Born Aqa Buzurg-i-Nishapuri, the son of a devoted
Babi, he was later given the title Badi' (unique, wonderful) by Baha’u’llah.
Reputed to be a wild, unruly youth, he had no interest in his father's affairs
until, during the visit to his home of a traveling teacher, Mulla Muhammadi-Zarandi
(Nabil-i-A'zam), he listened to some verses from a long poem by Baha’u’llah and
was so entranced that he devoted the balance of his life to serving Him. After
his conversion he set out to visit Him, traveling on foot from Mosul to 'Akka.
It was during this visit that he was chosen to deliver a letter (Tablet) from
Baha’u’llah to Nasiri'd-Din Shah . (The A to Z of the Baha’i Faith by
Hugh Adamson)
Shoghi Effendi describes these events in the following
passage:
Aqa Buzurg of Khurasan, the illustrious
"Badi" (Wonderful); converted to the Faith by Nabil; surnamed the
"Pride of Martyrs"; the seventeen year old bearer of the Tablet addressed
to Nisiri'd-Din Shah; in whom, as affirmed by Baha’u’llah, "the spirit of
might and power was breathed," was arrested, branded for three successive
days, his head beaten to a pulp with the butt of a rifle, after which his body
was thrown into a pit and earth and stones heaped upon it. After visiting
Baha’u’llah in the barracks, during the second year of His confinement, he had
arisen with amazing alacrity to carry that Tablet, alone and on foot, to Tihran and
deliver it into the hands of the sovereign. A four months' journey had taken
him to that city, and, after passing three days in fasting and vigilance, he
had met the Shah proceeding on a hunting expedition to Shimiran. He had calmly
and respectfully approached His Majesty, calling out, "O King! I
have come to thee from Sheba with a weighty message"; whereupon at the
Sovereign's order, the Tablet was taken from him and delivered to the mujtahids
of Tihran who were commanded to reply to that Epistle - a command which they
evaded, recommending instead that the messenger should be put to death. That
Tablet was subsequently forwarded by the Shah to the Persian Ambassador in Constantinople, in
the hope that its perusal by the Sultan's ministers might serve to further
inflame their animosity. For a space of three years Baha'u'llah continued to
extol in His writings the heroism of that youth, characterizing the references
made by Him to that sublime sacrifice as the "salt of My Tablets."
(Shoghi
Effendi, 'God Passes By')