The Man Who Judged Fairly

A retelling for children, based on Bahá'í Chronicles ("Mirza Qurban-‘Ali").

In a land called Persia, long ago, there lived a man named Mirza Qurban-'Ali. Almost everyone who met him loved him.

He was kind. He was wise. He was so honest and good that people thought of him as the very picture of how a person should be. When he traveled to faraway places, crowds came out just to see him walk by. More than a thousand people called themselves his followers, and they hung on his every word.

But Mirza Qurban-'Ali did not enjoy all that fuss. He did not want crowds and cheering. He wore plain, simple clothes, and he tried to slip past the crowds quietly. Being important was not what he cared about.

What he cared about was the truth.

One day, on a journey home, he met a man named Mullá Ḥusayn, who told him about the Báb — a new Messenger sent from God. Many people heard about the Báb and never even stopped to wonder if it could be true. But not Mirza Qurban-'Ali. He decided to do what he always did: he would think it over carefully and fairly, and then make up his own mind.

And here is what he decided. After all his years of study, after weighing it honestly, he chose to follow the Báb with his whole heart. He had found the truth he had been looking for all his life.

He even tried his very best to live the way the Báb lived, down to the smallest things. The Báb Himself, he would say, kept every part of His Faith, down to the tiniest detail — so how could Mirza Qurban-'Ali do any less than his own Leader?

But the rulers of that land did not like the Báb, and they did not like people who followed Him. So one day soldiers took Mirza Qurban-'Ali to a powerful official. All night long, important people had been begging the official to set this beloved man free.

The official looked at him and said something surprising. He told Mirza Qurban-'Ali that he was so respected, and his words carried such power, that he was nearly the equal of the Báb Himself. Why not claim that place of leadership for himself, the official asked, instead of following another?

Mirza Qurban-'Ali shook his head. All his life, he answered, he had tried to be fair and just, so he had looked at this carefully, the way he looked at everything — and he was certain. He had a thousand admirers, he said, yet he could not change even one of their hearts. But the Báb had changed the hearts of thousands — people who had never even met Him loved Him so much that they would gladly give up everything for Him. How, then, could Mirza Qurban-'Ali do anything but bow before such a Leader?

The official was amazed. He could not find a single way to argue back.

Mirza Qurban-'Ali was very brave that day, and very calm. He was not afraid, because he knew, deep down, that he had judged fairly and chosen rightly. In the end he gave his life rather than turn away from the truth he had found — and he met that day not with fear, but with a strange and shining joy, certain he was going home to the One he loved.

Most people in that crowd had only followed whatever everyone else was doing. Mirza Qurban-'Ali was different. He did the harder, braver thing: he stopped, he thought for himself, and he chose the truth — even when it cost him everything. That is what it means to judge fairly.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Mirza Qurban-‘Ali".

editors, B. C.. *Bahá'í Chronicles*. https://bahaichronicles.org/mirza-qurban-ali/