Muhammad Ishráqí
Muhammad Ishráqí | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1899 Kirman, Iran |
| Died | August 31, 1983 Tehran, Iran |
| ABM | Asia 1963 - 1983 |
Muhammad Ishráqí (1899 - August 31, 1983) was a Persian Bahá’í who served as an Auxiliary Board member. He was martyred for his beliefs following the 1979 Revolution in Iran.
Biography[edit]
Ishráqí was born into a Bahá’í family in Kirman in 1899.[1] His parents were Haji Muhammad Tahiri Ghandihari, a second generation Bahá’í of Yazd, and his mother was Bibi Gouhar who had become a Bahá’í before marrying. He moved to Hamadan at some point in his childhood where he studied the Bahá’í writings then moved to Tehran where he was able to learn under prominent Bahá’í scholars particularly Sadru’s-Sudúr. After four years he returned to Kirman,[2] and began assisting the secretary of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Kirman with managing correspondence in 1915. He was elected to the Assembly himself in 1920 and also began working for the Post and Telegraph Office of Iran. After two years he moved to Isfahan.[2]
In 1929 Ishráqí married Nayyirith Zandi and they went on to have five children. Around the same time he went on pilgrimage for eighteen days during which he met with Shoghi Effendi. In 1934 he secured employment with the National Bank of Iran and worked for the Bank until retiring in 1955. During the Persian Forty-Five Month Plan in the late 1940's he pioneered within Iran to Natanz then Shahr-i-Kurd and also spent time serving in Isfahan and Tehran.[2] He pioneered to Arak during the Ten Year Crusade which began in 1953 to assist with efforts to establish a Bahá’í community but returned in Isfahan in 1959 where he was elected to the Local Spiritual Assembly. He was often elected as a delegate to the National Convention of Iran during this time.[2] In 1963 he was appointed as an Auxiliary Board member and served in the role for the rest of his life.[1]
In 1980 Ishráqí was appointed as an advisor responsible for assisting the National Spiritual Assembly of Iran in its functioning as the institution had been cut off from communication with the Hands of the Cause and Counsellors following the 1979 Revolution. As a result he was marked as one of the leading Bahá’ís in Iran and summoned by phone to be prosecuted. He was interrogated on February 16, 1983, and returned home briefly that afternoon with guards who seized his papers and informed his family he would be released the following day before taking him back into custody. Five days later guards seized all materials in his library from his home and his family had no contact with him for a few months.[2]
After a few months Ishráqí's family was able to begin visiting him in the Qasr prison. On September 6 his family arrived at the prison to visit him and were advised he was not at the prison as he had been taken to a court. They then traveled to the court and were informed his body was at the morgue, and at the morgue they were directed to the cemetery. They later learnt through the coroner's office that he had been executed on August 31.[2]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Mohammad Eshraghi at iranbahaipersecution.org
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 19 (1983-1986), Pg(s) 196. View as PDF.
