Hasan Muvaqqar Balyuzi was loved and honoured both in his native Iran and his adopted England, and by virtue of his consistent services in the British Baha'i community for nearly fifty years earned a central role in its history.
A student from his youth, he became in the last decade of his life and in the sight of all the Baha'i world, its pre-eminent scholar, yielding place only to Mirza Abu'lFadl, by whose learning Mr. Balyuzi was himself astonished. He seemed, from his earliest years, a mature and balanced person, as though his gentle yet remarkable qualities were his by birth - an innate courtesy and kindliness, an easy yet dignified bearing, a delightful wit and humour, an appreciation of every effort or service offered by others for the Faith, understanding of apparent frailties of behaviour, seeing beyond these to the longings and pain of human souls, quiet perseverance in fulfilling his own responsibilities, untarnished steadfastness in his loyalty to the Covenant of Baha'u'llah, complete and heartfelt obedience to the Central Figures of the Faith and its Guardian, staunch and knowledgeable support of all the institutions of the Administrative Order - these give but an incomplete portrayal of one whose presence conveyed to those who knew him a sense of well-being, tranquillity and hope.
At the moment of his first meeting, in his youth, with Shoghi Effendi, his inmost being was quickened to the reality of the Guardian's servitude at the Holy Threshold, and his sensitive, receptive spirit became, and ever remained, centred upon the greatness and glory of the Revelation of Baha'u'llah. His life can be understood in no other terms than his striving to serve that Revelation, in whatever course events might take, in health or in sickness, to his closing days in this world, when his utmost longing was to lay his head on the threshold of the Most Holy Shrine and offer to the King of Glory with his own hand the gift of his last, heroic labours.
I. Family and Youth
Hasan Balyuzi shared with the Guardian of the Faith descent from the same great-grandfather, Haji Mirza Abu'l-Qasim - one of the two brothers of Khadijih-Bagum, the wife of the Báb -- whose daughter, Fatimih-Sultan-Bagum, was Mr. Balyuzi's paternal grandmother. His paternal grandfather was Muhammad-Hasan, a merchant of a Bushire family, whom Baha'u'llah accepted as of the family of the Báb, and a son of this union was Mirza 'Ali Aqa, later entitled Muvuqqari'd-Dawlih, the father of Hasan Balyuzi. His mother, Munavvar Khanum, traced her descent from both brothers of the wife of the Báb, and thus Mr. Balyuzi's 'illustrious lineage' had a twofold bond with Khadijih-Bagum for whom he had a particular love and esteem.
