January 22. On this date in 1872, in 'Akká, a group of Bahá'ís, including Salmání, killed three Azalís (Siyyid Muhammad Isfahání, Áqá Ján Ka’j Kuláh and another person).

 

January 22. On this date in 1872, in 'Akká, a group of Bahá'ís, including Salmání, killed three Azalís (Siyyid Muhammad Isfahání, Áqá Ján Ka’j Kuláh and another person).

The reason given for the murders was that Siyyid Muhammad Isfahání, Nasr’ulláh Tafríshí, Áqá Ján Ka’j Kuláh and Ridá Qulí kept vigil from the second story window of a building overlooking the land gate to ensure no followers of Bahá'u'lláh would have access to the prison city. For some time they had been successful at preventing the entrance of pilgrims, some of whom who had spend some six months even traveling on foot. This also precluded the possibility of communications from 'Akká reaching the believers in other lands. After two years and a few months, Bahá’u’lláh was released from the His cell and was free to walk among the prison population. Some of the friends, including Salmání, decided to get rid of these enemies and, during the night, went to their place and killed Siyyid Muhammad, Áqá Ján and another person.

Bahá'u'lláh was taken to the Governorate where He was interrogated and held for 70 hours.
'Abdu'l-Bahá was thrown into prison and kept in chains the first night. Twenty-five other Bahá'ís were also imprisoned and shackled.

Ilyás 'Abbúd put a barricade between his house and the house of `Údí Khammár, which he had rented for use by Bahá'u'lláh's family.

The murderers would be imprisoned for seven years.

Siyyid Muḥammad-i-Isfahání has been described by Shoghi Effendi as the “Antichrist of the Bahá’í Revelation.” He was a man of corrupt character and great personal ambition who had induced Mírzá Yaḥyá to oppose Bahá’u’lláh and to claim prophethood for himself. Although he was an adherent of Mírzá Yaḥyá, Siyyid Muḥammad was one of the four Azalis exiled with Bahá’u’lláh to ‘Akká. He continued to agitate and plot against Bahá’u’lláh. In describing the circumstances of his death, Shoghi Effendi has written in God Passes By:

A fresh danger now clearly threatened the life of Bahá’u’lláh. Though He Himself had stringently forbidden His followers, on several occasions, both verbally and in writing, any retaliatory acts against their tormentors, and had even sent back to Beirut an irresponsible Arab convert, who had meditated avenging the wrongs suffered by his beloved Leader, seven of the companions clandestinely sought out and slew three of their persecutors, among whom were Siyyid Muḥammad and Áqá Ján.
The consternation that seized an already oppressed community was indescribable. Bahá’u’lláh’s indignation knew no bounds. “Were We,” He thus voices His emotions, in a Tablet revealed shortly after this act had been committed, “to make mention of what befell Us, the heavens would be rent asunder and the mountains would crumble.” “My captivity,” He wrote on another occasion, “cannot harm Me. That which can harm Me is the conduct of those who love Me, who claim to be related to Me, and yet perpetrate what causeth My heart and My pen to groan.” [God Passes By, pages 189-190]

On September 20, 1982, the Universal House of Justice wrote (also here) Kalimát Press about the publication of Ustad Salmani's My Memories of Bahá'u'lláh noting it "untimely and unwise" due to passages where believers refer to him as "You being God, Uncle" and other "unpleasant and unworthy" stories.