The Ruby That Was Meant for Medicine

A retelling based on Memorials of the Faithful by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, from the chapter on Mírzá Muḥammad-i-Vakíl. Words in quotation marks are quoted from that account.

Ḥájí Mírzá Hádí had once been a vazír in Persia. When he saw how Fatḥ-'Alí Sháh seized the wealth of his ministers and punished them, calling it a legal penalty, he gave up his post and his mansion and fled to Baghdád. There he set up as a jeweller and lived like a great prince, known for his open-handedness in Persia, 'Iráq and as far away as India. His door was always open. Turks and Persians, neighbours and strangers were his guests, and most of Persia's great men, when they came on pilgrimage to the Holy Shrines, stayed at his house. In his old age his business declined, and prominent people borrowed heavily from him and never repaid him, but he went on living exactly as before. Toward the end of his life he conceived a great love for Bahá'u'lláh and would come humbly into His presence.

He left a son, Mírzá Músá, and two daughters. Everyone assumed the heirs would inherit millions, and the Persian envoy, the mujtahids and the judge, in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's words, "all sharpened their teeth". They stirred up a quarrel among the heirs in the hope of taking the spoils for themselves.

Mírzá Músá was a firm believer; his sisters, born of a different mother, knew nothing of the Faith. One day the two sisters came to the house of Bahá'u'lláh and asked for His help. Their father, they said, had trusted no one but Him at the end of his life, and they begged Him to look into the affair "and to overlook our past mistakes".

Bahá'u'lláh told them plainly that He would not intervene in such matters. They stayed a whole week in the family's quarters, pleading morning and evening. "We will not lift our heads from off this Threshold," they said. Each day He told them that such affairs belonged to the mujtahids and the government. The house of Bahá'u'lláh was bare of worldly goods, and food for the guests had to be bought on credit.

At last Bahá'u'lláh called 'Abdu'l-Bahá and told Him: "There is no help for it--you will have to see to this case. But you must solve this entire, complicated matter in a single day."

The next morning 'Abdu'l-Bahá went to the house with Áqáy-i-Kalím, Bahá'u'lláh's brother. Appraisers gathered the jewels in one room, the account books in another and the furnishings in a third, and valued the gems, the house, the shops, the gardens and the baths. After lunch they were told to divide everything into two equal parts, one for the son and one for the daughters. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who was ill, went to rest. When He came back in the afternoon He found the goods divided into three. The heirs explained that the third share was for Him to spend as He saw fit, and swore they would agree to nothing else. He refused: "We gave our word to Bahá'u'lláh that not so much as a copper coin would be accepted."

He had the third share sealed in a separate room and took the key to Bahá'u'lláh. Since Mírzá Músá was deeply in debt, He suggested that Bahá'u'lláh accept the share and give it to him. The next day the heirs begged Bahá'u'lláh to accept it. He did, and gave it to Mírzá Músá on condition that he make no further claim against his sisters. So the case was settled in a single day, and, 'Abdu'l-Bahá writes, "It left no residue of complaints, no uproar, no further quarrels."

Mírzá Músá tried to press some of the jewels on 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who refused them. Then he asked Him to accept a single ring, set with a flawless pomegranate ruby and surrounded with diamonds. 'Abdu'l-Bahá refused this too. He recalls that at the time "I had no 'abá to my back and nothing to wear but a cotton tunic that bespoke the antiquity of the world, nor did I own a copper coin."

Years later, when the exiles were in Adrianople, Mírzá Músá sent the ring again, through Siyyid 'Alí-Akbar, and Bahá'u'lláh directed that it be accepted.

After the exiles reached 'Akká, the believers fell ill. 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent the ring to one of the friends in India, asking him to sell it quickly and send the money to 'Akká to be spent on the sick. "That blessed individual never sent us a penny." Two years later he wrote that he had sold the ring for twenty-five pounds and spent the money on the pilgrims.

'Abdu'l-Bahá's comment on this is brief: "I made no complaint. Rather, I praised God, thanking Him that out of all that wealth not a fleck of dust had settled on my robe."

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see Memorials of the Faithful by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1915). *Memorials of the Faithful*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust.