A Thousand Lamps and a Single Lamp

A retelling based on The Genesis of the Bábí-Bahá'í Faiths in Shíráz and Fárs by Mírzá Habíbu'lláh Afnán, translated by Ahang Rabbani, with a closing detail from The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl. Words in quotation marks are from the first of those books.

Mírzá Habíbu'lláh Afnán was born in the House of the Báb in Shíráz in 1875, and he was brought up there by the Báb's widow, Khadíjih Bagum, a paternal cousin of the Báb's mother. His history of the Faith in Shíráz sets down the stories current in the Báb's own family, above all those he had heard from her. This one she told as something she had seen herself.

She began with the Báb's usual day. He came home about an hour after sunset and turned to His devotions, to chanting the names of God, and to writing. He ate about three hours after sunset and retired about an hour later. He rose an hour before dawn, washed, performed His ablutions, and went to the upper chambers of the House, which served as His formal guestroom, to stand reciting prayers and tablets of visitation. Once the sun was up their servant, Fiddih, lit the samovar and made tea in His mother's room. He came down to drink it and then left for His merchant's office.

One night was different. He came home at dusk and asked that Fiddih have the evening meal ready early, since He had a particular task that night. Dinner was served about an hour and a half into the night, and He joined them for it. Fiddih spread the bedding as she did every evening and went to her own quarters, and the Báb retired.

Not long afterward Khadíjih Bagum saw Him get up and leave the room for the outer courtyard. A long time passed without His return, and she grew afraid. She got out of bed and went to look. The street door was still locked from the inside. He was not in His mother's room. Thoroughly bewildered now, she walked to the western part of the house and looked up at the upper chamber on the eastern wing, the room that served as His private quarters.

"It seemed as if a thousand lamps illumined the room." That surprised her further, since no guests were there who would need so many. Astonished, she climbed the steps and went in. The brilliance inside dazzled her, and there was only one lamp in the room.

The Báb was standing with His face toward the Qiblih and His hands raised to heaven, intoning a prayer. She could not put into words the majesty and radiance she then beheld in Him. Awe came over her. She stood fixed in place, shaking like a leaf, unable either to go back or to stay on her feet, and close to fainting. Then He moved His hand in a gesture telling her to go back, and that movement released her. She returned to the apartment and to bed.

She did not sleep. Every detail of the scene added to her alarm, and she felt like a wrongdoer waiting for an all-powerful sovereign to pass sentence on her. She was still awake when the muadhdhin's call to morning prayer sounded from the mosque next to the house.

After the call He came downstairs, and when she saw His face, awe and perplexity took hold of her. He no longer seemed to her the Person she had lived with. She did not dare to speak. As the sun was rising she got up, made her ablutions, and said the obligatory prayer.

Fiddih made the tea in His mother's room, as she did every day, and told them it was ready, and Khadíjih Bagum went there with Him. He drank some tea, while her perplexity and guessing grew with each moment. Then with His own hand He poured a cup and passed it to her. With a smile she called heavenly, He asked what was troubling her, and said she was distraught. The tea calmed her somewhat. She asked Him what exalted state it was that she had witnessed in His room the night before.

He answered that she had come at an extraordinary and untimely hour, but that it was the will of God that she should see it with her own eyes. She was to know for certain, He said, that at that very moment the one exalted God had appointed Him to guide these servants. He was the Promised One they had been expecting, whose appearance they had begged of the Almighty for twelve hundred and sixty years. He had been appointed for the salvation of the people.

When she heard this she kissed His knees and became a believer. She bowed down in prostration and gave thanks aloud to God for enabling her to recognize Him. Mírzá Habíbu'lláh Afnán records that she was the first woman to believe in the Báb. In The Dawn-Breakers Nabíl also writes of her that she saw the glory of His Mission from the first dawn of His Revelation. He adds that the Báb gave her a special prayer to recite before sleep in her hours of perplexity, and that each time she turned to Him in prayer, His guidance lit her way and resolved her difficulties.

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see The Genesis of the Bábí-Bahá'í Faiths in Shíráz and Fárs, chapter 3, and The Dawn-Breakers, chapter 9.

Afnán, M. H.. (2008). *The Genesis of the Bábí-Bahá'í Faiths in Shíráz and Fárs*. Brill. https://bahai-library.org/pdf/a/afnan_rabbani_genesis_faiths.pdf