The stories of the four Hands of the Cause appointed by Bahá'u'lláh are among the most wonderful and uplifting testimonies of love for Him, of dedication to His Cause, of sufferings and imprisonments in His path, of utter self-effacement, of unrelenting whole-hearted service to the community, and of memorable achievements. A full account of their eventful lives is beyond the scope of this book,¹ but the following stories will at least provide an outline.

Hájí Mullá 'Alí-Akbar (Hájí Ákhúnd)

This great Apostle of Bahá'u'lláh came from the village of Shahmírzád in the province of Khurásán. As a youth he was so eager to acquire religious knowledge that he went to the city of Mashhad where he received the usual religious education in various theological schools. But the more he searched for truth the less he found it in those circles. 'Abdu'l-Bahá describes this period of his life so eloquently:

Yet another Hand of the Cause was the revered Mullá 'Alí-Akbar, upon him be the glory of God, the All-Glorious. Early in life, this illustrious man attended institutions of higher learning and labored diligently, by day and night, until he became thoroughly conversant with the learning of the day, with secular studies, philosophy, and religious jurisprudence. He frequented the gatherings of philosophers, mystics, and

Shaykhís, thoughtfully traversing those areas of knowledge, intuitive wisdom, and illumination; but he thirsted after the wellspring of truth, and hungered for the bread that comes down from Heaven. No matter how he strove to perfect himself in those regions of the mind, he was never satisfied; he never reached the goal of his desires; his lips stayed parched; he was confused, perplexed, and felt that he had wandered from his path. The reason was that in all those circles he had found no passion; no joy, no ecstasy; no faintest scent of love. And as he went deeper into the core of those manifold beliefs, he discovered that from the day of the Prophet Muhammad's advent until our own times, innumerable sects have arisen: creeds differing among themselves; disparate opinions, divergent goals, uncounted roads and ways. And he found each one, under some plea or other, claiming to reveal spiritual truth; each one believing that it alone followed the true path--this although the Muhammadic sea could rise in one great tide, and carry all those sects away to the ocean floor. 'No cry shalt thou hear from them, nor a whisper even.'*

Whoso ponders the lessons of history will learn that this sea has lifted up innumerable waves, yet in the end each has dissolved and vanished, like a shadow drifting by. The waves have perished, but the sea lives on. This is why 'Alí Qabl-i-Akbar could never quench his thirst, till the day when he stood on the shore of Truth and cried:

Here is a sea with treasure to the brim;
Its waves toss pearls under the great wind's thong.
Throw off your robe and plunge, nor try to swim,
Pride not yourself on swimming--dive headlong.²

O Friends! You must all be so ablaze in this day with the fire of the love of God that the heat thereof may be manifest in all your veins, your limbs and members of your body, and the peoples of the world may be ignited by this heat and turn to the horizon of the Beloved.³

Like a fountain, his heart welled and jetted forth; meaning and truth, like soft-flowing crystal waters, began to stream from his lips. At first, with humility, with spiritual poverty, he garnered the new light, and only then he proceeded to shed it abroad. For how well has it been said,

Shall he the gift of life to others bear
Who of life's gift has never had a share?

A teacher must proceed in this way: he must first teach himself, and then others. If he himself still walks the path of carnal appetites and lusts, how can he guide another to the 'evident signs'* of God?⁴

This honored man was successful in converting a multitude. For the sake of God he cast all caution aside, as he hastened along the ways of love. He became as one frenzied, as a vagrant

4. Memorials of the Faithful, p. 10.

and one known to be mad. Because of his new Faith, he was mocked at in Tihrán by high and low. When he walked through the streets and bázárs, the people pointed their fingers at him, calling him a Bahá'í. Whenever trouble broke out, he was the one to be arrested first. He was always ready and waiting for this, since it never failed.⁵

It is not known exactly how long Mullá 'Alí-Akbar was kept in this prison, but some years later in 1872 he was again taken to prison by the orders of Kamrán Mírzá the Náyibu's-Saltanih, the Governor of Tihrán.‡ This imprisonment, which lasted seven months, began only three days after his marriage to a certain Fátimih Khánum who became his devoted consort throughout his eventful life. It is reported that at the time of his marriage he was living in a dilapidated room and his earthly possessions consisted of a sheepskin and a kettle!

