Bahá’í World/Volume 18/Dr. Rahmatu’lláh Muhájir
RAḤMATU’LLÁH MUHÁJIR
1923—1979
PROFOUNDLY LAMENT UNTIMELY PASSING IN QUITO ECUADOR BELOVED HAND CAUSE RAHMATULLAH MUHAJIR FOLLOWING HEART ATTACK COURSE HIS LATEST SOUTH AMERICAN
Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir
TOUR. UNSTINTED UNRESTRAINED OUTPOURING OF PHYSICAL SPIRITUAL ENERGIES BY ONE WHO OFFERED HIS ALL PATH SERVICE HAS NOW CEASED. POSTERITY WILL RECORD HIS DEVOTED SERVICES YOUTHFUL YEARS CRADLE FAITH HIS SUBSEQUENT UNIQUE EXPLOITS PIONEERING FIELD SOUTHEAST ASIA WHERE HE WON ACCOLADE KNIGHTHOOD BAHAULLAH HIS CEASELESS EFFORTS OVER TWO DECADES SINCE HIS APPOINTMENT HAND CAUSE STIMULATING IN MANY LANDS EAST WEST PROCESS ENTRY BY TROOPS. FRIENDS ALL CONTINENTS WHO MOURN THIS TRAGIC LOSS NOW SUDDENLY DEPRIVED COLLABORATION ONE WHO ENDEARED HIMSELF TO THEM THROUGH HIS GENTLENESS HIS LUMINOUS PERSONALITY HIS EXEMPLARY UNFLAGGING ZEAL HIS CREATIVE ENTHUSIASTIC APPROACH TO FULFILLMENT ASSIGNED GOALS. URGE FRIENDS EVERYWHERE HOLD MEMORIAL GATHERINGS BEFITTING HIS HIGH STATION UNIQUE ACHIEVEMENTS. MAY HIS RADIANT SOUL ABHÁ KINGDOM REAP RICH HARVEST HIS DEDICATED SELFSACRIFICING SERVICES CAUSE GOD.
Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir was born, in 1923, into a distinguished Bahá’í family. Three of his forebears—the Dawlatábádí brothers—attained the presence of Bahá’u’lláh and later were recipients of a Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá bearing the salutation Ay Muhájirán—‘O Pioneers’—in which He exhorts them to thank God that they were able to meet the Blessed Beauty and prays for their success in rendering ever—increasing services to the Faith. The name Muhájir was adopted as their family name from that day.
The parents of Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir, Ḥafiẓu’lláh Khán and Iṣmat Khánum, continued the family tradition of dedication and service. Raḥmat, his brothers and five sisters were brought up in a home that was a centre for many Bahá’í meetings and firesides attended by great Bahá’í teachers. Raḥmat participated in all these meetings from early childhood and brought many seekers to hear the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. If by chance there was no one to accompany him he would invite the corner shopkeepers, promising them a good Persian meal. He always remembered this period of his life as a very happy one during which he received a thorough Bahá’í training that had instilled in his heart the love of Bahá’u’lláh and devotion to His Faith. He chose the path of service early in his life and did not deviate from it. While in high school he was a member of the local and national youth committees and spent his summers visiting all the Bahá’í holy places in Írán.
His first experience of pioneering came following his graduation from high school when he postponed going to university and went to the province of Ádhirbáyján for two years. His remarkable planning skills were apparent even at that early age. He organized youth and children’s activities, taught adults in the evenings and prepared lessons and taught Bahá’í classes. He is still remembered in that area for his kindness, love, knowledge of the Faith, humility and sense of humour. This sense of humour persisted throughout his life and was a saving grace in many difficult situations.
After this period of pioneering he entered medical school. His friends recall that he sustained and even increased his Bahá’í activities. When well-meaning friends advised him to concentrate more on his studies to avoid
failing, his reply was that Bahá’u’lláh would take care of his studies if he attended to His work. To the astonishment of all, a few months before graduation from medical school he suspended his studies and devoted three months to assisting in the accomplishment of the goals of the Forty-Five Month Plan of the National Spiritual Assembly of Írán. He was secretary of the National Pioneering Committee and felt that it was not sufficient to do only administrative work. After the successful completion of the Plan he returned to his studies and graduated with honours from medical school.
