Zaynu'l-Muqarrabin (the ornament of them that are nigh unto God), an Apostle of Baha'u'llah

Mulla Zaynu'l-'Abidin, surnamed Zaynu'l-Muqarrabin (the ornament of them that are nigh unto God) by Bahá'u'lláh. Before his conversion to the Bábí Faith, he was a learned mujtahid (doctor of Islamic law) and an outstanding figure in his native town of Najaf-Abad. He became an ardent Bábí about the time of the imprisonment of Bahá'u'lláh in the Siyah-Chal, and was bitterly opposed and persecuted by those very people who were once his admirers and followers. Later he travelled to Baghdad and eventually attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh after His return from the mountains of Kurdistan. As a result of this meeting and of receiving some Tablets from Bahá'u'lláh, his soul was transformed and attained such heights of faith and dedication that he is numbered among the outstanding Apostles of Bahá'u'lláh. After his release from a long period of exile and imprisonment in Mosul, Iraq, he made his way to 'Akká where he spent the rest of his days in Bahá'u'lláh's service, mostly as a scribe.

He was meticulous in transcribing the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and took great pains to ensure that they were correctly recorded. Any Tablet in the handwriting of Zaynu'l-Muqarrabin is considered accurate. He has left to posterity, in his exquisite hand, many volumes comprising most of Bahá'u'lláh's important Tablets; today Bahá'í publications in Persian and Arabic are authenticated by comparison with these.

1970 New York: Hand of the Cause Enoch Olinga with Dizzy Gillespie

Fujita

H. S. Fujita, Japanese Bahá’í who once served ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa, working
on his brother’s farm in Yanai, Japan, circa 1947.

Hands of the Cause of God: Enoch Olinga, Abdu'l-Qasem Faizi, and Dr. Adelbert Mühlschlegel

Attending 1972 European youth teaching conference in Plön, Germany

Hand of the Cause Mr. Faizi

Chanting a prayer from 'Abdu'l-Baha

Explanation of the prayer

Hand of the Cause Valiyu'llah Varqa with some South American friends at Rio de Janeiro airport, 1953

(Baha'i News, August 1953)

Queen Marie of Romania

 

Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas with his wife Sylvia

 

Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas and his wife Sylvia with Habib Sabet and his wife Bahera

Hand of the Cause Tarazu'llah Samandari with Ali Nakhjavani

 Mr. Samandari (right) had met Baha'u'llah in his youth.

Hand of the Cause Dr. Ugo Giachery with his wife Angeline

Laura Drefus Barney

Clara Dunn and Hyde Dunn

 

Phoebe Apperson Hearst

Phoebe Hearst was a well-known philanthropist and the wife of Senator George E Hearst. She had embraced the Faith in 1898 through Lua Getsinger while on a visit to California. Shortly after she expressed her intention of visiting 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the Holy Land and invited several believers, among them Dr and Mrs Getsinger, Dr Khayru'llah and his wife, to join her, and completed the necessary arrangements for their historic pilgrimage to 'Akká. In Paris several resident Americans, among whom were May Ellis Belles, whom Lua Getsinger had won over to the Faith, Miss Pearson, and Ann Apperson, both nieces of Mrs Hearst, with Mrs Thornburgh and her daughter, were added to the party, the number of which was later swelled in Egypt by the addition of Dr Khayru'llah's daughters and their grand-mother whom he had recently converted.  

(Adapted from ‘The Child of the Covenant’ by Adib Taherzadeh)

Florence Breed Khan and Ali-Kuli Khan

Florence Breed was born in 1875 in Lynn, Massachusetts. She passed away on 24 June 1950 in Englewood, New Jersey. She was a Baha'i actress. Her parents were Alice Ives Breed and Francis William Breed, both also Baha’is. In 1904 she married Mirza Ali-Kuli Khan. Their children met 'Abdu'l-Baha at their home in Washington, D.C. on 23 April 1912.

