ABBAS EFENDI FAVOURS THOSE WHO MOST EXXAGERATE HIS POSITION

“Abbas Efendi and his tablets”

The fourth difference was that the more the followers of Abbas Efendi increased in exaggeration of his praise, and described him by names and attributes proper only to the Divine Majesty, the more he magnified his gifts to them and the more graciously he treated them. So they exaggerated the more,* and carried matters to the point of polytheism¹, exceeding all limits in respect to him. Thus they took certain verses of the Surat-ul-Amr and made them a separate Tablet, which, they asserted, was Abbas Efendi\'s, so that they might establish for him a glory proper only to Divine Theophanies. And Abbas Efendi himself made alterations in one of the Servant\'s² letters to Muhammad Mustafa of Baghdad in Beyrout, that is to say added to it and diminished from it, saying that it was a Tablet which the Lord had revealed to him. Moreover he claimed that the Holy Tablet specially addressed to his brother Muhammad \'Ali Efendi was shared by himself. Again the Servant [Mirza Aqa Jan of Kashan], during the days when His Holiness, our Great Master sojourned at Adrianople, had written a tract wherein he made a mention of the Mischief of the days of the Manifestation. This tract Abbas Efendi named \" the Tablet of the Mischief,\" saying that it was a Holy Tablet revealed from the Supreme Pen, and ordered it to be read in the assemblies, his object therein being to cast doubts into men\'s hearts, so that they might imagine that the utmost importance belonged to his days. Again our Great Master, before he made known his Mission, warned us of the advent of \" the grievous days,\" meaning thereby the days of His Manifestation. But after the Manifestation He declared in one of the Holy tablets that they

had come to an end. But Abbas Efendi said in answer to a question concerning \" the grievous days \" that they were the year of the Ascension³, in order to establish the importance of his own days, as hath been mentioned. And not withstanding all that we have mentioned, he asserted that his brother Muhammad Ali Efendi had tampered with the published Divine Verses, I mean the [edition of the] Kitabul Haykal lithographed in the days of His Holiness our Great Master, whereof many copies exist in the writing of Zayn (al-Muqarrabin)⁴ (who is well known amongst this community and who collated this lithographed edition), and said that the verses which were not confirmed by him were not to be relied on, intending thereby to prevent his followers from referring to these Divine Verses, lest they should become aware of his [Abbas Efendi\'s] opposition to the Holy Writings** in word, deed, declaration and writing.

ABBAS EFENDI DEPRIVES HIS BROTHERS OF THEIR ALLOWANCES.

In the fourth year after the death of His Holiness our Great Master [i.e. about 1896], the partisans of Abbas Efendi held a meeting in his audience-chamber at his suggestion, took counsel with one another, and agreed that what was given of the necessaries of life to theHoly Family and to his brothers was on no account permissible; wherefore Abbas Efendi cut it off completely, so that he compelled them to borrow for household expenses, because they were deprived of means. This was a wrongful act on his part, because what [revenue] reached him from the different countries was not his private property, but belonged to the entire Holy Family, as will not be hidden from the discerning Yet he cut it off from them, and spent it on whom he would of the officials and men of influence, in order to effect his personal aims, not acting conformably to truth, justice and equity.

* pg. 64
** pg. 65
1. shirk, i.e. associating partners with God.
2. i.e. Mirza Aqa Jan of Kashan, the special attendant and amanuensis of Baha\'ullah commonly called Janab-I-Khadimullah.
3. i.e. of the death of Baha\'llah.
4. see my translation of the Traveller\'s Narrative, ii, pp. 412-418.

