The Báb's Brave Young Friend
Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation, (1932), Bahá'í Publishing Trust · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
A retelling for children, based on The Dawn-Breakers, the history written by Nabíl, of the morning of July 9, 1850, in the city of Tabríz.
In the city of Tabríz there lived a young man who loved the Báb with his whole heart. His name was Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alí, and the Báb had given him a special new name: Anís, which means Companion.
Anís knew that the Báb was in great danger. Soldiers had been told to take the Báb's life, simply because of what He taught. Most people, if they had been Anís, would have wanted to run far, far away to somewhere safe.
But Anís did not want to be safe without the Báb. Again and again, he asked to share whatever happened to his beloved Teacher. He did not want to be anywhere else in the whole world.
On that morning, the soldiers gathered in a big open square. The man in charge of them was a colonel named Sám Khán. Anís came up to Sám Khán with one brave, surprising wish. He did not ask to be spared. Instead, he asked to be placed in front — so that if anything came toward the Báb, it would have to pass through Anís first. He wanted his own self to be like a shield for the One he loved.
And so the two were lifted up together, side by side, and Anís rested his head against the Báb. Imagine that — of all the places he could have been, the young companion was exactly where he had begged to be: right beside his Master.
Something happened that morning that the watching crowd could not explain, and that people still wonder at today. After the first great noise in the square, the smoke cleared — and there stood Anís, alive and unhurt, while the Báb was nowhere to be seen.
The soldiers rushed everywhere, searching. At last they found the Báb back in the very room where He had been the night before, calmly finishing a conversation He had begun with His helper, Siyyid Ḥusayn. Earlier, when the soldiers had first come to take Him away, the Báb had told them that no power on earth could stop Him until He had finished saying everything He had to say. Now that His words were finished, He rose and walked back out to where Anís was waiting.
When Sám Khán saw all of this, he would not go on. He took his soldiers and walked away. Other soldiers were brought in instead. And before that final moment, the Báb spoke to the great crowd that was watching. He told them that this young man, Anís, had shown the kind of love and faith that all of them should have had — that if they had truly believed, every one of them would have wanted to follow his brave example.
That day, the Báb and His faithful young companion gave their lives together, just as Anís had always wished.
It is one of the most important and tender stories Bahá'ís remember. It teaches us what real love and real courage look like. Anís was not famous or powerful. He was simply a young person who loved with his whole heart, and who chose to stay close to what was good and true, no matter the cost.
This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "'Anís at the Báb's Side: The Martyrdom in Tabríz".
Cite this story
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/
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