Quddús, the Last Point

A retelling drawn from The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi, together with the titles recorded in God Passes By. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those two books.

Quddús came from Bárfurúsh in Mázindarán. At eighteen he left his home town for Karbilá, where he studied for about four years under Siyyid Káẓim. Nabíl writes that he was the last to arrive at each lesson, always took the lowliest seat, and was the first to leave. His silence and modesty set him apart from the other students.

In Shíráz, the Báb told Mullá Ḥusayn one night that seventeen Letters of the Living had enrolled and that the last would arrive the next day. The following evening, as the Báb and Mullá Ḥusayn were walking home, a young man, travel-worn and dishevelled, came up and embraced Mullá Ḥusayn. When Mullá Ḥusayn tried to calm him, he fixed his eyes on the Báb and said: "Why seek you to hide Him from me? I can recognise Him by His gait." He was Quddús, the eighteenth Letter of the Living. He was twenty-two years old.

When the Báb set out on His pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, He told Mullá Ḥusayn: "As to Myself, I shall, accompanied by Quddus and My Ethiopian servant, proceed on My pilgrimage to Hijaz."

Shoghi Effendi, in God Passes By, lists the honours given to Quddús. The Báb "immortalized" him as Ismu'lláhi'l-Ákhir, "the Last Name of God." Bahá'u'lláh, in the Tablet of Kullu't-Ṭa'ám, gave him the title Nuqṭiy-i-Ukhrá, "the Last Point," and in another Tablet raised him to "a rank second to none except that of the Herald of His Revelation." 'Abdu'l-Bahá called him the "Moon of Guidance."

After the gathering at Badasht, Quddús fell into the hands of his opponents and was confined in Sárí, in the home of Mírzá Muḥammad-Taqí, the leading mujtahid of the town and a relative of his. The confinement lasted ninety-five days. Nabíl records that Quddús "was treated with marked deference" and was allowed to receive visitors, whom he urged to join Mullá Ḥusayn.

Mírzá Muḥammad-Taqí asked him to write a commentary on the Súrih of Ikhláṣ. In his interpretation of the letter Ṣád of the word Ṣamad alone, Quddús "composed... a treatise which was thrice as voluminous as the Qur'án itself." Nabíl adds: "That exhaustive and masterly exposition had profoundly impressed Mírzá Muḥammad-Taqí and had been responsible for the marked consideration which he showed towards Quddús, although in the end he joined the Sa'ídu'l-'Ulamá' in compassing the death of the heroic martyrs of Shaykh Ṭabarsí."

At that time Mullá Ḥusayn and his companions were at the shrine of Shaykh Ṭabarsí. Bahá'u'lláh visited them there and told Mullá Ḥusayn that the company needed the presence of Quddús. At His instruction Mullá Ḥusayn sent Mullá Mihdíy-i-Khu'í and six others to Sárí to ask for Quddús's release. The mujtahid agreed at once, saying he had regarded Quddús "only as an honoured guest in my house."

Quddús joined the companions at Ṭabarsí, and there, under siege, he went on with his commentary. Nabíl writes that he "was able, despite the vehemence of the enemy's onslaught, to pen as many verses as he had previously written in Sárí in his interpretation of that same letter. The rapidity and copiousness of his composition, the inestimable treasures which his writings revealed, filled his companions with wonder and justified his leadership in their eyes. They read eagerly the pages of that commentary which Mullá Ḥusayn brought to them each day and to which he paid his share of tribute."

In 1849, about five years after he recognised the Báb, Quddús was put to death by his enemies in the Sabzih-Maydán of his native Bárfurúsh. Nabíl records that the Báb and, later, Bahá'u'lláh mourned his loss in many Tablets and prayers.

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

Nabíl-i-A'ẓam. (1932). *The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://bahai-library.com/nabil_dawnbreakers