Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín


Mullá Zaynul-Ábidín was born in the month of Rajab 1233 AH in one of the villages of Najafábád, Iran, near Isfahan, to a family of Muslim clerics. He himself became a preacher at a mosque in Najafábád. In 1851, he became a Bábí, and began teaching his newfound faith in his hometown. It soon became a stronghold of the Bábí faith. In the mid-1850s, when Jináb-i-Bahá returned to Baghdad from his self-exile in Sulaymáníyyih where he had spent two years under the pseudonym "Darvish Muhammad-i-Irani", Zaynul-Ábidín met him and became more strongly confirmed in his faith. When Baháʼu'lláh proclaimed himself to be the Promised One of God, for whom the Báb was himself a herald, Zaynul-Ábidín immediately became a Baháʼí and settled in Baghdad transcribing holy writings. Baháʼu'lláh gave him the surname "Zaynul-Muqarrabín" which means "the Ornament of the Near Ones".
In 1870 the Baháʼís of Baghdad were exiled to Mosul. Zaynul-Muqarrabín provided them with leadership and guidance and continued to transcribe the tablets of Baháʼu'lláh that arrived from Akká on their way to Iran.
In Dhu'l-hijjah 1302 AH Baháʼu'lláh gave him permission to come to Akká where he continued serving faithfully until the end of his life in 1903.