirza Hasan of Khurasan, here observes that
never
in any previous dispensation was so clear a threat followed by so
swift and condign a punishment, or so explicit a prophecy so speedily
accomplished. For, says he, though God's patience is almost
inexhaustible, there comes an end to it, especially in the case of
such apostates, who sin against the Light, and who do far more harm
to
the cause then the theologians, juriconsults and rulers who
ignorantly
oppose and oppress it. He then quotes another Tablet which was sent
to
him by Abbas Effendi after the death of Mirza Yahya, and which runs
thus:
"Write to Mulla Husayn of Lar that these were the
circumstances
connected with Yahya the shameless, to wit that he wrote a letter to
the leading Covenant Breakers, and made use of a very vile expressing
the Centre of the Covenant [Abbas Effendi] such as none, not even the
lowest, would utter; to wit, an expression which was to the leading
Covenant-breakers as a floral festival, a joy, and the cause of
boundless delight [causing them to say] ‘Praise be to God because
such
souls have appeared who dare to belittle so ignominiously the
Pole-star of the Covenant!' Therefore was the threat of vengeance and
the imminence of the thunderbolt of destruction thus explicitly
given;
for assuredly the Framer of the Covenant and the Protector of the
Compact will vindicate the Centre of the Covenant. These are isolated
events; which these same outward eyes it will be seen in what
abasement and disgrace, and in what calamities, afflictions and
chastisements the ‘quakers' shall be overwhelmed. Say, ‘Wait until
God
shall accomplish His purpose, O Company of Shame, O Faction of
Rebellion, and ye shall see yourselves in the lowest of Hell-fires!'
Upon thee be the Splendour."
Hajji Mirza Hassan of Khurasan concludes his pamphlet by
promising
further details concerning the schism, the obstinacy of Abbas
Effendi's half-brothers, the "boldness and discourtesy" of Mirza Aqa
Jan, and other kindred matters, and, as already noted, dates the
completion of his work the 9th of Rajab, 1316 (November 23, 1898.
Death to Haifan Bahaism
increasing their love and loyalty to it are of paramount importance,
the duties of the
Auxiliary Board members for Protection do not end here. The Board
members must remain ever vigilant, monitoring the actions of those
who, driven by
the promptings of ego, seek to sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of
the friends and undermine the Faith. In general, whenever believers
become aware
of such problems, they should immediately contact whatever institution
they feel moved to turn to, whether it be a Counsellor, an Auxiliary
Board member, the National Spiritual Assembly or their own Local
Assembly. It then becomes the duty of that institution to ensure that
the report is fed into the correct
channels and that all the other institutions affected are promptly
informed. Not infrequently, the responsibility will fall on an
Auxiliary Board member,
in coordination with the Assembly concerned, to take some form of
action in response to the situation. This involvement will include
counselling the
believer in question; warning him, if necessary, of the consequences
of his actions; and bringing to the attention of the Counsellors the
gravity of the
situation, which may call for their intervention. Naturally, the Board
member has to exert every effort to counteract the schemes and arrest
the spread of
the influence of those few who, despite attempts to guide them,
eventually break the Covenant.
The need to protect the Faith from the attacks of its enemies may not
be generally appreciated by the friends, particularly in places where
attacks
have been infrequent. However, it is certain that such opposition will
increase, become concerted, and eventually universal. The writings
clearly
foreshadow not only an intensification of the machinations of internal
enemies, but a rise in the hostility and opposition of its external
enemies, whether religious or secular, as the Cause pursues its onward
march towards ultimate victory. Therefore, in the light of the
warnings of the Guardian, the Auxiliary Boards for Protection should
keep "constantly" a "watchful eye" on those "who are known to be
enemies, or to have been put out of the Faith", discreetly investigate
their activities, alert intelligently the friends to the opposition
inevitably to come, explain how each crisis in God's Faith has always
proved to be a blessing in disguise, and prepare them for the "dire
contest which is destined to range the Army of Light against the
forces of
darkness.
-- The Universal House of Justice
Death to Haifan Bahaism
"We have inherited a dangerous delusion from Christianity that our
individual conscience is supreme. This is not a Baha'i belief. In the
end, in the context of both our role in the community and our role in
the greater world, we must be prepared to sacrifice our personal
convictions or opinions. The belief that individual conscience is
supreme is equivalent to "taking partners with God" which is abhorrent
to the Teachings of the Faith."
http://www.bahai-library.org/talks/martin.watson.html Search for full
text. (Edit > Find > "conscience")
"We don't want to see God with our own eyes, or hear his melody with
our own ears, but through the eyes and ears of the House of Justice."
http://media1.bahai.us/tab/Highlights/Sunday/30_Counselor_Murphy_Remarks.mp3
Death to Haifan Bahaism
SPY RING BUSTED? - Bahai trustees accused of embezzling funds
NAZIYA Alvi
New Delhi
IN A complaint filed in a city court, a few trustees of the National
Spiritual Assembly of Bahais of India have been accused of espionage
by their colleagues. Apparently, they were supplying classified
documents from India's defence establishments to Israeli and Iranian
spying agencies and making huge amounts in foreign currency. Taking
cognisance of the complaint, the additional chief metropolitan
magistrate, Kamini Lau, has directed the Economic Offence Wing Cell to
immediately register a case against the accused persons. The court has
also asked the cell to file a status report with it by August 10.
As per the allegations in the complaint, one of the accused, N.K.
Bhudhiraja, general manager of finance with the spiritual
organisation, forged an identity card and af fixed his photograph on
an armed forces concessions form for fee baggage allowance, which is
needed for military officials travelling to places in India and
abroad. Apparently, he also used to travel under the fictitious name
of 'Captain S. Budhiraja' of the air force station at Yelahanka.
Apparently, the accused, by using such impersonations and forgery
managed to clandestinely penetrate into the prohibited defence
establishment of the country and get hold of classified documents. In
turn, he supplied the sensitive documents to spying agencies in Israel
and Iran in return of foreign currency.
The complaint has also alleged that the stamp of the air force station
at Yelahanka had been forged with some amount of accuracy and was
being
used by the accused trustees of the 'spiritual assembly'.
The complaint also alleges that another accused, Payam Shoghi, also a
trustee with the society, is in truth an Iranian national. He
fraudulently got his name inserted in the ration card of another
accused and also got it attested.
On the basis of the ration card he managed to procure an Indian
passport. The complaint also states that such passports have been
issued to a number of other foreigners by the accused people through a
similar fashion of forgery.
The counsel of three complainants Swadesh Kumar, Khub Singh and
Gulshan Kumar told the court that they have definitive documentary
evidence to
prove that the accused were, in addition to the other violations,
involved in a large scale Hawala transaction network.
http://news.webindia123.com/news/articles/India/20060818/425696.html
http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/19/stories/2006081914800400.htm
Death to Haifan Bahaism
Hedi Ma'ani
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Iran circa 1979
Dr Ali-Morad Davudi