The Village That Learned to Pray

A retelling for children, based on the lives of ‘Alavíyyih Khánum and Mullá ‘Alí Ján as told in Bahá'í Chronicles.

In a green corner of northern Iran, tucked among the rice fields, there was a small village called Máhfurúzak. And in that village lived a husband and wife who would change it forever.

The wife had been born there. Her name was Hamídih, but because her family went all the way back to the Prophet Muhammad, people gave her a special name — ‘Alavíyyih Khánum. The husband, Mullá ‘Alí Ján, had grown up in a village nearby. His mother and father had died when he was young, and it was ‘Alavíyyih Khánum's own father who had paid for the boy's schooling and later brought him to Máhfurúzak to be its religious leader. When ‘Alavíyyih Khánum was sixteen, the two cousins were married.

So Mullá ‘Alí Ján stood before the whole village to lead the prayers, and everyone loved and respected him. But he was carrying a secret in his heart.

While he had been away at his studies, some travelers had told him about a new Faith — the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. The more he learned, the more certain he became that it was true. Yet for his first three years leading the village, he told no one. He simply kept on being good and kind, and the people came to trust him completely.

Then, at last, he began to share what he believed — first with his wife and his family, who all became Bahá'ís, and then, bravely, with everyone, right from the front of the room where he led the prayers. Because the villagers already loved him so much, they listened. Soon most of the people of Máhfurúzak had become Bahá'ís too. Mullá ‘Alí Ján even walked to the other villages around them, and many people there embraced the Faith as well.

Now here is the part that made their village famous.

Mullá ‘Alí Ján and ‘Alavíyyih Khánum were not satisfied to simply believe new things. They wanted their whole village to live in a new way — a way built on prayer and learning and caring for one another.

So they asked each family to set aside one special room in their home, just for praying. Every morning and every evening, the families would take off their dusty work clothes, put on something clean, and gather in that room to pray together. Imagine the whole village, house after house, quietly turning to God at the start and the end of each day.

Then the couple did something almost no one had done before. They built two schools — one for the girls and one for the boys — so that every child in the village could learn to read and write. People say these may have been the very first Bahá'í schools in the whole country. Girls and boys, all of them, learning together in the same little village.

And they did not stop there. They wanted the families to do well, so they helped the farmers join together to sell their fruit and rice for fairer prices. They helped people learn crafts so they could make the things they needed. They even found a brand-new way for the village to earn money, by cleaning and preparing cotton to sell to merchants far away.

A praying village. A learning village. A village where everyone helped everyone. It was a beautiful thing to see.

But not everyone was glad.

Word of all these changes reached some powerful men in a nearby city. They did not like it. Perhaps they were afraid of anything new, or afraid of losing their own importance. So they began to tell lies — claiming the peaceful people of Máhfurúzak were planning to cause trouble. The government sent men to check, and those men found nothing wrong at all. But the accusers would not stop. They kept repeating their false story to the most powerful people in the land, until finally an order was given to arrest Mullá ‘Alí Ján.

One morning at dawn, hundreds of horsemen came thundering into the quiet village. They arrested Mullá ‘Alí Ján and several others and took them away. Later that same day, more riders came and arrested ‘Alavíyyih Khánum too, along with some other women, and carried off the family's books and belongings. ‘Alavíyyih Khánum and Mullá ‘Alí Ján had a little daughter, only six years old, named Baqá'íyyih — and she would not let go of her mother. So the small girl went along with the prisoners, holding tight, until after a time they were set free again.

Mullá ‘Alí Ján, though, was taken far away, all the way to the great city of Tehran. And there, because he would not give up his Faith, he gave his life for it. He became a martyr.

It is a very hard thing to hear. But listen to what happened next, because it shows how much his life mattered. Two brave Bahá'í women, putting themselves in danger to do it, made sure he was laid to rest with honor. And Bahá'u'lláh Himself wrote a special prayer to honor Mullá ‘Alí Ján's life and his sacrifice — a prayer to be read at his resting place.

‘Alavíyyih Khánum was only twenty-eight years old when she lost her husband. And then, just a few years later, a fresh sorrow came: her two children became ill, and they died as well. In such a short time she had lost almost everyone she loved most.

What do you do when your heart is that broken?

‘Alavíyyih Khánum made a choice that takes your breath away. She decided to give the rest of her whole life to the Faith she and her husband had loved. She kept their schools going. She poured her care into the village's children — girls and boys alike — teaching them, the way she and Mullá ‘Alí Ján always had. Before long she was the most beloved and respected Bahá'í in all of Máhfurúzak.

Then she began to travel. At first she visited the villages and towns nearby, speaking about the Faith so warmly and so clearly that many people's hearts were touched. Later, 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself asked her to journey farther still, and she did — across great distances, through hardship and even danger, carrying her message to faraway cities. Once, on her way to a city where trouble had broken out against the Bahá'ís, the other travelers in her caravan turned against her and treated her cruelly, and an angry crowd was waiting when she arrived. Yet she kept going. After all her travels, she even journeyed to visit 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the Holy Land.

When she grew old, ‘Alavíyyih Khánum became blind and could no longer leave her village. But she had one last gift to give. She gave away her very own house, so that it could become a Bahá'í center and a place of worship for everyone. And 'Abdu'l-Bahá honored her with a beautiful title — Amatu'l-Bahá, which means "Maidservant of Bahá" — and wrote a special prayer in her honor, just as Bahá'u'lláh had done for her husband long before.

Think of all that one village couple gave. They gave their village prayer. They gave its children schools. They gave their neighbors a fairer, kinder way to live. And when the very hardest things came — the loss of a husband, the loss of children, blindness, danger — their love did not shrink. It only grew, until ‘Alavíyyih Khánum had given everything she had, even her own home.

That is what real devotion looks like. It is not only the big, brave moments. It is choosing, day after day, to keep loving and keep serving — and to keep going, no matter what.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "‘Alavíyyih Khánum and Mullá ‘Alí Ján".

editors, B. C.. *Bahá'í Chronicles*. https://bahaichronicles.org/alaviyyih-khanum-and-mulla-ali-jan/