Alone and on Foot

A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam. Words in quotation marks are quoted from that account.

The Báb had been sent as a prisoner to the castle of Chihríq, in Ádhirbáyján. The Grand Vazír, Ḥájí Mírzá Aqásí, had given the warden, Yaḥyá Khán, strict and explicit instructions that no one was to enter the presence of his Prisoner. He had been warned in particular not to follow the example of the warden of Máh-Kú, who had gradually come to disregard his orders.

Nabíl writes that Yaḥyá Khán, in the face of "the all-powerful Ḥájí Mírzá Aqásí", found himself "powerless to abide by those instructions". From the outset the love of the Báb took hold of his heart, and he refused admittance to no one. The Kurds who lived at Chihríq were also drawn to the Báb. Every morning, before starting their day's work, they walked towards the prison, gazed at the castle from a distance, invoked His name and prostrated themselves on the ground. Visitors came in such numbers that Chihríq could not house them, and they found lodgings in Iskí-Shahr, the old Chihríq, an hour's distance from the castle. Whatever the Báb needed was bought there and carried up to Him.

Some of the most eminent siyyids, 'ulamá and government officials of the nearby town of Khúy embraced His Cause, and a stream of seekers passed back and forth between Khúy and Chihríq. Nabíl says the government was alarmed by this, and alarmed further by the arrival of a dervish from India.

The dervish acknowledged the truth of the Báb's Mission as soon as they met, and the Báb named him Qahru'lláh. During his stay in Iskí-Shahr, Nabíl writes, all who met him "felt the warmth of his enthusiasm" and were impressed by "the tenacity of his conviction". A growing number of people acknowledged "the compelling power of his Faith", and a few of the believers came to regard him as an exponent of Divine Revelation. The dervish himself "altogether disclaimed such pretensions".

Qahru'lláh was often heard to tell how he had come: "In the days when I occupied the exalted position of a navvab in India, the Báb appeared to me in a vision. He gazed at me and won my heart completely. I arose, and had started to follow Him, when He looked at me intently and said: 'Divest yourself of your gorgeous attire, depart from your native land, and hasten on foot to meet Me in Ádhirbáyján. In Chihríq you will attain your heart's desire.' I followed His directions and have now reached my goal."

News of "the turmoil which that lowly dervish had been able to raise among the Kurdish leaders in Chihríq" reached Tabríz and was passed on to Ṭihrán. Orders were issued at once to move the Báb to Tabríz, in the hope of calming the excitement His presence had caused.

Before those orders reached Chihríq, the Báb told His disciple 'Aẓím to give Qahru'lláh a message: he was to return to India and devote his life there to the service of the Cause. "Alone and on foot," the Báb commanded, "he should return whence he came. With the same ardour and detachment with which he performed his pilgrimage to this country, he must now repair to his native land and unceasingly labour to advance the interests of the Cause."

Qahru'lláh set out to obey. To anyone who wanted to go with him he said: "You can never endure the trials of this journey. Abandon the thought of coming with me. You would surely perish on your way, inasmuch as the Báb has commanded me to return alone to my native land." Nabíl says that the force of his answer silenced those who asked.

He accepted neither money nor clothing from anyone. Alone, dressed in the poorest clothes, with a staff in his hand, he walked all the way back to his own country. Of what happened to him afterwards Nabíl writes only, "No one knows what ultimately befell him."

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, chapter XVII.

Nabíl-i-A'ẓam. (1932). *The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation*.