Fadlallah Mohtadi, known as Sobhi, is one of the pioneers of Iranian children’s and youth literature and a collector of folk tales. He is a familiar name to all lovers of Iranian literature. Children of several generations ago are well acquainted with his warm voice and his stories on the radio.
He was busy with the radio for nearly twenty-two years, despite pressure from some officials of the ruling regime, from the year the radio was founded, from 4th of Ordibehesht 1349 until his death on 7th of Aban 1341, and his program was considered acceptable to all the people of Iran. This researcher has left behind eleven published works in the field of literature and two works in the field of autobiography and Baha’i studies, and several works have not been published. “He was born into a Baha’i family and grew up in this culture, and became a passionate young man in the propagation of Baha’iism, who, in his own words, wanted to see everyone as a Baha’i. He went through the stages of advancement to the point where he achieved the position of writing and accompanying ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in solitude and in public, and on trips and in public. A position that was the dream of every Baha’i and for this reason he was highly respected and honored by Baha’is. The Revelation in his praise was issued by the pen of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, which added to his reputation and position…
We wonder what really happened that he turned his back on all this reputation, status and position, renounced the Bahá’í Faith, and threw himself into the most severe suffering, becoming a vagabond and a street urchin, and enduring the suffering of insults, abuse, persecution, hunger and homelessness? Was his mind defective enough to abandon such a position, which was the ultimate aspiration of every Bahá’í and a source of pride and pride for every Bahá’í family and even their descendants, and to sit in the midst of suffering? The body of the rupture and the motivation for finding this otherness must be traced from his own words…
We leave the thread of the speech to him;
Over time, as a result of further study and reflection, as well as observing the way of life of the Baha’is and seeing the contradiction between the commandments, instructions, and people’s actions, doubts and later also longings came to me, to the point that I sometimes shared these feelings with some of my fellow practitioners who had similar feelings to mine. But these thoughts did not cause us to stumble, because from the first day, the elders of the religion had been constantly telling their followers that it was a great test of God and that He would bring about things one by one so that whoever was not worthy of this system would be expelled (!) And all this was for the testing of the servants. Therefore, the followers of the Baha’i faith said that everything that did not make sense to their intellect and opinion was for our testing (!)… Days passed, months passed, and years passed, and every moment my longing increased. Seeing the contradiction between the laws, orders, and actions of the people had created doubts and longings for him, but, based on the previous insinuations of the missionaries and instructors, he suppressed those doubts within himself…
Subhi was born into a Baha’i family and was raised as a Baha’i. His family was also related to one of the wives of Baha’u’llah through his mother, and For this reason, they were also particularly respected. Subhi himself reports this matter as follows: My ancestor was a Muslim scholar named Hajj Mulla Ali Akbar, who lived in the city of Kashan, in the Panjeh Shah neighborhood. His wife, who was a Babi, had four sons and two daughters by him, although she did not reveal her faith in her husband’s house… That woman converted her children to the Babi faith and then to the Baha’i faith, and after the passing of my ancestor, under the name of Rahsapari of Mecca, she went first to Mecca with her son-in-law and then to Acre. You should also know that one of the wives of Baha’i leader Mirza Hussain Ali, named Gohar Khanum and known among Baha’is as the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre, was the niece of my great-grandmother, and therefore, Baha’i, from the language of his own wife, called her, my great-grandmother, Aunt Khanum, and after going to Mecca, Haji Aunt Khanum. My father, whose name was Muhammad Hussain and whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called Mirza Hussain and Ibn-e-Ammah, was the youngest of all his sisters and brothers and married in Tehran… His wife was a Baha’i, but he did not reveal it and secretly converted his daughters and sons to the Baha’i faith and gave all the daughters to Baha’i husbands… When I was six years old, I used to read the Iqan with my father, and that is the book that, according to Baha’is, Baha used to answer the questions of his uncle Sayyid The author wrote… Later, they took me to the educational institute that the Baha’is had set up and all our relatives went there…
Fadlallah Mohtadi, known as Sobhi, is one of the pioneers of Iranian children’s and youth literature and a collector of folk tales. He is a familiar name to all lovers of Iranian literature. Children of several generations ago are well acquainted with his warm voice and his stories on the radio.