We were married in 1951, just a few months prior to his graduation, and had the bounty of receiving a telegram from the beloved Guardian, sent to my father, the Hand of the Cause of God ‘Alí-Akbar Furútan, conveying good wishes and saying ‘praying blessings’.
In 1952 when the Ten Year World Crusade of the Guardian had been announced, it was our privilege to go on pilgrimage. Raḥmat had the blessing on several occasions of being alone with the Guardian who spoke to him about the Pacific Islands, the Malaysian Peninsula and the great potential of that part of the world. Pilgrimage to the Holy Shrines and meeting the Guardian of the Cause of God increased the desire for sacrifice and service in Raḥmat’s heart. On his return he was impatient and disinterested in his well-salaried job as a physician in the American Point Four hospital in Iṣfahán. He wanted to leave everything, forget the material world and carry out the wishes of his beloved Guardian. The Guardian had asked the Bahá’ís to undertake the spiritual conquest of the world. Raḥmat wanted to respond to this call immediately. He felt there was no time to lose. This attitude of absolute obedience to the Guardian and being guided by his words continued throughout his life; he devoured the writings of Shoghi Effendi and tried to follow and implement all the instructions. This was the motivating force of his life.
At the Asian Conference in New Delhi in October 1953 the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia and New Zealand announced that a physician was needed to fill their goal in the Mentawai Islands as doctors were the only ones who stood a remote chance of obtaining a visa. Raḥmat volunteered without hesitation.
He resigned from his job and we sold all our worldly belongings. He had no idea what sort of place Mentawai was, whether or not he could get a job and, most important of all, whether a permit to stay in Indonesia would be granted us. Raḥmat was confident that by arising to carry out the behest of the Guardian all obstacles would be removed. In December 1953 we set out as pioneers to the Mentawai Islands. We arrived in the Island of Muara Siberut in February 1954 and were declared Knights of Bahá’u’lláh by the beloved Guardian. Raḥmat was employed by the Indonesian Ministry of Health, given a permanent residence visa and—miraculously—was assigned to Mentawai Islands.
Pioneering to Mentawai Islands—four small dots on the map in southern Sumatra in the Indonesian Archipelago—opened a vast and exciting field of service to Raḥmat. Although coming from a very different background and culture he felt very much at home in this new environment. He was joyful and constantly gave thanks to the beloved Guardian for this great opportunity and prayed to Bahá’u’lláh, day and night, not to take it away from him.
Muara Siberut is a former Dutch penal colony. Distant from the mainland, with no kind of development or comfort, and a constant climate of forty degrees Celsius, it was not a priority in the minds of the government officials. The native inhabitants were left to themselves, had no medical care, and practically all suffered from malaria and severe tropical skin diseases. Raḥmat, whose field of work was preventive medicine, began a systematic method of eradication of malaria and other diseases. He not only taught the people the Faith but also helped them to better their physical life. He respected the people of Mentawai and did not try to change their customs or their manner of dress. He had come to bring them a spiritual message and their appearance made no difference to him. He loved the tattooed natives as though they were his nearest and dearest kin. He never interfered with any of their traditional practices, especially if they did not affect their health. He very often participated in the native healer’s dances and ceremonies, and allowed them to apply ritual paint to his face before examining a patient. He taught them how to use soap when they bathed in the river,
how to clean their hair, and how to take care of their babies. This genuine affection was reciprocated by the natives; they sought his advice and guidance in every matter.
As the number of Bahá’ís increased Raḥmat helped them to move their villages to new sites and gave them plans which included a Bahá’í Centre and a Bahá’í Cemetery. Separate shelters were built for their livestock which up to that time had shared their dwellings. The natives supplied the wood and roof thatching and Raḥmat gave them nails and assisted the many Bahá’í villages in the actual building of their houses. Perhaps the most important indication of the complete acceptance of Bahá’u’lláh by the natives of Mentawai was their willingness to depart from their ancestral burial ritual. It involved leaving the unburied corpse exposed until it decomposed and hanging the bare bones in their homes. After becoming Bahá’ís they buried their dead according to Bahá’í laws.
