Quddús's Commentary on a Single Letter

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. The Guardian elucidates on it in ‘God Passes By’:

“Quddús, immortalized by Him [the Báb] as Ismu'llahi'l-Akhir (the Last Name of God); on whom Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet of Kullu't-Ta'am later conferred the sublime appellation of Nuqtiy-i-Ukhra (the Last Point); whom He elevated, in another Tablet, to a rank second to none except that of the Herald of His Revelation; whom He identifies, in still another Tablet, with one of the ‘Messengers charged with imposture’ mentioned in the Qur'án; whom the Persian Bayan extolled as that fellow-pilgrim round whom mirrors to the number of eight Vahids revolve; on whose ‘detachment and the sincerity of whose devotion to God's will God prideth Himself amidst the Concourse on high;’ whom 'Abdu'l-Bahá designated as the ‘Moon of Guidance;’ and whose 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 enter” (Shoghi Effendi, 'God Passes By')

Here is an example of Quddús’ amazing keenness of understanding concerning the manifold meanings of the Word of God:

Following the conference of Badasht, Quddús was en route to his home town when he fell into the hands of his opponents and was placed under house arrest.

Nabil, the great Baha’i chronicler, explains that while Quddus was in confinement in the home of a leading clergy of the town of Sari, Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí, the latter asked Quddús “to write a commentary on the Súrih of Ikhlas, better known as the Súrih of Qul Huva’lláhu’l-Ahad” (Nabil, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi).

This Surih (chapter) is very brief, and is only composed of a few lines. Here is Rodwell’s translation of this Surih:

“In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Say: He is God alone; God the eternal! He begetteth not, and He is not begotten; And there is none like unto Him.”

In the above passage, the word “eternal” is the translation of the Arabic word “Samad”

Nabil explains that Quddús “composed, in his interpretation of the Sád [letter “S”] of [the word] Samad [Eternal] alone, a treatise which was thrice as voluminous as the Qur’án itself.

“That exhaustive and masterly exposition had profoundly impressed Mírzá Muhammad-Taqí [a leading clergy of the town of Sari] and had been responsible for the marked consideration which he showed towards Quddús, although in the end he joined the Sa’ídu’l-‘Ulamá’ [the chief clergy] in compassing the death of the heroic martyrs of Shaykh Tabarsí.

“Quddús continued, while besieged in that fort, to write his commentary on that Súrih, and was able, despite the vehemence of the enemy’s onslaught, to pen as many verses as he had previously written in Sarí in his interpretation of that same letter [“S”]. The rapidity and copiousness of his composition, the inestimable treasures which his writings revealed, filled his companions with wonder and justified his leadership in their eyes. They read eagerly the pages of that commentary which Mullá Husayn brought to them each day and to which he paid his share of tribute.” (Nabil, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi, p. 357)

Source: Baha'i Stories Blog (https://bahaistories.blogspot.com/2018/01/quddus-amazing-ability-to-pen-copious.html).

Various. *Baha'i Stories Blog*. https://bahaistories.blogspot.com/2018/01/quddus-amazing-ability-to-pen-copious.html