Hájí Háshim, surnamed Attár, a prominent merchant, who was
well versed in the Scriptures of Islám, recounted the following:
“I was present
at Government House on one occasion when Mullá ‘Alí was summoned to the
presence of the assembled notables and government officials of that city. He
was publicly accused of being an infidel, an abrogator of the laws of Islám,
and a repudiator of its rituals and accepted standards. When his alleged
offences and misdeeds had been enumerated, the Muftí, the chief exponent of the
law of Islám in that city, turned to him and said: ‘O enemy of God!’ As I was occupying
a seat beside the Muftí, I whispered in his ear: ‘You are as yet unacquainted
with this unfortunate stranger. Why address him in such terms? Do you not
realise that such words as you have addressed to him will excite the anger of
the populace against him? It behoves you to disregard the unsupported charges
these busybodies have brought against him, to question him yourself, and to
judge him according to the accepted standards of justice inculcated by the
Faith of Islám.’ The Muftí was sore displeased, arose from his seat, and left
the gathering. Mullá ‘Alí was again thrown into prison. A few days later, I
enquired about him, hoping to achieve his deliverance. I was informed that, on
the night of that same day, he had been deported to Constantinople. I made
further enquiries and endeavoured to find out what eventually befell him. I
could not, however, ascertain the truth. A few believed that on his way to
Constantinople he had fallen ill and died. Others maintained that he had
suffered martyrdom.”
Whatever his end, Mullá ‘Alí had by his life and death
earned the immortal distinction of having been the first sufferer in the path
of this new Faith of God, the first to have laid down his life as an offering
on the Altar of Sacrifice.
(Chapter 3, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)