He was busy with the radio for nearly twenty-two years, despite pressure from some officials of the ruling regime, from the year the radio was founded, from 4th of Ordibehesht 1349 until his death on 7th of Aban 1341, and his program was considered acceptable to all the people of Iran. This researcher has left behind eleven published works in the field of literature and two works in the field of autobiography and Baha’i studies, and several works have not been published. “He was born into a Baha’i family and grew up in this culture, and became a passionate young man in the propagation of Baha’iism, who, in his own words, wanted to see everyone as a Baha’i. He went through the stages of advancement to the point where he achieved the position of writing and accompanying ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in solitude and in public, and on trips and in public. A position that was the dream of every Baha’i and for this reason he was highly respected and honored by Baha’is. The Revelation in his praise was issued by the pen of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, which added to his reputation and position…
We wonder what really happened that he turned his back on all this reputation, status and position, renounced the Bahá’í Faith, and threw himself into the most severe suffering, becoming a vagabond and a street urchin, and enduring the suffering of insults, abuse, persecution, hunger and homelessness? Was his mind defective enough to abandon such a position, which was the ultimate aspiration of every Bahá’í and a source of pride and pride for every Bahá’í family and even their descendants, and to sit in the midst of suffering? The body of the rupture and the motivation for finding this otherness must be traced from his own words…
We leave the thread of the speech to him;
Over time, as a result of further study and reflection, as well as observing the way of life of the Baha’is and seeing the contradiction between the commandments, instructions, and people’s actions, doubts and later also longings came to me, to the point that I sometimes shared these feelings with some of my fellow practitioners who had similar feelings to mine. But these thoughts did not cause us to stumble, because from the first day, the elders of the religion had been constantly telling their followers that it was a great test of God and that He would bring about things one by one so that whoever was not worthy of this system would be expelled (!) And all this was for the testing of the servants. Therefore, the followers of the Baha’i faith said that everything that did not make sense to their intellect and opinion was for our testing (!)… Days passed, months passed, and years passed, and every moment my longing increased. Seeing the contradiction between the laws, orders, and actions of the people had created doubts and longings for him, but, based on the previous insinuations of the missionaries and instructors, he suppressed those doubts within himself…
Subhi was born into a Baha’i family and was raised as a Baha’i. His family was also related to one of the wives of Baha’u’llah through his mother, and For this reason, they were also particularly respected. Subhi himself reports this matter as follows: My ancestor was a Muslim scholar named Hajj Mulla Ali Akbar, who lived in the city of Kashan, in the Panjeh Shah neighborhood. His wife, who was a Babi, had four sons and two daughters by him, although she did not reveal her faith in her husband’s house… That woman converted her children to the Babi faith and then to the Baha’i faith, and after the passing of my ancestor, under the name of Rahsapari of Mecca, she went first to Mecca with her son-in-law and then to Acre. You should also know that one of the wives of Baha’i leader Mirza Hussain Ali, named Gohar Khanum and known among Baha’is as the Shrine of the Holy Sepulchre, was the niece of my great-grandmother, and therefore, Baha’i, from the language of his own wife, called her, my great-grandmother, Aunt Khanum, and after going to Mecca, Haji Aunt Khanum. My father, whose name was Muhammad Hussain and whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá called Mirza Hussain and Ibn-e-Ammah, was the youngest of all his sisters and brothers and married in Tehran… His wife was a Baha’i, but he did not reveal it and secretly converted his daughters and sons to the Baha’i faith and gave all the daughters to Baha’i husbands… When I was six years old, I used to read the Iqan with my father, and that is the book that, according to Baha’is, Baha used to answer the questions of his uncle Sayyid The author wrote… Later, they took me to the educational institute that the Baha’is had set up and all our relatives went there.