In all the years of his work in Mentawai, Raḥmat had very cordial relations with the Christian missionaries. Although very often they opposed him and disrupted his work, he was always kind to them, attended to their needs when they were sick, showed them every courtesy and did nothing to undermine the faith of those they had converted to Christianity. The natives, whether Christian, Bahá’í or pagan, adored him. Once when the Governor of Sumatra visited the islands to inspect Raḥmat’s work many of the natives greeted him with shouts of Alláh-u-Abhá. When asked what this meant they referred him to Raḥmat saying, ‘We are what the doctor is.’ This resulted in a lengthy fireside with the Governor and other officials. The Governor was very impressed and for the duration of his term in office stayed on friendly terms with Raḥmat.
Although Raḥmat did not consider it so, all this was achieved with a great deal of physical hardship. Often when returning from his frequent trips to the remote interior, trips involving many days of walking through jungles and in waist-deep water, he would enter the wooden hut with tree bark walls that served as our home, covered in mud and blood from the leeches that had attached themselves to him while he walked in the rivers, happy and
elated because a few people in the village he had visited had accepted the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. He dismissed the leeches and the blood, saying God was helping him not to have high blood pressure. We were both afflicted with the severest kind of tropical malaria a few weeks after our arrival in the islands. In Raḥmat’s case it was much more difficult as the shivers and very high fever came to him while he was walking in mud and torrential tropical rains and sleeping on a mat on the damp ground in the jungles.
The only means of communication with the outside world was a government mail-boat which visited Mentawai every six to eight months. When the mail included a message from the Guardian Raḥmat’s spirit soared and his soul became aflame. These letters and messages sustained him for the next eight months. Illness, lack of food and exhaustion did not matter, as long as the Guardian was pleased.
The numerous letters and cables addressed by Shoghi Effendi to Raḥmat were left in Mentawai. The following extracts are quoted from the many letters of Dr. Ḥakím, the Persian secretary to the Guardian, which convey the Guardian’s happiness with Raḥmat’s efforts in the Mentawai Islands:
18 July 1955: ‘Assure Dr. Muhájir and his wife that he prays for them and the success of their services to the Faith. The outstanding services that he and his wife have rendered have brought much happiness to his heart.’
18 May 1956: ‘He said to convey his profound appreciation to Dr. Muhájir, who is a true pioneer and also to his wife . . . He is very happy with Dr. Muhájir and his wife.’
Raḥmat was appointed to the rank of Hand of the Cause of God amongst the last contingent, in October 1957. The telegram of the beloved Guardian arrived when he was away in the villages of Java on a teaching trip. We had undertaken this rare trip to Djakarta on the instruction of the beloved Guardian to Raḥmat to assist in the purchase of the National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds.
Raḥmat’s great desire had been to remain in his pioneering post for the rest of his life. The sudden passing of the beloved Guardian a few weeks after the appointment of the last contingent of the Hands of the Cause made
this resolve even stronger. However, it was necessary for him to leave the islands. The affairs of the Faith were at a crucial point. The Ten Year Crusade was at its midway point and all the Hands of the Cause had to be involved in the world-wide development of the Faith. It was not possible for one of them to be incommunicado in a place that had no telegram or telephone service and was cut off from the rest of the world except by means of a boat which most of the time was out of service. It took months of persuasion by the Hands of the Cause in the Holy Land, and lengthy nights and days of prayer, before Raḥmat, sadly and reluctantly, left the people he had loved so much and served so well.
We left Mentawai in 1958. In the four years of his work in the islands the number of Bahá’ís had increased to more than four thousand, three of the thirty-three Local Spiritual Assemblies had been incorporated, Bahá’í schools had been established, a Bahá’í endowment land had been purchased which was one of eight in the Bahá’í world, and a Bahá’í pamphlet had been translated and printed in the Mentawai language. This was a historic achievement as Mentawai was a spoken language that had never been recorded. Raḥmat always believed that entire villages should be brought to the Faith as this prevented disunity and friction amongst the people and allowed them to progress much more in following the principles of the Faith. He put this idea into practice in Mentawai. He worked for the village as a whole and directed all aspects of the villagers’ lives according to the teachings. Many of the children who sat at his feet on the damp ground learning Bahá’í prayers and the alphabet by the light of a small candle and sometimes the glow of the moon went on to live at the Bahá’í dormitory in Sumatra which Raḥmat had initiated and some became doctors and engineers. They remember him with love and affection and say they owe all to this gentle and kind man who sat them on his knees and chanted prayers and songs in his melodious voice.
