Baha'i Allegations Against Subh-i Azal - Alleged attempted fratricide - Salmani’s Plot
11. Alleged attempted fratricide
11.2 Salmani’s Plot
“He [i.e. Subh-i-Azal] even had, gradually and with great circumspection, dictated to one of the companions, Ustad Muhammad-Aliy-i-Salmani [i.e. the Barber], on whom he had lavished great marks of favor, his wish that he on some propitious occasion, when attending Baha in his bath, should assassinate him. ‘So enraged was Ustad Muhammad Ali’, Aqa-i-Kalim [i.e. Baha’s brother Musa], recounting this episode to Nabil in Edirne, has stated ‘When apprised of this proposition, that he felt a sting desire to kill Mirza Yahya [Subh-i-Azal] on the spot, and would have done so but for his fears of Baha’s displeasure.
The allegation of “proposition” hinges on the report of star witness Ustad Muhammad Ali, the Barber of Isfahan, whose ears had been cut off for theft and other crimes by the governor of Isfahan, an assassin involved in the Acre, murders, “one of those servants who fled into exile with god” to quote Baha, and “one of the companions” of Bahaullah, to quote Shoghi Effendi.
In his downright condemnation Shoghi Effendi has not spared even members of Baha’s own family. No one appears to have escaped unscathed. Several instances are cited from his god passes by:
a. Baha’s son Mirza Muhammad Ali is branded as the “Prime-Mover of Sedition” (P. 247).”
b. Baha’s son Mirza Dhiyaullah is condemned as “the Vacillating” person (P. 247).
c. Baha’s son Mirza Badiullah is pilloried as “the treacherous, only to be alienated from the Prime-Mover of Sedition in consequence of the scandalous behaviour of his own daughter”, (P. 247) and a “scandalous behaviour” was Mirza Badiullah’s daughter Sazitch Khanum married a Christian Arab.
d. Baha’s son-in-law Sayyid Ali is demonised as “the infamous” (P. 247).
e. Baha’s son-in-law Mirza Majd-al-Din [son of Baha’s full brother Mirza Musa] is stigmatised as “the Crafty” (P. 247).
f. Mirza Muhammad Jawad of Qazwin [the author of the Historical Epitome incorporated into the Materials for the study of the BÁBi Religion by Prof. Browne] is branded as notorious covenant-breaker, who perished miserably (P. 319)”.
Shoghi Effendi as a guardian derived his authority from the institution of guardianship established under Sir Abbas Effendi’s Will and Testament, in flagrant ‘violation of Baha’s Will and Testament’, which contains no such provision.
In his evaluation of Sir Abbas Effendi’s wife lady Munira, Baha is quoted in Ibn-al-Baha Badiullah’s memoirs, section 16 refers, as saying that she is bent on “carving a calf in her issue through this man [i.e. Sir Abbas Effendi] in order to set up guardianship and executionship”.
On Baha’s authority the term ‘issue’ includes Shoghi Effendi, who, as a guardian, had no legal standing. Shoghi Effendi excommunicated even his own parents, brothers and sisters. With the death of Shoghi Effendi without issue Sir Abbas Effendi’s illegal institution of guardianship ceased to exist.
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