Mullá 'Alí-Akbar endured the hardships of imprisonment in a spirit of joy, of pride and of thankfulness to his Lord. He was kept in a narrow dark prison cell with a chain around his neck and

6. Má'idiy-i-Ásamání, vol. 4, p. 360.

Mullá 'Alí-Akbar went on pilgrimage and attained the presence of his Lord for the first time in 1873. He basked in the sunshine of Bahá'u'lláh's unfailing love and bounties for about six months. Then he returned to Tihrán and resumed his devoted services to the Cause he loved so much. He was constantly teaching receptive souls, deepening the believers, and encouraging them with the utmost love to serve the Faith of God. Mullá 'Alí-Akbar was taken to prison six times altogether and spent about seven years bound with chains and fetters in the gloomy surroundings that were the Persian jails. 'Abdu'l-Bahá speaks of this in these words:

Again and again he was bound with chains, jailed, and threatened with the sword. The photograph of this blessed individual, together with that of the great Amín, taken of them in their chains, will serve as an example to whoever has eyes to see. There they sit, those two distinguished men, hung with chains, shackled, yet composed, acquiescent, undisturbed.*

9. Mu'assisiy-i-Ayádíy-i-Amru'lláh, pp. 394-5.

Things came to such a pass that in the end whenever there was an uproar Mullá 'Alí would put on his turban, wrap himself in his 'abá and sit waiting, for his enemies to rouse and the farráshes to break in and the guards to carry him off to prison. But observe the power of God! In spite of all this, he was kept safe. 'The sign of a knower and lover is this, that you will find him dry in the sea.' That is how he was. His life hung by a thread from one moment to the next; the malevolent lay in wait for him; he was known everywhere as a Bahá'í--and still he was protected from all harm. He stayed dry in the depths of the sea, cool and safe in the heart of the fire, until the day he died.¹⁰

Soon after the martyrdom of Badí' a severe famine swept over Persia. Mullá 'Alí-Akbar begged Bahá'u'lláh for it to come to an end. We have already described Bahá'u'lláh's response in the previous volume. One of his great achievements was the transportation and protection of the remains of the Báb in Tihrán, a detailed account of which also appears in the previous volume.‡

When Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Aqdas He withheld the publication of certain laws. These included the text of the Obligatory Prayers.§ In one of His Tablets¹¹ Bahá'u'lláh orders

11. Unpublished compilation, National Archives Committee, no. 15, p. 435.

In numerous Tablets addressed to Mullá 'Alí-Akbar, Bahá'u'lláh urges him, as He does other Hands, to move around the community and instil into the minds of the believers the power of the Faith, to illumine their faces with the effulgent light of His Revelation and to ignite within their hearts the fire of the love of their Lord.

Mullá 'Alí-Akbar attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh for the second time around the year 1888. When in His presence he would continually receive a share of the bounties of Bahá'u'lláh, and when away he used to write to Him regularly and receive various exalted Tablets. Once he wrote to Mírzá Áqá Ján, Bahá'u'lláh's amanuensis, and complained somewhat. When Bahá'u'lláh was informed He wrote that he had no right to complain, for so much spiritual food and imperishable benefits had been showered upon him from the heaven of divine bounty that he would be unable to reckon them. Therefore he ought to thank, and thank and thank (Bahá'u'lláh repeats the word nine times!) his Lord for the blessings He has vouchsafed to him.¹²

It must be stated that one of the great services that all four Hands rendered to the Cause was the stewardship of the Bahá'í community after the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh. Through their loving care and vigilance they protected the believers from the onslaught of the Covenant-breakers, and enabled the faithful to remain steadfast in the Covenant.

'Abdu'l-Bahá pays a glowing tribute in this context to the memory of this great and godly man, who passed away in March 1910:

After the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh, Mullá 'Alí continued on, loyal to the Testament of the Light of the World, staunch in the Covenant which he served and heralded. During the

lifetime of the Manifestation, his yearning made him hasten to Bahá'u'lláh, Who received him with grace and favor, and showered blessings upon him. He returned, then, to Írán, where he devoted all his time to serving the Cause. Openly at odds with his tyrannical oppressors, no matter how often they threatened him, he defied them. He was never vanquished. Whatever he had to say, he said. He was one of the Hands of the Cause of God, steadfast, unshakeable, not to be moved.

I loved him very much, for he was delightful to converse with, and as a companion second to none...

His last resting-place is in Tihrán. Although his body lies under the earth, his pure spirit lives on, 'in the seat of truth, in the presence of the potent King.'* I long to visit the graves of the friends of God, could this be possible. These are the servants of the Blessed Beauty; in His path they were afflicted; they met with toil and sorrow; they sustained injuries and suffered harm. Upon them be the glory of God, the All-Glorious. Unto them be salutation and praise. Upon them be God's tender mercy, and forgiveness.¹³

Mírzá 'Alí-Muhammad was a son of one of the most illustrious of the believers, Mullá Sádiq-i-Khurásání, who was entitled by Bahá'u'lláh Ismu'lláhu'l-Asdaq† (The name of God, the most truthful). As he grew up it became clear that this son had inherited many of the outstanding qualities and virtues of his father. He became known among the believers as Ibn-i-Asdaq (The son of Asdaq). He had the great honour as a young boy of accompanying his father to Baghdád, where they both attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. In several interviews this youth came face to face with the Supreme Manifestation of God. These meetings left an abiding impression upon his soul and magnetized his whole being with the love of his newly-found Lord. While they were in Baghdád Bahá'u'lláh revealed a prayer¹⁴ in which He supplicates God to feed the young boy with the milk of

