The Scroll Delivered at Dawn

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 quoted from that book, except for one passage from Shoghi Effendi's God Passes By, which is named where it appears.

Before Mullá Ḥusayn left Shíráz in 1844, the Báb told him to travel north, visiting Iṣfahán, Káshán and Qum on his way to Ṭihrán. Of the capital He said:

A secret lies hidden in that city. When made manifest, it shall turn the earth into paradise. My hope is that you may partake of its grace and recognise its splendour.

In Ṭihrán Mullá Ḥusayn lodged in a room of the madrisih of Mírzá Ṣáliḥ. The leader of the Shaykhí community of the city, Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad-i-Khurásání, taught in that school. Mullá Ḥusayn put the new Message to him, and he rejected it. After that Mullá Ḥusayn left his room early each morning and came back only an hour after sunset.

The student from Núr

Nabíl heard what followed from Mírzá Músá, the brother of Bahá'u'lláh, who had it from Mullá Muḥammad-i-Mu'allim, a native of Núr in Mázindarán. He was one of Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad's favoured disciples, and his room adjoined his teacher's. On the day of the discussion he overheard every word, and was "deeply affected by the ardour, the fluency, and learning of that youthful stranger." He was equally surprised at "the evasive answers, the arrogance, and contemptuous behaviour" of his own teacher.

At midnight he went and knocked at Mullá Ḥusayn's door. He found him awake, seated beside his lamp. Mullá Ḥusayn received him affectionately and spoke to him "with extreme courtesy and tenderness." The student opened his heart, and as he spoke he wept. "I can now see," Mullá Ḥusayn said, "the reason why I have chosen to dwell in this place. Your teacher has contemptuously rejected this Message and despised its Author. My hope is that his pupil may, unlike his master, recognise its truth."

Learning that the student came from Núr, Mullá Ḥusayn asked whether anyone of the family of the late Mírzá Buzurg-i-Núrí was maintaining the high traditions of that house. Yes, the student answered: among his sons now living, one had "distinguished Himself by the very traits which characterised His father."

"What is His occupation?" Mullá Ḥusayn asked.

"He cheers the disconsolate and feeds the hungry."

"What of His rank and position?"

"He has none," the student said, "apart from befriending the poor and the stranger."

Mullá Ḥusayn asked His name, and was told Ḥusayn-'Alí. He asked which of His father's scripts He excelled in; it was shikastih-nasta'líq. He asked how He spent His time. "He roams the woods and delights in the beauties of the countryside." And His age? "Eight and twenty."

The student was surprised by the eagerness of these questions and by the delight with which Mullá Ḥusayn received every answer. "I presume you often meet Him?" Mullá Ḥusayn asked. The student said that he frequently visited His home. "Will you," said Mullá Ḥusayn, "deliver into His hands a trust from me?" Then he gave him a scroll wrapped in a piece of cloth, and asked him to hand it to Him the next day at the hour of dawn.

At the house of Bahá'u'lláh

At break of day the student went to the house of Bahá'u'lláh. Mírzá Músá was standing at the gate. He went in and came back with a message of welcome, and the student was brought into Bahá'u'lláh's presence. He gave the scroll to Mírzá Músá, who laid it before Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'u'lláh asked them both to sit, unfolded the scroll, and began to read passages of it aloud. When He had read a page, He turned to His brother:

Músá, what have you to say? Verily I say, whoso believes in the Qur'án and recognises its Divine origin, and yet hesitates, though it be for a moment, to admit that these soul-stirring words are endowed with the same regenerating power, has most assuredly erred in his judgment and has strayed far from the path of justice.

He said nothing more. He sent the student back to Mullá Ḥusayn with a gift, a loaf of Russian sugar and a package of tea, both then very rare in Persia, together with the expression of His appreciation and love.

When the student delivered the gift, Mullá Ḥusayn stood up, received it with bowed head and kissed it. Then he embraced the student and kissed his eyes. The student could not understand why a man who cared nothing for the pomp of royalty should be so moved by "so inconsiderable a gift." A few days later, as Mullá Ḥusayn left for Khurásán, he told him: "Breathe not to anyone what you have heard and witnessed. Let this be a secret hidden within your breast. Divulge not His name, for they who envy His position will arise to harm Him."

Shoghi Effendi, in God Passes By, describes Bahá'u'lláh as the One Who, "scarce three months after the Faith was born, received, through the envoy of the Báb, Mullá Husayn, the scroll which bore to Him the first tidings of a newly announced Revelation," and "instantly acclaimed its truth."

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see The Dawn-Breakers by Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, chapters 3 and 4.

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/