Mírzá Muhammad Na‘ím

Na‘ím.

Mírzá Muhammad (April, 1856 - March 14, 1916), known as Na‘ím, was an early Persian Bahá’í who helped train Bahá’í travel teachers and wrote Bahá’í inspired poetry. Na‘ím was a pen-name he adopted which translates to Blissful.

Biography

Na‘ím was born in the village of Furuhan in the Province of Isfahan in the spring of 1856. He was the only son of his father, Haji ‘Abdu’l-Karim, who was a farmer and arranged for him to receive an education. In 1872 his father directed him to marry and he began began working on his fathers farm. At some point his cousin, Haji Mulla Hasan, who was a wealthy merchant in the city of Isfahan employed him to manage his business in Sidih in Isfahan Province.

In late 1880 Na‘ím was introduced to the Bahá’í Faith by his friend, a poet who went by Sina, and he initially studied the Bábí Faith by meeting with Isma‘il-i-Sabbagh. Sabbagh was a supporter of Mírzá Yaḥyá and Na‘ím was left disillusioned after studying writings of Mírzá Yaḥyá that Sabbagh shared with him however upon studying the Bayan itself he was convinced that the religion was legitimate and after meeting with Bahá’ís he came to believe in Bahá’u’lláh as the promised figure foretold by the Báb declaring in late 1880 or early 1881. After declaring Na‘ím and a group of other poets who had become Bahá’ís actively taught the Faith. He became well known as a Bahá’í, and experienced some hostility prompting his father to advise him to go to Iraq to avoid persecution however he remained in Sidih.

In 1883 a local cleric wrote a complaint about Na‘ím and his associates activities resulting in many people becoming Bahá’ís and he was arrested with his house being looted and burned. He was taken to Isfahan where he was publicly paraded alongside two other Bahá’ís with a ring being placed through his nose so he could be led through the Bazaar of Isfahan. Na‘ím was released after a time and returned to Sidih however he experienced harassment and his wife was forced to divorce him due to his conversion, taking their three children and the family funds. He was arrested again in March 1887. As a result of the persecution he faced in Sidih he moved to Tehran in 1892, traveling on foot.

After arriving in Tehran he supported himself by teaching Bahá’í children and working as a scribe producing copies of Tablets for the Bahá’í community. He remarried in 1892 to Ruqayyih Sultan and they had a son, ‘Abdu’l-Husayn Na‘imi, and a daughter. Na‘ím struggled financially after arriving in Tehran but eventually found stability when he secured a position teaching Persian at the British Legation.

In 1907 Na‘ím began facilitating classes to train Bahá’ís to teach the Faith on the instructions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, succeeding Sadru’s-Sudúr who had established the classes but passed that year. He passed away in 1916.