From: We are Baha'is
Aqa
Buzurg-i-Nishapuri was 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)
