Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
The first eighteen disciples of the Báb — the founders of the Bábí community.
200 years ago in Persia, there were many with the same expectation, that the Qa’im, the promised one, would soon appear. Amongst them lived Siyyid Kazim, wise man, teacher, spiritual divine, who studied the texts of the Holy books and…
Badasht is a village some distance from Tihrán in the northeast part of the country. The Conference of Badasht was held in July 1848. Eighty-one of the Báb’s most distinguished followers came together in this Conference. The principal…
The Bab's three uncles: Haji Mirza Siyyid Ali aka the Greatest Uncle - he was the middle brother, Haji Mirza Siyyid Muhammad aka the Greater Uncle - he was the eldest of the three brothers, and Haji Mirza Hassan Ali, the younger Uncle.…
No sooner had Haji Muhammad-Taqi uttered these words than Siyyid Murtada, who was one of the noted merchants of Zanjan, hastened to take precedence of his companions. He flung himself over the body of Haji Muhammad-Taqi, and pleaded that,…
When young, he joined the circle of the late Siyyid Kázim and became one of his disciples. He was known in Persia for his purity of life, winning fame as Mullá Ṣádiq the saintly. ** Ismu’lláhu’l-Asdaq (Mullá ****Ṣ****ádiq…
An elaborate and exhaustive interrogation was conducted in the presence of the representatives of the Persian government and others during which Fadil had the opportunity to explain the purpose of his mission and defend the Bahá'í…
He was the fifteenth Letter of the Living. He was the brother of Mírzá Muhammad-‘Alí Qazvíní. ** Mírzá Hádí-i-Qazvíní, Letter of the…
He was the son of Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Vahháb, a mujtahid (preeminent religious scholar) of Qazvin; cousin and brother-in-law of Táhirih, closely associated with her in Karbala. ** Mírzá Muhammad-‘Alíy-i-Qazvíní, Letter of the…
He was the third Letter of the Living and was the nephew of Mullá Husayn. ** Mírzá Muhammad Báqir Bushrú’í, Letter of the…
He was the younger brother of Mulla Husayn and the second Letter of the Living. ** Mírzá Muhammad Hasan Bushrú’í, Letter of the…
Mírzá Muhammad Rawdih-Khán Yazdí (or Dhákir-i-Masá’ib) was the eighth Letter of the Living. ** Mírzá Muhammad Rawdih-Khán Yazdí, Letter of the…
Large crowds of people thronged the approaches to the headquarters of the government, eager to learn what would befall him. "Since last night," the Amir, as soon as he had seen him, remarked, " I have been besieged by all classes of State…
During the nineteen days that he remained there he drank his fill from the life-giving draught of the presence of the Master and on daily basis paid homage to the Sacred Shrine of Baha’u’llah. **Mirza Yusuf Vahid Kashfi Born:**…
He was the twelfth Letter of the Living. He was present at the Conference of Badasht, a gathering of the Báb’s followers held in 1848. ** Mullá Ahmad-i-Ibdál-i-Marághi’í, Letter of the…
Mullá ‘Alí set out according to the Bab’s special instructions. He went first to Bushehr, where he met with the Báb’s uncle Hájí Mírzá Siyyid Muhammad, who years later accepted both the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. By the late summer of 1844,…
He assisted Táhirih in Karbala, then traveled to Iran with her. He was present at the Conference of Badasht and later visited the Báb while He was in prison in Azerbaijan. ** Mullá Báqir-i-Tabrízí, Letter of the…
Mullá Hasan Bajistání was the sixth Letter of the Living. ** Mullá Hasan Bajistání, Letter of the…
He cheered and strengthened the disconsolate disciples of his beloved chief ** Mullá Husayn Bushrú’í, Letter of the…
The Bab often remarked how out of a city full of clergy, divines and religious institutions that the first to recognize the truth was a sifter of wheat, Mulla Jafar Isfahani. ** Mulla Jafar Isfahani (Sifter of…
Mullá Jalíl Urúmí was the eleventh Letter of the Living. He taught the Bábí Faith especially in Azerbaijan and Qazvin ** Mullá Jalíl-i-Urúmí, Letter of the…
He was the fifth Letter of the Living. He returned to Karbala from Shiraz. ** Mullá Khudá-Bakhsh Qúchání, Letter of the…
Mullá Mahmúd Khú’í was the tenth Letter of the Living. ** Mullá Mahmúd-i-Khú’í (Letter of the…
