One of the captives who were sent on from
Baghdád to Mosul was
Mírzá Muḥammad-i-Vakíl. This righteous soul was among those who became believers in Ba
ghdád. It was there he drank from the cup of resignation to the will of God and sought his rest in the shade of the celestial Tree. He was a man high-minded and worthy of trust. He was also an extremely capable and energetic administrator of important affairs, famous in
‘Iráq for his wise counsel. After he became a believer, he was distinguished by the title of Vakíl—deputy. It happened in this way:
There was a notable in Ba
ghdád by the name of
Ḥájí Mírzá Hádí, the jeweler. He had a distinguished son, Áqá Mírzá Músá, who had received from
Bahá’u’lláh the title “Letter of Eternity.” This son had become a staunch believer. As for his father, the Ḥájí, he was a princely individual known for his lavish open-handedness not only in
Persia and ‘Iráq but as far away as India. To begin with he had been a Persian vazír; but when he saw how the late Fatḥ-‘Alí
Sháh eyed worldly riches, particularly the worldly riches of Persian vazírs, and how he snatched whatever they had accumulated, and how, not content