A Ripened Soul for America

*A retelling for children of the life of Jináb-i-Fáḍil as given in **Bahá'í Chronicles**, which adapts The Bahá'í World and quotes The Bahá'í Centenary.*

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Asadu'lláh, later known as Fáḍil, was born into a noble family in Bárfurúsh, a city in the province of Mázindarán in Persia. It was the city of Quddús.

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His studies began at home, with his father as his teacher. Through hard study he became an authority in Arabic literature, philosophy, astronomy, logic and the traditions of Islam. By the time he was twenty he was already known as a scholar. While he was still a student himself, some of his fellow students chose him to be their teacher.

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Some of his father's friends were Bahá'ís, and Fáḍil came to know them. He also met some of the survivors of Fort Ṭabarsí. Later he went to Ṭihrán with some of his own students to learn more. There he met Bahá'ís and asked to study the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh. The first one he was given was called *Bishárát*, "The Glad Tidings." Reading it and other Writings of Bahá'u'lláh made Fáḍil an enthusiastic Bahá'í.

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He began at once to teach his fellow students. Most of the mullás turned away from him, though a few friends stayed loyal.

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Fáḍil wrote to 'Abdu'l-Bahá and asked how he could serve. 'Abdu'l-Bahá encouraged him to teach the Faith. From then on he left everything else and became one of the best-known Bahá'í teachers.

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Years later 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent him to the United States. The American Bahá'ís remembered that 'Abdu'l-Bahá had promised to send them "a ripened soul." He said Fáḍil "was wise, well informed and a thinker, a revered person, learned, sincere, humble and severed from mortal things." Fáḍil travelled from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In every Bahá'í centre he spoke to crowded audiences in churches, colleges and all kinds of organizations. The American Bahá'ís called him 'Abdu'l-Bahá's "gift to America."

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He also taught in Canada, India, the Caucasus and Turkistan, and served for many years in Persia. He wrote a nine-volume history of the Faith.

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For all his learning, Fáḍil was kind and humble by nature, and everyone who met him loved him. He died on 26 December 1957, on his way to a Bahá'í meeting.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["Mirza Asadu’llah Fadil Mazandarani (Jinab-i-Fadil)"](/stories/bc-mirza-asadu-8217-llah-fadil-mazandarani-jinab-i-fadil).*

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