Ṭáhirih's Letter to the Promised One

A retelling based on Nabíl's The Dawn-Breakers (chapter III and its notes), with details from 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Memorials of the Faithful and Shoghi Effendi's God Passes By. Words in quotation marks are from those books.

Ṭáhirih was born in Qazvín, the daughter of Ḥájí Mullá Ṣáliḥ, a leading mujtahid of that city. Her father chose a teacher for her while she was still a child, and her learning was such that he used to say: "Would that she had been a boy, for he would have shed illumination upon my household, and would have succeeded me!"

In the library of her cousin, Mullá Javád, she came upon the writings of Shaykh Aḥmad-i-Aḥsá'í. Her cousin warned her that her father was an enemy of Shaykh Aḥmad and his successor, Siyyid Káẓim, and would be furious. She answered: "For a long time now, I have thirsted after this." She read the books, argued with her father about them, and began a secret correspondence with Siyyid Káẓim on difficult questions of theology. In one reply he addressed her as "the solace of mine eyes," and from then on she was known as Qurratu'l-'Ayn.

She set out for Karbilá hoping to meet him, but he had died ten days before she arrived. Before his death he had told his disciples that the Promised One was at hand: "Go forth," he said, "and seek out your Lord." Some of them went into retreat to pray and fast; others waited in Karbilá. Ṭáhirih stayed there, fasting by day and keeping vigil at night.

One night, near dawn, she dreamed that a young Siyyid in a black cloak and a green turban stood in the heavens with His hands raised, reciting verses. She memorized one of them and wrote it in her notebook when she woke. Shoghi Effendi writes that it was through this dream that she received "the first intimation" of the new Faith.

When she learned that her sister's husband, Mírzá Muḥammad-'Alí of Qazvín, was leaving on the search, she gave him a sealed letter to deliver to the Promised One, whom, she said, he was sure to meet. She added a message to be given by word of mouth: "The effulgence of Thy face flashed forth, and the rays of Thy visage arose on high. Then speak the word, 'Am I not your Lord?' and 'Thou art, Thou art!' we will all reply."

He did find the Báb in Shíráz, recognized Him, and delivered both the letter and the message. "The Báb forthwith declared her one of the Letters of the Living." Of the eighteen, she was the only woman, and the only one who never came into the Báb's presence.

Later a copy of the Báb's first book, His commentary on the Súrih of Joseph, reached her. As she read it she came upon the very verse she had written down from her dream. 'Abdu'l-Bahá records that she at once fell to her knees and bowed her forehead to the ground, convinced that the Báb's message was the truth. She translated the book into Persian and began to teach it openly in Karbilá.

The name by which she is best known came later. It was first given to her at the gathering of Badasht in 1848, and when some of the believers complained to the Báb about her conduct there, He replied: "What am I to say regarding her whom the Tongue of Power and Glory has named Ṭáhirih?" Ṭáhirih means "the Pure One."

She was put to death in Ṭihrán in 1852. Shoghi Effendi records that she said to the man in whose custody she had been placed: "You can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women."

This is a retelling. For the full account, see Nabíl's The Dawn-Breakers, 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Memorials of the Faithful and Shoghi Effendi's God Passes By.

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/