| 1874 - 1875 |
The passing of Mullá Sádiq-i-Muqaddas-i-Khurásání entitled by Bahá'u'lláh Ism'lláh'l-Asdaq (In the Name of God the Most Truthful) in Hamadán. He was born in Mashhad in around 1800, the son of a cleric, he furthered his own clerical studies in Karbila under the Shaykhi leader Sayyid Qasim Rashti, eventually gaining the rank of mujtahid, and becoming known by the honorific title Muqaddas ('the holy one').
As a young man he had been a disciple of Siyyid Kázim and had met Siyyid 'Alí-Muhammad in Karbilá. He was among the first believers who identified with the Message of the Báb. See DB100 and EB7 for the story of how he independently determined His identity when he met Mullá Husayn in Isfahán on his way to deliver a tablet to Bahá'u'lláh in Tehran. The very next day he left Isfahán for Shíráz on foot arriving 12 days later to find that the Báb had already departed for pilgrimage.
He took up residence in Shíráz and received a Tablet from the Báb instructing him to change the Call to Prayer. See DB146-148, EB13-14 for the story of how he endured over 900 strokes of the lash on the command of Husayn Khán-i-Írva´ní, the Governor of the province of Fars, and remained indifferent to the pain. (6 August, 1845) He was expelled from the city and proceeded to Yazd. He had similar fate in that city and was banished. He, together with Quddús and Mullá Alí Akbar'-i-Ardistání, were the first three Bábís known to suffer persecution for the Faith on Persian soil.
On the way to Khurásán he joined Mullá Husayn and those who would participate in the Tabarsí siege where he was on hand for the death of Mullá Husayn. (DB381) After the deception and massacre he was one of the few survivors and, as a prisoner, was taken to Mázindarán to be executed by the family Prince Mihdí-Qulí Mírzá who had commanded the royal troops and had been killed in battle. On route the party called on the clerics to interrogate him and his fellow Bábis and they became convinced that they were not heretics deserving of execution. The prisoners were to be sent to Tehran but escaped and made their way to Míhámí and eventually to Mashad.
In 1861, after life in that city became impossible, he went to Baghdád where he attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. After 14 months he returned to his native province of Khurásán.
He continued in his audacious teaching and as a result was taken to Tehran where he was kept in the Síhåh-Chál. He taught a number of fellow prisoners about the Promised One and converted Hakím Masíh, the Jewish physician assigned to attend to the prisoners. He was the first Bahá'í of Jewish background in Tehran (and was the grandfather of Lutfu'lláh Hakím, a former member of the Universal House of Justice.) After 28 months imprisonment he was pardoned but refuse to leave without his fellow prisoners. The Sháh released 40 of the 43 prisoners. (The remaining three were guilty of actual crimes.)
After Tehran he went to Khurásán and returned to the capital some three years later to help in changing the hiding place of the remains of the Báb. Then he travelled to Káshán, Isfahán and Yazd where he convinced some of the Afnáns to accept the truth of their Nephew's claims. After returning to Khurásán he was given permission to make a pilgrimage to 'Akká where he remained for some four months, returning by way of Mosul and Baghdád. When he reached Hamadán he was exhausted. Twelve days after his arrival he passed.
He had been the recipient of many tablets from Bahá'u'lláh including a Tablet of Visitation after his passing. One of the most well-know tablets was the Lawh-i-Ahbáb (Tablet of the Friends). It is thought He revealed this Tablet some time after leaving the barracks in 'Akká, about 1870-1871. [RoB3p258-260, List of the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh]
He was the father of Ibn-i-Asdaq who Bahá'u'lláh appointed a Hand of the Cause of God. [EB19]
'Abdu'l-Baha posthumously referred to him as a Hand of the Cause of God.
References [LoF32-41, MF5-8, DB381. EB7-23, BBR 69-70]
Note: Other sources fix his passing, EB23 and LoF32: 1889, but Bahá'í Encyclopedia Project had determine his passing as 1291 A.H or 1874-1875. The source is a letter from the Research Department dated 25 July 2005. |
In Memoriam; - Hands of the Cause; Hands of the Cause, Births and deaths; Births and deaths; Hands of the Cause, Activities; Ismullahul-Asdaq (Mulla Sadiq Khurasani); Hands of the Cause, referred to as such by `Abdu'l-Bahá; Hamadán, Iran; Iran |
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