Memorial of Jináb-i-Muníb

In the chapter of Memorials of the Faithful devoted to Jináb-i-Muníb, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá tells of a man of Káshán whose proper name was Mírzá Áqá but whom the Bahá’í community remembered by his title — Muníb, the radiant one.

He was, the Master writes, spirit itself. He was a calligrapher of high accomplishment, a poet whose verses were quoted in the homes of the friends, and a singer with a voice that could draw a gathering to silence. Any one of these gifts would have sufficed to set him up comfortably in the Persia of his generation. He set them all down.

He came to Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdád. The Master records that Muníb committed his every hour to the service of the Cause. He took the writings under his pen and copied them; he sang at the gatherings of the friends; he composed verses that praised the Manifestation and that were carried to Persia by the believers.

In all this mortal world he had only one possession, his daughter; and even his daughter he had left behind in Persia, as he hurried away to Iraq.

When the order for the exile from Baghdád came down, Bahá’u’lláh and His company set out for Constantinople. Many of the friends rode in carriages; many of the elders were provided with horses or with mules. Muníb walked. He walked the entire long way on foot, in the dust beside the howdah, chanting verses of Ḥáfiẓ as he went.

In Adrianople he continued his service. When Bahá’u’lláh directed him to return to Persia and to teach the Faith there, he obeyed without question. He travelled the Persian provinces for an extended time and at length came back to Adrianople — in time for the second exile, the order to ‘Akká.

He was already ill when the party set out. The journey worsened him. By the time the ship reached Smyrna he was gravely sick. The captain of the vessel, fearing contagion, threatened to put him ashore alone. The friends hurried to take him from the ship to a Smyrna hospital, where he could be nursed.

Before he was carried away from the deck, the diary of the journey records that the dying man dragged himself to Bahá’u’lláh, lay down at His feet, and wept. It was the last sight of his Lord that he would have. The party sailed on to ‘Akká; he was left in the Smyrna hospital, where, within a few days, he died.

His grave, the Master writes with sorrow, is in Smyrna, but it is off by itself, and deserted. The hope of the chapter is that the place may, in some future generation, become a shrine for the friends.

Upon Jináb-i-Muníb be salutations and praise. The voice that sang in the gatherings of Baghdád, the pen that copied the Tablets, the feet that walked the dust beside the howdah — they were all, in their hour, given to the One Who had asked for them.

Source: 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Memorials of the Faithful (Bahá'í World Centre). Public domain text from the Bahá'í Reference Library.

'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1915). *Memorials of the Faithful*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/memorials-faithful/