Was the Baha\'i book Aqdas bankrolled with the profit from the opium trade?
Was Aqdas bankrolled with the profit from the opium trade?
Much of Hussein Ali\'s (Baha\'u\'llah\'s) economic enterprises (such as publications of works in Cairo and Bombay, etc) in the 1870s-90s was bankrolled by a successful mercantile elite, the Afnans, who had their fingers in numerous pies of the late 19th Century international trade in the East from Hong Kong to Beirut, particularly in opium, whom the Afnans held a monopoly on at one point inside Iran.Â
It is quite ironic that the publication of Hussein Ali\'s \'Most Holy Book\' (Kitab-i-Aqdas) was quite possibly produced by profits coming from the coffers of the Afnans lucrative opium monopoly.\"Â
What does this then make of the release of the Aqdas by the Afnan family?Â
They printed the Aqdas with the profits from the opium trade?Â
It is interesting perspective into the affairs of the Baha\'i Faith.
Shouldn\'t one lead by example- by deeds? Rather than words?
The Aqdas apparently forbids the use of opium but the book itself was printed with the profit from the opium trade.