He was noted for his learning and eloquence. He played an active and prominent role among the Bábís. ** Mullá Yúsuf-i-Ardibílí, Letter of the…
He was designated by ‘Abdu’l-Baha as the “Moon of Guidance” and his “appearance the Revelation of St. John the Divine anticipated as one of the two ‘Witnesses’ into whom, ere the ‘second woe is past,’ the ‘spirit of life from God’ must…
Shaykh Hasan recognized in the Báb all those attributes his master had predicted, and he became His devoted disciple, travelling far and wide to be close to the newest Manifestation of God on earth. When the ulama of Isfahan issued the…
He accompanied the Báb as His secretary during His imprisonment in Mákú and Chihríq. He became known as Kátib (the Amanuensis). ** Siyyid Husayn Yazdí, Letter of the…
Siyyid Mirza Husayn-i-Mutavalli was the recipient of the Tablet Shikkar-Shikan-Shavand. This man was a Babi who had been with 300 others under the leadership of Quddus at the Tabarsi fort, where they were attacked and starved. **…
When the prison authorities brought the Baha'i prisoners together in February, Tahirih saw her husband for the first time since their arrest. He had been so badly beaten that she could barely recognize him. **Tahirih Siyavushi, one…
Táhirih asked to borrow the writings and take them home. Mullá Javád violently objected, telling her: “Your father is an enemy of the Twin Luminous Lights, Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kázim. **…
Although the young merchant's given name was Siyyid 'Ali-Muhammad, He took the name "Báb"…
On reaching His twenty-fifth year, in response to divine command, He declared that “God the Exalted had elected Him to the station of Bábhood.” In “A Traveller’s Narrative”7 we read that:—“What he intended by the term Báb was this,…
The first eighteen disciples of the Báb (with Himself as nineteenth) became known as “Letters of the Living.” These disciples He sent to different parts of Persian and Turkistán to spread the news of His advent. Meantime He Himself set…
Town of Ámul, circa 1935 About nine miles from Fort Tabarsi, where Baha’u’llah had planned to join the heroic believers, He and His companions were arrested by the soldiers of the acting governor of…
Taking refuge from the attacks of the people of Barfurúsh and neighbouring villages at the persistent instigation of the vindictive leading divine of that district, Mulla Husayn and his companions…
Mulla Sadiq In 1845 Mulla Sadiq, whom posthumously was appointed by ‘Abdu’l-Baha as a Hand of the Cause, together with Quddus were arrested in Shiraz as a result of a commotion that was stirred up in…
The whole province of Khurásán was in those days [1848] in the throes of a violent agitation.
Mulla Sadiq-i-Muqaddas, was an outstanding believer who was entitled Ismu'llahu'l-Asdaq (The name of God, the Most Truthful) by Baha’u’llah.
This is the story of Mulla Aliy-i-Bastami, one of the Letters of the Living, "the first to leave the House of God (Shiraz) and the first to suffer for His sake…" (The Báb, quoted by Shoghi Effendi,…
The news of the tragic fate which had befallen the heroes of Tabarsí brought immeasurable sorrow to the heart of the Báb.
In about 1848, four years after recognizing the Báb and becoming His first believer, and receiving the title of Bábu’l-Báb (the Gate of the Gate), Mulla Husayn left the city of Mashhad, in the…
When Siyyid Kazim died in Karbila, Iraq, on December 31, 1843, his enemies became emboldened and renewed their hurtful activities to further discredit his teachings and ridicule those who followed…
Here is a brief story of the early life of Mulla Husayn whose amazing station is summarized below by the beloved Guardian: “Mulla Husayn, the first Letter of the Living, surnamed the Bábu'l-Báb (the…
Before Mulla Husayn met the Báb and became His first believer, he was a disciple of Siyyid Kázim, one of the two forerunners of the Báb – the other was Siyyid Kázim’s teacher, Shaykh Ahmad.
We know from the Baha’i Writings that Quddus, in addition to being the last Letter of the Living and the chosen companion of the Báb during His pilgrimage to Mecca, has a high station.
In Badasht there was a field with a stream running through it and gardens to either side. Quddús remained concealed in one of the gardens, and Táhirih resided in the other.
