Some of Baha’u’llah’s powerful early enemies
- Already
so conspicuous and towering a figure had, through the accusations levelled
against Him, kindled the wrath of Muhammad Sháh, who, after having heard what
had transpired in Badasht, had ordered His arrest, in a number of farmáns
addressed to the kháns of Mázindarán, and expressed his determination to put
Him to death.
- Hájí
Mírzá Áqásí, previously alienated from the Vazír (Bahá’u’lláh’s father), and
infuriated by his own failure to appropriate by fraud an estate that belonged
to Bahá’u’lláh, had sworn eternal enmity to the One Who had so brilliantly
succeeded in frustrating his evil designs.
- The
Amír-Nizám, moreover, fully aware of the pervasive influence of so energetic an
opponent, had, in the presence of a distinguished gathering, accused Him of
having inflicted, as a result of His activities, a loss of no less than five
kurúrs upon the government, and had expressly requested Him, at a critical
moment in the fortunes of the Faith, to temporarily transfer His residence to
Karbilá.
- Mírzá
Áqá Khán-i-Núrí, who succeeded the Amír-Nizám, had endeavored, at the very
outset of his ministry, to effect a reconciliation between his government and
the One Whom he regarded as the most resourceful of the Báb’s disciples.
- Little
wonder that when, later, an act of such gravity and temerity was committed,
[the attempted assassination of the Sháh] a suspicion as dire as it was
unfounded, should at once have crept into the minds of the Sháh, his
government, his court, and his people against Bahá’u’lláh.
- Foremost
among them was the mother of the youthful sovereign, who, inflamed with anger,
was openly denouncing Him as the would-be murderer of her son.
- Shoghi Effendi (Chapter 5, God Passes By)