Baháʼu'lláh's family

Aghṣán, '("Branches") is a term in the literature of the Baháʼí Faith referring to the male descendants of Baháʼu'lláh.

It has particular implications not only for the disposition of endowments but also for the succession of authority following the passing of Baháʼu'lláh and of his son ʻAbdu'l-Bahá.

Baháʼí literature grants a special station to the members of the Aghṣán, indicating that Baháʼís should treat them with particular respect and courtesy, but does not grant them any administrative or spiritual authority within the Baháʼí Faith outside of those selected as successors to Baháʼu'lláh.[11]

ʻAbbas Effendi

Better known as ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, ʻAbbas was born in 1844 and died in 1921. He was the oldest child of Ásíyih and Baháʼu'lláh.[16] He was variously referred to by Baháʼu'lláh as "Mystery of God", "The Master", "Perfect Exemplar" and "the Most Great Branch". After Baháʼu'lláh died on 29 May 1892, the Will and Testament of Baháʼu'lláh named ʻAbdu'l-Bahá as Centre of the Covenant, successor and interpreter of Baháʼu'lláh's writings.[9][16] During his time as head of the religion, while still a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire, he met with many pilgrims and was in constant communication with Baháʼís around the world.[17] After the 1908 Young Turks revolution freed all political prisoners in the Ottoman Empire, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was freed from imprisonment and in 1910, with the freedom to leave the country, he embarked on a three-year journey to Egypt, Europe, and North America, spreading the Baháʼí message.[16][18] On 27 April 1920, he was awarded a knighthood by the British Mandate of Palestine for his humanitarian efforts during World War I.[16] ʻAbdu'l-Bahá died on 28 November 1921, and he is currently buried within one of the rooms at the Shrine of the Báb.

Bahíyyih Khánum in 1895

Bahíyyih Khánum was born in 1846 and was the eldest daughter of Baháʼu'lláh and Ásíyih Khánum.[19] She was entitled the Greatest holy Leaf.[8] She was particularly dear to her father and is seen within the Baháʼí Faith as one of the greatest women to have lived.[8] She stood by and remained faithful to the Centers of the Covenant over years of infighting within Baháʼu'lláh's family that led to the expelling of many of them.[8][19] She was given the position of acting head of the religion repeatedly when ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (during periods between 1910 and 1913), and Shoghi Effendi (during periods between 1922 and 1924), were absent from the Baháʼí World Centre in Haifa.[8][19][20] Shoghi Effendi in particular felt her support during a difficult period following the death of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. She died on 15 July 1932 and was buried in the Baháʼí gardens downhill from the Baháʼí Arc on Mount Carmel, under the Monument of the Greatest Holy Leaf raised for her at the Baháʼí World Centre.[19]

Mírzá Mihdí in 1868

Mírzá Mihdí was born in Tehran in 1848 and was entitled the Purest Branch.[21] He died at the age of 22 on 23 June 1870 in ʻAkká after a fall through a skylight while he was preoccupied in prayer.[21] The death is significant as Baháʼís believe that Baháʼu'lláh offered him the chance of being cured. However, he chose to use his life as a sacrifice so that the close imprisonment of the Baháʼís would end.[21] Mírzá Mihdí was eventually buried alongside his mother in the gardens below the Baháʼí Arc on Mount Carmel in Haifa near his brother and sister.[21]

Ásíyih bore at least four other children all sons,[22] but due to their early deaths little is known about them:

• Kázim who died sometime in Persia.[23]
• Sádiq who died aged 3–4.[22]
• ʻAlí Muhammad who died in Mazandaran at the age of 7 in 1852.[22]
• ʻAlí Muhammad who was born and died in Baghdad at the age of 2.[22]

Samadiyyih married Majdu'd-Din, who was the son of Aqay-i-Kalim, Baháʼu'lláh's brother;[27][28] Majdu'd-Din was one of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's greatest critics, and Samadiyyih and Majdu'd-Din were eventually declared Covenant-breakers. She died at age 49 in 1904/5 and her husband died at over one-hundred years of age in 1955.[27][28]

Mírzá Muhammad ʻAlí Effendi

Mírzá Muhammad ʻAlí was born in Baghdad in 1853.[29] Baháʼu'lláh called him the "Greater Branch" and when Baháʼu'lláh declared ʻAbdu'l-Bahá his successor, he set that Muhammad ʻAlí was next in rank after him.[29][30] Motivated by jealousy of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá he conspired to undermine his brother's leadership, but he was unable to gain extensive support from the Baháʼís.[29] When ʻAbdu'l-Bahá died, his will went into great detail about how Muhammad ʻAlí had been unfaithful to the Covenant, labelling him a Covenant-breaker, and appointing Shoghi Effendi his successor instead.[31][32] Muhammad ʻAlí was described by Shoghi Effendi as the "Arch-Breaker of Baháʼu'lláh's Covenant".[29][33] Muhammad ʻAlí died in 1937.[29] He is buried in one of the two private Bahá'í cemeteries in a square mausoleum covered with a white dome.[34]