Táhirih was a woman of rare accomplishment. Most Persian women were not educated, but Táhirih's father had recognized early on that his young daughter was gifted with an especially keen mind. He loved her dearly and educated her the same…
It was the end of June, 1848. Outside the village of Badasht, located about 400 Km northeast of Tehran, Persia, on the other side of the Elburz Mountains in the Province of Semnan, there was a great…
Mulla Husayn was still in Mashhad during the conference of Badasht as a guest of the Governor-General of the province of Khurasan - where he was treated with courtesy and consideration.
At the time of the Báb, Isfahan, a central city in Persia, was known among cities for the great learning of its clergy.
Upon their return from Karbila, [circa 1848] Tahirih and her few companions were falsely accused of having been involved in the murder of her husband, Mullá Taqí, who was a fiercest opponent of the…
'Báb' means 'Gate’! The Báb was the Gate to a new Kingdom -- the Kingdom of God on earth. The Báb was very young when He told people about the Message which God had given Him.
In the whole range of Bahá'u'lláh's Writings, the Kitáb-i-Íqán (The Book of Certitude) has most importance, with the exception of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (The Most Holy Book).
'Abdu'l-Rahim was a fanatical Muslim. He was alarmed. The Baha'i Faith was growing in his town in Persia and he decided that it was time to ask the advice of a Muslim clergyman.
Mansion of Baha'u'llah's father This story is about a boy Who grew to be the latest Prophet of God.
The Letters of the Living were the first people who, each individually, and without help from others, recognized the promised One, the Báb, in 1844.
It was the summer of 1848. The followers of the Báb, the Bábís, were fiercely persecuted in Persia, the birthplace of their Faith. They needed guidance and support.
On a spring evening in Shíráz in 1844, a tired seeker named Mullá Ḥusayn was invited into the home of a young merchant. Before the night was over, his long search — and a new age for humanity — had begun. A retelling from Lady Blomfield's The Chosen Highway.
Táhirih — poet, scholar, and the only woman among the Báb's first disciples — sat with a small boy on her knee, listening to the learned men debate in the next room. What she called out to them has echoed ever since. A retelling from Lady Blomfield's The Chosen Highway.
Nabíl records the nine-month imprisonment of the Báb at the mountain fortress of Máh-Kú on the western frontier of Persia — and the remarkable transformation of His warden, 'Alí Khán, from a hostile jailer into a devoted believer who could no longer hold the door closed against the friends.
Late in 1844 the Báb, accompanied by Quddús, sailed from Búshihr for the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. The voyage was long, the water was scarce, the bedouins were thieves; and at the heart of the Sacred Mosque the Báb proclaimed His station openly to a prominent scholar of His age.
Nabíl's chronicle records the return of Bahá'u'lláh from Karbilá in the autumn of 1842 — a young nobleman not yet thirty, returning by horse to Tihrán with the resolve to take up the work the city had been preparing for. The intervening years of His ministry to the wider Bábí community would, in retrospect, take their root in that journey home.
In the weeks following Mullá Ḥusayn's recognition of the Báb in Shíráz in May 1844, seventeen further disciples of Siyyid Káẓim arrived from various provinces. Each came expecting to be tested. Each was, instead, recognised by the Báb Himself before they had spoken. They became the Letters of the Living — and one place remained reserved.
Following the Báb's instruction sent from Máh-Kú, Mullá Ḥusayn left Mashhad in the summer of 1848 wearing the Báb's own green turban, the Black Standard unfurled before him. He was, the Master had told him, to march to *the Verdant Isle* — Mázindarán — and the seventy-two companions who would die at his side were already gathering.
Nabíl's chronicle records the death of Mullá Ḥusayn-i-Bushrú'í, first of the Letters of the Living, in the closing months of the siege of the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí in Mázindarán. He led the final sortie at dawn on February 2, 1849, and fell with a musket-ball to the chest in the same charge that broke the Imperial line.
On a winter dawn at Fort Ṭabarsí, the first man ever to believe in the Báb put on his Master's turban, mounted his horse, and rode out against an army. A retelling from Nabíl's Dawn-Breakers.
