A Great and Universal Mind: Nabíl-i-Akbar

A retelling based on Memorials of the Faithful, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's first-person reminiscences of the believers of Bahá'u'lláh's circle. Phrases in quotation marks are 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own words preserved in that book.

In the holy city of Najaf there gathered, around the renowned teacher Shaykh Murtaḍá, a company of the most promising religious students of the age. Among them was one whom 'Abdu'l-Bahá would later describe as "a man without likeness or peer." His name was Áqá Muḥammad-i-Qá'iní, and in time Bahá'u'lláh would give him the title by which he is remembered: Nabíl-i-Akbar.

He was no ordinary scholar. He rose to be "the leading member" of that brilliant circle, and — "singled out from among them all" — he alone was granted the rank of mujtahid by Shaykh Murtaḍá, a teacher who, 'Abdu'l-Bahá notes, "was never wont to confer this degree." Nor was his mastery confined to a single field. He "excelled not only in theology but in other branches of knowledge, such as the humanities, the philosophy of the Illuminati, the teachings of the mystics and of the Shaykhí School." Here was learning of the rarest breadth. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's verdict is striking: "He was a universal man, in himself alone a convincing proof."

By every measure the world honours, such a man had arrived. He had reached the summit of the scholarship of his time; assemblies of the learned deferred to him. And then "his eyes were opened to the light of Divine guidance," and everything changed. He left Najaf, came to Baghdád, and "was honored with meeting Bahá'u'lláh." There, says 'Abdu'l-Bahá, "he beheld the light that blazed on Sinai in the Holy Tree." The greatest knowledge he had ever encountered was not in any book he had read or any school he had mastered; it was in the presence of the Manifestation of God. "Soon he was in such a state that he could rest neither day nor night."

What that recognition did to him is the very lesson of the Feast of 'Ilm. The most learned man in the room became the humblest. One day, on the floor of the outer apartments, "the honored Nabíl was reverently kneeling in the presence of Bahá'u'lláh." At that moment two distinguished visitors entered — men who knew his fame as "unique among mujtahids and the most favored disciple of the renowned Shaykh Murtaḍá." Astonished to find so eminent a scholar kneeling there in such deference, one of them murmured, "Sir, what are you doing in this place?" Nabíl's reply held all his wisdom in a single sentence: "I came here for the same reason you did." The man who had mastered every science had discovered the one knowledge that humbles all the rest, and he was not ashamed to kneel for it.

His learning, far from being laid aside, was now set free to serve. Travelling through Persia and on to Bukhárá and Ishqábád, he became, in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's words, "a guiding lamp to many souls." And he taught each seeker in the language that seeker could hear. "He would guide the Illuminati by their own philosophical principles," and reason with the mystics "in terms of 'inspiration' and the 'celestial vision.'" He would "convince the Shaykhí leaders by quoting the very words of their late Founders," and persuade the theologians "with texts from the Qur'án and traditions from the Imáms." All the breadth of his knowledge had become a key to open doors of understanding for others.

For this he paid the full price. The clergy, "envious and malevolent," informed against him; the Sháh "rose up in wrath"; he was driven from city to city, hunted by watchmen, forced to lay aside the turban of his rank and disguise himself as an ordinary layman so that he might keep teaching. He grew penniless, "and a prey to many troubles, until at the last, far from his homeland, he died." A worldly career of dazzling promise had ended in exile and poverty.

And yet 'Abdu'l-Bahá draws from this the deepest of all conclusions about knowledge. The famous shaykhs and clerics of that age, He says, "all of them will disappear without a trace. They will leave no name behind them, no sign, no fruit." But because Nabíl-i-Akbar "stood steadfast in this holy Faith, because he guided souls and served this Cause," that one believer "will shine forever from the horizon of abiding light." Learning gathered for one's own glory, He teaches, turns "to abasement at the end"; learning poured out on the path of God endures.

This is the truth the Feast of 'Ilm holds before us. Nabíl-i-Akbar possessed, in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's closing words, "a great and universal mind" — and the crown of all that mind had attained was the humility to kneel before a greater knowledge, and the courage to spend everything he had learned in the service of God.

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/