Badíʻ Carries the Tablet to the Sháh

*A retelling based on **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi, with details of the journey from H. M. Balyuzi, **Bahá'u'lláh, The King of Glory** (chapter 33), and Adib Taherzadeh, **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh**, vol. 3 (chapter 9). Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.*

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Áqá Buzurg of Khurásán had been brought to the Faith by Nabíl. Early in 1869, in the second year of Bahá'u'lláh's confinement in the barracks of 'Akká, he reached the city and was taken into Bahá'u'lláh's presence. He had two interviews with Him. From then on he was known as Badíʻ, "Wonderful." Bahá'u'lláh wrote that in him "the spirit of might and power was breathed."

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Bahá'u'lláh had revealed a Tablet to Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh, the king of Persia. Many older believers had hoped to carry it. Badíʻ, who was seventeen, asked for the honour, and it was given to him. He was told to wait in Haifa, and to travel back to Persia alone without contacting the believers. On Mount Carmel he received the Tablet in a small box, kissed it, and set out.

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For four months he walked to Ṭihrán, alone. There, as he had been told, he did not seek out the Bahá'ís. He spent three days in fasting and vigilance, found where the Sháh was encamped for the summer, and sat on a rise in plain view, waiting to be noticed. When the Sháh set out on a hunting expedition, Badíʻ approached him calmly and respectfully and called out: "O King! I have come to thee from Sheba with a weighty message."

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At the Sháh's order the Tablet was taken from him and given to the mujtahids of Ṭihrán, who were commanded to reply to it. They did not reply. Instead they recommended that the messenger be put to death. The Sháh later sent the Tablet to his ambassador in Constantinople, hoping it would turn the Sulṭán's ministers still further against Bahá'u'lláh.

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Badíʻ was pressed to name his companions. According to an account Balyuzi preserves, he said that he had come alone and had none. He was beaten and branded with hot irons for three successive days and gave no names. The Sháh ordered a photograph to be taken of him; it shows the brazier and the irons in the foreground. At the end he was killed, and his body was thrown into a pit and covered with earth and stones.

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Bahá'u'lláh gave him the title "Pride of Martyrs." For three years He continued to praise the youth's heroism in His writings, and He called these references to his sacrifice the "salt of My Tablets."

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi and chapter 33 of **Bahá'u'lláh, The King of Glory** by H. M. Balyuzi.*

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