After the betrayal of the Bábís at Fort Ṭabarsí in the spring of 1849, Quddús was led back into Bárfurúsh. He was eighteen of the Báb's Letters of the Living and the only one besides Bahá'u'lláh who would be honoured by the Báb with a written commentary. He was killed in the open square of the town. His last words were of the splendour of his nuptials.
Nabíl's chronicle opens with the figure of Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í, the Arabian scholar who, at the age of forty, set out from al-Aḥsá in 1216 A.H. to prepare a generation of disciples for the imminent appearance of the promised One. He recognized the birth of Bahá'u'lláh in Núr in 1233 A.H. as the secret event that justified his entire ministry.
As his life drew to a close in Karbilá in 1259 A.H., Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí gathered his disciples and gave them the charge that the Dawn-Breakers treats as the immediate prologue to the Báb's Declaration: scatter yourselves over the face of the earth, detach yourselves from all earthly things, and seek the Promised One who is now manifest.
Nabíl's chronicle records the final months of Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí in late 1843 and early 1844 — the second of the two great preparatory teachers of the dawn of the Revelation. He told his closest students that the Promised One would appear in their own lifetime; that he himself would not live to see Him; that they must scatter across Persia in search of Him.
Nabíl's chronicle records the conference at Badasht in the summer of 1848 — the meeting at which the eighty-one principal Bábí teachers of the time gathered in three small gardens to consult on the relation of the new Faith to the Islamic past. The decisive moment came when Ṭáhirih appeared before the assembled men with her veil removed.
Shaykh Sálih, an Arab who had found new life through the teaching of Ṭáhirih, became the first believer to give his blood on Persian soil. He went to his death not with dread, but with a joy his persecutors could not comprehend. A retelling from Nabíl's Dawn-Breakers.
Shoghi Effendi's account, in *God Passes By*, of the conference at Badasht in 1848 — and the moment when Ṭáhirih, "adorned yet unveiled," announced that the day of the new Dispensation had begun.
Nabíl's account, in *The Dawn-Breakers*, of the night of May 22–23, 1844, when Mullá Ḥusayn met the Báb at the gate of Shíráz, accepted His invitation home, and at two hours and eleven minutes after sunset became the first to recognise Him.
In the 1840’s the sea journey from Bushihr to Jiddah was a dangerous and uncomfortable one; the distance was about 4000 kilometres and the journey took about two months. The seas were often rough, the storms frequent, water was scarce and…
It was June of 1847. An immense crowd of people thronged the gate of the city of Tabriz to witness the very first time that the Báb entered their city. Some were merely curious, while others were earnestly trying to find out if the Báb…
The Báb had three uncles, and each one came to believe in his own way and his own time — one early and bravely, one after his deepest questions were answered, and one last of all.
Two brave believers loved their faith so much that, when the hardest moment came, each one rushed to go first — to give the most for what he believed.
When angry crowds led him through the streets with a rope around his neck, Mullá Ṣádiq did not stop smiling — or stop speaking the truth he loved.
A boy from a small city in Persia grew into one of the wisest teachers of his time — and the more he learned, the kinder and humbler he became.
Long ago, eighteen people were the first to believe in the Báb, and a young man named Mírzá Hádí was one of them — though his story turned out to be a quiet and complicated one.
A young man from a family of famous scholars was trusted with a secret letter and a special message — to carry to the Promised One whom he and his cousin had searched for all their lives.
A young man named Mírzá Muhammad Báqir was one of the very first to find the Báb, and he stayed brave and faithful right to the end.
When his big brother set out on a long and dangerous journey for the Báb, a younger brother chose to walk right beside him — and never left his side.
A man so beloved that crowds lined the roads to greet him chose to follow the Báb instead — because, more than anything, he wanted to be fair and to know the truth.
When the Báb chose His very first followers, a man named Mullá Ahmad was one of them — and he gave everything to the new Faith he loved.
A man who had searched for years finally found the One he was looking for — and then bravely carried the good news, even when it cost him everything.
A devoted helper named Mullá Báqir spent his whole life carrying messages and serving the ones he loved most — and became the very last of a special group of believers.
A man named Mullá Hasan was chosen for a very special job, but deep down he felt he was not good enough — and his quiet, humble heart has been remembered ever since.
A man was given one job — to guard the Báb and keep everyone away — but the more he watched, the more his hard heart began to soften.
