It Is Finished, I Am Ready

A retelling based on The Chosen Highway by Lady Blomfield, with details from Nabíl's The Dawn-Breakers. The words in quotation marks are verbatim from those books. Read the full text of The Chosen Highway for Lady Blomfield's account.

For six years, from 1844 to 1850, the Báb had been imprisoned and persecuted. In the summer of 1850 the authorities decided to put Him to death, and He was taken to Tabríz. There a devoted disciple, Áqá Muḥammad-'Alí of Zunúz, was imprisoned with Him.

Lady Blomfield records that the night before, the Báb tested this disciple's love by asking him to take His life himself. The young man answered that he was ready to obey. The Báb told him he would not be asked to do this, but promised: "never shalt thou be separated from me, thou shalt be for ever with me."

On the next day, the 9th of July 1850, the Báb was brought out into the barracks square. His green turban was taken off, so that the people would not recognize Him as a descendant of Muḥammad; they would not have allowed a siyyid to be put to death. The Báb and His companion were bound with ropes and suspended against a wall with their arms extended. Nabíl writes that the disciple begged to be placed so that his own body would shield his Master's, and that about ten thousand people crowded onto the roof of the barracks and the neighbouring houses to watch.

A regiment of seven hundred and fifty soldiers fired. When the smoke cleared, the Báb's companion was standing alive and unhurt, and the Báb had vanished. The bullets had cut only the ropes. The crowd cried out, "The Siyyid-i-Bab has gone from our sight!"

In Lady Blomfield's account He was found in an adjoining room, calmly writing. He looked up as an official rushed in, then went on with His work. Soon He laid down His pen, saying:

It is finished. I am ready.

Nabíl tells it in more detail. Earlier that morning an official had broken in on a private conversation between the Báb and His secretary, Siyyid Ḥusayn, and the Báb had warned him that no earthly power could silence Him until He had said all He wished to say. After the volley the Báb was found in the room where He had spent the night, finishing that conversation.

When the order to fire was given again, Lady Blomfield writes, the soldiers laid down their arms, saying, "This thing is of God, we refuse to obey." Nabíl records that Sám Khán, the Christian colonel of that regiment, ordered his men out of the barracks and swore never again to take part in any act that would harm the Báb.

Another regiment was quickly brought in. The Báb and His companion were suspended again on the same wall, and this time the volley took both their lives. The disciple died with his Master, as the Báb had promised him.

A retelling based on The Chosen Highway, with details from The Dawn-Breakers. For the fuller account, see the originals.

Blomfield, L.. (1940). *The Chosen Highway*. George Ronald. https://bahai-library.com/blomfield_chosen_highway