This Is the Way to Make a Sacrifice: The Afnán and the First House of Worship

A retelling based on Memorials of the Faithful by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, His first-hand reminiscences of the early believers. Phrases in quotation marks are 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own words as preserved in that book.

Among the believers of the heroic age was a man whose lineage tied him to the very Dawn of the Faith: Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad-Taqí, known by the title Vakílu'd-Dawlih. He was an Afnán — that is, a kinsman of the Báb, "an offshoot of the Holy Tree," as 'Abdu'l-Bahá describes him, in whom "an excellent character was allied to a noble lineage." He came to the Faith in the way that the most ardent souls so often did: he read the Báb's writings — in his case, the Kitáb-i-Íqán — and was undone by them. "After one reading of the Book of Íqán," 'Abdu'l-Bahá recounts, he "became a believer," and his longing was such that he cried out, "Lord, Lord, here am I!" Leaving Persia behind, he "sped over the mountains and across the desert wastes" to Baghdád to attain the presence of Bahá'u'lláh.

In the world's eyes he was a man of substance — a successful merchant, settled for many years in the city of Yazd, where, 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells us, he was "outwardly, engaged in commercial pursuits, but actually teaching the Faith." He had a home, a business, properties, lands, the security of an established life. He was so widely respected that even his enemies confessed his quality, saying of him — half in admiration, half in scorn — that there was "none to compare with this man" for righteousness and trustworthiness and faith: "what a pity that he is a Bahá'í!" Bahá'u'lláh Himself, more than once, expressed "His extreme satisfaction with the Afnán," so that those around Him grew certain that this soul would one day "initiate some highly important task."

That task came after Bahá'u'lláh's ascension — and it cost the Afnán everything he owned.

In the city of 'Ishqábád, beyond the reach of Persia's persecutions, the believers conceived of building a Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, a Bahá'í House of Worship — a thing that had never yet existed anywhere in the world. The Afnán made that undertaking his own. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's words are spare and weighty: "He gave up his comfort, his business, his properties, estates, lands, hastened away to 'Ishqábád and set about building the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár." He did not lend his name to the project, or contribute generously and return to his affairs. He dismantled his settled life and threw the whole of it into the work. For a long period he had no rest; "day and night, he urged the believers on," until they too "made sacrifices above and beyond their power; and God's edifice arose, and word of it spread throughout East and West."

So the first Bahá'í House of Worship in the history of the world was raised — and 'Abdu'l-Bahá records the price of it in a single sentence: "The Afnán expended everything he possessed to rear this building, except for a trifling sum." Everything. The lands, the estates, the merchant's accumulated fortune of a lifetime — all of it went into the walls and the dome of a House whose entire purpose was to gather human beings of every kind to the worship of one God. He "became," 'Abdu'l-Bahá notes, "the first individual to erect a Bahá'í House of Worship, the first builder of a House to unify man."

Then 'Abdu'l-Bahá pronounces the verdict that gives the whole episode its meaning. He does not merely praise the Afnán; He holds him up as the very standard of the thing: "This is the way to make a sacrifice. This is what it means to be faithful."

There is the heart of it. The Afnán's loftiness was not in being rich, nor even in being generous. Many give generously and remain comfortable. His loftiness lay in the totality of the offering — in spending himself down almost to nothing for a Cause that would never repay him in any coin the world recognizes. And note where his life ended. After 'Ishqábád he journeyed to the Holy Land and passed his last days in poverty and prayer "in the shelter of the Shrine of the Báb" — the kinsman of the Báb, who had once been a prosperous merchant, now possessing almost nothing, "wonderfully spiritual, strangely ashine," with God's praise always on his lips. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who had loved him, was "deeply grieved" at his passing.

This is the loftiness the Feast of 'Alá' sets before us: the freedom of a soul so unattached to its own wealth that it can pour out the whole of it for the love of God — and call the emptying not a loss, but the very thing it means to be faithful.

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see Memorials of the Faithful by 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

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