A Glance at Sobhi Memoirs

Seyyed Hadi Khosrowshad ))

Sobhi\'s Memoirs and life

Sobhi\'s memoirs entitled \'\' Sobhi\'s book \'\' was published in

Danesh Tehran printing office in 1312 and its second part was

published in 1335 entitled \'\' the Father\'s message \'\'.

Sobhi\'s memoirs are important in two aspects: first, the author\'s

personality. He was one of known scholars and belletrists of our

era. Second, the content of memoirs which study the history and

action of Baha\'ism sect . In spite of passing three quarters of

century from publication of the first book, it is necessary to read

out or glance at his memoirs.

Next, these tow writings by Sobhi have a superior and literary

prose which indicate his great literary rank and eloquence .

Of course,we know that he could write poetry. Some of his poems

can be seen in his diary.

Fazlullah Muhtadi , known as Sobhi was dispatched to Iran in

1305, after he had been living with Abdulbaha for 12 years and

writing his written materials and servicing earnestly .

In this stage , in consideration with practice and action of Bahai

leader which was objectively observed by Sobhi , some changes

were happened in his beliefs and thoughts.

Stating these inner changes by one of skillful Bahai

missioners caused him to be called infidel and adulterer by Bahai\'s.

As he wrote, after that, they turned against and made a lot of

decisions against him. They made his family under pressure. He

was driven away by his father who was Bahai. In spite of his hard

situation, Sobhi was silent for some time and lived in isolation.

But Bahai\'s didn\'t stop tormenting him. So, he had to write

about his change and memoirs and activities of Baha\'ism periods

and revealed untold matters inside this sect in order to defend

himself and to state facts and reasons of his turning against this

sect.

Although he came bake to Islam from Baha\'ism and revealed

the facts about its heads-as he has written – he didn\'t antagonize

Bahai\'s. He has tried to propose and discuss the issue in view of a

person who is familiar with the facts. In this way, his view point

and not having personal likes and dislikes must be praised. In this

manner, there is no doubt for his honesty and trustiness.

For this reason, his book is an interesting and attractive

narration and it is free from antagonistic unilateral view. The book

is written by one of the leading and confidante missioners and

special writer of Abdulbaha , writer of divine message! , and an

intermediator between God \'s blessing and people ! It was written

for revealing facts not for enemity .

In spite of the fact that Sobhi turned against Baha\'ism

completely, he didn\'t reveal all secrets because he was trusted by

Abdulbaha -Abbas Afandi.

In this regard , ratiocinates : \'\' all these secrets that Abdulbaha

didn\'t hide because of my honesty and rectitude, are not released

by me because not only the essence of this action is praised and

praiseworthy; but also, his doubt about my safekeeping doesn\'t

decay to knowledgeable people . So, I want to be fair to

broad – minded men.\'\'

In his first book, Sobhi paid noticeable attention to

fundamental and ideological discussions and he has explicated

and explained the facts about the history of Baha\'ism emergence

and their beliefs and also about Islamic ideological foundations.

Not only he states his memoirs about his dependency periods to

Baha\'ism ; but also , he presents Islamic ideological features

liberating means for human and as the best religious foundations

for the reader of memoirs . It is likely that there are Bahai readers

who realize that they are baseless and they become familiar with

the rigid beliefs of Islam by reading the book.

After 20 years from the publication of \'\' Sobhi\'s book or the

memoirs of life \'\' in 1332, Sobhi published the book \'\' Father\'s

message\'\'.

\'\' Father\'s message \'\' can be considered as the second volume of

\"Sobhi\'s Memoirs \'\'. Although, there are some similarities in some

parts of these two books, but the setting of narrator has made the

quality and quantity of narration of \'\' Father\'s message \'\' different

from the previous memoirs.

In the book \'\' Sobhi\'s book \'\' he has stated his memoirs and

wrongness of Bahai\'s and also he has presented intellectual and

narrative reason for his turning against Bahai\'s.

In these memoirs, reports and narrations from centers of

Baha\'ism remain defective by the death of Abdulbaha. This part

will be completed in \'\' Father\'s message\'\'.

By considering current situations of Bahai\'s and its leadership,

Sobhi\'s has reached to highest point.

In this part, presenting the ideological issues is considered low

but, the narrator tried more to state the realities of this sect.

It seem that; although, Sobhi turned against Bahai\'s, he has

continued his friendly relationships with some of his Bahai

ex-friends and most of new discussions and narrations related

to presidency periods of Shogi Afandi are announced to Sobhi by

them.

Although in the book \'\' Father\'s message \'\' Sobhi has

apparently addressed Iran\'s youth but, he has really addressed

those Bahai\'s who have been trapped in this sect, whether they like

or not, in order to make them think contrive.

A lot of notes can be extracted about the quality and quantity of

the activities of Baha\'ism sect through the lines of these two books.

The notes which can be found less in other researcher\'s survives

So , we are going to glance at the important notes of these two

books because this action has an inevitable necessity for

understanding the vicissitudes of the contemporary history of Iran .

The tricks of Baha\'ism advertisement

After mentioning an introduction about his purpose in writing \'\'

Sobhi\'s book\'\'- or \'\'memoirs\'\' - Sobli explains about his status and

descendents in this sect. He states that \'\' he has been born and

grown up in the cradle of Baha\'ism \'\' and he has been raised in a

family who loved this sect from long time ago and were one of

Abdulbaha\'s distant relatives.

The aptitude and genius of Sobhi and his extreme enthusiasm

to Baha\'ism caused him to memorize Baha Allah and Abdulbaha\'s

tablets and words and he even helped his father who was a skillful

missioner in preaching Baha\'ism. Meanwhile, the main books of

this sect has been taught to him by some so-called \'\' the most

knowledgeable of all Baha\'ism.\'\'

He was such an enthusiastic and brilliant person that wrote

poetry at the age of 15. At this age, he went to Qazvin

accompanied with one of his friends to preach there.

But, it was the beginning of his departure to Zanjan and

Azarbayjan. He writes:\'\'…I supposed that Bahai missioner is an

angel that its temperament has been washed by wisdom water and

there isn\'t any particle of fault and carnal desire. So, I showed

extreme kindness and favor to this sect and I consider the service

to them as a great success and prosperity …\'\'

In continuation of his statements, Sobhi explains about an

important issue entitled \'\' the investment of missionary work\'\' and

its ranks and levels. He also explains about propagandistic tricks

which was used by Bahai\'s and how they played with the words

and phrases in order to deceive and attract ordinary and naive

people by sophistication and abusing vulgar beliefs. For instance,

stating miracle or narrating strange verses and dreadful works for

the common people. According to Mirza Mahdi Ekhvan-al-Safa ,

one of missioners, he did the above mentioned tasks in Tabriz

when he encountered a person.

Explaining about the reality of this miracle mentioned by

Mirza Mahdi, he indicated that it was baseless

In addition to misusing common people\'s beliefs to attract

them , they sophisticated and obfuscated to convince the

clergymen who didn\'t know the issue.

In this regard, he has written a report of his activity :

\"although he was a good-natured and wise man, he was dominated

by me because , he couldn\'t argue and didn\'t differentiate between