As I was born into a Bahá’í family, the Bahá’í faith has always been part of my life. It would be helpful to mention that the life story of my great grandfather (Zain Al-Abadin Abrari) is recorded in a book (Masábíh-i Hidáyat) as are the life stories of many other early Bábis and Bahá’ís from the time of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, and even into the time of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. It is recorded that Mr. Azízu’lláh Sulaymání, the person who compiled the books, used to go around with a briefcase and would record the story of the early believers whenever he happened to meet them.

Our family’s story starts with my great-greatgrandfather, Aqua Mirza Muhammad Ridha Kermani, my mother’s paternal great grandfather. He had met the Báb and was a believer in the Báb, but kept it a secret from all. His son (my mother’s grandfather) was born in 1243 Hejri Shamsi, about 1864 in the Gregorian calendar. His life history is recorded in Masábíh-i Hidáyat, volume 5.

The family tree would look like this:

Aqua Mirza Muhammad Ridha Kermani (he met the Báb)

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Zain Al-Abadin Abrari was born in 1243 SH, about 1864 AD

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Muhammad Ridha Abrari

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My mother, Lamea Mohsenim, née Abrari

I have translated the following passage from Masábíh-i Hidáyat volume 5.

Zain Al-Abadin’s mother died when he was very young so he was brought up by a daya (a wet nurse) and his aunt.

Zain Al-Abadin relates that when his father was close to death, he said to Zain Al-Abadin, “Can you make sure we are not overheard”, and thus assured, said “When you have buried me and all the ceremonies have been dealt with, go to Mohammad Taqi Wakil Al Dawla Afnan, and investigate the path of true religion and accept whatever that person says, as that eminent person knows the way of the truth”.

At a much later date it became evident to Zain Al-Abadin that his father had had the honour of meeting the Báb and believing in Him, but kept his faith a secret to the extent that nobody, not even the Afnan family, was aware of his faith.

After the ceremonies of burial and prayers and readings of the Quran for his deceased father were over, Zain Al-Abadin, according to his father’s wishes, sent his servant for an appointment with the Afnan, but Wakil Al Dawla Afnan, being aware that Zain Al- Abadin was the son of a Mujtahid and a student of religion himself, made an excuse and put him off three or four times.

Zain Al-Abadin found this unsatisfactory so he went to meet Mohammad Taqi Afnan himself and after a number of meetings he declared his faith.

When his elder half-brothers, who were from a different mother, suspected that he might have become a Bahá’í, they intended to take him to task and force him to recant his faith. His wet nurse informed him of their intentions.

As his mother at the time of her death had bestowed all her worldly goods upon her only son, he took some of his inheritance in the dead of night, informed the husband of his wet nurse that he intended to spend a few days in the village, and they should not worry. He left Yazd riding on his donkey towards Tehran.

After riding for some time, feeling sleepy and tired he tied up his donkey under a tree and making a pillow went to sleep. When he awoke he found that his donkey and all his belongings had disappeared. As he had but a few coins in his pocket, he ate greens and whatever could sustain him on the way, and walked to Tehran.

On the outskirts of Qom he was taken ill and felt very weak. He asked a passer-by if there was a coffee house nearby, and he gave his last few coins to him to bring him some hot water to drink and revive him. The passer-by promised him faithfully. So he waited for a time, and as there was no sign of him or the hot water, he walked with great difficulty to the coffee house. The coffee house owner, who was secretly a believer, took pity on him and sent him to a nearby village to be looked after by his relatives and be restored to health.

He eventually went to Tehran and from there to Najaf to further his studies.

It is recorded in his brief biography in Masábíh-i Hidáyat that details of the intervening events between his going to Najaf and receiving a letter from Abdu’l-Bahá have been lost to history.

On receiving the letter from Abdu’l-Bahá asking him to go and teach the faith in Khorasan, he returned to Iran. He taught and administered many of the early Bahá’í elementary schools in Mazindaran, and was known for his mild and gentle manner with children.

My mother’s maternal ancestry

My grandmother on my mother’s side was Taherah A’atamad, daughter of A’atamad al Tujjar who traded in gold between Iran and Russia. A’atamad al Toujar was martyred and there is a letter from Abdu’l-Bahá dated 20 Shawal 1328 (24 October 1910), to that effect. His wife, my mother’s grandmother, married a second time, as she was left with four young children and no breadwinner. She had a further two sons by the second husband and lived to be over 90 years old. My mother recalls that she was very loving towards all her great-grandchildren.

My father’s family and background

My father’s family came originally from the south of Iran, where the population is mainly Sunni Muslim. A large number of people emigrated to Bahrain and the surrounding Gulf States for economic reasons. They acquired land from the state and built houses near each other, so that the district would be called by the name of their village in Iran. So my father grew up in the Awaziya district in Manama, which is named after the Avez village in Iran. My father, Ahmed Mohseni, was born in Bahrain in or around the year 1919, the eldest of seven children.

My father relates that in 1941 when he was in his early twenties, at the time of construction of the revolving bridge between the two largest islands in Bahrain, Manama and Muharraq, before he had heard of Bahá’u’lláh, one night he had a dream in which he was on top of an unusual, mighty tree which had wheels, and his friend FatehAli was moving this tree and guiding it towards a beautiful garden. My father found the garden to be delightful. He flowed from one tree to another and enjoyed the delightful garden and then he noticed that he was alone and his friend was no longer with him. This was about a year before Mr Faizi arrived in Bahrain. He woke up after the dream, the sensation of the dream was with him and filled his soul but however much he tried he could not remember the dream.

Time passed, and his friend was the instrument of his introduction to Mr Faizi. Together they attended many of Mr Faizi’s evening gatherings. They studied the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, and the history of the faith. He and his friend and some other young friends all joined the faith. My father’s uncle, who was a prominent cleric, did not take kindly to this development. After my father in his great excitement went to the market place and told all who would listen that the Promised One had come, the prominent citizens of the town, led by the uncle, went to see the Shaykh of Bahrain, and asked him to remove this man (Mr Faizi) who was leading their young men astray. This was too much for all the young men who had become believers in the Faith, so they left, all except my father who stood firm. So after the lapse of nearly two years, one evening as they were reading the Tablet of the Holy Mariner with Mr Faizi, suddenly my father remembered the dream and could see the fulfilment of it.

Our father was the first and only indigenous believer for many years, as the Bahá’ís of Arabia at that time were requested to teach by their deeds alone, and for their own protection not to proclaim the faith openly. Nowadays of course, with the changes of attitude, all are encouraged to proclaim the faith and hold devotionals and Ruhi classes where all are welcome.

Mr Faizi had gone to Bahrain in December 1942 as the employee of the government of Bahrain, to teach English in boys’ secondary schools. As the result of the commotion, he lost his job. This caused a period of hardship for Mr Faizi and family, but after a while his former pupils asked him to teach them privately, so as a result he managed to stay in Bahrain.

Later on, in 1950, my parents were married in Tehran and went back to Bahrain to live. My mother’s grandmother went to Bahrain with her and stayed for a short time, as my mother was 17 when she got married. I was born when she was 18.

Before my father went to Iran to get married there was a fire in my grandparents’ house in Bahrain. My father had a room on the first floor and in the fire the stairs to his room were destroyed. Some packing cases were piled up together to form makeshift stairs. Life was difficult, but love of Bahá’u’lláh burnt brightly within their hearts.

As I have said, Mr Faizi went to Bahrain in 1942. As a result, my father became a Bahá’í in 1943. Later Shoghi Effendi gave a 45-month plan to the Bahai’s of Iran (1946 – 1950) to establish Bahai communities in the Gulf States. Many Bahá’ís went as pioneers to Bahrain; some were very young single educated men from Tehran and other cities, and others were married with young families from villages in the south of Iran with very little education. As my father was born and brought up in Bahrain, spoke Arabic and was familiar with the administration of the island, he helped all the new pioneers to establish themselves and find a means of livelihood.

My brothers and sisters

I was born in this community in 1951. I am the eldest of seven brothers and sisters. After me comes Naseem, a year younger than me, married to Wolfgang Zieger, one of the Bahá’ís in Germany. They met at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Germany, got married and moved to the island of Crete as pioneers and still live there.

Naghma is the next in line, married to Warqa Rowhani, one of the Bahá’ís of Bahrain. They have four children, all Bahá’ís, and are active in the faith and have five grandchildren. Naghma and Warqa organise many Ruhi classes and are active in the field of teaching. A few have declared their faith as a result. Naghma was always interested in Art, and after retiring has taken to painting more seriously and has created many large paintings.