Mírzá Ḍíyáʼu'lláh Effendi

Ḍíyáʼu'lláh (ضياء الله, alternate spelling: Zíyáʼu'lláh) was born August 15, 1864, in Edirne (Adrianople).[2][35] He swayed in loyalty between his brothers, and was labelled a Covenant-breaker.[36][37] He married Thurayyá Samandarí, daughter of Shaykh Kázim-i-Samandar and sister of Tarázʼu'lláh Samandarí, a Hand of the Cause of God. The marriage was childless, and according to Samandar's memoirs, Muhammad ʻAlí had prevented her from returning to him. He died on October 30, 1898, in Haifa.[37] Ḍíyáʼu'lláh was initially buried next to his father at the Shrine of Baháʼu'lláh at the Mansion of Bahjí. However, having been declared a Covenant-breaker, Ḍíyáʼu'lláh's remains were later disinterred and moved.[38]

Mírzá Badi'u'llah Effendi

Badíʻu'lláh Effendí was born in Adrianople in 1867.[2] For much of his life he supported his brother's challenge to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's authority as Centre of the Covenant. However, in 1903 Badíʻu'lláh rejected Muhammad-ʻAlí, and delivered his loyalty to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and circulated an open letter denouncing Muhammad-ʻAlí, known as Badíʻu'lláh's epistle;[4][39] however his loyalty to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was short lived. He died in Israel on November 1, 1950.[2] His father gave him the title G͟husn-i-Anwar (“The Most Luminous Branch”).

Badiʻu'llah married Alia Khanum. His daughter Sadhij was a militant leader of women's rights in Palestine, and married Najib Nassar.[40]

Mahd-i-'Ulya bore at least two other children:

• ʻAlí Muhammad who died at the age of 2 in Baghdad.[22]
• Sád͟hijíyyih K͟hánum who was born in Baghdad and died at the age of 2 in Constantinople.[22]

Relatively little is known about Furughiyyih. Furughiyyih was the daughter of Baháʼu'lláh and she was married to Siyyid Ali Afnan, the son of the Báb's brother-in-law.[44] She, her husband and her children (in particular her eldest Nayyir), all sided with Muhammad-ʻAli, and were labelled Covenant-breakers.[27] She bore four children:

• Late Hussain Effendi Afnan
• Nayyar Effendi Afnan
• Feyzi Effendi Afnan
• Hassan Effendi Afnan[45]

She died of cancer.[46]

The general view among Baháʼu'lláh's family and Baháʼís today is that all the wives were legal and equal. The question about how this conforms to religious law is addressed directly in two letters from Universal House of Justice quoting Shoghi Effendi twice:

"Baháʼu'lláh had no concubine. He had three legal wives. As He married them before the "Aqdas" (His book of laws) was revealed, he was only acting according to the laws of Islám, which had not yet been superseded. He made plurality of wives conditional upon justice; ʻAbdu'l-Bahá interpreted this to mean that a man may not have more than one wife at a time, as it is impossible to be just to two or more women in marriage."

"...Baháʼu'lláh married the first and second wives while he was still in Tihrán, and the third wife while he was in Baghdád. At that time, the Laws of the "Aqdas" had not been revealed, and secondly, he was following the Laws of the previous Dispensation and the customs of the people of his own land.".[52]

Baháʼís argue that polygamy is an ancient practice and other religions did not require monogamy.[53] Under the Law of Moses a man could take as many wives as he chose.[54] Most Christian groups have historically not practiced and condemned polygamy; some, however, have advocated it. In the Arabian peninsula Muhammad introduced a limit of four wives; polygamy was unlimited in pre-Islamic Arabia.[55][56] The Baháʼí Faith slowly introduced monogamy to a region that considered polygamy a righteous lifestyle.[47] Note 89 of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas comments on the verse in question:

"Baháʼu'lláh, who was revealing his teachings in the milieu of a Muslim society, introduced the question of monogamy gradually in accordance with the principles of wisdom and the progressive unfoldment of his purpose. The fact that he left his followers with an infallible interpreter of his writings enabled him to outwardly permit two wives in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas but uphold a condition that enabled ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to elucidate later that the intention of the law was to enforce monogamy."[57]