The Báb set sail across rough seas to the holy city of Mecca, and there He bravely told the world who He really was.
One by one, eighteen seekers came to the Báb expecting a hard test — and one by one, He knew them before they could say a single word.
A brave believer named Mullá Ḥusayn set out on a long, dangerous journey with a black flag flying before him, ready to give everything for what he loved most.
Mullá Ḥusayn, the first person ever to believe in the Báb, gathered his hungry, weary friends one last time and led them out into the cold dawn for the One he loved.
A brave young hero named Quddús kept his promise to God to the very end, and spoke of joy even on the hardest day of his life.
A wise old teacher knew his time was almost over, so instead of saying goodbye, he gave his students one last task: scatter everywhere and find the Promised One.
An old and tired teacher told his students a wonderful secret: the One they had all been waiting for would come very, very soon — and they must go out and find Him.
In three little gardens long ago, the bravest woman of the new Faith stepped forward and showed everyone that a brand-new day had begun.
A man named Shaykh Sálih went toward danger with a joy no one around him could understand — because he had found something more precious than life itself.
In a quiet garden long ago, a fearless woman named Ṭáhirih stood before a roomful of startled men and announced that a brand-new day had begun.
A tired traveler had searched everywhere for one special person — and then, just outside the city gate, a smiling Youth in a green turban came out to meet him.
After years of searching, a tired traveler met a kind young Man at the city gate. By morning, his whole life — and the whole world — would never be the same.
Mullá Ḥusayn was the very first person to believe in the Báb. Years later, surrounded by an army, he showed the world what it means to be truly brave.
While the grown-ups argued and argued in the next room, a brave and brilliant woman named Táhirih — with a little boy on her knee — called out the words everyone needed to hear.
1.For the author of The Dawn-Breakers, see Nabíl-i-Zarandí.2.Cf. Nabíl, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 395, note 1.3.Cf. Qur’án 19:98.4.Qur’án 3:91.5.Qur’án 54:55.6.1849–1850.7.1853; 1892.8.Áqá Ján. Cf. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p.…
'Abdu'l-Bahá's tribute to Mullá Ṣádiq-i-Muqaddas — the Khurásání cleric who, after recognising the Báb, suffered the bastinado in Shíráz with Quddús and went on to give the rest of his life to the Cause through every successive trial of its early decades.
Munirih Khánum, who later became the wife of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, met Khadijih-Bagum before leaving Persia for Holy Land. She was living at the time in Isfahan, a city about 200 miles north of Shiraz, and was summoned to ‘Akka by Bahá’u’lláh.…
My son, Ethan Olinga, who is ten years old now, was sung to during pregnancy and early months of his life as I fed him, just as the Master says mothers should. He was also exposed to the photo of the Master and always encouraged to have an…
No students have had to study harder or more earnestly than those theology students in the madrisihs. They read day and night, neglecting food and sleep. Some invented means by which to keep themselves awake to study more, such as tying…
On the first night of His Revelation the Báb gave to the first soul who recognised Him a name that would shape the rest of his life — Bábu'l-Báb, the Gate of the Gate. From that hour Mullá Ḥusayn-i-Bushrú'í lived as the door through which others were meant to enter, until he laid down his life at the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí.
Before the world knew her as Táhirih, the gifted poet-theologian of Qazvín was given one name by the teacher she never met in person — Qurratu'l-'Ayn, Solace of the Eyes — and another, years later, at the conference of Badasht, where the assembled believers proclaimed her Táhirih, the Pure One. Two names, conferred by two hands, for a woman who became the herald of a new Day.
In the first weeks of His Revelation, the Báb gave to the youngest of His chosen disciples, Mullá Muḥammad-'Alí of Bárfurúsh, a name that set him apart from all the rest — Quddús, the Most Holy — and chose him, alone among the Letters of the Living, to be His companion on the long pilgrimage to Mecca.
A poet from the village of Zarand left everything to follow Bahá'u'lláh, and in the end was given the task of recording the whole heroic story of the Faith's beginnings. Bahá'u'lláh conferred on him the name Nabíl-i-A'ẓam — a name whose very letters, by the old reckoning, add to the same sum as the name Muḥammad.
