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Badíʻ

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Badí‘ at the age of 15

Badí‘ (Template:ArB)‎(1852 - 1869), born Mirzá Áqá Buzurg-i-Nishapuri, also known by his title the Pride of Martyrs, was the son of `Abdu'l-Majid-i-Nishapuri, a highly praised follower of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh.

Badí‘ is most famous for being the bearer of a tablet written by Bahá'u'lláh to Nasiri'd-Din Shah, for which he was tortured and killed at the age of 17. The Bahá'í calendar, known as the Badí‘ calendar, was named in his honor. He is also one of the foremost Apostles of Bahá'u'lláh.

The Kitáb-i-Badí‘, a book written by Bahá'u'lláh, has no relation to the Badí‘ of this article.

Travels

He was an unruly and rebellious youth, and his father, who was a Bahá'í, described him as the "despair of the family". It was upon a meeting with Nabíl-i-A`zam that Badí‘ heard a poem by Bahá'u'lláh and began weeping. After finishing his studies, he gave away his possessions and set out on foot for Baghdad, where a significant number of Bahá'ís were under persecution. Finally he set out on foot from Mosul to the prison city of `Akka.

He dressed as a water-carrier to slip by the guards, then proceeded to a mosque, where he recognized `Abdu'l-Bahá and slipped him a note. Badí‘ received two interviews with Bahá'u'lláh, and requested that he deliver the Lawh-i-Sultán, Bahá'u'lláh's tablet to Nasiri'd-Din Shah. He received the tablet in Haifa to avoid being caught by Ottoman officials. From there he traveled on foot for four months to Tehran. Along the way he was reported to "be full of joy, laughter, gratitude and forbearance, walking around one hundred paces then leaving the road and turning to face `Akká. He would then prostrate himself and say: 'O God, that which you have bestowed upon me through Your bounty, do not take back through Your justice; rather grant me strength to safeguard it'".

Martyrdom

File:Badi2.jpg
Badí‘ during his torture

After three days of fasting, Badí‘ went to the Shah's summer camp, and the Shah came upon him while hunting in the woods. Badí‘ approached the monarch with respect and calmly said: "O King! I have come to thee from Sheba with a weighty message". Badí‘ was arrested, branded for three successive days, his head beaten to a pulp with the butt of a rifle, after which his body was thrown into a pit and earth and stones heaped upon it.

A particularly famous picture of Badí‘ exists, taken at the Shah's request, where he is in chains during his torture, showing no emotion.

Haji Abdu'l-Majid

The 85 year old grandfather of Badí‘, Haji Abdu'l-Majid, was a survivor of the Battle of Shaykh Tabarsi. According to Shoghi Effendi:

"After the martyrdom of his son, had visited Bahá'u'lláh and returned afire with zeal to Khurasan, was ripped open from waist to throat, and his head exposed on a marble slab to the gaze of a multitude of insulting onlookers, who, after dragging his body ignominiously through the bazaars, left it at the morgue to be claimed by his relatives."
(God Passes By, p. 200)

References

  • Balyuzi, H.M. (1985). Eminent Bahá'ís in the time of Bahá'u'lláh. The Camelot Press Ltd, Southampton. ISBN 0853981523.
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