A Radiant Gem - a Biography of Jinb-I-Fdil-I-Shrz

Born in 1863, Shaykh Muhammad-Ibrhm 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-Ibrhm
intricate and incomprehensible questions which had long baffled his mind.

Arriving on foot in Akk, 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-Bah, the beloved Master. It was then,
during the first time Shaykh Muhammad-Ibrhm attained His presence, that the Master
bestowed upon him the title, "Fdil" (Learned) and it was during Fdil's subsequent four
month stay in Akk that he became the recipient of a knowledge that tranformed his
soul.

His return to rn on the instructions of 'Abdu'l-Bah opened Fdil'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 Bah' teachings.