Badi (Wonderful); Pride of Martyrs; Apostle of Baha’u’llah.
Born Aqa Buzurg-i-Nishapuri, the son of a devoted Babi, he was later given the
title Badi' (unique, wonderful) by Baha’u’llah. Reputed to be a wild, unruly
youth, he had no interest in his father's affairs until, during the visit to
his home of a traveling teacher, Mulla Muhammadi-Zarandi (Nabil-i-A'zam), he
listened to some verses from a long poem by Baha’u’llah and was so entranced
that he devoted the balance of his life to serving Him. After his conversion he
set out to visit Him, traveling on foot from Mosul to 'Akka. It was during this
visit that he was chosen to deliver a letter (Tablet) from Baha’u’llah to
Nasiri'd-Din Shah. (‘The A to Z of the Baha’i Faith’ by Hugh Adamson)
Shoghi Effendi describes these events in the following
passage:
Aqa Buzurg of Khurasan, the illustrious "Badi"
(Wonderful); converted to the Faith by Nabil; surnamed the "Pride of
Martyrs"; the seventeen year old bearer of the Tablet addressed to
Nisiri'd-Din Shah; in whom, as affirmed by Baha’u’llah, "the spirit of might
and power was breathed," 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. After visiting
Baha’u’llah in the barracks, during the second year of His confinement, he had
arisen with amazing alacrity to carry that Tablet, alone and on foot, to Tihran
and deliver it into the hands of the sovereign. A four months' journey had
taken him to that city, and, after passing three days in fasting and vigilance,
he had met the Shah proceeding on a hunting expedition to Shimiran. He had
calmly and respectfully approached His Majesty, calling out, "O King! I
have come to thee from Sheba with a weighty message"; whereupon at the
Sovereign's order, the Tablet was taken from him and delivered to the mujtahids
of Tihran who were commanded to reply to that Epistle - a command which they
evaded, recommending instead that the messenger should be put to death. That
Tablet was subsequently forwarded by the Shah to the Persian Ambassador in
Constantinople, in the hope that its perusal by the Sultan's ministers might
serve to further inflame their animosity. For a space of three years
Baha'u'llah continued to extol in His writings the heroism of that youth,
characterizing the references made by Him to that sublime sacrifice as the
"salt of My Tablets."
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
