Muhammad-Taqi came from the village of Man_sh_ad. When still young, he
learned of the Faith of God. In holy ecstasy, his mind turned Heavenward,
and his heart was flooded with light. Divine grace descended upon him; the
summons of God so enraptured him that he threw the peace of Man_sh_ad to
the winds. Leaving his kinsfolk and children, he set out over mountains
and desert plains, passed from one halting-place to the next, came to the
seashore, crossed over the sea and at last reached the city of Haifa. From
there he hastened on to Akka and entered the presence of Baha'u'llah.
In the early days he opened a small shop in Haifa and carried on some
trifling business. God's blessing descended upon it, and it prospered.
That little corner became the haven of the pilgrims. When they arrived,
and again at their departure, they were guests of the high-minded and
generous Muhammad-Taqi. He also helped to manage the affairs of the
believers, and would get together their means of travel. He proved
unfailingly reliable, loyal, worthy of trust. Ultimately he became the
intermediary through whom Tablets could be sent away and mail from the
believers could come in. He performed this service with perfect
dependability, accomplishing it in a most pleasing way, scrupulously
despatching and receiving the correspondence at all times. Trusted by
everyone, he became known in many parts of the world, and received
unnumbered bounties from Baha'u'llah. He was a treasury of justice and
righteousness, entirely free from any attachment to worldly things. He had
accustomed himself to a very spare way of life, caring nothing for food or
sleep, comfort or peace. He lived all alone in a single room, passed the
nights on a couch of palm branches, and slept in a corner. But to the
travelers, he was a spring in the desert; for them, he provided the
softest of pillows, and the best table he could afford. He had a smiling
face and by nature was spiritual and serene.
After the Daystar of the Supreme Concourse had set, Siyyid Man_sh_adi
remained loyal to the Covenant, a sharp sword confronting the violators.
They tried every ruse, every deceit, all their subtlest expedients; it is
beyond imagining how they showered favors on him and what honors they paid
him, what feasts they prepared, what pleasures they offered, all this to
make a breach in his faith. Yet every day he grew stronger than before,
continued to be staunch and true, kept free from every unseemly thought,
and shunned whatever went contrary to the Covenant of God. When they
finally despaired of shaking his resolve, they harassed him in every
possible way, and plotted his financial ruin. He remained, however, the
quintessence of constancy and trust.
When, at the instigation of the violators, 'Abdu'l-Hamid began his
opposition to me, I was obliged to send Man_sh_adi away to Port Sa'id,
because he was widely known among the people as the distributor of our
mail. I then had to relay the correspondence to him through intermediaries
who were unknown, and he would send the letters on as before. In this way
the treacherous and the hostile were unable to take over the mail. During
the latter days of 'Abdu'l-Hamid, when a commission of investigation
appeared and--urged on by those familiars-turned-strangers--made plans to
tear out the Holy Tree by the roots; when they determined to cast me into
the depths of the sea or banish me to the Fezzan, and this was their
settled purpose; and when the commission accordingly tried their utmost to
get hold of some document or other, they failed. In the thick of all that
turmoil, with all the pressures and restraints, and the foul attacks of
those persons who were pitiless as Yazid,(33) still the mail went through.
For many long years, Siyyid Man_sh_adi befittingly performed this service
in Port Sa'id. The friends were uniformly pleased with him. In that city
he earned the gratitude of travelers, placed those who had emigrated in
his debt, brought joy to the local believers. Then the heavy heat of Egypt
proved too much for him; he took to his bed, and in a raging fever, cast
off the robe of life. He abandoned Port Sa'id for the Kingdom of Heaven,
and rose up to the mansions of the Lord.
Siyyid Man_sh_adi was the essence of virtue and intellect. His qualities
and attainments were such as to amaze the most accomplished minds. He had
no thought except of God, no hope but to win the good pleasure of God. He
was the embodiment of "Keep all my words of prayer and praise confined to
one refrain; make all my life but servitude to Thee."
May God cool his feverish pain with the grace of reunion in the Kingdom,
and heal his sickness with the balm of nearness to Him in the Realm of the
All-Beauteous. Upon him be the glory of God the Most Glorious.