Travel Experiences
When Subhi’s father noticed his son’s longing, hesitation, and cooling off towards Baha’iism, he decided to send him on a trip so that his mood would change and his doubts would be dispelled by seeing fellow believers in other cities, and he would return to his previous enthusiasm. However, during these trips, Subhi observed things about the situation of Baha’is and missionaries that not only did not melt his doubts, but also increased his longing…: “…My father had no choice but to send me to Badan Shehr with a Zoroastrian friend named Borzo who had taken up residence in Qazvin. For forty days I spent among the Baha’is of Qazvin and saw things that cannot be described… …When we reached Ashgabat, we took up residence in the corner of Mashreq al-Adhkar, the Baha’i prayer house, which was a magnificent and beautiful building with a heartwarming garden and flower garden, and friends came to visit us… In this city and other Muslim-populated cities, all Baha’is were free, and the Russian Tsarist government had given them free rein in every matter, as they had built prayer houses in the name of Mashreq al-Adhkar, and from the first day that people from all corners of Iran gathered in that city, they received eye poison from the Muslims. I had a very bad experience in Ashgabat. Because after all, in the name of Turks and Persians, Baha’is were beating each other on the head and brain every day. [The Baha’is there] had bad tempers, and there were daily fights and clashes between the missionaries… In the city of Marw, I once again met Sayyid Asad Allah, one of the famous Baha’i missionaries, and every day and every night I learned about the history of the Baha’i Faith, but I realized that he knew many things that he was reluctant to say, and that he thought that if I became aware of them, I would become weak in the Baha’i Faith…” The experience that Sobhi gained during these trips was a valuable one: “In all these trips, our job was to propagate Baha’iism, but of course we achieved little result. What I realized was that in that vast land, because the Baha’is had freedom and did not hide their religion and beliefs, and their behavior was not praised by others, even though the Russian rulers gave them great help and gave them free rein in every matter, and strong spokesmen came and went there, not only did no one become a Baha’i, but many also turned away from Baha’iism, and a few remained indifferent.
Subhi has an interesting analysis of a propaganda trick used by the Baha’is of that time to justify the bad behavior of some of their co-religionists in order to condemn Muslims: In Iran at that time, whenever someone criticized the Baha’is for their bad habits and ugly deeds, they would hear the answer that we have inherited these from the time of Islam, which was the religion of our fathers, and undoubtedly our children will not become like that. They are a people of truthful speech and righteous deeds, averse to lies and insults, benevolent to all people, compassionate to the poor, and nurturers of the souls and bodies of people, and you will soon see that paradise will be established on earth. But in Ashgabat, this talk was in vain. Because we saw people who were first and third generation Baha’is, but they were unmatched in impurity and corruption. The situation in Tashkent was even worse. The Baha’is of that region were all those who had come there from Iran, and no one from the city people had converted to this religion except in Samarkand, where an Afghan was introduced to us as a Baha’i. In Tashkent, we saw a few Russian women everywhere who had Iranian husbands. In Tashkent, most of the Baha’is were those whose behavior and conduct did not reflect the Baha’is of Ashgabat, and they had been expelled, and their number was greater than the Baha’is of Bukhara and Samarkand. Look at what else they were that the Baha’is of Ashgabat had expelled!