A WHO Committee which visited Mentawai in 1960, in its report, after giving details of the beliefs of the Bahá’í Faith, devotes two long pages to Raḥmat’s medical work in the islands and adds that he was the only
representative among those of different religions who was concerned with the development of the islands, establishing schools, eradicating disease and bringing cleanliness and order to the villages.
Leaving Mentawai closed a phase of distinguished service in Raḥmat’s life and opened a new one which continued for the next twenty years of his life. These twenty years are so entwined with the history of mass teaching and the development of the Faith, and his travels around the world are so extensive, that it is not possible to record all the events in the scope of this article. In the years between 1958 and 1979 he visited all the Bahá’í National Centres several times and in each country travelled to the interior visiting mass teaching areas and isolated believers. In the first three years of the Five Year Plan he had visited more than fifty countries. He travelled by sea and air, in buses and bullock carts, on foot and by hitchhiking. On one occasion he went from Afghanistan to Írán by oil tanker, and once, in order to visit a remote Pacific island, he signed on an oil tanker as a ship’s doctor for two weeks. He told me later that he was seasick during that whole journey. He used utmost economy in all his travels, choosing the routes that would give him the most mileage on a plane ticket. He stayed at moderately priced hotels, in less expensive rooms, and chose meals that would not cost much. He very rarely went sight-seeing. To him, all cities and countries were the same. It was the quality of the teaching activities that made them different.
Raḥmat’s extraordinary quality of recognizing the needs of an area made his advice valuable and practical. His vast experience and continuous travels enabled him to participate and contribute many ideas towards the formulation of the various plans of the World Centre. Co-operation between two neighbouring countries and the development of Bahá’í villages were ideas that were first introduced by him in Indonesia. He later implemented these ideas in the Philippines, Laos, Hong Kong, Korea, India and many countries of Africa and South America. He had the courage to advance suggestions and a talent for creating enthusiasm in those who would implement them. He had utter reliance on and submission to the will of God; hence
he was never discouraged. He offered his proposals selflessly with love and humility and did not insist on their acceptance.
Each new plan was an exciting challenge. He never tired of discussing the goals with the friends. Many of us looked on the formation of a new Assembly as a routine task, whether it was a goal of the Nine Year Plan or the Seven Year Plan. Not Raḥmat. Forming a new Assembly in 1979 was more exciting than the one formed in 1975.
His perception and deep interest in all areas of teaching, consolidation and proclamation of the Faith might be best illustrated by his work in the Philippines and India. Mass teaching in the Philippines started in 1960 when, accompanied by pioneers, he went to many villages and tribal areas. He cared for and nourished the new Bahá’ís of the Philippines with such love and understanding that it was as if the Philippines was the only country on his itinerary. He helped them with every aspect of their growth. He suggested books for translation into local languages, found the translators, selected a publisher, and even chose the paper and bargained for the price. He visited the new Bahá’ís and later the Local Assemblies over and over again, attended the first National Convention, spoke at universities and colleges, bought books on student exchange and presented them to the National Assembly. He later encouraged many Iranian Bahá’í students to enrol in the excellent universities in the Philippines. As the community grew in numbers and strength he called on the Bahá’ís to pioneer and took many of them with him and helped them to settle in Hong Kong, Laos, Malaya and many countries of Africa.
Raḥmat had travelled to India many times, encouraging the friends to realize that the time had come for entry by troops in that vast subcontinent. His visit in 1961 was endowed with the blessing of the start of mass teaching.
A report by Mr. Hushmand Fatheazam published in the October 1961 issue of Bahá’í News of U.S.A. describes the arrival in Bombay of the revered Hand of the Cause Dr. Muhájir, whose encouragement and guidance had previously made the National Spiritual Assembly lay stress on the importance of teaching the masses’. Learning of his desire to hold a conference for the masses, word was
sent to the Spiritual Assembly of Samagimanda and a conference was arranged there within forty-eight hours. In spite of severe cold the conference drew more than three hundred people and lasted until well past midnight. ‘A group of Bahá’ís, organized by Dr. Muhájir, was . . . dispatched to various villages . . . So, from the beginning of February a process of chain reaction has set in. Every few days a conference would be organized . . . The result of each conference would be between one hundred and two hundred declarations.’
Thus the process of entry by troops in India had started. In 1961 there were 850 Bahá’ís and in 1963, 65,000.
