Fazlallah Astarabadi

Fażlu l-Lāh Astar-Ābādī (Persian: فضل‌الله استرآبادی, 1339/40 in Astarābād – 1394 in Nakhchivan), also known as Fażlullāh Tabrīzī Astarābādī[3][4] by a pseudonym al-Ḥurūfī[3] and a pen name Nāimī, was an Iranian mystic who founded the Ḥurūfī movement.

The basic belief of the Ḥurūfiyyah was that the God was incarnated in the body of Fażlullāh and that he would appear as Mahdī when the Last Day was near in order to save Muslims, Christians and Jews.

According to the traditional Ḥurūfī biography, Fażlullāh Astarābādī was born in a household that traced its descent to the seventh Shī‘ah Imam, Musa al-Kazim.

When his father died when he was still a child, Fażlullāh inherited his position and appeared at the courthouse on horse back everyday, acting as a figurehead while his assistants carried out the work of the court.

At the age of eighteen he had an extraordinary religious experience when a nomadic dervish recited a verse by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi: Why are you afraid of death when you have the essence of eternity?

After a year of trying to maintain his duties as a judge during the day while engaged in solitary prayer in a graveyard at night, he abandoned his family, possessions and security to become an itinerant religious seeker.

In one Jesus told him that four sufis — Ibrahim Bin Adham, Bayazid Bistami, Al-Tustari and Bahlul — were the most sincere religious seekers in the history of Islam.

Fażlullāh then moved to the region of Sabzavar in North east Iran, where a significant proportion of the local population were involved in apocalyptical religion.

Fażlullāh made himself at home in a mosque in the suburb of Tuqchi where he attracted two kinds of visitors: firstly, religious seekers seeking a guide and secondly those who wanted him to interpret dreams for more worldly reasons.

Fażlullāh would accept no money for his interpretations and led an ascetic life, going without sleep spending the night in prayer and weeping continually to control his carnal desires.

Shahrastani became one of his prominent followers alongside men like Nasrallah Nafaji whose Khwab-namah "Book of Dreams" became one of the main biographical sources about Fażlullāh's life.

These sincere followers claimed the received Karamat, spiritual gifts like special knowledge about sacred texts like the Bible and the Qur'an, an understanding of hidden matters and clear interpretations of the sayings and deeds of Muhammad and his immediate entourage.

Giving advice to such people as Mawlana Zayn ad-Dīn Rajayī and the Amir Farrukh Gunbadi, Fażlullāh's reputation spread throughout the provinces of Khurasan, Azerbaijan and Shirvan.