Private Secretary to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Subhi decides to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in order to complete his research and overcome his doubts. This wish of his is fulfilled in the following way: In those days, we asked ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for a favor. He ordered us to come to Haifa by way of Egypt and Palestine. The first caravan that set out from Tehran was ours. Although obtaining a permit and a travel document was not easy, thanks to the kindness and effort of Mr. Naimi, in addition to the permit, advice was also received from the British Embassy… Finally, the wait was over and we reached our destination and entered the house of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá… The Baha’is who were going to Haifa to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were not allowed to stay there for more than nine or nineteen days, and these few days were not enough to examine the basics of some things about this religion and its great leaders. Especially since they spent three or four days in Acre and the blessed shrine to see the house and shrine of Baha, and then went about their business for a day or two, and since their goal was nothing other than to see ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the shrine and kiss the threshold of Baha, they were equally happy, and truly, they deserved nothing less. Because staying too long and becoming familiar with the character and manner of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and his close associates would have deprived the simple-hearted followers of the purity and devotion they had and made them weak in their commitment. This is why the Bahá’ís of Haifa and ‘Akka did not have the affection of the distant Bahá’ís, did not show much affection, and did not consider him the confidant of the secret of their hearts. I was thinking day and night how I could stay here for a few months and, as I wanted, examine things closely and become aware of what I did not know. Then, by chance, I wrote a letter on behalf of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to someone else. When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá read the letter, my handwriting struck him. He had heard my voice before, and had not rejected it. As a result, he asked me to That I should stay in Haifa and become his personal secretary.
Close Observation
Subhi reveals an important secret: his own close observation and the method of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and his close associates removed the simple-hearted followers from the purity and devotion they had and made them weak-willed (a term used by the organization for wavering individuals in Baha’iism). This was why, according to his testimony, the Baha’is of Haifa and ‘Akka, who were in close contact with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and his close associates, did not have the attachment of the distant Baha’is and did not show much inclination and did not consider him the confidant of their secret hearts. Even today, Baha’is who are planning to visit Israel on a pilgrimage are not kept there for more than nine days and are not allowed to contact them, so that they do not come face to face with members of the House of Justice and Baha’i organizations there and make inquiries, so that they do not break their promise based on this morning’s speech! He emphasizes that: “Baha’is who went to Haifa to visit ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were not allowed to stay there for more than nine or nineteen days, and these few days were not enough to investigate the basis of some things about this religion and its great leaders…
On the other hand, they assigned several people to see who was in contact with me and who was coming and going, in order to stop him, and if he was a follower of Shugdi, to drive him away. The poor Baha’is were all worried lest they should get caught in conversation and intercourse with me. Whenever I encountered one of this group in the alley or market, I would hear curses and insults and they would look at me angrily and turn their faces away. Several times they pushed me so hard in the street that I fell to the ground. At that time, I fell ill for a few days. My father was found out. He could not rest and out of fear, he would come to Sotoudeh’s house and ask her with teary eyes how Sabhi was doing. Has she recovered or is she still sick?… My children; this is the group that wants to unite the people of the world and eliminate enmity and alienation! You don’t know how I felt when I heard this from Sotoudeh! I repeat, I do not want to tell you every detail of the oppression and harassment that I received from this group; because you will be saddened and curse them and hold their enmity in your heart. Once; God protected me from their wickedness and evil thoughts so that today I can call my children truthfully and correctly and tell them about the benefits of my trial, so that they do not fall for the deception of others… Wherever I went in search of work to earn and eat bread, they would go and say: This person is not worthy. He is a dishonest and disgraceful man. … Everywhere they would slander me and they would plot such a plot that I would crawl into a hidden corner and if they harmed me, no one would notice. But the more they tried on this path, the more they got nowhere, and by the grace of the Great God, their arrows hit the rocks, and finally it happened that the unknown man became famous to everyone…
Immortality in the shelter of truth
Yes, Subhi, with a divine determination, embraces the truth despite all the hardships and accepts all the consequences of such a great decision with courage… After a while, he goes to the national radio and enthusiastically takes on the task of guiding the youth of the homeland with artistry and storytelling. As long as he had life in his body, with this love, that is, the love for guiding and developing the youth, he connects the moments of life to the eternity of divine spirituality in the light of the Muhammadan religion, until after many years of serving the homeland and striving for the advancement of the youth and providing cultural, scientific and artistic services, his great soul returns to the Merciful Creator. He drew a feather… and at 4:10 in the morning on Thursday, November 17, 1962, he passed away in the hospital, and his last words before falling asleep were: God bless you all. In total, he had been telling stories on the radio for nearly twenty-two years.