Raḥmat’s proposals as reported in the November 1979 issue of Bahá’í News included acquisition of village Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds, establishment of schools for education of children. Many Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds were purchased and the village schools led to the establishment of the Rabbani school, the site of which was bought with Raḥmat’s help. He urged, from the earliest days, the establishment of an education fund. This fund is now in operation. On his return to India later in 1961 he foresaw the need for continuous deepening and began immediately to look for a suitable building to house a teaching institute. Eventually he found the building that was purchased and is now the Faizi Institute near Indore.
In 1967 he brought the first pioneers from Malaysia to India; the following years he began the flow of student pioneers from Írán. Also in 1967 he proposed the convening of a press seminar and conference for newspaper editors, helped to arrange it and prepare the materials and hand-outs, and attended the seminar which was very successful.
At the time of the first West Asia Youth Conference in 1971, he arrived a few days earlier and asked the youth to disperse to colleges and universities and proclaim and teach the Faith. In three days the number of new believers reached seven hundred.
He encouraged the Bahá’í Publishing Trust to publish Bahá’í books in all Indian and other languages and disseminate low-priced books to the other mass teaching areas. Under his constant guidance the Publishing Trust of India grew into a giant enterprise which sent thousands of books to the rest of the world.
He conceived the idea of a simple information
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folder’, hundreds of thousands of copies of which are in use all over the world. The folder is still an important tool of proclamation. He proposed and helped prepare a Bahá’í correspondence course which was used very successfully in India, the Philippines and other mass teaching countries. He wrote a book on methods of Bahá’í education of children which is now being translated into English. These examples demonstrate that although remembered specifically for his devotion to mass teaching, he directed his energies towards all strata of society, and all the goals of various plans were of equal importance to him.
He appeared many times on television, gave radio broadcasts, had an audience with His Highness Malietoa Tanumafili II of Western Samoa, had interviews with many presidents, prime ministers, ministers and mayors in many of the countries that he visited. He gave talks in universities and at conferences in Europe and the United States, as well as talks in small villages. In addition to representing the Universal House of Justice at the inaugural conventions of many national communities he participated in teaching conferences, Summer Schools and local events all over the Bahá’í world. To teach while sitting on the floor of a small hut in Korea in sub-zero temperature was of the same importance to him as standing at the podium of a well—known university in the United States. His belief was that humanity was athirst for the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and that the Bahá’ís of the world had the capability of bringing millions to the Faith.
He very often chanted the Tablet of Visitation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá before going to any meeting and was convinced that the power of prayer would overcome all incapacities. Prayer was the core of his life. Very many nights he would spend in prayer till dawn for various projects in the Bahá’í world. He saw the Bahá’í world as one unit created by the Guardian through the Ten Year Crusade, and he believed that entry by troops should not be confined to the less developed countries of the globe. On numerous occasions he brought to the United States and Europe teaching materials used in India and South America, and urged the friends to use them. When they did, great results were achieved.
To give a glimpse of the effect on others of his services to the Faith I have selected the following passages from the countless letters and reports that make reference to him:
‘He arranged the plans and bade us farewell. We are rich in the heritage of these visits . . . The fruits of his trips will continue to develop in the years to come.’ Papua and New Guinea
‘His mind was so keen, so alert, and he spoke quietly . . . his ideas were positive, progressive [so] that sometimes [they] pressed our imagination.’ Guam
‘The most striking aspect of Dr. Muhájir’s personality seemed to be the rapidity with which he adapted his plans to a given situation and his humbleness when submitting these suggestions to the National Spiritual Assembly and then retiring.’ Luxembourg
‘Every time he met with our National Spiritual Assembly he had a different kind of theme. All revolved around teaching, but approaches were different. He had great humility and yet had the power to change individuals.’ Japan
‘He didn’t ever seem angry when something was not possible. He had a strange acquiescence with obstacles.’ Switzerland
‘The insight and the depth of devotion which characterized his selfless example will continue to give impetus and commitment to the work . . . the vibrating influence of this champion teacher will reach beyond the imaginings of his admirers.’ Gambia
‘His devotion to the Cause, the encouragement he gave to so many Bahá’í communities, the seemingly endless energy he expended in carrying out his work and the uncounted other qualities he possessed combined themselves in a unique and mighty warrior of Bahá’u’lláh.’ U.S.A.
