Siyyid Káẓim's Last Days at Karbilá

Nabíl’s Dawn-Breakers records the last days of Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí, who died at Karbilá at the close of 1843. He had succeeded Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í, and for many years had taught in Karbilá, preparing his students for the appearance of the Promised One.

In his teaching he hinted more and more plainly that the One they awaited was near, even in their very midst. You behold Him with your own eyes, he often said, and yet recognise Him not! His own knowledge, he told them, was but a drop compared with the immensity of the knowledge of the One who was to come.

As his days drew to a close, whenever he met his disciples, in private or in public, he urged them to renounce every earthly attachment in their quest:

Scatter far and wide, detach yourselves from all earthly things, and humbly and prayerfully beseech your Lord to sustain and guide you.

He recalled that Shaykh Aḥmad had told him that neither of them would live to see that Day, but that many of the faithful among his disciples would witness it.

Every year, in the month of Dhi’l-Qa‘dih, Siyyid Káẓim went from Karbilá to visit the shrines at Káẓimayn, returning in time for the day of ‘Arafih. In 1259 A.H., the last year of his life, he set out as usual with a number of companions. At the Masjid-i-Baratha, on the road between Baghdád and Káẓimayn, he had just finished the noonday prayer when an Arab shepherd came up and embraced him. Three days before, the shepherd said, he had dreamed that Muḥammad bade him greet Siyyid Káẓim at that very spot and tell him that, three days after his return to Karbilá, on the day of ‘Arafih, he would depart this life, and that soon afterwards He who is the Truth would be made manifest.

Siyyid Káẓim smiled and said there was no doubt of the dream's truth. To his grieving companions he said:

Is not your love for me for the sake of that true One whose advent we all await? Would you not wish me to die, that the promised One may be revealed?

Nabíl records that no fewer than ten people who were present told him of this episode. Siyyid Káẓim completed his pilgrimage and returned to Karbilá, where he fell ill the very day he arrived. On the day of ‘Arafih, 1259 A.H. (31 December 1843), at the age of sixty, he died, and was buried within the precincts of the shrine of the Imám Ḥusayn.

Mullá Ḥusayn-i-Bushrú’í, his foremost disciple, was away at the time, carrying out the mission his teacher had entrusted to him in Iṣfahán and Mashhad. He came back to Karbilá on the first day of Muḥarram, 1260 A.H., and asked his fellow-disciples what their master's last wishes had been. They told him that Siyyid Káẓim had repeatedly bidden them to quit their homes, scatter far and wide, and give themselves to the quest of the One he had so often spoken of. Why, Mullá Ḥusayn asked, had they not yet dispersed?

He himself set out for Najaf with his brother and his nephew, and spent forty days in prayer and fasting at the Masjid-i-Kúfih before continuing on his way. On 22 May 1844, a few hours before sunset, outside the gate of Shíráz, he met the Báb, who that evening declared His mission to him.

A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers (Chapters II–III). For the fuller account, see the original.

Nabíl-i-A'ẓam. (1932). *The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/other-literature/historical/dawn-breakers/