Yes, close observation, with enough time to examine the foundation of a religion and its elders, can be a guide. Something that is not and is not given to Bahai pilgrims in Israel…
An exceptional opportunity
One morning, while he was waiting for an opportunity to observe closely, this exceptional opportunity came to him and he became one of the closest people to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as he became his companion, companion, and confidant in his house and on the street:… Except for religious days, celebrations, and mourning, every day from morning until noon, I would scribble out the previous day’s letters, put them in an envelope, and take them to him. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was often pleased with my writing and would occasionally mention this in his letters… Since all the work was entrusted to me and letters and consignments were coming to me, he first took me from the inn to the house of one of his relatives, Enayatullah Isfahani, his sister-in-law’s son, and after a while to the house of Munawwar Khan, his little daughter who had gone to Egypt at that time, and I remained in that house until the day I was in Haifa… ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gradually became accustomed to me and was pleased that my presence was a source of his joy. He expressed this and wrote it down in his own handwriting, and one of them is the letter he wrote to my father informing him of this secret. In short, from then on, in fact, all my time with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, or at any rate in his service, was spent in the service of the He was passing by. Know this much: From the day I went to Haifa and after a while became the companion and confidant of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá until the day I left there, I was with Him step by step. We went around Palestine and the city of Tiberias, the center of the Jews that day, and we sailed on the Sea of Galilee… In Tiberias, I frequently went with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to ‘Akká and Bahá’í and spent a pleasant time and saw all the different aspects of His life.
Covering the Faith
Baha’is claim that taqiyyah and covering the faith are signs of wavering and weakness of commitment and are not permissible and forbidden in Baha’iism. However, the morning report of the behavior of Baha and ‘Abdu’l-Baha in ‘Akka shows the opposite and proves that the Baha’i leaders and, following them, other Baha’is, covered their faith in ‘Akka and presented themselves as Sunni Muslims, of the Hanafi type, and participated in the Friday prayers of the Muslims, impersonating themselves as Muslims: “I found there that from the day Baha and his followers were moved to ‘Akka, they apparently maintained Muslim customs and rituals, such as prayer and fasting, and introduced themselves to the people as Muslims and followers of the Hanafi method. And every time ‘Abdu’l-Baha went to the mosque and followed the leader of the Muslims, “He prays like everyone else.”
Observing Corruption
Subhi, who had come to the nearest Baha’i base for research, had not yet completely renounced Baha’iism, and what made him sad and distressed was the corruption he observed in the relatives and close friends of the Baha’i leadership… But because of the previous teachings about the tests, he tried to overcome his doubts and justify them all to himself: During my stay with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, I learned bitter facts about the corruption of the lives of the Baha’is, including the closest relatives and members of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s family, or I observed them directly, but I justified them all to myself.
Glorifying Subhi again
But ‘Abdu’l-Bahá understood the matter and realized Subhi’s doubts and decided that before it was too late and Subhi did not return from Baha’iism, he would send her to other places under the pretext of propaganda and in a way that was He should sing his praises so that all doubts will be removed from him and the essence will be salted and he should stand at the door and for the sake of preserving these praises and the exceptional position he has found, he should not abandon Bahá’íism… Therefore, he calls him and, under the pretext of preaching in other places, issues a very important tablet in his honor and shows his importance with words full of great praise and writes to him: O Abba, O Abba, be as bright as the day and as fresh as the grass from the showers of the Companions of your care! Travel in the perfection of enthusiasm and joy and in the end, sail over the sea with joy and gladness and deliver the heavenly message and open your tongue to preaching and eloquently state the proof and argument… And upon you, O Abba. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Abbas.
Return to Iran and the Death of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
With this command, which was given to few others, we boarded a ship from Haifa to Beirut. Then, after taking the same route that we had taken to Haifa, we returned to Iran. I had not heard of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s death until shortly after my arrival in Tehran.
