Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
Loading…
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
Karbalá, Iraq
13 stories took place here — most often featuring Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í, Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí and Mullá Ḥusayn.
Karbilá (today: Karbalá, Iraq)
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.
In the shrine-city of Karbilá, the Báb gave one of His devoted followers a promise that asked everything of him: that he would live to behold "Him Whom God shall make manifest," but must tell no one, and must wait. Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí let the years pass in patient detachment, holding fast to that word — until the day in Karbilá when he beheld Bahá'u'lláh and the promise came true.
Years before His Declaration, the young Báb came as a pilgrim to Karbilá and sat quietly among the students of Siyyid Káẓim. When His eyes fell upon that Youth, the great teacher fell silent — and pointed to a ray of sunlight resting on the Báb's lap, saying the Truth was now more manifest than that light, though he dared not speak the Promised One's name aloud.
Years before the Declaration, in the shrine-city of Karbilá, Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí was led by his teacher Siyyid Káẓim to the door of a young Pilgrim of radiant countenance, and watched Him weep in prayer at the shrine of the Imám Ḥusayn. When the Call rang out from Shíráz in 1844, the memory of that Youth flashed back to him — and he knew at once that the Báb and the Pilgrim of Karbilá were one and the same.
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.
Before the Báb declared His mission, two great scholars spent their lives preparing the way. Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í and his successor Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí turned the full force of their learning toward a single end: to read the prophecies of the past so faithfully that they could ready a generation to recognise the Promised One. Theirs is the story of knowledge used not for its own glory but to open the eyes of others to a coming 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.
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.