The Scholar Who Became a Hand of the Cause

*A retelling for children based on **Bahá'í Chronicles**, "Haji Mirza Hasan-i-Adib," which reproduces Adib Taherzadeh's account in **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh**, volume 4.*

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Mirza Hasan was a learned man in Persia who knew both Islamic theology and literature. He moved in the literary circles around the royal family and helped produce several important books. For a time he taught at the Dáru'l-Funún in Tihrán, a college built on the pattern of Western schools, where princes and the sons of important families studied. He was given the title Adíbu'l-‘Ulamá, which means the literary man among the learned.

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A Bahá'í gave him a book of Bahá'í Writings and introduced him to some well-known Bahá'í teachers. Through one of them, Nabíl-i-Akbar, he came to recognize the truth of Bahá'u'lláh's Revelation. That was in 1889, when Mirza Hasan was in his early forties.

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Soon he was writing poems about the coming of the Day of God, and the believers were moved by them. Not long after he became a believer, Bahá'u'lláh named him one of the Hands of the Cause of God, although Mirza Hasan never met Him.

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After Bahá'u'lláh's passing, Mirza Hasan gave all his energy to the Faith. He wrote books on its proofs and its history, helped form the Spiritual Assembly of Tihrán, and served as its chairman.

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He cared especially about the education of young Bahá'ís. When the founder of a daily class for Bahá'í youth in Tihrán died, Mirza Hasan took his place and ran the class for some time. He also played a large part in founding the Tarbiyat School for boys in Tihrán. For years it was thought the best school in the country, and it led the way for other Bahá'í schools across Persia.

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In 1903 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked him to travel to Iṣfahán to teach. A powerful cleric there stirred up trouble, Mirza Hasan suffered greatly, and guards were posted all over the city to arrest him. He managed to leave without being noticed. He went on to teach in Ábádih and Shíráz, then travelled to India, and at last to the Holy Land, where he met 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Taherzadeh writes that he came home "a flame of fire ignited by the hand of the Master." He served the Faith until he died in 1919, and he is buried in Tihrán.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["Haji Mirza Hasan-i-Adib"](/stories/bc-haji-mirza-hasan-i-adib).*

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