A moving video (8 min.) featuring letters written by these steadfast heroes of the Faith shortly before their execution after having undergone the cruellest abuse at the hands of their persecuters.
A tribute to the seven Baha'i martyrs of Hamadan Iran who suffered imprisonment and endured cruel torture before finally sacrificing their lives for their religious beliefs on June 14, 1981.
Excerpts from letters written in their final moments of life provide us with only a glimpse of the deep love for the families they left behind and the profound courage and nobility arising out of the depth of their love of God and their faith in His Messenger for this age Baha'u'llah.
The hauntingly beautiful music was composed in their honor by Farzad Khozein, a nephew of one of the martyrs. It brought tears to my eyes even before I read the moving words of his uncle Tarazullah and the other martyrs -- then the tears multiplied and became a river.
As I see history seemingly repeating itself with the current imprisonment and impending trials of seven more leaders of the Iranian Baha'i community, it sends chills down my spine and that all important question "WHY?" continues to echo in my mind.
To simply be a Baha'i in Iran is an act of courage in and of itself. We who are fortunate enough to live in relative freedom continue to send them our love and our prayers.
Here is a more graphic account of their martyrdoms:
On June 14, 1981, seven members of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Hamadan were executed by a firing squad. Their bodies were released to the Bahá'í community for appropriate burial. Examination of the corpses while the bodies were being prepared for the funeral revealed that six of these men had been physically tortured before their deaths. The body of the seventh was "riddled with bullets."
Reuters published a detailed account of the men's injuries:
The body of Husayn Motlaq Aráni showed no signs of torture but he had been shot nine times. Muhammad Baqer Habibi had a broken shoulder; Dr. Násir Vafá'í had had his thighs cut open as far as the waist and had been shot seven times; Husayn Khándil had had the fingers of one hand pressed and his back had been burned; Sohráb Habíbí had had his back burned and had been shot five times and Tarázu'lláh Khuzayn suffered a smashed chest and left hand and had been shot seven times.
Similar reports reached the Bahá'í International Community:
The body of Husayn Motlaq Aráni showed no signs of torture but he had been shot nine times. Muhammad Baqer Habibi had a broken shoulder; Dr. Násir Vafá'í had had his thighs cut open as far as the waist and had been shot seven times; Husayn Khándil had had the fingers of one hand pressed and his back had been burned; Sohráb Habíbí had had his back burned and had been shot five times and Tarázu'lláh Khuzayn suffered a smashed chest and left hand and had been shot seven times.
Courtesy the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center www.iranhrdc.org
The Mystery of Martyrdom
The following enlightening article was shared on the website of the Baha'is of Tacoma, Washington, available here.
Bahá'ís do not disbelieve in accounts of miracles found in the holy texts of other religions or in the ability of a Manifestation of God to perform them, although some of these accounts are actually symbolic expressions or metaphors for important spiritual occurrences. After all, who can find them convincing or persuasive other than eye witnesses? And what do they have to do with a Manifestation's divine mission? Even Pharoah's priests were able to turn staffs into serpents in the presence of Moses, so apparently this power is not confined to God's Messengers. As a result, Bahá'ís pay little attention to the personal accounts of believers or others of miracles by the Báb or Bahá'u'lláh. They are given no special attention in our literature, but they are there.
The martyrs of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh are not alone at the time of their martyrdom. Here is a remarkable story of Bahá'u'lláh being physically present in two places at the same time - Akká and Yazd. Yazd has been the scene of much barbaric cruelty toward Bábís and Bahá'ís for over 160 years. The episode is the martyrdom of seven Bahá'ís in Yazd in 1891. It is told by Adib Taherzadeh in The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Vol III.
But thousands of men and women who went to the field of martyrdom and joyously laid down their lives in the path of God must have experienced the presence of Bahá'u'lláh so vividly and with such real feeling that the giving of life became a joy instead of torture. To cite an example, the following is a story which Haji Muhammad-Tahir-i-Malmiri has recounted about Mirza Aqay-i-Halabi Saz who was a devoted believer and had had the privilege of attaining the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. He was a tinsmith and had a shop in one of the bazaars of Yazd. In 1891, seven Bahá'ís were put to death by the order of Mahmud Mirza, the Jalalu'd-Dawlih, the Governor of Yazd. They are known as the first seven martyrs of Yazd, the story of whose martyrdom Bahá'u'lláh wrote to The Times of London. The seven were chained together and conducted towards the bazaar amid scenes of jubilation, and at each major crossroads one of them was executed in a most barbaric fashion. The other believers who were shopkeepers or merchants were ordered to stay at their premises and were forced to join others in decorating their shops to celebrate the event.
Haji Mirza was sitting in his shop, his heart filled with grief owing to the tragic turn of events. Then came the tense moment when the few remaining of the seven, chained together, passed in front of his shop. The next junction where one of them was to be beheaded was not far away and could be easily sighted. Haji Muhammad-Tahir-i-Malmiri has recounted that Haji Mirza used to tell the believers in Yazd of his unusual experience on that occasion. He saw to his great surprise that Bahá'u'lláh Himself passed in front of his shop only a few hundred paces behind the martyrs-to-be and was walking quickly in order to reach them. Haji Mirza immediately stepped out of his shop to follow Bahá'u'lláh, who signalled him with the movement of His hand that he should return to the shop. From there, Haji Mirza looked out and saw that Bahá'u'lláh reached the party at the junction and at that very moment the executioner removed the chain from one man and executed him.
Of course, Haji Mirza knew that Bahá'u'lláh was in 'Akká and not in Yazd, but he had no doubt that it was Bahá'u'lláh whom he saw in the bazaar. From this amazing vision he realized that the martyrs were not alone at the time of martyrdom, that their unparalleled courage and heroism was not entirely due to themselves, that Bahá'u'lláh strengthened them with His unfailing power and that those who had reached the pinnacle of faith and assurance were bound to feel the presence of Bahá'u'lláh at their side. It is interesting to note that some years later, Haji Mirza himself was martyred in Yazd.
What Haji Mirza witnessed in the bazaar, although there is no way of proving it, was not mere imagination. The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh is not a man-made, man-inspired cult. Any cult which the minds of men have created can only be expressed within the bounds of man's experience by virtue of its limitations. On the contrary, the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh has originated from God, it has released unimaginable potentialities, both material and spiritual, within human society and like other religions it has brought forth mysteries which human beings can in no wise fathom. The history of the Faith shows episodes similar to that experienced by Haji Mirza.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment