Table of Contents
Quddús
The last of the first wave of seekers was a young man who would later be known as Quddús [the Most Holy]
Quddús was born about 1822 to a poor family of rice cultivators in the outskirts of Bárfurúsh (now called Babol, it is in northern Írán near the Caspian Sea, close to Tabarsí which we will come across again later). At birth he was named Muhammad ‘Alí. Later, when he became a mujtahid, he was commonly known as Mullá Muhammad ‘Alí-i-Bárfurúshí. His mother was a Sayyida meaning a female descendant of the Prophet.3 Quddús’ mother died when he was very young and his father later remarried. His stepmother loved Quddús dearly and treated him as her own son. Quddús had a sister named Maryam who was very dear to him. He also had two half-brothers. Quddús spent part of his childhood as a servant in the household of Sharí’atmadár, a popular Shaykhi leader in Bárfurúsh, where he acquired some basic education.107ACT1
View of Quddús’ father’s house in Bárfurúsh. Archival photo.108ACT1
104 Title given to him by Bahá’u’lláh at the Conference of Badasht and later confirmed by the Báb [Act 6, Chapter 6].
105 Dawn-Breakers Chapter 24, p 628 gives Quddús’ age in 1844 as 22 years old, which makes his date of birth 1822; although Resurrection and Renewal Chapter 4, p181 calculates his date of birth as 1819-1820.
106Amanat Resurrection and Renewal Chapter 4, p181-182.
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