DEATH OF ZIYA\'ULLAH, OCTOBER 30, 1898

In the sixth year after [the death of] His Holiness our great Master [i.e. about 1898], a grievous sickness overcame Ziya\'ullah Efendi, by reason of the vehement emotion caused in him by the existing events and differences. After some days he went for change of air to Hayfa, where the malady increased in gravity. And during the days of his illness neither Abbas Efendi nor any of his family or followers came to visit his sick brother or to enquire after him; until the signs of dissolution appeared, on the afternoon of the 14th of Jumada II, A.H. 1316 (October 30, 1898), when Abbas Efendi came, stayed a few minutes, and then returned to his lodging. Next morning he came, accompanied the corpse to the gate of the town [`Akka], and after a short while went to the Palace (of Bahja) tarried a while there, and returned to \'Akka, but was not present at the funeral, nor anyone of his family and followers.

They did not even close their shops and offices on that *day, as is customary, but on the contrary manifested joy and gladness and quaffed the drinks commonly used on festivals. This behaviour [on their part] astonished all, whether present or absent, kinsmen or strangers.

ATTEMPT TO ABDUCT THE WIDOW OF ZIYA\'ULLAH.

Ziya\'ullah Efendi had a wife whose parents and brothers were followers of Abbas Efendi, who summoned them to his presence, desiring by their means to draw her to himself. But since after her husband\'s death she chose faithfulness [to his memory] and the service of Her Holiness his mother, with whom she dwelt in the Palace of Bahja, Abbas Efendi sent her parents and her brother to the Holy Place. They sent a certain woman of the partisans of Abbas Efendi to her mother-in-law, demanding an interview with the girl, that is, the wife of Ziya\'ullah Efendi, in the Holy Place; which request being granted, she came in company with the above mentioned woman to the Holy Place and met her parents and her brother, who held her in conversation with inquiries as to her condition and declarations of affection, walking meanwhile towards the gate, on emerging from which her parents and brother seized her by force, and carried her off, holding her hands and feet to drag her to the place where a carriage was in readiness to carry her away. Abbas Efendi\'s wife was present in person to superintend the arrangements above mentioned, while some of her relations and followers were helping the parents in her abduction, she being bare-headed and bare-footed, crying out and asking for help, and saying \" O Baha, help me ! They have taken me by force! \" This event happened at a time when Muhammad Ali Efendi and Badi\'u\'llah Efendi were absent, and no one was present except the Servant of the Presence¹ and a few of the Unitarians² The author of this history and some others of the Companions were proceeding towards the Holy Place to visit it**, and we happened to be there when they brought her out crying for help. We and the Servant [Janab-i-Khadimullah] hastened to the spot and delivered her out of their hands. But Abbas

Efendi, when he perceived that he was foiled in his scheme and saw that it had not succeeded, ordered some of his followers to write a pamphlet in which the matter was entirely misrepresented, and sent it with the signature of the ill-used lady\'s father (I mean the widow of Ziya\'ullah Efendi) to Egypt to Hajji Mirza Hasan of Khurasan, who printed and published it in the lands by his command.

* pg. 66
1. i.e. Mirza Aqa Jan of Kashan, called Janab-i-Khadimullah,
2. This was the name adopted by the followers of Muhammad Ali. See p. 81 supra.
** page 67

PROTEST OF MIRZA AQA JAN (JANAB-I-KHADIMULLAH)

In the fifth year [after Baha\'u\'llah\'s death], on the 26^th of Dhul-Hijja, A.H. 1314 (May 28th, 1897) [This was the fifth anniversary of Baha\'ullah\'s death], the Servant of God invited all the Companions to the neighbourhood of the Holy Place in Bahja, where, after they had partaken of food and drunk tea, he stood up about the time of the afternoon [prayer] and addressed the people, saying:

\"This servant hath been silent all this time and hath not uttered a word, for fear of giving rise to dissension. Now, however, I perceive that my silence causeth increase of discord in God\'s Religion; therefore I say unto you that the deeds and words which have issued from Abbas Efendi and his company are all contrary to God\'s commands, and at variance with His injunctions revealed in the Holy Scriptures. The Covenant and Promise mentioned aforetime in the Immaculate Writings refer exclusively to previous and subsequent Theopanies, but Abbas Efendi hath appropriated them to himself, and ye have so accepted them, wherein ye have greatly erred.\"

