Bahaikipedia:Today's featured individual/October

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October 1

Yankee Leong (c. November 19, 1899 - June 17, 1986) was the first individual to declare his belief in Bahá'u'lláh in Malaysia and worked tirelessly to help the faith grow in the region. He was born to a poor family in Malaya, on the Malaysian Peninsula and had an took an intense interest in religion and his studies. Yankee declared in the Bahá'í Faith on December 19, 1953 in Seremban. After his deceleration he made it his priority to establish several Local Spiritual Assemblies in the region, and wrote letters introducing many to the Faith. Seven years after he declared he was invited by John Fozdar to teach in Brunei and Sarawak, and through his help the Faith began to grow in that region. (more...}
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October 2

Varqá was an eminent follower of Bahá'u'lláh and was referred to by 'Abdu'l-Bahá as a Hand of the Cause of God and identified as one of the nineteen Apostles of Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'u'lláh wrote a tablet addressed to Varqá regarding the high station of the King and Beloved of Martyrs. Varqá was martyred along with his father in 1896. His calm demeanor enraged his executioner, who would later be so terrified as to what he witnessed that he would run away screaming from the site. (more...)
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October 3

Hají Ákhúnd was an eminent follower of Bahá'u'lláh, Hand of the Cause, and Apostles of Bahá'u'lláh. He was living in Mashhad when he accepted the message of The Báb, this caused him to be immediately expelled from the city and the college he was attending. He eventually settled in Tihrán where he accepted Bahá'u'lláh and became a Bahá'í. It is recorded that when there was an outburst against the Bahá'ís in Tihrán, he would wrap his cloak around himself and sit waiting for the guards to come and arrest him. (more...)
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October 4

Mírzá Mahmúd was an eminent follower of Bahá'u'lláh and the only Iranian Bahá'í teacher who was given the chance to meet face to face with a Qajar Shah. He was later identified as one of the nineteen Apostles of Bahá'u'lláh. During his life the Islamic divines of Dúghábád caused the governor of the district to have Mírzá Mahmúd arrested for being a Bahá'í. He was sent in chains to Mashhad where from his prison-cell he managed to secretly send a letter to Nasiri'd-Din Shah, who issued an order for his release. The clerics of Mashhad managed to have him exiled, rather than set free, to a remote corner of (more...)
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October 5

October 6

October 7

October 8

October 9

May Bolles Maxwell (1870-1940) was an early American Bahá'í, is best known as the mother of Rúhíyyih Khanum, and the wife of William Sutherland Maxwell. She was among the first group of pilgrims to visit 'Abdu'l-Bahá in February 1899. She was also an early participant at Green Acre, the first Bahá'í training facility in the United States. In 1927 she was a member of the joint National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada. (more...)
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October 10

Táhirih was an influential poet and theologian of the Bábí faith in Iran. As a prominent Bábí she is highly regarded by Bahá'ís and, and often mentioned in Bahá'í literature as an example of courage in the struggle for women's rights. In 1848 Bahá'u'lláh made arrangements for Táhirih to leave Tehran and attend a conference of Bábí leaders in Badasht. She is perhaps best remembered for appearing in public without her veil in the course of this conference signalling that the Islamic Sharia law was abrogated and superseded by Bábí law. It was at the Badasht conference that she was given the title Táhirih by Bahá'u'lláh, which means "the Pure One".
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October 11

October 12

October 13

Martha Root was a prominent traveling teacher of the Bahá'í Faith in the late 19th and early 20th century. Shoghi Effendi called her "the foremost travel teacher in the first Bahá'í Century", and named her a Hand of the Cause posthumously. Known by her numerous visits with Heads of State and other public figures. Of special importance was her efforts with Queen Marie of Romania, considered the first Monarch to accept Bahá'u'lláh. (more...)
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October 14

Edward Browne was a British orientalist who published many books and articles on the Bábí and Bahá'í religions. Browne was born in Uley near Dursley in Gloucestershire on February 7, 1862 and is best known to modern Bahá'ís for his description of his meeting with Bahá'u'lláh. Browne's scholarly reputation has endured until the present. His mastery of Iranian culture and thought has been equaled by few Westerners before or since, and his scholarship, as well as the eloquence and grace of his literary style, have given his works permanent value, even after great changes in scholarly methodology. The Iranians, despite their early suspicion about his interest in the Bábís, accepted him as a loyal friend for his scholarship, his political support, and his sympathetic understanding of their culture and literature. (more...)
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October 15

