. | . | . | . | ||||||||||||||||||||
. |
Tablet to The Times of Londonby Bahá'u'lláhedited by Mehdi Wolfpublished in Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, by Adib Taherzadeh, Vol. 4, pages 348-50 1987 date of original: 1891 Adib Taherzadeh's Introduction [1] [2] O 'Times', O thou endowed with the power of utterance! O dawning place of news! Spend an hour with the oppressed of Irán, and witness how the exemplars of justice and equity are sorely tried beneath the sword of tyrants. Infants have been deprived of milk, and women and children have fallen captive to the lawless. The blood of God's lovers hath dyed the earth red, and the sighs of His near ones have set the universe ablaze. O assemblage of rulers, ye are the manifestations of power and might, and the fountainheads of the glory, greatness and authority of God Himself. Gaze upon the plight of the wronged ones. O daysprings of justice, the fierce gales of rancour and hatred have extinguished the lamps of virtue and piety. At dawn, the gentle breeze of divine compassion hath wafted over charred and cast-out bodies, whispering these exalted words: 'Woe, woe unto you, O people of Irán! Ye have spilled the blood of your own friends and yet remain in ignorance of what ye have done. Should ye become aware of the deeds ye have perpetrated, ye would flee to the desert and bewail your crimes and tyranny.' O misguided ones, what sin have the little children committed? Hath anyone, in these days, had pity on the dependants of the oppressed? A report hath reached Us that the followers of the Spirit (Christ)--may the peace of God and His mercy be upon Him — secretly sent them provisions and befriended them out of utmost sympathy. We beseech God the Eternal Truth, to confirm all in accomplishing that which is pleasing to Him. O newspapers published throughout the cities and countries of the world! Have ye heard the groan of the downtrodden, and have their cries of anguish reached your ears? Or have these remained concealed? It is hoped that ye will investigate the truth of what hath occurred and vindicate it . . .
[2] Má'idiy-i-Ásamání, vol. 4, pp. 129-30. The extract printed here has been authorized by the Universal House of Justice. [Taherzedeh's note] [3] Refers to the martyrdom of seven believers in Yazd on May 19th, 1891. Shoghi Effendi's description of this incident is as follows: In Yazd, at the instigation of the mujtahid of that city, and by order of the callous Mahmud Mirza, the Jalulu'l-Dawlih, the governor, a son of Zillu's-Sultán, seven were done to death in a single day in horrible circumstances. The first of these, a twenty-seven year old youth, 'Alí-Asghar, was strangled, his body delivered into the hands of some Jews who, forcing the dead man's six companions to come with them, dragged the corpse through the streets, surrounded by a mob of people and soldiers beating drums and blowing trumpets, after which, arriving near the Telegraph office, they beheaded the eighty-five year old Múllá Mihdí and dragged him in the same manner to another quarter of the city, where, in view of a great throng of onlookers, frenzied by the throbbing strains of the music, they executed Aqa 'Ali in like manner. Proceeding thence to the house of the local mujtahid, and carrying with them the four remaining companions, they cut the throat of Múllá 'Alíy-i-Sabzivarí, who had been addressing the crowd and glorying in his imminent martyrdom, hacked his body to pieces with a spade, while he was still alive, and pounded his skull to a pulp with stones. In another quarter, near the Mihriz gate, they slew Muhammad-Baqir, and afterwards, in the Maydan-i-Khán, as the music grew wilder and drowned the yells of the people, they beheaded the survivors who remained, two brothers in their early twenties, 'Alí-Asghar and Muhammad-Hasan. The stomach of the latter was ripped open and his heart and liver plucked out, after which his head was impaled on a spear, carried aloft, to the accompaniment of music, through the streets of the city, and suspended on a mulberry tree, and stoned by a great concourse of people. His body was cast before the door of his mother's house, into which women deliberately entered to dance and make merry. Even pieces of their flesh were carried away to be used as a medicament. Finally, the head of Muhammad-Hasan was attached to the lower part of his body and, together with those of the other martyrs, was borne to the outskirts of the city and so viciously pelted with stones that the skulls were broken, whereupon they compelled the Jews to carry the remains and throw them into a pit in the plain of Salsabil. A holiday was declared by the governor for the people, all the shops were closed by his order, the city was illuminated at night, and festivities proclaimed the consummation of one of the most barbarous acts perpetrated in modern times.[4] Two early believers (the latter a Hand of the Cause) who were both arrested during this same period in 1891. Hájí Amín was sent to the prison of Qazvín, and Ibn-i-Abhar was consigned for four years in Tíhran, in which he bore the same chains as Bahá'u'lláh did, during the Latter's imprisonment in 1852. [Mehdi Wolf's note] [5] In the original Arabic the two sayings sound almost the same. The only difference between the two is that the letter 's' in Nasir (helper) is changed into 'z' In Nazir (beholder). [Taherzadeh's note]
|
. | |||||||||||||||||||||
. | . | ||||||||||||||||||||||