Then comes my brother Waheed who was trained as an airline pilot and worked for many years for Gulf Air and then for Emirates. After retiring he started his own construction company. He is married to Janeann Mohseni (née Love). They live in Bahrain and are active in the faith. They have three sons and six grandchildren. Janeann has her own kindergarten which my brother assists with by providing maintenance and building work. The kindergarten is well known in Bahrain, is highly regarded and incorporates Bahá’í principles wherever possible.

Then comes Naheed. She worked in telecommunications in Bahrain but now has been living in Kuwait for some years where she has her own workshop. She began a new venture in designing chocolates for festive occasions such as New Year, marriage celebrations, birth of children, etc.

My brother Nadeem comes next; he lives in Manama and was a bank manager for many years and is active in the faith.

Last comes my sister Sahar, who lives in Kuwait, has two daughters and is active in the faith too. On her YouTube channel she has chanted and made public many prayers and quotations from The Hidden Words.

Childhood

Fridays in my childhood were full of fun and excitement. Haji’s bus would come to pick us all up to take us to the countryside, to a garden where we had a seesaw, swings strung from tall palm trees, colouring books, modelling clay, scrap books, magazines with colourful pictures to cut out with scissors, and glue to stick the pictures in our scrap books; we would then write a word or two under them.

This was all initiated by Mr Faizi and accomplished with the help of parents in the community. As we got older we had children’s classes and, later on, youth gatherings, organising feasts and Bahá’í holidays. Most evenings in the week were taken up with Bahá’í activities. It was a joyful and full life.

We used to travel to Iran to meet my mother’s family and to escape the heat of Bahrain in the summer. When in Tehran we used to attend the summer schools in Hadigheh, the land in the foothills of the Alburz mountains, intended as a site of the future Bahá’í House of Worship of Iran.

We met Mr Furútan and many other prominent Bahá’ís who gave talks there. In Shiraz we used to stay in the Bahá’í guesthouse and visit the house of the Báb very early in the morning, before people were up and about.

The whole area where the house of the Báb was located was peaceful, with many alleyways which we negotiated with the help of a guide, otherwise we could not find our way. We travelled extensively in Iran, visiting many Bahá’ís and historical sites such as Zanjan, Qazvin, and Maku.

Another of the Hands of the Cause I remember was Mr Samandari, who visited Bahrain on more than one occasion. He attended the first Bahá’í National Convention for the election of the National Spiritual Assembly of Arabia at Ridván 1957, as instructed by Shoghi Effendi. The Bahá’í community had a special building constructed of palm leaf fronds in the traditional style to house the gathered delegates from across all the counties of the Gulf. I remember him visiting our house and commenting on the dilapidated and precarious state of our stairs which went up the outside of our house for three floors. Thinking about it now, they were very dangerous but we ran up and down them at great speed.

Mr Samandari was short of stature but with a very clear voice. I remember him being very particular about what he ate. He would prefer to eat food which was freshly cooked and prepared at home. I do remember him being very keen for us to memorise the writings.

Being a teacher in Bahrain

Most women were illiterate in Bahrain, so when I was at school, most of the mothers of my friends could not read or write. Bahrain being an Islamic country, schools were segregated (boys and girls on religious grounds). Our teachers came from Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. English language teachers came from India.

From the 1960s onwards there was a drive to recruit indigenous Bahraini female teachers. In my final year at school, a six-month short course of teacher training was offered, and the following year I became a teacher at age 18. I taught Science and Arithmetic.

Coming to the UK

After I had worked for three years as a teacher, I was encouraged to travel to the UK and further my studies, as we did not have an institution of further education at that time in Bahrain. I arrived in the summer of 1972 and stayed with the Golmohammadi family in Stafford for a short time, until I got accepted by Brunel College, Bristol. My English was limited and life was very different.

Difficulties of life in the UK

In Bahrain the majority of Bahá’ís lived close together. The Bahá’í centre was two doors away from our house, and we were busy most evenings in the week with different study groups or gatherings. When I arrived in the UK my English was not very fluent. I was 21 and this was the first time I had been without my family. In 1972 when I arrived it used to take two weeks for letters to be exchanged between the UK and Bahrain. My sister and I used to write regularly but with two-week gaps. It wasn’t like now when we can talk two or three times a week. When I arrived in July, England was to me like a fairyland, so green and beautiful, but winter was a different story, dark and wet and cold. I was shown kindness by the Sabet family in Bristol whom I lived with, and the college staff and teachers, and it helped me adjust, but life was difficult.