Mírzá Músá surnamed Áqáy-i-Kalím was the only true brother of Bahá'u'lláh. He was later by Shoghi Effendi as one of the nineteen Apostles of Bahá'u'lláh. The life of Mírzá Músá was so inextricably bound up with that of Bahá'u'lláh himself, that his life and background mirror the life and travels of Bahá'u'lláh. He was an integral part of correspondence between Bahá'u'lláh and the Bahá'ís. He experienced the same imprisonment, exile, assaults, and degrading circumstances that were given to the small band of family members associated with Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá. In the history of the Bahá'í cause, Mírzá Músá stands out as a loyal and faithful follower until the end. (more...)
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October 16

October 17

October 18

October 19

Mullá Husayn-i-Bushru'i (1813–1849) (Arabic: ملا حسين البشرؤي), entitled Jináb-i-Bábu'l-Báb (gate of the gate), was the first Letter of the Living in the Bábí movement. He was for nine years a student of Siyyid Kázim; upon his teacher's death, he set out for Shiráz to find the Promised One. There he met the Báb, who, welcoming him at the city gates, invited him to His home, where He declared to Mullá Husayn that He was that Promised One he sought. This event is celebrated yearly by Baha'is as the Declaration of the Báb. (more...)
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October 20

Shrine of the Báb in Haifa, Israel.

Siyyid `Alí Muḥammad (Persian: سيد علی ‌محمد) (October 20, 1819 – July 9, 1850) was a prophet and founder of the Bábí Faith. He was a merchant from Shíráz, who at the age of twenty-five revealed Himself to be the promised Qá'im (or Mihdí). After His declaration He took the title of Báb (Arabic: باب) meaning "Gate." He composed hundreds of letters and books (often termed tablets) in which He stated His mission and defined his teachings, which constituted a new sharí'ah or religious law. His movement eventually acquired tens of thousands of supporters, was virulently opposed by Iran's Shí'í clergy, and was bloodily suppressed by the Iranian government. Thousands of His followers, termed Bábís, died. The Báb was executed by firing squad on July 9, 1850, in the city of Tabríz.

His titles include, among others, the "Primal Point" and the "Point of the Bayán."

The Báb was the forerunner to Bahá'u'lláh. (more...)
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October 21

Jinab-i-Quddús (Arabic: قدوس)(c.1820-1849) was the most prominent disciple of the Báb, and the eighteenth and final Letter of the Living. He met the Báb in 1844 while in the city of Shiraz, and immediately recognized Him as the Promised One. Soon afterward, he traveled with Him as His companion on pilgrimage to Mecca, where he conveyed a letter written by the Báb to the Sharif of Mecca. Four years later, he was a pivotal figure at the Conference of Badasht. He was killed shortly after the battle of Shaykh Tabarsi in 1849, at the hands of an angry mob. (more...)
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October 22

Siyyid Káẓim (Arabic: سيد كاظم بن قاسم الحسيني الرﺷتي)‎ (1793-1843) was the son of Sayyid Qasim of Rasht, a town in northern Iran. He was appointed as the successor of Shaykh Ahmad, and led the Shaykhí movement until his death.

He came from a family of well known merchants. He was a Mullah who, through study of the Islamic writing told his students about the coming of the Mahdi and the "Masih" (the return of Christ) and taught them how to recognize them. After his death in 1843, many of his students spread out around Asia, Europe and Africa for the search. (more...)
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October 23

Shaykh Ahmad (Arabic: شيخ أحمد) (1753 - 1826) was the founder of a 19th century Shi'i school in the Persian and Ottoman empires, whose followers are known as Shaykhís. He was a native of the Al-Ahsa region (Eastern Arabian Peninsula), educated in Bahrain and the theological centers of Najaf and Karbilá in Iraq. Spending the last twenty years of his life in Iran, he received the protection and patronage of princes of the Qajar dynasty. (more...)
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October 24

Malietoa Tanumafili II (1913–2007) (also called Susuga) was the Malietoa, the title of one of Samoa's four paramount chiefs, and the head of state, or O le Ao o le Malo, a position that he held for life, of Samoa from 1962 to 2007. Malietoa Tanumafili II was a Bahá'í—the second royal (after Queen Marie of Romania) to join the Faith. The House of Worship in Tiapapata, eight kilometers from the country's capital of Apia, was dedicated by him in 1984. (more...)
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