ILL-TREATMENT OF JANAB-I-KHADIMULLAH

One of Abbas Efendi\'s followers¹ informed him of the Servant\'s words, whereupon he at once appeared on the scene, seized him by the hand , and expelled him from the house bare-headed and bare-footed, while his followers beat him on the head and face, he crying out meanwhile in a loud voice, addressing them, \"Verily ye *are now in the neighbourhood of the Holy Place, while I am speaking to you with discriminating signs (verses), that thereby the true may be distinguished from the false and the polytheist from the Unitarian.\" Yet not one of them listened to him, but they continued to beat him and to drag him to the Holy Place where Abbas Efendi struck him with his hand a painful blow. From the Holy Place they took him by command of Abbas Efendi and imprisoned him in a stable, after they had taken from him such writings and letters as he had on him After that they denounced him as reprobate, apostate; croaker, hypocrite and devil, notwithstanding the recommendations of His Holiness our Great Master concerning him and His command to them in the Book of the [last]Testament, and in other Tablets also, to honour the Servant even as He says in a Tablet in His own holy writing \" And after the \'Branches\' (Aghsan, i.e. the sons of Baha\'u\'llah) show honour to the Servant who stands before the Throne in a laudable station².\"

In short, after this event the Servant attached himself to the Place of our Great Master, and used to spend his time with Muhammad Ali Efendi and the Holy Family in commemorating the Lord (glorious in His State) and in the service of the Catholic Word, as is proved by his writings in his own well-known hand. And after a time he went one morning to the house of Abbas Efendi at \'Akka to discuss and confer about the actual conditions and existing differences; but they shut the door in his face and prevented him from entering, and he sat before them on the ground for the space of two hours, begging Abbas Efendi and his partisans to produce the holy verses and Tablets in their possession, so that he might discuss with them and they with him according to their purport, in order that it might appear what actions and words were conformable or contrary to them, and which thereof were acceptable in God\'s sight and which displeasing. But none would give ear; and finally Abbas Efendi sent his son-in-law named Mirza Muhsin to the Government to say to the [Turkish] officials that the Servant had come to make mischief. Thereupon an officer came and took ** the Servant to the Government House, where they detained him for a while, after which they drove him out from the Palace. So he continued worshipping and commemorating God and elucidating the Supreme Unity until he fell sick.

1. Sayyid Hadi was the informer.
* page 68
2 The events here narrated form the subject of a separate tract of 16 pages, lithographed, entitled Waqi\'a-i-haila-I-Khadim-i-Abha dar Rawza i-Mubaraka-i-Ulya (\"The Dreadful Calamity of the Servant Of Baha in the Blessed and Supreme Garden\"). The persecutors were twelve in number, of whom eight are named.
** page 69.

DEATH OF JANAB-I-KHADIMULLAH, MAY 17, 1901.

His sickness lasted fifteen days, and on the 29th of Muharram, A.H. I3I9 (May \'7th, I901) he responded to the call of his Master in the Palace of Bahja, and was buried with the utmost reverence at Abi \'Ataba, Muhammad Ali Efendi and the Unitarians seeing to what was necessary for him in the way of washing, shrouding and burial.

The Servant during his days [of life] had repeatedly expressed his wish to the Friends that all of the Holy Writings which belonged to him should return to God, and that after his death they should all be deposited in the Holy Place. So after his death Muhammad \'Ali Efendi, Badi\'u\'llah Efendi, and some of the Unitarians, including the author, went one day to a house in the neighborhood of the Holy Place and examined the Sacred Mementos which the Servant had left. These included twelve Holy portraits, two hundred and seventeen Holy Tablets produced by the Supreme Pen, and a number of the Holy head-dresses,¹ garments and hairs, besides many Sacred Books and a mass of correspondence, bound and unbound, and private possessions, and a number of tracts composed by the Servant concerning the Divine Unity and the Supreme Immaculateness. All these they wrote down [in a list], and placed in three boxes, which they sealed with two seals and deposited as a trust in the house of Sayyid Ali Efendi, the son-in-law of His Holiness our Great Master, because he was a Russian subject², so that they might be protected from interference at the hands of tyrants.