Ali-Kuli Khan (Nabili'd-Dawlih) was born on 10 May 1879 in Kashan, Persia. He passed away on 7 April 1966 in Washington, D. C. He joined the Faith in 1895. In 1910 he became the Persian charge d'affaires to the United States and served in a number of diplomatic missions. He invited 'Abdu'I-Baha to a reception at the Persian legation on 17 April, 1912. He was also with 'Abdu'l-Baha when He attended a meeting at the home of Alexander Graham Bell on 24 April 1912 in Washington, D.C. He was a member of the Bahai Temple Unity in 1913 and 1917; and of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and Canada in 1925 to 1926.

(Adapted from “Abdu’l-Baha in the West, A biographical guide of the people associated with His travels”, by Jan Teofil Jasion)

Juliet Thompson in her studio

 

Dorothy Baker and John Robarts, 1948

(Baha'i News, June 1948)

Sadie Oglesby 1881-1956: Third African American to go on pilgrimage, 1927

(The American Baha'i, March/April 2020)

Noel Wuttunee of Calgary Alberta, the first Canadian Indian Baha'i, with his wife

(The Baha'i World 1950-1954)

Hand of the Cause John Robarts

Ruhiyyih Khanum

Shoghi Effendi with Dr. John Esslemont in Bournemouth England

Haifa, 1957: Saichiro Fujita, Adelaide Sharp, and Anges Alexander

(Baha'i News, no. 630, December 1983)

1907: Thornton Chase on Mount Carmel

Early Baha’is of Botswana: James and Stella Moncho

(Baha'i Media Bank)

1968: Hand of the Cause Enoch Olinga and Mrs. Elizabeth Olinga, Palermo Sicily Conference

(Baha'i Media Bank)

1916: Agnes Alexander with a group of Bahá’ís in Tokyo, Japan

(Baha'i Media Bank)

Keith-Ransom-Keher – Hand of the Cause, first American Baha’i martyr; “the symbol of the unity of the East and West”

Mrs. Keith Ransom-Kehler's passing is, indeed, an irretrievable loss which the Bahá'í world has come to suffer at a time when her presence in their midst was so greatly needed, not only because of her inspiring personality, but due to her intelligent, wise and energetic handling of the many and varied problems confronting the followers of the Faith in Persia. For more than one year she toiled and suffered, undismayed by the forces of darkness which so increasingly challenge the devotion and loyalty, and hamper the progress of the work, of our Persian brethren. Nothing was strong enough to sap the vitality of her faith and neither the opposition of the Government, nor the slackness and inefficiency of those with whom she had to work, could possibly discourage and dishearten her. Her faith was deep, her energy inexhaustible. And she was, indeed, fully repaid for all that she did, whether in connection with the teaching of the Message, or in regard to the consolidation of the nascent administrative institutions of the Cause in the very land of its birth.

Manuel Gorgas - First Indian Baha'i of Panama

(The Baha'i World 1946-1950)

Mirzá Muhammad-Báir - the first in Mashhad, Persia, to embrace the Cause of the Báb; - builder of Bábíyyih, the first Baha’i center; designer of structural reinforcement of Fort Tabarsi; lieutenant and trusted counsellor of Quddús

Mírzá Muhammad-Báqir, known as Haratí, though originally a resident of Qayin. He was a close relative of the father of Nabíl-i-Akbar, and was the first in Mashhad to embrace the Cause. It was he who built the Bábíyyih, and who devotedly served Quddús during his sojourn in that city. When Mullá Husayn hoisted the Black Standard, he, together with his child, Mírzá Muhammad-Kázim, eagerly enrolled under his banner and went forth with him to Mázindarán… It was Mírzá Muḥammad-Báqir who acted as the standard-bearer of the company, who designed the plan of the fort, its walls and turrets and the moat which surrounded it, who succeeded Mullá Husayn in organising the forces of his companions and in leading the charge against the enemy, and who acted as the intimate companion, the lieutenant and trusted counsellor of Quddús until the hour when he fell a martyr in the path of the Cause. 

- Nabil  (‘The Dawn-Breakers’; translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)

1978: Angus Cowan, Duane Troxel and another believer at 5th International Baha'i Convention, Haifa