Table of Contents
QuddĂșs
The last of the first wave of seekers was a young man who would later be known as QuddĂșs [the Most Holy]
QuddĂșs was born about 1822 to a poor family of rice cultivators in the outskirts of BĂĄrfurĂșsh (now called Babol, it is in northern ĂrĂĄn near the Caspian Sea, close to TabarsĂ which we will come across again later). At birth he was named Muhammad âAlĂ. Later, when he became a mujtahid, he was commonly known as MullĂĄ Muhammad âAlĂ-i-BĂĄrfurĂșshĂ. His mother was a Sayyida meaning a female descendant of the Prophet.3 QuddĂșs’ mother died when he was very young and his father later remarried. His stepmother loved QuddĂșs dearly and treated him as her own son. QuddĂșs had a sister named Maryam who was very dear to him. He also had two half-brothers. QuddĂșs spent part of his childhood as a servant in the household of SharĂâatmadĂĄr, a popular Shaykhi leader in BĂĄrfurĂșsh, where he acquired some basic education.107ACT1
View of QuddĂșsâ fatherâs house in BĂĄrfurĂșsh. Archival photo.108ACT1
104 Title given to him by BahĂĄâuâllĂĄh at the Conference of Badasht and later confirmed by the BĂĄb [Act 6, Chapter 6].
105 Dawn-Breakers Chapter 24, p 628 gives QuddĂșsâ 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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