‘It is difficult to attempt to convey the depth and magnitude of the services which Dr. Muhájir rendered in bringing into existence this fledgling pillar of the Universal House of Justice. When he first came to the Philippines we had four Local Spiritual Assemblies and a Bahá’í population of two hundred. Twenty years later, after two decades of showering his love and guidance upon us, there were forty-five Local Spiritual Assemblies and 64,000 believers.’ Philippines
‘Dr. Muhájir is the only Hand of the Cause
ever to visit the interior of the country. His love for the indigenous people initiated teaching which has resulted in over half of the believers in Paraguay.’ Paraguay
‘One of our goals was the acquisition of a National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds . . . we had found four houses for sale. Dr. Muhájir asked us to show him these houses. When we reached the third one, the present National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds, he immediately said, “This is it. I will pray that Bahá’u’lláh will assist you to acquire this property.” He got out of the car and chanted prayers for some time. We did not even look at the fourth building. Of course Dr. Muhájir’s prayers were answered.’ Central African Republic
In all his life he never considered himself a worthy servant of Bahá’u’lláh. He prayed constantly and beseeched God’s forgiveness and asked Him to assist him to overcome tests and tribulations. He sacrificed his all without thinking of it as a sacrifice. Whenever he had to leave our daughter, Gisu, who was born in 1961 in Germany while Raḥmat was teaching in South America, he said it was as if a thorn went through his heart, yet he accepted the separation with submission and prayer. He never complained about the hardships of his travels. He sought service to the Faith with eagerness and embraced adversity in the path of God as a great reward.
This verse from a prayer by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá which Raḥmat chanted every day exemplifies his consuming desire to serve Bahá’u’lláh to the end of his days: Shelter under Thy protection, O Thou spirit of purity, Thou who art the All-Bountiful Provider, this enthralled, enkindled servant of Thine. Aid him in this world of being to remain steadfast and firm in Thy love and grant that this broken-winged bird, may attain a refuge and shelter in Thy Divine Nest, that abideth upon the Celestial Tree.
His death came in the way he had always wanted, while serving the Faith, remote from home but amongst the Bahá’í friends. Despite extreme fatigue he had travelled to Quito, Ecuador, to participate in a special teaching conference arranged by the Continental Board of Counsellors in South America. On the second day of the conference he suffered a heart attack. Counsellor Ma’súd Khamsí, a close friend since the days of his youth who
had shared many of the joys and hardships of his travels in South America, was with him until he came to his final rest. Raḥmat’s last words were Yá Baha’ul-Abhá and he was holding clutched in his right hand a silk purse containing a few strands of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s precious hair which he had carried near his heart for more than twenty years.
Quito, that jewel-like white city, set high in the Andes, with its towering green mountains, breathtaking valleys and radiant indigenous population, was one of Raḥmat’s most loved cities. Ecuador, with its atmosphere pulsating with the power of the Words of Bahá’u’lláh, its masses responding in thousands to the call of the Faith of God, was an appropriate spot to embrace the earthly remains of one who had lived and died for the purpose of awakening the masses of humanity to the message of Bahá’u’lláh. His love and affection for the people of that land was deep and selfless. Bahá’ís of Ecuador felt this love and returned it in full measure by assisting him in his teaching work and continuing to carry out many of his suggested projects after his passing. Their mourning at losing this dear and trusted friend was genuine and their grief profound. When Gisu and I arrived in Quito for Raḥmat’s funeral, we found gathered around his casket many friends in their colourful native clothing, men and women, praying and keeping an all-night vigil according to their custom. They had taken him to their hearts and considered him one of their own.
Raḥmat was a gentle, courageous, unassuming and kind man who served the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh with humility, self-sacrifice and absolute devotion. He was always ahead of his time, urging the friends toward a vision destined for them by the beloved Guardian. Those who knew him realized he could not stop; he was driven to fulfil his mission to the Faith until, like a meteor in flight, he burnt away his earthly frame on the southern horizon. He wore the spiritual mantle of a Hand of the Cause with dignity and humility and was a true example of the Words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: The obligations of the Hands of the Cause of God are to diffuse the Divine Fragrances, to edify the souls of men, to promote learning, to improve the character of all men and to be, at all times and under
all conditions, sanctified and detached from earthly things. They must manifest the fear of God by their conduct, their manners, their deeds and their words.