The Baha'i faith (Bahaism)

Earlier Baha'is were involved in Opium Trade

Bab's Family (Notorious 'Afnan' Opium Traders)

By Prof. Juan Cole

The export crops passed through Shiraz on their way to the Gulf. Iranian long-distance merchants from Fars developed marketing networks for these commodities, establishing trading houses in Bombay, Calcutta, Port Said, Istanbul and even Hong Kong. The encounter with European colonial institutions, and with local reformist and independence movements, made these Iranian expatriates more cosmopolitan than the majority of their compatriots. Within Iran, those merchants who proved successful in the opium trade grew fabulously wealthy and politically influential, as did the government officials, such a Qavam al-Mulk, who sponsored it and taxed it. As we shall see below, one of the important Iranian export houses (with an outpost in Hong Kong) was operated by the Afnan clan, Baha'is and relatives of the Bab.[1]

The backbone of the Shiraz Baha'i community, however, was the artisans and merchants. The merchants benefited from a number of advantages, including their mobility and the international character of their commerce. Bombay served, not only as a center of trade, but also as a place where Baha'i culture could begin to be developed more freely. In the late 1880s the Afnan clan established a printing press in Bombay, where they printed several volumes of Baha'u'llah's writings and smuggled them back into Iran for distribution throughout the country through clandestine Baha'i networks. Should any of the Afnans become controversial, they could always send him to one of their commercial outposts (thus, they dispatched Aqa Nur al-Din to Bombay in 1879 in the wake of the judicial murder on charges of heresy of his business associates, Hasan and Husayn Nahri in Isfahan). In the 1880s, the Afnan families of Shiraz and Yazd were influential in founding a Baha'i community in Ashkhabad, under the tsarist Transcaspian administration not far from the Iranian border, which served as a refuge for some Baha'is from persecution and as a further commercial opportunity, in the tea trade.[2]

[1] A major secondary source on this family is Muhammad `Ali Fayzi, Khandan-i Afnan, Sidrih-'i Rahman (Tehran: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 127 B.E./1971); for our period, this source mostly replicates information available in the primary account, Mirza Habib Allah Afnan, "Tarikh-i Amri-yi Shiraz," copy of uncatalogued Persian MS, Afnan Library, London, and I will keep most citations to the latter.

[2] Moojan Momen, "The Bahai Community of Ashkhabad: Its Social Basis and Importance in Baha'i History," in Shirin Akiner, ed., Cultural Change and Continuity in Central Asia (London: Kegan Paul International, 1991), pp. 278-305.

http://www.iranchamber.com/religions/articles/religious_dissidence_urban_leadership.php

More detailed article on this topic in Persian can be found here :
http://www.shahbazi.org/pages/Bab_Family1.htm

The Opium Smoking Baha'is had low ideas of honour and truthfulness

By Steve Lagoon


Subh-i-Azal with his family

Boykin correctly pointed out that the Bab had appointed Mirza Yahya as his successor. Baha’u’llah essentially stole control of the movement from his brother, despite the fact that the Bab, the very manifestation of God (in their view) had appointed Mirza Yahya. The Baha’i explanation of this is as ingenious as it is sinister. They claim that the Bab only appointed Mirza Yahya publicly as a rouse or cover for Baha’u’llah. That is, the Bab actually appointed Baha’u’llah as his successor, but publicly put forward Mirza Yahya in the event of persecution.Wilson states it thus:

“We have seen that Subh-i-Azal, the half-brother of Baha’u’llah, was appointed by the Bab as his successor. According to Abdul Baha, this appointment was a dishonest subterfuge on the part of Baha, arranged by him through secret correspondence with the Bab, in order that Baha might be relieved of danger and persecution and be protected from interference. . . This account shows the low ideas of honour and truthfulness in the minds of Baha and Abdul Baha” (Wilson, p. 204).

Wilson (Wilson, p. 204) also quoted from Abul Fazl’s account of the same event in his book ‘Baha’i Proofs,’ p. 52, in which Fazl “states the position of the ‘Traveler’s Narrative”:

“The Bab and Baha'u'llah, after consulting together, made Azal appear as the Bab’s successor. In this manner they preserved Baha'u'llah from interference.”

Fazl’s testimony is important because he is quoted as an authority in Baha’i literature. For example, see J.E. Esslemont, Baha’u’llah and the New Era.Wilmette, IL: Baha’i Books, 1923, Revised edition 1970, 1976, 1978 edition, p. 113, hereafter:Esslemont).

Another authority that Wilson quotes (Wilson, p. 204-205) is Professor Edward G. Browne who is frequently quoted in Baha’i literature, particularly because of his description of a meeting he had with Baha’u’llah, and his friendship with Abdul-Baha. For example, see ‘The Baha’is: A Profile of the Baha’i Faith and its Worldwide Community”[magazine format]. Baha’i International Community, Baha’i World Centre; Haifa, Israel, 2005, pp. 21, 57.

Wilson’s note quoting Professor Browne is thus:

“The Baha’is are impaled on the other horn of the dilemma also, for, as Professor Browne says (‘Mirza Jani [‘s History]’, p. xxxiii.) ‘The difficulty lies in the fact that Subh-i-Azal consistently refused to recognize Baha’s claim, so that the Baha’i is driven to make the assumption that the Bab, who is acknowledged to be divinely inspired and gifted with divine knowledge and prescience, deliberately chose to succeed him one who was destined to be the ‘point of darkness,’ or chief opponent, of ‘Him whom God should manifest’” (Wilson, 204).

There are problems as a result of the foregoing. First, it shows that Baha’u’llah’s half-brother, Mirza Yahya rather than Baha’u’llah was the one chosen by the Bab to be his successor. Also, it shows that Baha’u’llah was dishonest, a strange activity for a manifestation of God. Finally, whenever, we read Baha’i literature that quotes the Bab as speaking of “Him who God will manifest,” it is not Baha’u’llah whom he had in mind.

Incidentally, the same Professor Browne that is regularly appealed to as a source by Baha’is, reported about the regular use of opium by the early Baha’is:

“All present were Babis (Baha’is) and we sat sipping our tea and whiffing opium.We sat talking late and smoking opium. The wildest ascriptions of deity to Baha were made when intoxicated with wine and opium” (Wilson, p. 215).

Shaykhism and It's Sects شیخیه

Shaykhism and It's Sects شیخیه

1) Kermaniyyih (Kermani Shaykhis, followers of Haj Mohammed Karim Khan Kermani)
2) Baqeriyyih (The followers of Mirza Mohammed Baqir Hamdani)
3) Azerbaijani Shaykhis (followers of Haj Mirza Shafee' Thiqqatul Islam Tabrizi)
4) Babis (Followers of Mullah Husayn and Ali Mohammed Bab)