Greed was a driving force in the persecution of Babis and, later, of Baha’is, in Iran.
In Nayriz during the time of the Bab, Siyyid Ja’far Yazdi was a high-ranking cleric who owned a large home in the bazaar and gave up his position to become a follower of the Bab. He was kept alive after the siege at Ft. Khajih in Nayriz for extortion.
He was led to the entrance of a barn from which grain was distributed, and those entering were encouraged to spit on him for a share of grain. When he saw that people hesitated to commit such an insulting act, he encouraged them and accepted this humiliation as a sign of his devotion to the Bab and Vahid.
Soldiers led him forcibly to the homes of wealthy townspeople and beat him outside their front doors, only stopping when the residents or passers-by—ashamed of the sight—paid a bribe to them to stop. This brutality continued for months until his swollen legs could no longer carry him.
In his honor, Baha’u’llah revealed the lengthy Tablet of Nus’h which examines the rejection of all the messengers of God by the leaders of religion.
The major theme of this Tablet is the rejection of the Manifestations of God by the people of their time:
“Verily, people have never turned away from God in any Dispensation except when their leaders turned away and rose up arrogantly against God and were among those who denounced His clear signs. And whenever their leaders opposed the Manifestations, the people followed them in their vain imaginings and rejection, and none believed among them except those who were endowed with holy sight, whose hearts God had tested, preparing them for His Faith.”
(provisional translation, Afaf A. Stevens)