A Radiant Gem : A Biography of Jináb-i-Fádil-i-Shírází

Born in 1863, Shaykh Muhammad-Ibráhím was already, by his early twenties, a profoundly erudite Islamic mystic. His thirst for spiritual knowledge and his deep longing to reach the sublime heights of the ineffable, launched him on an arduous quest which led him, often by visions and dreams, to eventually embrace a Faith he once would have denounced as heresy, and to join a community of people he would at one time have considered "unclean". Numerous were the strange occurrences and unexpected events with which the path of his search lay strewn, including the mysterious arrival of a man with a Book which, upon his reading of it, unraveled for Shaykh Muhammad-Ibráhím intricate and incomprehensible questions which had long baffled his mind.
Arriving on foot in Akká, Palestine some years later he was rewarded for the purity of his longing and his earnest and steadfast search by attaining the presence of a personage he had seen in one of his exalted dreams -- 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the beloved Master. It was then, during the first time Shaykh Muhammad-Ibráhím attained His presence, that the Master bestowed upon him the title, "Fádil" (Learned) and it was during Fádil's subsequent four month stay in Akká that he became the recipient of a knowledge that tranformed his soul.
His return to Írán on the instructions of 'Abdu'l-Bahá opened Fádil's life to experiences readers will find fascinating. Particularly engaging are some accounts of the many encounters he had with Muslim clergy when he refuted their claims, defeated their arguments and proved the truth of the Bahá'í teachings.