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Far from being allayed by the provisions of a Will which had elevated him to the second- highest position within the ranks of the faithful, the fire of unquenchable animosity that glowed in the breast of Mirza Muhammad- 'Ali burned even more fiercely as soon as he came to realize the full implications of that Document. All that Abdu'l- Baha could do, during a period of four distressful years, His incessant exhortations, His earnest pleadings, the favors and kindnesses He showered upon him, the admonitions and warnings He uttered, even His voluntary withdrawal in the hope of averting the threatening storm, proved to be of no avail. Gradually and with unyielding persistence, through lies, half- truths, calumnies and gross exaggerations, this "Prime Mover of sedition" succeeded in ranging on his side almost the entire family of Baha'u'llah, as well as a considerable number of those who had formed his immediate entourage. Baha'u'llah's two surviving wives, His two sons, the vacillating Mirza Diya'u'llah and the treacherous Mirza Badi'u'llah, with their sister and half- sister and their husbands, one of them the infamous Siyyid Ali, a kinsman of the Bab, the other the crafty Mirza Majdi'd- Din, together with his sister and half- brothers-- the children of the noble, the faithful and now deceased Aqay- i- Kalim-- all united in a determined effort to subvert the foundations of the Covenant which the newly proclaimed Will had laid. Even Mirza Aqa Jan, who for forty years had labored as Baha'u'llah's amanuensis, as well as Muhammad- Javad- i- Qasvini, who ever since the days of Adrianople, had been engaged in transcribing the innumerable Tablets revealed by the Supreme Pen, together with his entire family, threw in their lot with the Covenant- breakers, and allowed themselves to be ensnared by their machinations.
(246:2)
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