On the night the Báb declared His mission in Shíráz, He took up His pen and began, with astonishing speed, to reveal the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá' — the first Book of His Dispensation. Shoghi Effendi ranks it among the greatest and mightiest of all the works the Báb left behind.
In the summer of 1844, weeks after the Báb declared His mission in Shíráz, a youth named Mullá Muḥammad-'Alíy-i-Bárfurúshí arrived footsore from the north. He was the eighteenth and last to find the Báb of his own seeking — and the youngest. He spoke few words, yet the Báb raised him above all the other Letters of the Living and named him Quddús, "the Most Holy."
On the evening of 22 May 1844, outside the gate of Shíráz, the Báb invited a travel-worn seeker named Mullá Ḥusayn into His home. There, two hours and eleven minutes after sunset, He declared Himself to be the Promised One — and, taking up His pen, began to reveal the first verses of a new Book with a speed and majesty that left His guest overwhelmed.
The Báb's first eighteen disciples — the Letters of the Living — were not the most famous or powerful of their age, but souls whom God had prepared to recognise Him each by his own seeking. When their number was complete, the Báb gathered them, told them they were the bearers of His Name, and sent them out across Persia to herald the Day that had dawned.
Soon after declaring His mission in Shíráz, the Báb set out on the great pilgrimage to Mecca, arriving in December 1844. There, in the holiest place of Islam, He openly proclaimed His station — and on His return to Persia the news of His claim kindled both fervent love and bitter opposition, opening the long road of suffering that led at last to His martyrdom.
In the days after Mullá Ḥusayn recognised the Báb in Shíráz in 1844, a learned disciple of Siyyid Káẓim named Mullá ‘Alíy-i-Bastámí arrived in the city, withdrew alone to pray and fast, and on the third night was led by a vision to the threshold of the Báb. He became the second to believe — and, in the Báb's own words, the first to leave the House of God and the first to suffer for His sake.
When Mullá Ḥusayn reached Iṣfahán in 1844, a devout seeker named Mullá Ṣádiq-i-Muqaddas begged him to name the Promised One. Forbidden to tell, Mullá Ḥusayn pointed him instead to prayer. Alone in a quiet room, Mullá Ṣádiq saw in a vision the face of a weeping Youth he had once watched at the shrine of the Imám Ḥusayn — and knew, at last, whom he had been seeking.
Soon after the Declaration, the Báb sent Mullá Ḥusayn northward to Ṭihrán to deliver a sacred trust to one He did not name. Guided by a midnight conversation with a teacher's pupil, Mullá Ḥusayn entrusted a scroll of the Báb's Writings to be carried at dawn to Bahá'u'lláh — who, upon reading it, affirmed its truth at once. It was among the first recognitions of the new Revelation in the capital.
Before Mullá Ḥusayn ever met the Báb at the gate of Shíráz, he obeyed his teacher's dying charge: he scattered, purified his heart, and withdrew for forty days of prayer and fasting. Then an inner prompting drew him from Karbilá across Persia to Búshihr, and turned him northward to Shíráz — the preparation of soul that made the recognition of 1844 possible.
When his teacher Siyyid Káẓim died, Mullá Ḥusayn — already among the most learned of his generation — did not stay to claim the empty seat. He withdrew for forty days of fasting and prayer, purified his heart, and set out to find the Promised One whose nearness his teacher had foretold. The search ended at the gate of Shíráz, where the knowledge he carried met the Knowledge it had been seeking.
The first man on earth to recognize the Báb was also among the first to die for Him. Through the long winter siege of the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, Mullá Ḥusayn held a starving, outnumbered band against an imperial army — and at last, having prayed through the night, mounted his horse at dawn and led the charge in which he fell, sealing with his blood the discipleship he had begun on a May night in Shíráz four years before.
Ṭáhirih — poet, scholar, and the only woman among the Báb's first eighteen disciples — spent her final hours in serene readiness, adorned as for a wedding rather than an execution. Led into a garden outside Ṭihrán in 1852 to be put to death, she met her end with a calm that astonished her captors, and left behind a prophecy about the freedom of women that history has been fulfilling ever since.
On the night the Báb declared His mission in Shíráz, He entrusted Mullá Ḥusayn with a sacred charge: to find in Ṭihrán a soul of a noble house and deliver into His hands a scroll of the newly revealed Word. The young schoolteacher who carried it never learned the meaning of his errand — but Bahá'u'lláh read the Words, and the first utterance of the new Revelation reached the One for Whom, unknown to all, it had been written.