Confusion over the Succession of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
According to the report of Subhi, there was great confusion over the succession of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
With Shoghi’s succession, doubts about Subhi’s existence regarding the Bahá’í Faith became institutionalized. He was no longer bound by Bahá’í customs, and although he had a very special position among Bahá’ís, his freedom did not allow the truth to be sacrificed for the sake of position…let’s leave it at that…. In any case, Shoghi became ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s successor and the leader of the Bahá’ís. After this, Shoghi came to Haifa from London with an English lady named Lady Blomfield who had a base among the Baha’is. This woman had the pen name of Stare Khanum among the Baha’is, and the first letter Shoghi wrote to the Baha’is had her signature at the bottom, and she was cooperating with Shoghi on that day, and it has been said about her that
We will get through it. Despite all this, I did not break off my relationship with Haifa, and after Shoghi returned to Haifa, I wrote one or two letters to her and received a reply. Warqa-e-Alia also wrote me a long letter. Once, because it was difficult for me to stay in Tehran, I sang a song in Azerbaijan. On this trip, I passed through the cities of Qazvin, Hamadan, Tabriz, Khalkhal and some villages and parts of these regions, and I stayed in each place for a while, as appropriate. Throughout the journey, I enjoyed the love and welcome of the Baha’is. Because in their eyes I was still one of the highest ranks of this faith. Because in the not-so-distant past, I was the secretary of the works and confidant of the secrets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and in the eyes of the Baha’is, I was in the first row of those close to the Great Gate, the scribe of revelation and the mediator of grace between God and mankind. ((The events that had occurred and the opportunity that came to me on this journey made me think more deeply about the course of affairs. As a result))) When I returned from Azerbaijan to Tehran in 1305 AH, due to the revolutions and changes that had long since befallen me in my spiritual beliefs and thoughts, and sometimes I would speak words that did not suit the taste of the Baha’is.
Expulsion and its consequences
The intelligence system and spy agencies finally report the spiritual changes of this close scribe of the Abdalbah to Shoghi, and Shoghi, who has now become the leader of the Baha’i Faith, seizes the best opportunity to expel him, who is aware of many secrets, and remove him from the path of leadership: “Some people began to write letters to Shoghi and give biased reports about my actions and words. Of course, in reality, when I came to Tehran from Qazvin, I was a changed person. I did not have the previous enthusiasm and enthusiasm. I had become somewhat moderate. I did not read the Tablet of Ahmad, I did not go to prayer circles, and I did not go to gatherings of the friends except under compulsion, and I did not speak except when necessary. Now, several years had passed since the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Shoghi had taken the reins of affairs. Until Nowruz 1307 (22 August 1928) arrived. At this time, a person from the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’í Community prepared a pamphlet, printed it in a printing house that had been secretly set up in a place for the printing of such pamphlets and other secret Bahá’í matters, under the name of Muthadd-ul-Mal, and immediately distributed it among the Bahá’ís. In it, he called me an atheist and shamelessly and shamelessly told lies about me, saying: “The past, because he does not care about being contaminated by any scandal or bad name, is like a vagabond and a good man who comes and goes with the enemies of the Bahá’í Faith.” Therefore, do not let him go, drive him away, and turn him away wherever you see him. This letter had not yet reached everyone when my sick father was forcibly summoned to a spiritual gathering at night and taken away, and they said that he must throw him out of his house. We were in this commotion and conversation when Nowruz arrived. After a few days, two people came to our house and scared my father and told him that he must throw his son out of the house in the morning, otherwise you will be caught in the wrath and fury of Shuki and his followers, and life will be hard for you. Poor father, he could not bear to see me and drive me away, nor did he have the strength not to listen to them. He did not know what to do. One day we were sitting at the table. He said: Fadlallah always calls me by this name. Either you must listen to everything I say without question or leave me. I immediately got up and went out. You don’t know what happened to him! On the one hand, he was sad and looked at me with tearful eyes, and on the other hand, he said: In fact, there is a place where I can get relief from these people…. But… I came out of the house. Where should I go? Who should I seek refuge with? I don’t know! Who will let me in and look at me with a friendly look? No one. Muslims call me a bad and irreligious Baha’i, and Baha’is consider me a covenant-breaker and worthy of death. No one knows me except these two groups. I set off on the streets until it got dark. I had no guide.
