Mullá Ḥusayn's Search for the Promised One

A retelling based on The Dawn-Breakers, Nabíl's narrative of the early days of the Faith, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi. Words in quotation marks are from that book.

Mullá Ḥusayn-i-Bushrú'í was one of the foremost disciples of Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí, the teacher at Karbilá who, like Shaykh Aḥmad before him, prepared his students for the coming of the Promised One. A note in The Dawn-Breakers quotes the French writer Gobineau, who described Mullá Ḥusayn as "a man whose great learning and strength of character were acknowledged even by his enemies," and whose progress in theology and jurisprudence "had won him no little consideration."

Siyyid Káẓim died while Mullá Ḥusayn was away on a mission for him. Mullá Ḥusayn returned to Karbilá on the first day of Muḥarram 1260 A.H. (22 January 1844). For three days he received mourners. Then he called together a group of his most trusted fellow-disciples and asked what their teacher's last wishes had been. They told him that Siyyid Káẓim had repeatedly bidden them "quit their homes, scatter far and wide, purge their hearts from every idle desire, and dedicate themselves to the quest of Him to whose advent he had so often alluded." He had told them that the Object of their quest was now revealed: "The veils that intervened between you and Him are such as only you can remove by your devoted search. Nothing short of prayerful endeavour, of purity of motive, of singleness of mind, will enable you to tear them asunder."

Mullá Ḥusayn asked why, then, they were still in Karbilá. They answered: "We acknowledge our failure; to your greatness we all bear witness. Such is our confidence in you, that if you claim to be the promised One, we shall all readily and unquestionably submit."

"God forbid!" he exclaimed. "Far be it from His glory that I, who am but dust, should be compared to Him who is the Lord of Lords! Had you been conversant with the tone and language of Siyyid Kazim, you never would have uttered such words. Your first obligation, as well as mine, is to arise and carry out, both in the spirit and in the letter, the dying message of our beloved chief."

He went at once to other leading disciples and urged the same duty on them. They "returned evasive and unworthy answers." One said they must remain and "guard the vacant seat of our departed chief"; another, that he must stay and care for the children the Siyyid had left behind. Mullá Ḥusayn "spoke to them no more."

With his brother, Muḥammad-Ḥasan, and his nephew, Muḥammad-Báqir, he set out from Karbilá for Najaf. At the Masjid-i-Kúfih he decided to spend forty days in retirement and prayer. "By his fasts and vigils," Nabíl writes, "he prepared himself for the holy adventure upon which he was soon to embark." His brother joined him in worship; his nephew attended to their daily needs, observed the fasts, and joined their devotions in his hours of leisure. After a few days Mullá 'Alíy-i-Basṭámí, another of Siyyid Káẓim's foremost disciples, arrived with twelve companions. He was so learned that many regarded him as even superior to Mullá Ḥusayn. He wanted to ask Mullá Ḥusayn where he meant to go, but each time he found him "so wrapt in his devotions" that he could not put the question, and he decided to retire for forty days himself.

When the forty days were over, Mullá Ḥusayn visited the shrine at Najaf and went on to Búshihr, on the Persian Gulf. There, Nabíl writes, "for the first time, he inhaled the fragrance of Him who, for years, had led in that city the life of a merchant and humble citizen." He could not stay. "Drawn as if by a magnet," he went north to Shíráz.

At the city gate he sent his brother and nephew ahead to the Masjid-i-Ílkhání, hoping to join them for the evening prayer. A few hours before sunset, while he was walking outside the gate, he was met by "a Youth of radiant countenance, who wore a green turban," who greeted him "with a smile of loving welcome" and embraced him "as though he had been his intimate and lifelong friend." Mullá Ḥusayn at first took Him for a disciple of Siyyid Káẓim who had come out to welcome him. The Youth invited him to His home. When Mullá Ḥusayn asked to be excused because his companions were waiting for him, He replied: "Commit them to the care of God; He will surely protect and watch over them."

About an hour after sunset his Host asked him whom he regarded as Siyyid Káẓim's successor, and whether his teacher had described the promised One. Mullá Ḥusayn gave the signs he had been taught: "He is of a pure lineage, is of illustrious descent, and of the seed of Fatimih. As to His age, He is more than twenty and less than thirty. He is endowed with innate knowledge. He is of medium height, abstains from smoking, and is free from bodily deficiency." His Host paused, then declared: "Behold, all these signs are manifest in Me!"

Mullá Ḥusayn had set himself two tests for anyone who claimed to be the Promised One. The first was a treatise he had written on the teachings of Shaykh Aḥmad and Siyyid Káẓim. His Host opened it, glanced at certain passages and within a few minutes "unravelled all its mysteries and resolved all its problems." He went on to expound truths Mullá Ḥusayn had never heard before, and said: "Do not the peoples of the earth testify that the fundamental purpose of their creation is the knowledge and adoration of God? It behoves them to arise, as earnestly and spontaneously as you have arisen, and to seek with determination and constancy their promised Beloved."

The second test was a commentary on the Súrih of Joseph. Mullá Ḥusayn had once asked Siyyid Káẓim to write one, and his teacher had refused: "This is, verily, beyond me. He, that great One, who comes after me will, unasked, reveal it for you." Now his Host said: "Now is the time to reveal the commentary on the Surih of Joseph." He took up His pen and, without once pausing, revealed the Súrih of Mulk, the first chapter of that commentary.

That night was the eve of the fifth day of Jamádiyu'l-Avval 1260 A.H., 22 May 1844. His Host was the Báb. "This night," He told Mullá Ḥusayn, "this very hour will, in the days to come, be celebrated as one of the greatest and most significant of all festivals."

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

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/