Quddús was the youngest and the last of the Báb's first eighteen disciples, the Letters of the Living — and the one He raised highest. A youth of luminous refinement, learning, courtesy, and serenity, Quddús was chosen as the Báb's sole companion on the pilgrimage to Mecca, poured out commentaries of astonishing depth even under arrest and siege, and bore himself through every ordeal with a perfection of character that his companions never forgot.
Long before she was a heroine and a martyr, Ṭáhirih was simply the most gifted mind anyone in Qazvín had ever seen in a girl — a scholar, a poet, and a debater whose brilliance made her own father lament that she had not been born a son. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's tribute in Memorials of the Faithful preserves the portrait of a soul whose God-given talents were carried to a rare perfection and then poured out wholly in the path of God.
Forty days before He was led from His mountain prison to be martyred, the Báb quietly gathered up all that He possessed — His writings, His pen-case, His seals, and His rings — and placed them in trusted hands, with instructions that they be carried in secret to Bahá'u'lláh in Ṭihrán. On the threshold of death, His last act of provision looked not backward in grief but forward to the One whose coming He had lived and would die to herald.
Mullá Ṣádiq-i-Khurásání was a famous, austere, and exacting divine — a man who had spent his life among the learned and was not easily moved. When word of the Báb reached Iṣfahán, he did not accept it on rumour, nor reject it from pride. He put it to the test. He set the young Quddús a hard examination of proofs — and when the answers came, the proud scholar was undone, and became one of the most steadfast heralds of the new Day.
Fáṭimih Baraghání — known to history as Ṭáhirih, "the Pure One" — was a woman of extraordinary learning in an age that gave women little room to learn. For years she searched the writings of Shaykh Aḥmad and Siyyid Káẓim for the truth they promised was near. When the Báb declared His mission far away in Shíráz, she recognized Him through her own study and a letter she sent ahead — believing in Him before she had ever seen His face.
Long before the Báb declared His mission, two remarkable teachers — Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í and his successor Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí — spent their lives preparing a generation to recognize the Promised One who was at hand. They did not tell their disciples whom to follow; they taught them to detach, to purify their hearts, and to go out and seek. When Siyyid Káẓim died, his last charge was simple: scatter, and find Him.
Before the Sun of the new Day rose over Shíráz, two luminaries appeared above the horizon to herald its coming — Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í and his successor Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí. For half a century they taught a generation to read the signs, to detach themselves, and to watch for the Promised One; and when his hour drew near, the dying Siyyid sent his disciples scattering across Persia to find the dawning Light.
Not long after the Báb declared His mission, He told His first disciple that a soul of surpassing greatness was yet to be reached, and sent him north to find the one of his own heart's choosing. In Ṭihrán, Mullá Ḥusayn placed a scroll in the hands of a young Nobleman, Bahá'u'lláh — and when the answer came back, the Báb's joy revealed that the greatest Light of all had recognised the Day.
Fáṭimih of Qazvín — the brilliant poet the world would come to know as Ṭáhirih, the Pure One — recognised the Báb without ever meeting Him. Hearing only that a voice had risen in Shíráz, she sent forward her written testimony of belief, and so became the only woman among the Báb's first eighteen disciples, the Letters of the Living — a light kindled by inner sight alone.
When Mullá Ḥusayn-i-Bushrú'í and his companions reached the hostile town of Bárfurúsh, a mob rose to bar their way and cut them down. In that moment of utmost danger, the first to believe in the Báb answered not with the sword but with his voice — bidding the call to prayer be raised, and proclaiming the advent of the new Day before the very crowd that had come to kill him.
Hidden behind a curtain in Bahá'u'lláh's house in Ṭihrán, Táhirih listened as the celebrated divine Vahíd discoursed on the proofs of the new Day. Then she raised her voice and interrupted him with a few burning sentences that turned the whole meaning of speech inside out — calling not for more learned words, but for the deeds and the bold utterance that would promote the Word of God.
Besieged with a few hundred companions in the forest fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, Quddús held the failing band together not chiefly with the sword but with his voice — composing a commentary whose verses made the hungry forget their hunger, and rising under the roar of the enemy's cannon to bid his companions fear neither the threats of the wicked nor the clamour of the ungodly.