On the one hand, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá himself did not recognize anyone worthy of leading after him and wanted to make the House of Justice responsible for this work, and on the other hand, according to the texts, after him, Muhammad ‘Ali, his brother Ghosn al-Akbar, was to become his successor and the leader of Baha’iism: Most Baha’is were very affected by this and said, “Who else will be found like ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who will have such authority over affairs and be able to advance the Baha’i Cause?” Of course, none of the Baha’is thought that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá would succeed anyone after him. Because, a few years before his death, in the days when the Ottoman Emperor Abdul Hamid was suspicious of him and wanted to expel him from Acre to Khyzan, he wrote to the Baha’is that after me there would be no one who would call followers to himself and seek a base, even if it was a guardianship. And no one could claim a name for himself in any way. The affairs would fall into the hands of the House of Justice, which Baha’i had announced, and it is so that the Baha’is would choose nine people from among themselves, according to the instructions he had given, to take charge of the affairs, and whatever they said would be true and correct and from God. This was while Baha himself, two years before his death, wrote a petition called the Book of the Covenant and handed it to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, which no one but him and he knew about. There he said that after me, “the great Ghâsn ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and after him, “the great Ghâsn ‘Akbar Muhammad ‘Ali Effendi will be my successor.” Therefore, by the command of Bahá, after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the affairs should be entrusted to Mirza Muhammad ‘Ali. But suddenly a telegram arrived from Haifa in which it was announced that Shoghi, one of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s granddaughters, would succeed ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Why Shoghi?
Subhi’s analysis of why Shoghi came to power reveals much about the hidden power struggle within the Abdalbah family. Abdalbah had no sons. When his granddaughter Shoghi was born to Mahd Ali, he agreed to be her successor. However, when Shoghi grew up and his moral corruption became apparent to the ‘Abdu’l-Bahás, he regretted this decision and chose a different solution. In his new will, he removed the issue of Shoghi’s succession. However, Mahd Ali’s influence and pressure regarding the succession of his son Shoghi worked and he was able to push aside all the opponents and domestic claimants and bring Shoghi to power with all his shortcomings and inabilities: … The text of the telegram indicated that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá himself had chosen Shoghi as his successor. However, the reality of the matter was that the first time ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had announced Shoghi as his successor went back many years and it was when Shoghi was only about three years old! But after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave up hope on Shoghi, he wrote a new will in which this matter was omitted. Nevertheless, through the conspiracy of the Mahd-e-Alia, Shoghi was imposed on the Baha’is as the successor of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Shoghi’s Personality
The secrets that Subhi had as a result of his close contact with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and his family in ‘Akká were very sensitive, and few other Baha’is had access to those secrets. With the moral corruption that Subhi knew about Shoghi and witnessed firsthand, he did not think it was possible for him to succeed him. Therefore, upon hearing the news of Shoghi’s succession, he was completely shocked. In his own words, it was a heavy hammer that fell on all his beliefs:.. In any case, the arrival of this news astonished most of the non-ordinary Baha’is. I was one of these people, for this news hit me like a hammer on the head. For whoever did not know, I knew Shoghi well and knew what kind of person he was. Among the descendants of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in the first days of my arrival in Haifa, I became acquainted with Shoghi. And he had a special nature and character that I cannot describe to you. He had little of a manly disposition and was always seeking friendship and intercourse with strong men and young men! One night, Dr. Zia Baghdadi (the son of a prominent Bahá’í, who worked as a doctor in America and had come to Haifa to see ‘Abdu’l-Bahá) and we were together in ‘Akká and we were making the kind of jokes that young people usually make. In the middle of the conversation, I went out of the room for some business and returned. On my way back, I saw that Dr. Zia had done something wrong… I got angry and said: Doctor! What are you doing?! Shoghi turned to me and said: If you also have a man, show him to me!! I heard and saw such words and actions from him many times and realized that Shoghi must have some shortcomings. Could Sobhi, with all the knowledge he had of Shoghi, accept such a corrupt and flawed person as the leader of the religion he follows?!!
