Shaykh Ḥasan's Long Wait

A retelling for children, based on The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam (Chapter XXV — Bahá'u'lláh's Journey to Karbilá, and Shaykh Ḥasan's own account in Chapter II).

Shaykh Ḥasan was a follower of the Báb. While the Báb was a prisoner in the mountain castle of Máh-Kú, Shaykh Ḥasan copied out the verses He revealed. Later, at another castle called Chihríq, the Báb gave him a special task. He told Shaykh Ḥasan to go to the city of Karbilá and stay there, because one day he would see, with his own eyes, the face of the promised Ḥusayn. That was a name for the Promised One whose coming the Báb foretold.

Shaykh Ḥasan did as he was told. He moved to Karbilá, married, and earned his living copying out writings. Some people there treated him unkindly, but he stayed patient. He did not tell a single person about the Báb's promise. He waited for about three years, and by then he was an old man, bent with age.

In 1851 Bahá'u'lláh came to Karbilá. Some of the leading people there had become followers of a man whom they believed to be divine, but Bahá'u'lláh spoke with them so wisely and lovingly that they gave up those ideas.

One day Shaykh Ḥasan was passing the gate of the courtyard of the great shrine in Karbilá when he saw Bahá'u'lláh for the first time. He never forgot the beauty and kindness of His face and the sweetness of His smile. Bahá'u'lláh came straight towards him and took him by the hand. Still holding his hand, He walked with him all along the market street. At the end He said:

Praise be to God that you have remained in Karbilá, and have beheld with your own eyes the countenance of the promised Ḥusayn.

At once Shaykh Ḥasan remembered the Báb's promise. He had never told anyone about it.

Shaykh Ḥasan wanted to tell the whole city the news. But Bahá'u'lláh whispered to him that it was not yet time. The hour was coming, He said, but it had not yet struck. He must be patient.

So Shaykh Ḥasan kept the secret. He was so poor that he was often hungry, yet he said that from that moment all his sorrows vanished, and he felt richer than if he owned every treasure on earth.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "Shaykh Ḥasan Meets Bahá'u'lláh in Karbilá".

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/