A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
Áqá Muḥammad-Ibráhím 81 |
Muḥammad-Ibráhím,
who bore the title of
Mansúr—Victorious—was a coppersmith. This man of
God, yet another among the emigrants and settlers, was a
native of Káshán. In the early flowering of his youth he
recognized the newborn Light and drank deep of the holy
cup that is “tempered at the camphor fountain.”
1
He was a
man of pleasing disposition, full of zest and the joy of life.
As soon as the light of faith was lit in his heart, he left
Káshán, journeyed to Baghdád, and was honored with
coming into the presence of Bahá’u’lláh.
|
Áqá Muḥammad had a fine poetic gift, and he would
create verses like stringed pearls. In Zawrá—that is, Baghdád,
the Abode of Peace—he was on amicable terms with
friend and stranger alike, ever striving to show forth loving-kindness
to all. He brought his brothers from Persia to
Baghdád, and opened a shop for arts and crafts, applying
himself to the welfare of others. He, too, was taken prisoner
and exiled from Baghdád to Mosul, after which he
journeyed to Haifa, where day and night, lowly and humble,
he chanted prayers and supplications and centered his
thoughts on God.
82
|
He remained a long time in Haifa, successfully serving
the believers there, and most humbly and unobtrusively
seeing to the travelers’ needs. He married in that city, and
fathered fine children. To him every day was a new life
and a new joy, and whatever money he made he spent on
strangers and friends. After the slaying of the King of
Martyrs, he wrote an elegy to memorialize that believer who
had fallen on the field of anguish, and recited his ode in
the presence of Bahá’u’lláh; the lines were touching in the
extreme, so that all who were there shed tears, and voices
were raised in grief.
|
Áqá Muḥammad continued to live out his life, high of
aim, unvarying as to his inner condition, with fervor and
love. Then he welcomed death, laughing like a rose suddenly
full-blown, and crying, “Here am I!” Thus he quitted
Haifa, exchanging it for the world above. From this narrow
slip of land he hastened upward to the Well-Beloved,
soared out of this dust heap to pitch his tent in a fair and
shining place. Blessings be unto him, and a goodly home.
2
May God sheathe him in mercies; may he rest under the
tabernacles of forgiveness and be brought into the gardens
of Heaven.
|
1. | Qur’án 76:5. [ Back To Reference] |
2. | Qur’án 13:28. [ Back To Reference] |