Abu'l-Qasim Faizi

Abu'l-Qasim Faizi or Abu'l-Qasim Faydí (* 1906 in Qom , Iran ; † November 19, 1980 in Haifa , Israel ) was an Iranian Bahai who was appointed a hand of the cause of God by Shoghi Effendi in 1957 .

Life

Abu'l-Qasim Faizi was born in 1906 (another source states 1909) in Qom and grew up there. Then he went to Tehran and attended the Tarbiyat Bahai School. There he took classes on the Baha'i Faith and gradually became a follower of the faith. After finishing school he began to study English at the American University of Beirut . From there he could often visit Shoghi Effendi with Hasan Balyuzi . Here he also met the daughter of Baha'u'llahBahiyyih Khanum, called "the Greatest Sacred Leaf". In her honor, he prepared a publication about her in old age, but it could only be published after his death. After graduating in English literature and education, he returned to Tehran, where he took up a job with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company .

When the Baha'i schools were closed by the Ministry of Education, Faizi resigned from his position to teach 400 Baha'i children in a village for five years, whose parents had no means for education. During this time he married Gloria Alá'í. He then trained more than 30 young people in Qazvin for a year so that they could go into the world as Baha'i pioneers and teachers. When Shoghi Effendi called on the Baha'i in Iran to spread their faith in neighboring countries, Faizi and his wife moved to Baghdad in the winter of 1941 in the hope of getting a visa for one of the countries on the Arabian Peninsula . In Baghdad he helped the National Spiritual Council of Iraq and the pioneers there. After about a year, Faizi got a job in the only secondary school in Bahrain . Unfortunately, he lost this job after it became known that he was a Baha'i. Faizi stayed in Arabia for 15 years despite numerous problems. His two children were born there too.

Shoghi Effendi called him the spiritual conqueror of Arabia and on October 11, 1957 appointed him a hand of the cause of God. A little later, on November 4th, Shoghi Effendi died and Faizi became one of the nine hands of the cause in the Holy Land that led the Baha'i community until the election of the first Universal House of Justice in 1963.

Faizi traveled all over the world and represented the Universal House of Justice at numerous conferences and meetings, met heads of state and dignitaries, gave private speeches, advised national spiritual councils, continued his extensive personal correspondence, gave away quotations from the Baha'i scriptures that he wrote wrote in his own calligraphy and inspired hearts through his published writings. He translated numerous Baha'i scripts from Persian into English .

He died in the Holy Land and was laid to rest in the Baha'i Cemetery at the foot of Mount Carmel .

Works

• Abu'l-Qasim Faizi: Conqueror of Hearts: Excerpts from Letters, Talks and Writings of Hand of the Cause of God Abu'l-Qásim Faizí . Ed .: Shirley Macias. Baha'i Academics Resource Library, 2002 ( online ).
• Abu'l-Qasim Faizi: A Flame of Fire - The Story of the Tablet of Ahmad . Bahai Publishing Trust of India, New Delhi 1969 ( online ).
• Abu'l-Qasim Faizi: Stories from The Delight of Hearts - The Memoirs of Hájí Mirzá Haydar-Alí . Kalimát Press, Los Angeles 1980, ISBN 0-933770-11-1 .
• Abu'l-Qasim Faizi: Three Meditations on the Eve of November the Fourth . Bahai Publishing Trust, London 1970 ( online ).
• Abu'l-Qasim Faizi: The Prince of Martyrs, (a brief account of [[Husain ibn ʿ Alī]]) . Ed .: George Ronald. Oxford, ISBN 978-0-85398-073-5 .
• Abu'l-Qasim Faizi: symbol of the greatest name . Bahai-Verlag, Hofheim-Langenhain, ISBN 978-3-87037-355-9 .
• Abu'l-Qasim Faizi: Milly: A Tribute to Amelia E. Collins . George Ronald, Oxford, UK 1977, ISBN 978-0-85398-074-2 .
• Abu'l-Qasim Faizi and Gloria Faizi: A Gift of Love Offered to the Greatest Holy Leaf . Bahai-Verlag, Hofheim-Langenhain 1982.

literature

• Gloria Faizi: The Bahai World, Vol. XVIII . Ed .: The Universal House of Justice. Haifa 1986, ISBN 0-85398-234-1 , p. 659-665 .
• Barron Harper: Lights of Fortitude . George Ronald, Oxford, UK 1997, ISBN 0-85398-413-1 , pp. 380-386 .