Quddús, the Last Letter of the Living

*A retelling based on **The Dawn-Breakers**, Nabíl's narrative of the early days of the Faith, translated by Shoghi Effendi, with a passage from Shoghi Effendi's **God Passes By**. The narrative is in our own words; words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.*

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Mullá Muḥammad-'Alí of Bárfurúsh, in the province of Mázindarán, left his native town for Karbilá when he was eighteen, and for about four years he studied with Siyyid Káẓim. Shoghi Effendi describes him as "the erudite, the twenty-two year old Quddús, a direct descendant of the Imám Hasan and the most esteemed disciple of Siyyid Kázim."

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In Shíráz in 1844, seventeen seekers had already recognized the Báb and been named Letters of the Living. One night the Báb told Mullá Ḥusayn, the first of them: "Seventeen Letters have thus far enlisted under the standard of the Faith of God. There remains one more to complete the number." He added that the remaining Letter would arrive the next night.

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The next evening, as the Báb was walking home with Mullá Ḥusayn behind Him, a travel-stained youth came up to Mullá Ḥusayn, embraced him and asked whether he had found what he was seeking. Mullá Ḥusayn tried to calm him and promised to explain later. The young man looked at the Báb and said: "Why seek you to hide Him from me? I can recognise Him by His gait.

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I confidently testify that none besides Him, whether in the East or in the West, can claim to be the Truth." When Mullá Ḥusayn told the Báb what had happened, the Báb answered: "Marvel not at his strange behaviour. We have in the world of the spirit been communing with that youth. We know him already. We indeed awaited his coming."

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He was the eighteenth and last of the Letters of the Living. Shoghi Effendi calls him "the last, but in rank the first" of them.

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When the Báb sent the Letters out to teach, He told Mullá Ḥusayn that he had not been chosen to go with Him to the Ḥijáz, and said: "As to Myself, I shall, accompanied by Quddús and My Ethiopian servant, proceed on My pilgrimage to Ḥijáz." Quddús was the Báb's chosen companion on His pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. After the pilgrimage he was, with Mullá Ṣádiq and Mullá 'Alí-Akbar-i-Ardistání, the first to suffer persecution on Persian soil for the sake of the new Faith.

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The name by which he is remembered was given to him four years later. At the gathering of Badasht in the summer of 1848, Bahá'u'lláh gave each of the eighty-one believers a new name. Nabíl writes: "He Himself was henceforth designated by the name of Bahá; upon the Last Letter of the Living was conferred the appellation of Quddús, and to Qurratu'l-'Ayn was given the title of Táhirih." The name Quddús means Most Holy.

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The Báb then revealed a Tablet for each of those present, addressing each by the new name. The Báb also gave Quddús the title Ismu'lláhu'l-Akhar, the Last Name of God.

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Quddús later took a leading part in the defence of the fort of Shaykh Ṭabarsí. Nabíl records that five years after he recognized the Báb, in 1849, he was put to death in the Sabzih-Maydán of Bárfurúsh, the town where he was born. "The Báb and, at a later time, Bahá'u'lláh have mourned in unnumbered Tablets and prayers his loss," Nabíl writes.

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

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