JANAB-I-KHADIMULLAH\'S BOOKS AND PAPERS APPROPRIATED BY ABBAS EFENDI, MARCH, 1908.

“Abbas Efendi”

Recently, however, it appears that Abbas Efendi in the month of Safar, A.H. 1326 (March, 1908) obtained the consent of the Blessed Leaf and the Holy Spouse, and of Sayyid \'Ali Efendi Afnan³ and sent* his son-in-law Mirza Muhsin and Aqa Riza of Shiraz by night in his private carriage to Bahja to bring him the three boxes deposited in trust as above mentioned without the knowledge of anyone. And there is no doubt that the carrying out of this transaction secretly by night is a clear proof that it was contrary alike to the Holy Law and its ordinances, and to the Common Law and its provisions, for it was effected by theft and larceny. For Muhammad \'All and those who were with him had left the boxes there under seal as a trust, for the carrying out of the Servant\'s last testament and in order to give effect to it. How then could it be right for Abbas Efendi to appropriate them in the fashion above mentioned, or that this treachery should be committed by him ?

1. Tijan, literally \"Crowns,\" i.e. the tall felt caps which Baha\'ullah used to wear.
2. And therefore not liable to be molested by the Persian or Turkish Government
3. So called because he was related to the Bab, whose kinsmen are called Afnan (\"Branches\")
* page 70

INCREASED STRINGENCY OF CONTROL BY TURKISH OFFICIALS

After Abbas Efendi had attained to supremacy, he made a great display, by reason of the moral and material prestige which he now possessed. So likewise his followers did not observe prudence, wisdom or moderation in affairs, whence arose many troubles and difficulties, so that orders were issued by the Ottoman Government to confine him and his brothers in the fortress of \'Akka. After a while there appeared four inspectors to investigate and enquire into the circumstances of certain of the officials and exiles, and they examined his [Abbas Efendi\'s] affairs also. After a while Khalil Pasha the Governor of Beyrout appointed an inspector to watch him and ascertain who associated with him of the people of the country and others; and when he chanced on such an one, he used to bring him to the Government House, where he was examined to ascertain the cause of his frequenting the society of Abbas Efendi. He, however, ascribed all that had happened to his brother Muhammad \'All Efendi, spreading this report abroad in the country, and thereby filling the hearts of his followers with hatred, enmity and aversion, so that they used to display the extreme of dislike and detestation in regard to Muhammad Ali Efendi and the Holy Family, and used to speak unseemly words concerning them. But when Muhammad \'Ali Efendi discovered that his brother ascribed these occurrences to him, he communicated with him repeatedly by means of some of the officials and inhabitants of the city and some of his followers, * and begged him to agree to appoint a time and men to enquire into the truth of these matters, investigate these events, and ascertain their reasons and causes. This happened during the presence of the inspectors, and he requested him to appoint two persons on his behalf that they might go together to the local government and to the Board of Inspectors and formally demand [the production of] a note of complaint, if such were in their possession, on the part of Muhmmad \'Ali against his brother Abbas Efendi, or an assertion that they were cognizant of some direct complaint on his part. For all official papers and legal complaints are preserved in the originals as well as in copies by the Government in its records. But Abbas Efendi would not accept this or agree to it, because he sought by these falsehoods and slanders to give effect to his plans, and if he had appointed such persons and they had gone to the above-mentioned official quarters and made investigations, it would have become plain to all that these accusations were false, and these reports devoid of truth and reality. For it is not hidden that the False loves the darkness and hates the light, lest its evil circumstances and deeds should become apparent.

In short this schism and its results were manifold, but space does not allow more [to be said] than what I have mentioned, so I have contented myself with this summary, having already set forth most of (the facts connected with) it in another treatise.

* page 71

Source: www.BahaiFaith.com