In a city famous for the learning of its clergy, the first to recognise the Báb was an unlettered man who sifted wheat for his bread. In a single moment the Call remade him — and he took up his sieve and ran toward martyrdom, declaring he would sift whole cities for souls. A story of the power of God to raise the humblest heart to greatness.
An austere and revered cleric of Khurásán recognised the Báb and, with Quddús, became one of the first believers ever to be publicly tortured for the new Faith. Through the bastinado, repeated imprisonments, and a lifetime of banishment, a strange power sustained him — and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, who knew him, remembered him among the heroes of the dawn.
A few hundred students, merchants, and craftsmen — most of whom had never held a weapon — were besieged in a makeshift fort in the forests of Mázindarán by the trained regiments and artillery of an empire. For eleven months they held, not by numbers or arms, but by a power their enemies could not understand and could not break.
Besieged and starving in the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, the companions of the Báb were forbidden by their leader, Mullá Ḥusayn, ever to begin a fight, ever to pursue a fleeing enemy, and ever to strike a man already down. In a country drowning in cruelty, this little band held — even toward those who had come to destroy them — to a discipline of mercy.
In the beginning of the eleventh chapter of the Revelation of St. John it is…
Question.—Those who are blessed with good actions and universal benevolence, who have praiseworthy characteristics, who act with love and kindness toward all creatures, who care for the poor, and who strive to establish universal…
How veiled are ye, O My creatures,62 ... who, without any right, have consigned Him unto a mountain [Mákú], not one of whose inhabitants is worthy of mention... With Him, which is with Me, there is no one except him who is one of the…
Is there any Remover of difficulties save God? Say: Praised be God! He is God! All are His servants and all abide by His bidding! Footnotes 1.This is the first letter of ‘Thamárih’ which means ‘fruit’. Shoghi Effendi, in…
O Ye who are invested with the Bayán! Be ye watchful on the Day of Resurrection, for on that Day ye will firmly believe in the Vahíd of the Bayán, though this, even as your past religion which proved of no avail, can in no wise benefit…
In the early days of His Declaration in 1844, the Báb addressed a Tablet to Mullá Ḥusayn, His first disciple, on the eve of Mullá Ḥusayn's departure from Shíráz to begin the work of teaching the new Cause across Persia. The Tablet preserved in Selections from the Writings of the Báb sets out the spirit in which that mission was to be carried out.
Twelve hundred and seventy years have elapsed since the declaration of Muḥammad, and each year unnumbered people have circumambulated the House of God [Mecca]. In the concluding year of this period He Who is Himself the Founder of the…
In the Name of God, the Most Exalted, the Most…
Tahirih loved pretty clothes, and perfumes, and she loved to eat. She could eat sweets all day long. Once, years after Tahirih had gone, an American woman traveled to 'Akka and sat at ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's Table; the food was good; and she ate…
“When you give the Message of this Manifestation many say, 'This is nothing new—I prefer the home of my old religious belief which has been so serviceable and trustworthy.'” ‘Abdu'l-Bahá answered: “Bahá‘u'lláh is the same Light in a…
There was then in Baghdad an earnest Bábí, formerly a pupil of Kurratu I'Aeyn (Tahirih, a woman famous for her beauty and learning, who was one of the disciples of the Báb, and a martyr). This man said to us that as he had no ties and did…
Touching the individual known as the Báb and the true nature of this sect diverse tales are on the tongues and in the mouths of men, and various accounts are contained in the pages of Persian history and the leaves of European…
absolutism in [the conduct of] affairs: on his own decisive resolution, without seeking permission from the Royal Presence or taking counsel with prudent statesmen, he issued orders to persecute the Bábís, imagining that by overweening…
Upon His arrival in Jaddih, the Báb donned the pilgrim's garb, mounted a camel, and set out on His journey to Mecca [to perform His pilgrimage]. Quddus, however, notwithstanding the repeatedly expressed desire of his Master, preferred to…
While in Sari, Quddus frequently attempted to convince Mirza Muhammad-Taqi of the truth of the Divine Message. He freely conversed with him on the most weighty and outstanding issues related to the Revelation of the Báb. His bold and…
156 stories in this collection. The collection grows automatically as new matching stories are ingested.