Mullá Ḥusayn, the Gate of the Gate

A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers, Nabíl's narrative of the early days of the Faith, translated by Shoghi Effendi. The words in quotation marks are preserved in that history, except where another source is named.

Mullá Ḥusayn of Bushrúyih, in Khurásán, was a disciple of Siyyid Káẓim of Rasht. Nabíl records that at the hour of his death Siyyid Káẓim urged his followers to leave their homes and scatter in search of the Promised One. Mullá Ḥusayn first spent forty days in retirement and prayer at the Masjid-i-Kúfih, preparing himself by fasting and vigils. Then he set out, and his search brought him to Shíráz.

There, a few hours before sunset, as he walked outside the city gate, a Youth of radiant countenance, wearing a green turban, came towards him, greeted him with a smile, and embraced him "as though he had been his intimate and lifelong friend." The Youth took him to His home.

That evening Mullá Ḥusayn described to his Host the signs of the Promised One that his teacher had given: of pure lineage and of the seed of Fáṭimih, more than twenty and less than thirty years of age, endowed with innate knowledge. The Báb replied, "Behold, all these signs are manifest in Me!" Mullá Ḥusayn then asked Him to look at a treatise he had written. "Within a few minutes," he later recalled, the Báb "had, with characteristic vigour and charm, unravelled all its mysteries and resolved all its problems." Then He took up His pen and, with incredible rapidity, revealed the first chapter of His commentary on the Súrih of Joseph.

The night was the eve of 23 May 1844. Mullá Ḥusayn remained until dawn. In the course of that night the Báb addressed him:

O thou who art the first to believe in Me! Verily I say, I am the Báb, the Gate of God, and thou art the Bábu'l-Báb, the gate of that Gate.

He told him that eighteen souls must, of their own accord, find Him and recognise Him, and He charged Mullá Ḥusayn not to divulge to anyone what he had seen and heard. One by one the others came, and together these eighteen became the Letters of the Living.

When it was time for Mullá Ḥusayn to leave Shíráz, the Báb told him not to grieve that he had not been chosen to go with Him on His pilgrimage to Mecca. Instead He would direct his steps to a city "which enshrines a Mystery of such transcendent holiness as neither Hijaz nor Shiraz can hope to rival." "Visit, on your way," He said, "Isfahan, Kashan, Tihran, and Khurasan."

In Tihrán, Mullá Ḥusayn met Mullá Muḥammad-i-Mu'allim, a native of Núr, and questioned him closely about a son of the late Mírzá Buzurg of Núr. Then he gave him a scroll wrapped in cloth, asking him to deliver it into that Person's hands at dawn. The Person was Bahá'u'lláh. Mullá Muḥammad recalled that Bahá'u'lláh read a page of it aloud and then sent back to Mullá Ḥusayn, as a gift, a loaf of Russian sugar and a package of tea, with the expression of His appreciation and love. Mullá Ḥusayn received the gift with bowed head and kissed it. A few days later he left for Khurásán.

Some years later, while Mullá Ḥusayn was in Mashhad, the Báb sent him His own green turban with the message: "Adorn your head with My green turban, the emblem of My lineage, and, with the Black Standard unfurled before you, hasten to the Jaziriy-i-Khadra, and lend your assistance to My beloved Quddus." Mullá Ḥusayn raised the Black Standard outside Mashhad and set out for Mázindarán with his companions. In the forest there, at the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, they were besieged by government troops. Mullá Ḥusayn fell during a sortie from the fort.

When news of what had befallen the defenders of Ṭabarsí reached the Báb in His prison at Chihríq, His amanuensis recorded that He was crushed with grief: "For nine days He refused to meet any of His friends." When at last He took up His pen again, the first page He wrote was dedicated to the memory of Mullá Ḥusayn. In the visiting Tablet revealed in his honour He praised his fidelity to Quddús throughout the siege.

Bahá'u'lláh later wrote of him in the Kitáb-i-Íqán: "Among them was Mullá Husayn, who became the recipient of the effulgent glory of the Sun of divine Revelation. But for him, God would not have been established upon the seat of His mercy, nor ascended the throne of eternal glory."

This is a retelling. For the full account, see The Dawn-Breakers, Nabíl's narrative, translated by Shoghi Effendi.

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/