Siyyid Ismá‘íl of Zavárih

The following question and answer is by Dr. Iraj Ayman:

Question:

In Epistle to the Son of the Wolf Bahá’u’lláh mentions a martyr who had committed suicide. Who was this?

Answer:

The person who had committed suicide and is mentioned in the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf is Siyyid Ismail of Zavarih (a small township near Isfahan). He was one of the early believers in the Báb (during the Báb’s stay in Isfahan) whose story is recorded by Nabíl in The Dawn-Breakers (p. 437). Later on he went to Baghdad. His living quarters were near the residence of Bahá’u’lláh. He was devoted to Bahá’u’lláh to the extent that every morning he would take off his green turban (sign of being a siyyid) and would sweep the dust from the footsteps of Bahá’u’lláh with his turban, collecting the dust and throwing it into the river.

Bahá’u’lláh in the Kitáb-i-Badí‘ has related the rest of Siyyid Ismail’s story. Briefly He gives the following account. One day Bahá’u’lláh graced with His presence the house where Siyyid Ismail was staying, and fruits and sweets were offered to Him. Siyyid Ismail expressed extreme lowliness and servitude to the Blessed Beauty and begged Bahá’u’lláh to grant him spiritual food in order to set his soul on fire. Bahá’u’lláh commanded him to come and sit in front of Him. Then the Blessed Beauty began to speak to him with such words that completely transformed him and filled him with such extreme love and devotion that he completely ignored his own being and everything in this contingent world. Then Bahá’u’lláh adds that no one is able to describe what went on in that encounter. So one early morning, after sweeping the area around Bahá’u’lláh’s residence, he took the dust to the nearby river and went to meet with a few of his fellow believers. Then he went to the bank of the river on the road to Kázimayn and, in the ecstasy of his love for Bahá’u’lláh, took his own life by cutting his throat. Shoghi Effendi writes in God Passes By that when it was definitely established that he had died by his own hand, the authorities could not “remain indifferent to a Cause whose Leader could inspire so rare a devotion.”

Bahá’u’lláh has extolled Siyyid Ismail as the “King and Beloved of Martyrs.” (Summarized from La’álíy-i-Dirakhshán, by M. A. Faizi, pp. 195–99.)

These two titles were also given by Bahá’u’lláh to the two brothers in Isfahan, Mírzá Muhammad-Hasan as the King of Martyrs and Mírzá Muhammad-Husayn as the Beloved of Martyrs, who were martyred at the instigation of Shaykh Muhammad-Báqir, surnamed by Bahá’u’lláh Dhi’b (the Wolf).

In the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf Bahá’u’lláh writes:

Consider his honor Siyyid Ismá’íl—upon him be the peace of God, and His loving-kindness—how, before daybreak he was wont to dust, with his own turban, the doorstep of My house, and in the end, whilst standing on the banks of the river, with his eyes fixed on that same house, offered up, by his own hand, his life.

Adib Taherzadeh, who tells the same story in The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, adds this note:

Dhabih took his own life because he was intoxicated by the wine of the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, Who had enabled him to witness the glory of the spiritual worlds of God. This cannot be compared with ordinary suicide, nor can this episode be taken to mean that Bahá’í belief condones the taking of one’s own life. On the contrary, suicide is strongly condemned in the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh and is clearly against His Teachings.

Sources: Iraj Ayman, question and answer summarizing A. Q. Faizi, La’álíy-i-Dirakhshán, pp. 195–99; Bahá’u’lláh, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf; Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, ch. VIII; Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, vol. 1, pp. 101–103; as compiled by Bahá’í Chronicles (https://bahaichronicles.org/siyyid-ismail/).

editors, B. C.. *Bahá'í Chronicles*. https://bahaichronicles.org/siyyid-ismail/