Youth: Búshihr and the ‘Atabát
Búshihr is a coastal city on the Persian Gulf. The Báb’s uncles were highly respected merchants there. In 1835, when the Báb was sixteen, His uncle sent him to Búshihr to work in their business branch there. By then, the Báb already had several years’ experience working with His uncles in their business in Shíráz 79ACT2
The years in Búshihr were quiet years for the Báb as He was engaged in the trading business for His uncles. After some years, the Báb is believed to have left his uncles’ business and started his own. All of the Báb’s close associates testified “to the purity of His character, to the charm of His manners, to His self-effacement, to His high integrity and to His extreme devotion to God.” 80ACT2
As to His high integrity in business dealings, here is one account:
A man had given the Báb an item with the request that it be sold at a certain market price. When the Báb sent him the money from the sale of that item, the man was surprised to find it was considerably higher than what he should have received (given the current market price). He asked the Báb to explain why. The Báb replied that there had been a time, a little while ago, when the market price for that item was higher and the Báb had failed to sell the item at that time. But He was giving the man the money as if the item had been sold at that time and not now. However much the Báb’s client pleaded with Him to take back the excess money, the Báb refused.
81ACT2
This principle of high integrity also meant that the Báb did not tolerate poor business practices that were considered quite acceptable in the marketplace. He applied this in all His dealings throughout His life, even when He was in prison later in His life. Nabíl recounts this story:
When the Báb was imprisoned in Chihríq, provisions required for Him had to be purchased in the old town and transported to His prison. One day the Bab asked that some honey be purchased for Him. The price at which it had been bought seemed to Him exorbitant. He refused it and said: “Honey of a superior quality could no doubt have been purchased at a lower price. I who am your example have been a merchant by profession. It behooves you in all your transactions to follow in My way. You must neither defraud your neighbour nor allow him to defraud you.” He insisted that the attendant who
Table of Contents
