The Mother of Ashraf

A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative (chapter 24), on Bahá'u'lláh's words in Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh (section LXIX), and on Adib Taherzadeh's The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, volume 2. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.

Umm-i-Ashraf (the mother of Ashraf) was newly married when the upheaval at Zanján broke out in 1850. She was inside the besieged fort of 'Alí-Mardán Khán when she gave birth to her son. Nabíl writes that mother and child both survived the massacre at the end of the siege. Taherzadeh adds that her husband, a companion of Ḥujjat, was killed.

When the message of Bahá'u'lláh reached Zanján, Umm-i-Ashraf and her children accepted it. As a young man Siyyid Ashraf twice travelled to Adrianople and attained the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. Back in Zanján he taught the Faith, together with a blind believer named Abá-Baṣír. The clergy of the city issued warrants for the deaths of both men, and they were arrested. Abá-Baṣír refused to recant and was beheaded in the public square.

Some who wished to save Ashraf, among them the Imám-Jum'ih of the city, a relative of his, tried hard to persuade him to recant. When they failed, they sent for his mother. In Nabíl's words, his enemies "endeavoured to alarm his mother and convince her of the necessity of saving him, ere it was too late, from his fate."

"I will disown you as my son," she said when she was brought face to face with him, "if you incline your heart to such evil whisperings and allow them to turn you away from the Truth."

Bahá'u'lláh Himself recorded what she said to her son: "My son, mine own son! Fail not to offer up thyself in the path of thy Lord. Beware that thou betray not thy faith in Him before Whose face have bowed down in adoration all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth. Go thou straight on, O my son, and persevere in the path of the Lord, thy God. Haste thee to attain the presence of Him Who is the Well-Beloved of all worlds."

Taherzadeh records that the leading cleric of the city then announced to the crowd that Ashraf had recanted, and that Ashraf, standing beside him, denied it aloud. Nabíl writes that, "faithful to his mother's admonitions, Ashraf met his death with intrepid calm." She watched and did not weep. Looking at her son's body, she said: "I have now in mind the vow I made on the day of your birth, while besieged in the fort of 'Ali-Mardan Khan. I rejoice that you, the only son whom God gave me, have enabled me to redeem that pledge."

In a Tablet, Bahá'u'lláh wrote: "Call thou to mind the behavior of Ashraf's mother, whose son laid down his life in the Land of Zá (Zanján)." Of her He said: "On her be My blessings, and My mercy, and My praise, and My glory. I Myself shall atone for the loss of her son."

This is a retelling. For the full account, see The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative, chapter 24, and Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh, section LXIX.

Nabíl-i-A'ẓam. (1932). *The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/other-literature/historical/dawn-breakers/