After the passing of his first wife, Shafi’, one of the leaders of the Baha’i community of Nayriz, Iran, married Khavar Sultan, the daughter of a beloved poet from Shiraz, Vafa, whose poetry the women of Shiraz loved to sing.
Vafa’s poetry came to express his love for Baha’u’llah as well. Vafa married one of the widows of Nayriz whom he met while visiting the prison in Shiraz that held the refugees from the conflict of 1853. He and his father subsequently moved to Nayriz to be away from the jealousy and intrigue of the Mullas of the provincial capital.
During his short life—he died while still in his 30’s—Vafa became a passionate follower of Baha’u’llah and travelled to Baghdad to meet him. He wrote to Baha’u’llah on certain mystical and theological questions about the worlds of God, the return, the laws of God, and paradise.
Baha’u’llah responded with a lengthy tablet in which he praised Vafa for being faithful in the face of others who were not. He gave him the name ‘Vafa,’ which means fidelity and urged him to become its embodiment:
Vafa’s short life was commemorated by these words on his headstone:
“This is the spot in which the gem of the mine of virtue has been put to rest. He was like unto a mountain of good character and a shining star. He left this mortal world of suffering and entered the horizon of eternal delight. He was like unto a shining moon on the horizon of knowledge. He was an enlightened and skillful poet. With his death great loss has been experienced and a void has been left behind. He was the son of the learned and wise father Mulla Muhammad Bagher ...his name is Sheik Hussein. May the blessings and forgiveness of God accompany Him.”