A Trust Carried to Ṭihrán: The Báb's Gift Reaches Bahá'u'lláh

*A retelling based on **The Dawn-Breakers**, Nabíl's narrative of the early days of the Faith, as translated by Shoghi Effendi. The story preserves the account of Mullá Muḥammad-i-Mu'allim of Núr, as recorded in that history. Short phrases in quotation marks are words preserved there.*

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When the Báb sent out the Letters of the Living from Shíráz in 1844, He gave each a field of labour. To Mullá Ḥusayn, the first to believe, He entrusted a journey to the north — to Iṣfahán, to Káshán, and at last to Ṭihrán, the capital.

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And He laid upon him a charge of singular weight: in Ṭihrán there was a trust to be delivered, a portion of the Báb's own Writings to be placed in the hands of one whom the Báb knew but did not name to him. Mullá Ḥusayn was simply to go, and to be guided.

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The way the trust reached its destination was preserved by a man who lived through it — Mullá Muḥammad-i-Mu'allim, a native of Núr in the province of Mázindarán, a pupil in a Ṭihrán school and an admirer of the teachings of Shaykh Aḥmad and Siyyid Káẓim. His room adjoined that of his teacher, Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad, and one day Mullá Ḥusayn came to dispute with the teacher about the new Revelation.

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From beyond the wall the young pupil overheard the whole exchange, and was struck to the heart — by the ardour and learning of the youthful stranger, and by the arrogant, evasive answers of his own master. He concealed his feelings, but that night, drawn by an attraction he could not resist, he rose at the hour of midnight and went to knock at Mullá Ḥusayn's door.

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He found him awake beside his lamp. Mullá Ḥusayn received him with great tenderness and courtesy, and the young man poured out his heart until tears he could not check ran down his face. Mullá Ḥusayn told him that he now understood why he had been led to lodge in that very place: the teacher had despised the Message, but perhaps the pupil, unlike his master, would recognise its truth. He asked the young man's name and his home, and learned that he was Mullá Muḥammad, of Núr in Mázindarán.

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Then Mullá Ḥusayn's questions took a turn the young man did not expect. Was there today, he asked, among the family of the late Mírzá Buzurg-i-Núrí — a man once renowned for his character, his charm, and his attainments — anyone who upheld the high traditions of that illustrious house?

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Yes, the pupil answered: one of his sons living now had distinguished Himself by the very traits that had marked his father — by a virtuous life, by loving-kindness and liberality, a noble son of a noble father. And what, Mullá Ḥusayn asked, was His occupation? "He cheers the disconsolate and feeds the hungry," the young man replied. And His rank? He had none, the pupil said, apart from befriending the poor and the stranger. His name? Husayn-'Alí.

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How did He spend His days? He delighted in the beauty of the countryside. And His age? Eight and twenty.

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With each answer Mullá Ḥusayn's face shone with a deeper gladness, and the pupil marvelled at the eagerness with which he received every detail. The questions, he did not yet understand, were the very marks of recognition by which a Letter of the Living had been sent to find one soul in a city of thousands. At last Mullá Ḥusayn asked whether the young man often saw Him. "I frequently visit His home," he answered. Then came the request that gave the night its purpose:

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> Will you deliver into His hands a trust from me?

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The pupil promised that he would. Mullá Ḥusayn gave him a scroll wrapped in a piece of cloth, asking him to place it in those hands at the hour of dawn, and adding that should He deign to send a reply, the young man would be kind enough to bring word of it. Mullá Muḥammad took the scroll, and at break of day rose to carry out his charge — bearing the Writings of the Báb across the streets of Ṭihrán to the house of Bahá'u'lláh.

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Nabíl records the outcome. When the trust was delivered and Bahá'u'lláh had read the Báb's words, He affirmed at once the truth of the Message they contained, and sent back to Mullá Ḥusayn an answer that filled him with a joy beyond describing. Among the very first souls in the capital to embrace the new Revelation was the One whose own Revelation would, in the fullness of time, fulfil all that the Báb had come to herald.

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The Báb had sent His Writings north not to win an argument but to reach a destined heart — and that heart received them not with doubt but with recognition.

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This episode belongs to the Day of the Declaration because of what it reveals about the dawning of the Cause. From the first hour, the Báb spoke of Himself as the Gate to One greater who was to come. Here, in the opening months, that One quietly received the herald's gift and confirmed it — and a humble schoolteacher of Núr, who simply rose at midnight and answered an inner call, was made the bearer of a trust whose meaning the whole world would one day come to know.

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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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