Shaykh Ḥasan and the Promised Ḥusayn

A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers, Nabíl's chronicle of the early days of the Faith, as translated by Shoghi Effendi, which records Shaykh Ḥasan's own account. Words in quotation marks are quoted from that book.

Shaykh Ḥasan-i-Zunúzí was a disciple of Siyyid Káẓim in Karbilá. There, several times, he watched a Youth from Shíráz praying at the doorway of the shrine of the Imám Ḥusayn, so absorbed in His devotions that He seemed unaware of anyone around Him. Years later, when he heard that a Youth of Shíráz had proclaimed Himself the Báb, Shaykh Ḥasan was sure this was the same Youth he had seen in Karbilá.

He travelled to Shíráz, met the Báb on His return from pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, and stayed close to Him from then on. When the Báb was imprisoned in the fortress of Máh-Kú, Shaykh Ḥasan transcribed the verses He dictated to His amanuensis.

When news came of the struggle at the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, the Báb told His companions to go and help Quddús. To Shaykh Ḥasan He gave a different instruction: "Participation in that struggle is not enjoined upon you. You should proceed to Karbila and should abide in that holy city, inasmuch as you are destined to behold, with your own eyes, the beauteous countenance of the promised Husayn. As you gaze upon that radiant face, do also remember Me. Convey to Him the expression of My loving devotion." He added: "Verily I say, I have entrusted you with a great mission. Beware lest your heart grow faint, lest you forget the glory with which I have invested you."

Shaykh Ḥasan went to Karbilá and lived there as he had been told. So that his long stay would not arouse suspicion, he married, and he earned his living as a scribe. The Shaykhís of the city, who had failed to recognize the Báb, treated him with contempt, and he bore it patiently. He shared the Báb's promise with no one. He took it to refer to some remote future.

Two years passed, and the Báb was martyred in Tabríz. Sixteen lunar months less twenty-two days after the martyrdom, on the day of 'Arafih in the year 1267 A.H. (1851), Shaykh Ḥasan was passing the gate of the inner courtyard of the shrine of the Imám Ḥusayn when he saw Bahá'u'lláh for the first time. He was by then, in his own words, "an old man, bowed with age."

Bahá'u'lláh came towards him, took him by the hand and said: "This very day I have purposed to make you known as a Babi throughout Karbila." Still holding his hand, He walked with him the length of the market-street, talking with him, and at the end He said: "Praise be to God that you have remained in Karbila, and have beheld with your own eyes the countenance of the promised Husayn."

At once Shaykh Ḥasan remembered the Báb's words. He longed to proclaim then and there the advent of the promised Ḥusayn, but Bahá'u'lláh told him to hold back. "Not yet," He whispered; "the appointed Hour is approaching. It has not yet struck. Rest assured and be patient."

Shaykh Ḥasan was so poor in those days that he was often hungry. "I felt so rich, however," he recalled, "that all the treasures of the earth melted away into nothingness when compared with that which I already possessed."

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

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/