Principles of Spiritual Economics by Hooshmand Badee

During the period of his leadership (1892–1921), he preferred to be known as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and it is by this title that he is now generally known. His given name was ‘Abbás, but his father also referred to him as the ‘Master’ ( Áqá) and the ‘Most Great (or Mighty) Branch’ ( ghuṣn-i-a’ẓam), the ‘Mystery of God’ ( sirru’lláh), the ‘Limb of the Law of God’ who ‘encompassed the whole of creation’, and the apple of his eye. Title of Bahá’u’lláh’s eldest son and successor.

The sultan’s downfall was prophesied in Bahá’u’lláh’s tablet to Fuat Paşa. Bahá’u’lláh also deplored the extremes of wealth and poverty he witnessed in ISTANBUL, and protested his own innocence of any wrongdoing that would have merited his banishment. He was God’s ‘shadow on earth’ (a traditional royal title), and as such should be detached from the world and ensure the well-being of his subjects. He later addressed the sultan in the Súra of the KINGS, calling upon him not to entrust the affairs of state into the hands of corrupt and godless ministers, but himself to rule with justice and fear God. After receiving the order of banishment to Edirne, Bahá’u’lláh sent him a strongly worded tablet in which the sultan’s ministers were censured ( see ÂLI PAṢA FUAT PAṢA). It was during his reign that the successive exiles of Bahá’u’lláh within the Ottoman empire took place. He was deposed in 1876 (30 May), and shortly after either committed suicide or was murdered. ‘Abdu’l-‘AZÍZ, OTTOMAN sultan, 1861–76, who advanced the Tanzimat reforms, but opposed liberalism the first sultan to visit Western Europe. He met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Beirut in 1878 and became his fervent admirer. Leading Muslim reformer whose ideas were influential throughout much of the Islamic world. ( See also AKKA.) ‘Abduh, Shaykh Muḥammad (d. Owner of the larger (seaward facing) part of what is now termed the house of ‘Abbúd occupied by Bahá’u’lláh. ‘Abbás Núrí (Mírzá Buzurg), father of Bahá’u’lláh ‘Abbúd, llyás (d. The enmity of the new chief minister, Ḥájí Mírzá ÁQÁSÍ (‘Abbás had been a friend of Áqásí’s rival and predecessor), led to the loss of his political power in 1835 and to severe financial problems.

1797–1834) and later as a provincial governor for Burújird and Lunstán. ‘Abbás served as minister ( vaztr) to one of the sons of Fatḥ-‘Alí Sháh (reg. The family’s ancestral lands were around the village of Tákur in the district of Núr. ‘Abbás came from an eminent family in the Iranian province of Mázandarán which traced its ancestry back to the last pre-Islamic Sassanian king of Iran, Yazdigird III.

Principles of Spiritual Economics by Hooshmand Badee