Is Bab’s grave in Haifa, Israel?
What the Baha’is say about the grave of Ali Muhammad Shirazi, nicknamed Bab, is that his grave is in the city of Haifa, Israel, next to Mount Carmel, which is also called the highest place. But by looking closely at the documents of Babian and Azlian, we realize that this Baha’i statement is baseless.
Those who believe in the book Bayan (Bayaniha) consider the burial place of Seyyed Ali Mohammad Bab and Mohammad Ali Zenozi, who was executed along with Bab, in Imamzadeh Masoom near Rabat Karim, Tehran, and consider this place as one of their places of pilgrimage. Professor Edward Brown also writes in the book “A Year Among the Iranians”:
“But Suleiman Khan and several other Babians who had influence in Tabriz took the bodies from outside the city through their influence and probably through bribery, wrapped them in white shrouds, put them in a chest and sent them to Tehran. In Tehran, according to the order of Mirza Yahya nicknamed Sobh Azal (who, although he was a young man of twenty years, was elected to succeed Bab), the bodies were transferred to Imamzadeh Masoum, located on the road to Hamedan, near Rabat Karim. [1]
The scribe’s name was Ali Mohammad Shirazi nicknamed Bab, Seyyed Hossein katab. He addressed his friend Haj Suleiman Khan in a letter when he sent the body of Bab from Tabriz to Tehran:
“The request that I have from that human family is that, as long as you are in the land of Baha, whenever you meet the Lord, please remember this Akaf Zawiyyah and Harman, and whenever verses are sent down from the eternal heaven in the hollow. Please send your book, and I have sent the bearer in the name of Allah Al-Hadar Al-Sabir, the bearer of the Throne of Allah the Most High. [2]
Explanation letter:
This tablet was written by Agha Seyed Hossein Katib in 1268 AH. It was written when the body of the first point was sent from Tabriz to Haj Suleiman Khan, and it has great historical importance, and most of the tablets are in Persian.
In this letter, it means the Land of Baha (Tehran) [3] and it means the meeting of the Lord (Eternal Morning) and the Throne of God Almighty (the body of the first point or the same chapter).
Therefore, it should be said that Sobh Azel was staying in Tehran at the time of writing this letter, and in this letter he says: “I sent the body of the first point (Arshallah al-Azam) to Tehran by carrier.” Therefore, the speech of the scribe of Bab in this letter indicates that the body of Bab was taken to Tehran, not that it was preyed upon by animals.
The official Bayan website has also announced the following regarding the current location of Bab’s grave:
“The throne of the first point was buried in Imamzadeh Masoum Shrine in Tehran, according to their will, by the order of Sobh Azal. Muslim historians do not believe in it, and Baha’i historians agree that the throne of the first point was stolen from that place and taken to Acre. People of Bayan consider the primary place. [4]
In their works, Babian and Azlian mentioned the delivery of the Báb’s body to Sobh Ezl and wrote that Bahá’u’lláh was not aware of the Báb’s burial place. Although the Bahá’ís also mention in the treatise Ma’arif Amri number 14 page 4 that the Báb’s body was entrusted to Bahá’u’lláh and buried in Imamzadeh Masoum in Tehran, they believe that in 1316 it was taken to “Acre by the order of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and buried in Haifa after 50 years. . But the question raised here is why his burial was done in Haifa after 50 years?
It seems that the documents provided by Babian and Azlian are stronger and stronger. Because according to the will of Bab Sobh, he was the successor of the Bab and should have acted according to his instructions, and another point is that the scribe of the Bab does not mention Baha’u’llah in his letter.
Anyway, the Babians consider the old place in Imamzadeh Masoum of Tehran as sacred. Due to the sanctity of this place among the Babis and Baha’is, some of the elders and ancestors of these two clans, such as Uzia Khanum (sister of Babi Sobh Azal and Bahá’u’lláh), and among the Baha’i elders, there are also people such as Mullah Ali Akbar Shahmirzadi and Mirza Naeem Sadhi. It can be mentioned that they were buried there and this place has a special sanctity among the Babians. [5]
Here are some questions:
1- Why is there no photo of Bab’s body in the pits outside Tabriz and Venice, and the coffin sent to Tehran, as well as his place and tomb in Imamzadeh Masoom.
2- Why did the Baha’is of Abdul Baha’s time not publish any photos of the coffin that was moved from Tabriz and the remains of the Bab’s body that were found.
3- Why don’t they publish any photos of the Bab’s grave under the golden dome of hundreds of millions of dollars in Haifa in Israel (at the foot of Mount Carmel).
References:
1- Browne, Edward G., A year among the Iranians. Iran: Marafet Center, 1888. 79.
2- A part of the tablets of the first point and Agha Seyed Hossein Katab, p. 38
3- The Bab called Tehran the Land of Baha (Asadullah Fazel Mazandarani, Asrar al-Akhti al-Pharav, pp. 271 and 272).
