The problem of having two religions, in our family. Bahai And Moslem; has
the 12 Imam come or he will be coming? That was our question.
I had a as a child one problem that many children like me could have or had already. My father was Moslem and was waiting for the twelve Imam. He painted even a big picture frame with nice miniature school type, that the twelve Imam was there (in his mind and wish) and a lot of modern and not modern equipment were there to fight with him. As long as I remember he has only a sword in his hand and was on a white horse. My father showed me the plans on the sky which were coming down and he said the Imam looked only at them and they could not flay any more. There was a lot of tanks and canons against Imam, but my father told me do not worry they cannot harm the Imam and if the Imam just look at them, they will continue their way in a different directions and they do not hit him. Or may be they return to the people who shoot them. He said that the Imam has extra ordinary power and can do whatever he wants. He painted Imam as a young man about 30 years old. My father was a restricted Moslem and but some people said even he was so Moslem and prayed Islamic prayer he had some tendency to the 12 Imam and may be he thought he has already come as the Babi said.
The Babi are the flowers of Bab or Seyed Ali Mohammed Shirazi who claimed to be the 12 Imam. My mother told me that your father painted 12 Imam in that picture and he is like Bab and he is very similar to him. The Bab had flowers and they fight very bravely with the king of Iran army and at the end the king army put the Quran on the guns and told them, they will have peace with them, but later they killed all of them about 30,000 Babi have been killed. Later most of the remained Babi changed to Bahai and some of them continue to be Babi or Bayani and they do not say they are Babi or Bayani, and they hided their believe, and they act like Moslem Shia. As long as my knowledge can reach, the different between Babi and Moslem is the only 12 Imam. The Shias are waiting for him and Babi say he has already come. So, I do not know what my father was, but he seemed to be a Moslem with some doubt about the twelve Imam. May be he thought he could be the right one. The father of my mother changed to Babi and later he became Bahai and so my mother was also Bahai. May be my mother married my father to change him to Bahai and my father had the same idea. Later none of them could change the other one, so a lot of discussions were every time and every where in our house.
Cyrus continued that he was about three years old that he knew the religion problem. The first time I learned to say Salaam, the Moslem greeting which came probably from Jew word Shalom. Later I see that the other people, in this case my uncles and aunts from my mother side say a longer greeting to each other which was Allah Abha. I learned that one, too and I thought that is longer and may be better and nicer. So in the time that the father came from work I run to him and told him Allah Abha. That was a Bahai greeting. I was so happy that I did learn a new greeting and say that to my beloved father. My father who was a very restricted Moslem hit me very hard on my face. So he defends Islam from the attack of Bahai greeting. May be he was afraid that his three years old son with saying of a Bahai greeting, will go directly to the hell so he wanted to prevent it. The shock and the unfriendly action of my father plus the pain of the slap made me crying and I flee to my mother. I did not know why my father was so angry with me. I just told him a long hello. My mother was crying as she saw me with the red face in one part and told me. It is OK. My younger uncle who was Bahai wanted to fight with my father why he hits the little boy. But my mother did not let him and asked him to be patient. I asked later why my father was so angry with me and why he hit me? She said, he is a Moslem and you told his a Bahai greeting. Later I was seeing the hard and not very friendly discussion between my mother and father, he said the 12 Imam has not come and we should wait for him and my mother said, no he has come and been killed in Tabriz. And for this reason that the government could not kill him for the first time and a miracle had happened in Tabriz and 750 soldiers shoot him and he has not been killed, so many people accepted him and even many people let themselves to be killed, because they thought he is the 12 Imam. Generally my father gets very upset after these conversation and left the house for work. I told to my mother why you are always almost fighting for the 12 Imam, you say to my father OK and you will wait for the Imam and than everything will be fine. She said, I know that he has come and he is from the God side, how can I say that he has not come, in the time I know he has come? I did not have the boldness to say to my father , father please say he has come and believe in him and so we will have piece in house.
One day in the Noruz time we were going to visit a very rich Bahai family and after my father and mother got out of the car to go to their house. A boy named Bahaeddin in my age run to us and he knew me and my mother and told very loud Allah Abha to my father. We were close to their house which was more like a palace and my father put his hand on his head and was very nice to him. I thought now my father will hit him also, but he did not. I do not remember what he told him, but may Salaam as his answer.
Later I asked my mother, why my father did not hit Bahaeddin as he said to him Alah Abha? My mother did not answer me and just laughed at me. Later each time they had sort of quarrel, I said again you are fighting for Salaam and Alah Abha? I was that time may be less than five and later I had the same problem in the school with children and the teachers. Every day some children through stones to me and said bad words about Bahai religion to me and almost every day I had to fight with them, because of the 12 Imam. One day that was Ramadan and my father forced me to fast. I went to the school and children started to say bad words about Bahais and their prophet. And they cut the name of Abdul-Baha on my desk in front of me. They said, Abbass Afandie to k. kardam…. Goje farangi. Or I make Shi… to the crystal box. I did not even understand all these words what they mean. And after that they came to me and fight with me. We were fighting with each other, me with at least four other boys, in this time one of the teacher came and released me and bit the boys. He took me to the office and washed my face and cleaned my clothes and prepared a glass of water with some lemon juice in it with sugar. And he gave it to me to drink. I said Mr. Teacher I am fasting and cannot drink or eat. It is Ramadan the fasting moth of Moslem. I saw that he was crying that a Moslem child or at least half Moslem child with fasting position is bitten by other ignorant Moslem children. He told me I thought you are Bahai, I said no my mother is Bahai and she is not allowed to speak about Bahai with me, because she promised my father not to teach me about Bahai. So you are Moslem and those boys were so cruel to you. You were fasting and they were not even fasting. That was only a little part of my problem in my childhood. Later I had much more problem because of the twelve Imam.
