February 11. On this date in 1941, Margaret Stevenson died. She was the first New Zealand member of the Bahá'í Faith. She served on the NSA of Australia and New Zealand from 1934 to 1939 and was in the first group of Bahá'í pilgrims to Haifa from Australia and New Zealand

 

February 11. On this date in 1941, Margaret Stevenson died. She was the first New Zealand member of the Bahá'í Faith. She served on the NSA of Australia and New Zealand from 1934 to 1939 and was in the first group of Bahá'í pilgrims to Haifa from Australia and New Zealand

On February 10, 1925, the first group of Bahá'í pilgrims to Haifa from the Australia and New Zealand left Melbourne, arriving in Haifa on March 13. The party consisted of Effie Baker, Margaret Stevenson, and the Blundells (Sarah, Ethel, and Hugh). Effie Baker was an Australian photographer who became a follower of the Bahá'í Faith in 1922. Some of the pictures she took of the Bahá'í monuments in Iraq and Iran were included in Shoghi Effendi's translation of Nabíl-i-A`zam's The Dawn-Breakers.

On September 3, 1892, a few months after Bahá'u'lláh's death, Nabíl-i-A’ẓam, the author of The Dawn-breakers, died. Parts of his body and clothing were found washed up on the coast in Acre. While Bahá'í sources attribute his death to suicide, other sources claim he was murdered.

Sources that allege Nabíl-i-A’ẓam was murdered base their claim on the allegation that he became a victim due to his support of Mírzá Muhammad `Alí in his conflict with 'Abdu'l-Bahá...

According to the memoirs of Baha’s son Mirza Badiullah surnamed the Most Luminous Branch (غصن انور) by Baha: One year after Baha’s death, Nabil visited Badiullah in Haifa. He was distressed. Nabil said to Badiullah: “I can no longer stay at Acre. The situation there has deteriorated. By dint of violence, abusive language and cursing, one has to act against his own faith, has to regard and hold the Most Mighty Branch [Ghusn-i Azam, i.e. Abdul Baha Abbas] superior in station to the Blessed Beauty [Janab-i Mubarak, i.e. Baha] has to write corrupted [versions of] all the holly writings and epistles, and has to vilify and excommunicate [Baha’s] sons, [Baha’s] words and [Baha’s] family [i.e. all the members of Baha’s household in opposition to Abdul Baha Abbas], failing which one is branded as covenant-breaker [Naqiz] or Vacillator [Mutezalzil, i.e. opposed to Abdul Baha Abbas and partisan of Muhammad Ali] and becomes the object of untold calumnies and falsehoods.” Nabil requested Badiullah to find him a suitable room at the foot of Mount Carmel. He went back to Acre to fetch his things. Nothing was heard of him for sometime. Later “limbs of his body and his clothing” were discovered near the see shores at Acre. These were collated together and buried. Abdul Baha Abbas “shed crocodile tears” during the burial service of Nabil, “although he was exceedingly annoyed with him.”

From the Encyclopædia Iranica article titled "NABIL-E AʿẒAM ZARANDI, MOLLĀ MOḤAMMAD"...