Ibn-i-Abhar Learns to Consult

*A retelling for children, based on the Bahá'í Chronicles account of Aqa Mirza Muhammad-Taqi Abhari (Ibn-i-Abhar), which draws on Adib Taherzadeh's The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, volume 4.*

Mírzá Muḥammad-Taqí, known as Ibn-i-Abhar, was a believer of many years' standing. Over those years Bahá'u'lláh sent him many Tablets. In them He blessed him, guided his steps and praised his work. In one Tablet Bahá'u'lláh says that Ibn-i-Abhar was created to extol God and magnify His name, to teach His Cause and to serve Him.

In the last years of His life, Bahá'u'lláh chose four of His followers and named them Hands of the Cause of God. Ibn-i-Abhar was one of the four.

Ibn-i-Abhar once asked Bahá'u'lláh about the well-being and progress of the Bahá'ís of Persia. In a Tablet revealed in 1889, Bahá'u'lláh answered that they should hold to whatever would exalt the Word of God, raise up minds and souls, and bring benefit to humanity. Then He said that the answer would come through consultation. He told Ibn-i-Abhar and the other Hands to meet together and to invite a few devoted believers, firm in their faith, to consult with them. After that, they were to rely on God and carry out what they had decided. If they did this, He assured them, He would inspire them to achieve what would bring prosperity.

Another time Ibn-i-Abhar asked Bahá'u'lláh where in Persia he should live. Bahá'u'lláh did not name a place. He told him first to consult with some believers who were assured and steadfast in the Faith, and then to do what they decided.

'Abdu'l-Bahá also wrote Tablets to Ibn-i-Abhar. In one, answering his question about how the friends should conduct their business with one another, 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote that the friends of God must deal with each other with the utmost trustworthiness and integrity. A person who is not honest with his own relations and friends at home, He wrote, will find that his honesty with the outside world proves "barren and unproductive." He added: "Blessed be the soul that shineth with the light of trustworthiness among the people and becometh a sign of perfection amidst all men."

Ibn-i-Abhar spent his life teaching. In 1903 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent him to Yazd on a special mission, where he held large gatherings and helped the believers to stand firm in their faith. In the years of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry he travelled through Persia, the Caucasus and India, and he went eleven times to the Holy Land to visit the Master.

He also worked for the education of women. He and his wife, Munírih Khánum, took an important part in the advancement of women in Persia, and with his encouragement she founded the first Bahá'í school for girls in Tihrán. Ibn-i-Abhar passed away in Tihrán in 1917.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Aqa Mirza Muhammad-Taqi Abhari (Ibn-i-Abhar)".

editors, B. C.. *Bahá'í Chronicles*. https://bahaichronicles.org/aqa-mirza-muhammad-taqi-abhari-ibn-i-abhar/