I find myself throughout my life in a state of flux, one day I have my equilibrium and after a while it’s gone and has to be reset again. Nothing but Bahá’u’lláh’s words seems to bring it back and there is a battle inside me between belief and denial, and the refuge is the word of God. As Bahá’u’lláh says, “O Maid of inner meanings! Step out of the chamber of utterance by the leave of God, the Lord of the heavens and the earth”. It’s the meanings embodied in the writings of Bahá’u’lláh that sustain me and allow me to carry on.

The man who was to become my husband, Stanley, was one the members of our small Bahá’í community in Bristol. I got to know him and after a while we decided to get married. After two years we moved to our present address in Somerset and we have lived here ever since. The house we moved to should have a whole chapter of its own, as it has been a source of tests and trials and at the same time a great source of learning and understanding. The house is small and in an isolated location. When we found it, we were so pleased that it had a roof which didn’t leak and was habitable. What we didn’t notice, was the fact that it did not have a bathroom or toilet facilities, but we still bought it. Just to visit the place was a task in itself. We did not have a car and we had to take a train from Bristol to Yeovil and then a bus to South Petherton, and walk the last two miles on country roads. On our second visit we noticed the wooden hut at the end of the path, which was the toilet, with a wooden seat on a metal bucket. We used this arrangement for two years until we converted the back kitchen to a bathroom and toilet with a shower, but the toilet was still a chemical one for another four years. Eventually in 1982 we had a septic tank and a plumbed-in bathroom, and we thus became part of the twentieth century. To support ourselves in our rural environment was another task, as we had limited funds. Eventually Stanley started to teach some pupils privately, and I started doing gardening, something which I had to learn as I went along, but I came to love it and the plant world became a solace and a companion and a source of beauty. Gardening allowed me to get to know the local people and make many friends and become a part of the rural community.

After a time our son Nava was born. Being isolated believers it was difficult to keep all the Bahá’í holidays and feasts but we tried our best. Nava always took Bahá’í holidays off from school and we went off to celebrate or commemorate the holy days the best we could. Gradually other Bahá’ís moved to Somerset, and we had a Thomas Breakwell School and an active and supportive community. We were both active in the school, organising children’s or adult classes. At the same time we were active in the Interfaith movement, and we held regular firesides in Taunton at the home of Ken and Kena Bunton. Many people attended these firesides and they were a time for all of us to pray and meditate. In this period, Pat Field declared her faith in Bahá’u’lláh, and joined our group. She and ‘Dusty’, her husband, were regulars at our firesides and Bahá’í holy days. As they were living in Minehead, the new area of West Somerset was opened to the Faith.

We went on our first pilgrimage in 1991, together with Ken and Kena and their son Jacob. It was so enriching to be with Bahá’ís from across the world and share the visit to the holy places with them. To walk in the streets of Haifa and see the Shrine of the Báb there on the mountain in all its majesty was a moment of such joy and awe. Of course in 1991 the terraces had not been constructed but in the evenings when the Shrine of the Báb was lit up, it looked as if it was floating, as all the surrounding area was trees and in darkness. We have been to Haifa twice more, once with Mrs Ala’ai’s organised tours in the year 2000 and another time for a second pilgrimage in 2005. We accompanied some 50 other Bahá’ís on a tour organised by Mrs Ala’ai to visit Adrianople and Istanbul. It was especially good to visit Sultan Selim’s Mosque close to the house of Bahá’u’lláh in that city and be reminded of the pivotal events that occurred there.

We have been isolated believers in South Somerset since we moved here. A lot of prayers and activities have gone into teaching the Faith, but new declarations usually come out of the blue and not as a result of our efforts. Three years ago a young Romanian man, Louis Meserus, contacted the National Office and wanted to contact Bahá’ís locally. As a result, he declared the first time he came to meet us. He lives in Yeovil and is, geographically speaking, the nearest Bahá’í to us. Our lives are always enriched by the energy and freshness that new souls bring to our meetings.

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Ngar Whiteford

Somerset, January 2021