14. Mu'assisiy-i-Ayádíy-i-Amru'lláh, p. 466.

Soon after his return home he tasted the agony of imprisonment and torture when, in the company of his illustrious father, he was consigned to the dungeon of Tihrán. A brief account of this episode is given in a previous volume.* As he grew up Ibn-i-Asdaq often accompanied his father on his teaching tours throughout Persia. Thus he became imbued with the spirit of service to the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh, and eventually developed a passionate love for Him, a love that knew no bounds.

He was about thirty years of age when he sent a letter to the presence of Bahá'u'lláh and, among other things, begged Him to confer upon him a station wherein he might become completely detached from such realms as 'life and death', 'body and soul', 'existence and nothingness', 'reputation and honour'.

The gist of everything Ibn-i-Asdaq requested in this letter was the attainment of the station of 'utter self-sacrifice'; a plea for martyrdom, a state in which the individual in his love for his Beloved will offer up everything he possesses. It is an interesting thought that in one's quest for 'self-sacrifice' it is inappropriate for the soul to seek the station of utter nothingness and complete non-existence, for even these can become the means of attachment to oneself.

In response Bahá'u'lláh revealed a Tablet to Ibn-i-Asdaq.¹⁵ This was in January 1880. In this Tablet He confers upon him infinite blessings and prays that he may become fully sanctified and detached from earthly things, that he may conduct himself in such wise as befits the Day of God, and that he may attain the station of the most great martyrdom. He states that service to the Cause is the greatest of all deeds, and that those who are the symbols of certitude ought to be engaged in teaching with the utmost wisdom. He further explains that martyrdom is not

Two years later Ibn-i-Asdaq again asked for martyrdom. Bahá'u'lláh assured him in a Tablet¹⁶ that God had bestowed upon him the station of a martyr, and addressed him as Shahíd-ibn-i-Shahíd (martyr, son of the martyr). In this way both father and son, without physical martyrdom, were given this lofty station. Ibn-i-Asdaq attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh once more in 'Akká. In a Tablet¹⁷ Bahá'u'lláh asserts that on this visit his ears were blessed to hear the shrill voice of His exalted Pen, his eyes to behold His Countenance, and his heart to turn to Him. He bids him illumine the hearts of men through the effulgent rays of His utterance, and brighten their eyes by the light of His Countenance. In every Tablet revealed in his honour by Bahá'u'lláh, one finds words of praise and appreciation for his devoted services, as well as counsels and exhortations for the living of a saintly life.

The life-style of Ibn-i-Asdaq was different from that of Mullá 'Alí-Akbar. He married a princess, a great-grand-daughter of Fath-'Alí Sháh who was a devoted believer. This brought him close to people of high position and wealth and so he was able to teach those who could use their influence in assisting the oppressed community. He often used the phrase, 'one ought to hunt a lion, not a fox'. Ibn-i-Asdaq travelled extensively throughout the length and breadth of Persia, and Bahá'u'lláh always urged him to be engaged in this meritorious service. In a Tablet revealed in his honour, Bahá'u'lláh counsels him in these words:

The movement itself from place to place, when undertaken for the sake of God, hath always exerted, and can now exert, its influence in the world.¹⁸

19. Unpublished compilation, National Archives Committee, no. 27, p. 178.

After the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh Ibn-i-Asdaq continued in his devoted services to the Cause. Along with the other Hands of the Cause, he promoted the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh among the believers, instructed them in its significance and assisted them to remain steadfast in the face of the Covenant-breaking that occurred at that time. The range of his travels was extended during 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Ministry. He visited India and Burma, 'Ishqábád and even Europe where in 1919, accompanied by another believer, he personally presented a Tablet* addressed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to the Central Organization for a Durable Peace at The Hague. He also attained the presence of the Master several times in his life.

Among his other outstanding services was that of helping to organize a teacher-training institute for Bahá'í women in Tihrán for the first time. He also delivered to the Sháh a treatise penned by the Master during the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh and known as Risáliy-i-Síyásíyyih (Treatise on Politics). His contribution as a writer was no less significant. For instance, in 1919 he produced, with the assistance of other Hands of the Cause, a refutation of false accusations against the Faith published by Professor Edward Browne in his books. He also wrote various papers on the subject of the Covenant, in which he explained the station of 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the Centre of the Covenant and the authorized interpreter of Bahá'u'lláh's Writings, refuted the misrepresentations and false accusations of the Covenant-breakers and exposed their malicious intention to subvert the edifice of the Cause of God. He wrote this material during his last pilgrimage in the Holy Land and sent it to the friends in Tihrán. Ibn-i-Asdaq lived longer than all the other Hands, and passed away in Tihrán in 1928.

Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí (Ibn-i-Abhar)

Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí, addressed by Bahá'u'lláh as Ibn-i-Abhar

* Known as the 'Tablet to The Hague'.

Ibn-i-Abhar went through a turbulent period soon after the death of his father in 1874. The details of the plots against him and the confiscation of all his possessions by his enemies are beyond the scope of this book. In 1876 he sent a letter to the presence of Bahá'u'lláh asking whether it was more meritorious to lay down one's life for the love of God or to teach the Cause with wisdom and the power of utterance. In a Tablet²⁰ Bahá'u'lláh counselled him that the latter was preferable. He states that after the martyrdom of Badí' He had advised the believers to act with prudence and care and not volunteer to give their lives. Martyrdom† in the path of God is undoubtedly the greatest bounty provided it takes place through circumstances beyond one's control. He urges Ibn-i-Abhar in this Tablet to engage himself in teaching the Cause with great wisdom.

Because of the opposition to him in his native village of Abhar, Ibn-i-Abhar moved to Zanján. There he succeeded in converting some souls to the Faith and also in reviving the faith of the many believers who had fallen prey to doubts raised by the Azalís. He created such a spirit of enthusiasm and devotion among the

He attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh about the year 1886. In a Tablet²¹ revealed in his honour Bahá'u'lláh reminds him of the time he attained His presence when He showered his bounties upon him and enabled him to hearken to His sweet voice, a voice to which were attracted all created things. In the same Tablet Bahá'u'lláh directs Ibn-i-Abhar to pass through the cities, and even as a breeze that stirs at the break of dawn to shed upon whomsoever will turn to him the sweet savours of His loving-kindness and favours. This Ibn-i-Abhar did for the rest of his life. He chose Tihrán as his residence and travelled far and wide throughout Persia. His teaching exploits and loving care for the believers contributed in a large extent to the growth and consolidation of the Bahá'í community in that country. In one of His Tablets²² Bahá'u'lláh states that Ibn-i-Abhar was created to extol God and magnify His name, to teach His Cause and to serve Him.

Early in 1891 the Persian government became suspicious of certain political activists and had them imprisoned. As was the usual practice, the authorities found it convenient to accuse the Bahá'ís of anti-government activities at the same time. Among those arrested were Hájí Abu'l-Hasan-i-Amín and Mullá 'Alí-Akbar, the Hand of the Cause, who were despatched to the prison of Qazvín.* Ibn-i-Abhar was consigned to the dungeon in Tihrán and kept in prison for about four years. During this period he was subjected to so much ill-treatment and torture that the full story, if written, would become very lengthy indeed. He took great pride in the fact that the same chains which had been once placed around Bahá'u'lláh's neck were put around his. A photograph† of

22. ibid. p. 442.

He is God!
The Hand of the Cause of God, Jináb-i-Ibn-i-Abhar,
upon him be the Glory of God

O thou who art steadfast in the Covenant,
A few days ago I was glancing at some photographs of the friends. By chance I came across thy photograph. As I beheld thy person standing poised and in the utmost dignity with chains around thy neck, I was so affected that all sorrow was turned into joy and radiance, and I praised God that the world's Greatest Luminary hath nurtured and trained such servants who, while tied in chains and under the threat of the sword, shine forth in the utmost exultation and rapture. And this is but a token of the grace of thy Lord, the Merciful, the Compassionate.²³

One form of torture usually inflicted upon victims in Persian prisons was the bastinado. The victim is made to lie on his back

May my life be sacrificed for your true loving-kindness and for the tears you have shed in the path of the Incomparable Friend. However, the situation did not justify weeping and lamenting. Because the first abode to which the wayfarer arrives in the path of love is that of renouncing life, possessions, rank and position. Was there ever an evening that I spent in your presence when you did not hear, the next morning, the reciting of the prayer, 'O Thou whose tests are a healing medicine unto such as are nigh unto Thee?' Now that this prayer has been answered, we must glorify God and render our thanks to Him.

Would it be fitting for He who is the Ruler of all the nations and the Lord of all creation to accept tribulations in order that mankind might be freed from the fetters of prejudice, liberated from attachments to this mortal world and disentangled from animalistic evil passions, while this insignificant being, who considers himself as one of His servants, be exempt from similar sufferings?

I swear by God, the Exalted, the Glorious, that while my legs from knee to toe were in great pain, my soul was communing with my Beloved in the utmost joy, and my inner being was engaged in conversing with the loved ones of God, His chosen ones and yourselves who are considered as leaves* of the tree of the Cause. I did not pay any attention to the pain and suffering. For pain and bodily swellings will die down in a few days' time; only their mention will remain in this world

* Bahá'u'lláh designated women believers as 'leaves'.