Doubts Introduction to Awareness
It was the month of fasting in those days and the weather was cold. For several nights, since I had no shelter, I wandered through the alleys and ravines until dawn…. I remember well that one night, I was both hungry and weak and sleep overcame me. Suddenly, the door of a house opened and a table moved in the middle of the alley. I was happy. I said: This is a sign that the night is coming to an end and that the cannon is about to be fired and I will be relieved from the pain of dozing, and that I am going closer to get a piece of bread. I went closer. I saw that there was nothing in the ravine except five eggshells and half a rotten onion. I came to the side, when the cannon was fired. I said: Again, it is a place of gratitude that the night did not end and sleep did not escape my head. Two months of my life passed like this…
… If I were to tell you in detail how this group, who use tricks and falsehoods to deceive the people and the simple-hearted, treated me, you would be confused and perhaps you would not believe it. I do not want to write my report as long and extensive as I have written about it in the book Subhi, but I cannot go through it without you knowing what this group did to me: I had no place to rest, no bread to feed my hungry stomach, no clothes to protect me from cold and heat, and no corner where I could not see them and hear the wounds of their tongues. Despite all this, I had the strength to not give up and I did not let myself down.
Approaching the Threshold of the Morning
The suffering and turmoil within Subhi (the invalidity of the path that Umri had taken was not enough, but the suffering of the great persecution of the Baha’is (or, as he called them, the Haba’is) was also added to it. The rejection and its consequences from the claimants of the unity of the human world, including the insults, slander, slander, seditions to impose poverty, unemployment, and dishonor on him, fell on him like debris every day, but he consoled himself and threw his hands in supplication at the Threshold of God and received a sweet answer: “… Finally, I said: We did not want to be liars and hypocrites in our opinion; to say with our tongues something that was in our hearts other than that. We wanted Poor young people who are enamored with empty talk and in the name of friendship, they bring about a hundred kinds of enmity and consider ignorance to be knowledge, they run away from the truth and follow a man whom they have not seen or considered, lest they go astray and fall into the well. O God, who is my friend and protector in this predicament, suffering and hardship? How can I, with these troubles that I have, call people to the light of knowledge and insight and save them from the darkness of ignorance and delusion? I ask You for an answer! When my thoughts and my conversation with God reached this point, I reached the end of the alley. A man sitting there, reciting the Quran loudly, told me this verse: Allah is the Protector of those who believe. He brings them out of darkness into the light. You do not know what joy this answer from Allah brought me! I stood in the middle of the alley, stamped my feet, spread my hands, and said: Thank you for giving me peace of mind and peace of soul! I have no more sorrow. Well, I know that you are my back and refuge in life… I have had many such encounters; there is no room to tell them now… It is as if one morning, having embraced Islam, one becomes ready to accept even more difficult sufferings…
The persecutions of the followers of the unity of the human world… The speech has become long. I wanted to talk more about this and write to you the oppressions, sufferings, and abuses [that] I saw from the group of the Haba’is so that you may know them well and know that these people, who openly talk about the love and friendship of people and the unity of the world and when they want to eliminate enmity, malice, and grudges, are secretly more fierce than any enemy for people and have no desire in their hearts except grudges and creating anger and chaos among people. Not only did they force my kind father to drive away and throw out of the house the son from whom he had seen nothing but servitude, truth, and honesty, but they went a step further and sat in ambush to eliminate me if they could. They also have trials in this work: there were many who, after converting to this religion and making sacrifices in this path, realized that they had gone the wrong way and turned back halfway, were destroyed by their tyranny. They have done many such things… If I were to tell the story of the many people who were destroyed by them, a separate book would be needed… Despite all this, the Baha’is did not sit quietly and wrote to this door and that door one after another, saying that there is a morning behind every door and no one is looking at them…