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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
By Nabíl-i-A'ẓam · 1932 · Bahá'í Publishing Trust
Formative Age (1921–1957) · in copyright
Epic chronicle of the Bábí period (bahai-library.com edition; 1932 translation in copyright — summaries/brief quotes only). Used as the basis for retellings (secondary).
About Nabíl-i-A'ẓam
Born Mullá Muḥammad-i-Zarandí. Bábí poet and historian; companion of Bahá'u'lláh in His later years. His chronicle of the Bábí period — completed in 'Akká and partially reviewed by Bahá'u'lláh — became, in Shoghi Effendi's translation, *The Dawn-Breakers*.
1831–1892
Featured figures
“Cleansed of all earthly defilements, we shall seek the court of the Almighty.”
“I am, I am, I am, the promised One!”
“I discarded the hopes and the beliefs of men from the moment I recognised Thee.”
From The First to Fall
“The sooner you strike off my head, the greater will be my gratitude to you.”
“The Teacher Who Had Nothing to Teach Him”
God Passes By
Cited in Authoritative HistoryShoghi Effendi · 1944
The Chosen Highway
Secondary RetellingLady Blomfield · 1940
Portals to Freedom
Secondary RetellingHoward Colby Ives · 1937
The Diary of Juliet Thompson
Secondary RetellingJuliet Thompson · 1947
World Order
Secondary RetellingWorld Order Editors · 1935
The Promised Day Is Come
Cited in Authoritative HistoryShoghi Effendi · 1941
Sent as a small boy to school in Shíráz, the Báb asked His teacher one simple question — and the teacher carried Him home, saying he had nothing to teach this child.
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.
Summoned to Tabríz to be examined and humiliated before the assembled clergy and the Crown Prince of Persia, the Báb walked in, took the seat reserved for the prince, and declared His station in words that fell on the room like thunder. A retelling from Nabíl's Dawn-Breakers.
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.
Fourteen believers were arrested in Tihrán and told to deny their faith and go free. Seven did. The other seven — a merchant, a dervish, a scholar, and more — chose to give their lives instead. A retelling from Nabíl's Dawn-Breakers.
A teacher sent a small boy off to school to learn his lessons — but the boy asked one question that the teacher could not answer.
Brought into a great hall to be put on trial, the Báb walked straight to the seat of honor, sat down, and bravely told a room full of powerful men exactly who He was.
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.
Fourteen friends were told to give up their faith and go free — and seven of them chose to be brave and stay true, even though it was the hardest choice of all.
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.
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.
When the message of the Báb spread through Shíráz, its cruel governor, Ḥusayn Khán, set himself to crush the new Faith by force. He arrested its Herald, had Him struck, and bound Him with threats — yet every weapon of the state failed against a serene and majestic dignity, and the governor's own power was soon broken by a plague he could not command.
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