Pidar-Ján of Qazvín
'Abdu'l-Bahá, Memorials of the Faithful, (1915), Bahá'í Publishing Trust · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
A retelling based on the chapter on Pidar-Ján of Qazvín in Memorials of the Faithful by 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Words in quotation marks are from that book.
Pidar-Ján of Qazvín was one of the believers who emigrated to Baghdád during Bahá'u'lláh's years there. 'Abdu'l-Bahá remembers him as "a godly old man, enamored of the Well-Beloved; in the garden of Divine love, he was like a rose full-blown." In Baghdád he spent his days and nights communing with God and chanting prayers, "and although he walked the earth, he traveled the heights of Heaven."
He had nothing, and to obey the law of God he took up a trade. He would bundle a few pairs of socks under his arm and peddle them as he wandered through the streets and bazaars. Thieves kept robbing him of his goods, so in the end he carried the socks laid across his outstretched palms. But he would begin to chant a prayer, and one day he was surprised to find that the socks had been stolen from his two hands, before his eyes.
'Abdu'l-Bahá writes: "His awareness of this world was clouded, for he journeyed through another. He dwelt in ecstasy; he was a man drunken, bedazzled."
So he lived for some time in 'Iráq, and almost every day he was admitted to the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. His name was 'Abdu'lláh, but the friends called him Pidar-Ján, Father Dear, "for he was a loving father to them all." At last, "under the sheltering care of Bahá'u'lláh," he passed away.
'Abdu'l-Bahá ends His memorial with a prayer: "May God make fragrant his sepulcher with the outpouring rains of His mercy and cast upon him the eye of Divine compassion."
This is a retelling. For the full account, see Memorials of the Faithful by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Cite this story
'Abdu'l-Bahá. (1915). *Memorials of the Faithful*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/memorials-faithful/
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