The confidence instilled in Mírzá Áqá Ján by this unexpected and sudden
contact with the spirit and directing genius of a new-born Revelation
stirred his soul to its depths—a soul already afire with a consuming love
born of his recognition of the ascendancy which his newly-found Master had
already achieved over His fellow-disciples in both ‘Iráq and Persia. This
intense adoration that informed his whole being, and which could neither
be suppressed nor concealed, was instantly detected by both Mírzá Yaḥyá
and his fellow-conspirator Siyyid Muḥammad. The circumstances leading to
the revelation of the Tablet of Kullu’t-Tá’am, written during that period,
at the request of Ḥájí Mírzá Kamálu’d-Dín-i-Naráqí, a Bábí of honorable
rank and high culture, could not but aggravate a situation that had
already become serious and menacing. Impelled by a desire to receive
illumination from Mírzá Yaḥyá concerning the meaning of the Qur’ánic verse
“All food was allowed to the children of Israel,” Ḥájí Mírzá Kamálu’d-Dín
had requested him to write a commentary upon it—a request which was
granted, but with reluctance and in a manner which showed such
incompetence and superficiality as to disillusion Ḥájí Mírzá Kamálu’d-Dín,
and to destroy his confidence in its author. Turning to Bahá’u’lláh and
repeating his request, he was honored by a Tablet, in which Israel and his
children were identified with the Báb and His followers respectively—a
Tablet which by reason of the allusions it contained, the beauty of its
language and the cogency of its argument, so enraptured the soul of its
recipient that he would have, but for the restraining hand of Bahá’u’lláh,
proclaimed forthwith his discovery of God’s hidden Secret in the person of
the One Who had revealed it.
To these evidences of an ever deepening veneration for Bahá’u’lláh and of
a passionate attachment to His person were now being added further grounds
for the outbreak of the pent-up jealousies which His mounting prestige
evoked in the breasts of His ill-wishers and enemies. The steady extension
of the circle of His acquaintances and admirers; His friendly intercourse
with officials including the governor of the city; the unfeigned homage
offered Him, on so many occasions and so spontaneously, by men who had
once been distinguished companions of Siyyid Kázim; the disillusionment
which the persistent concealment of Mírzá Yaḥyá, and the unflattering
reports circulated regarding his character and abilities, had engendered;
the signs of increasing independence, of innate sagacity and inherent
superiority and capacity for leadership unmistakably exhibited by
Bahá’u’lláh Himself—all combined to widen the breach which the infamous
and crafty Siyyid Muḥammad had sedulously contrived to create.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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