The Second Who Believed

A retelling for children, based on the account of Mullá ‘Alíy-i-Basṭámí in Bahá'í Chronicles (drawn from Moojan Momen's article in the Bahá'í Encyclopedia Project). The Báb's words to him are from Nabíl's The Dawn-Breakers*.*

Mullá ‘Alí was born in a village near the town of Basṭám in Persia. He went to school in Basṭám, married there, and had children. Later he studied in the city of Mashhad, where he was known for his sincerity and for the care with which he looked into religious questions.

In Mashhad he learned about the Shaykhí school and its leader, Siyyid Káẓim, who taught that the Promised One would soon appear. Mullá ‘Alí left his home and family and went to Karbilá, in Iraq, to study with him.

After seven years, his father and other relatives, unhappy that he had been away so long, came to Karbilá and asked Siyyid Káẓim to let him go home. But Mullá ‘Alí could not settle down in village life. Less than two years later he was back in Karbilá.

At the end of 1843 Siyyid Káẓim died. He had not named anyone to follow him; he had only hinted that the one his students were waiting for was near. Some of them, Mullá ‘Alí and Mullá Ḥusayn among them, went to the mosque of Kúfa for forty days of fasting and prayer. Then they set out to search.

Mullá ‘Alí reached Shíráz a short time after Mullá Ḥusayn had found the Báb and become His first disciple. When Mullá ‘Alí realized that Mullá Ḥusayn had found what they were all looking for, he went apart to fast and pray for guidance, and in a vision he was led to the Báb. The Báb called him "the Second Who Believed" and named him one of the eighteen Letters of the Living, His first disciples.

The Báb then gave him a hard task: to go to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbilá, where the leading Shí‘ih clergy lived, and to announce that the Promised One had appeared, without yet saying who He was. The Báb told him that trials lay ahead and asked him to stay steadfast to the end. "You are the first to leave the House of God, and to suffer for His sake," He said.

In Najaf, Mullá ‘Alí gave the Báb's message to the most important cleric of the day. The man rejected it at once, and Mullá ‘Alí was driven out of the city. In Karbilá many people accepted the message, and the stir was so great that the clergy had him arrested. He was taken to Baghdád, and in January 1845 he was tried before a court of Sunní and Shí‘ih clergy.

From Baghdád he was sent to Istanbul. There he was questioned again, and he said openly that he believed in the Báb's message. He was sentenced to hard labor for life in the naval dockyards outside the city. He died there at the end of 1846, the first Bábí to die for his faith.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Mullá ‘Alíy-i-Bastamí".

editors, B. C.. *Bahá'í Chronicles*. https://bahaichronicles.org/mulla-ali-bastami/