Portraits – Page 24 – Dawn Breakers

dissuade him from this path. They brought Ashraf’s mother to his execution site. The Imám-Jumih [Friday prayer leader] of Zanján was related to Ashraf. When the mother of Ashraf arrived, she found the Imám-Jumih was trying to convince Ashraf to recant his faith. “I will disown you as my son,” cried the mother, when brought face to face with him, “if you incline your heart to such evil whisperings and allow them to turn you away from the Truth.”

They beheaded Naqd-‘Alí first. When Ashraf was beheaded, he was serenely holding the decapitated body of his dear friend. Nabíl then recounts:

Though herself a witness to the cruelties inflicted on her son, she made no lamentation, neither did she shed a tear. This marvellous mother showed a courage and fortitude that amazed the perpetrators of that shameless deed. “I have now in mind,” she exclaimed, as she cast a parting glance at the corpse of her son, “the vow I made on the day of your birth, while besieged in the fort of ‘Alí-Mardán Khán. I rejoice that you, the only son whom God gave me, have enabled me to redeem that pledge.”

This mother, immortalized by her supreme heroism, will be forever known as umm-i-Ashraf [mother of Ashraf].

Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablet honoring Umm-i-Ashraf

Sometime after the martyrdom of Ashraf, Bahá’u’lláh in one of His tablets, addresses umm-i-Ashraf [mother of Ashraf], her suffering, and the sacrifice and station of her son:

Call thou to mind the behavior of Ashraf’s mother, whose son laid down his life in the Land of Zá [Zanján]. He, most certainly, is in the seat of truth, in the presence of One Who is the Most Powerful, the Almighty.

When the infidels, so unjustly, decided to put him to death, they sent and fetched his mother, that perchance she might admonish him, and induce him to recant his faith, and follow in the footsteps of them that have repudiated the truth of God, the Lord of all worlds.

No sooner did she behold the face of her son, than she spoke to him such words as caused the hearts of the lovers of God, and beyond them those of the Concourse on high, to cry out and be sore pained with grief. Truly, thy Lord knoweth what My tongue speaketh. He Himself beareth witness to My words.

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