We are struck with wonder as we contemplate the super-human prowess
of Mullá Ḥusayn which enabled him, notwithstanding his fragile frame and
trembling hand, to slay a treacherous foe who had taken shelter behind a
tree, by cleaving with a single stroke of his sword the tree, the man and
his musket in twain. We are stirred, moreover, by the scene of the arrival
of Bahá’u’lláh at the Fort, and the indefinable joy it imparted to Mullá
Ḥusayn, the reverent reception accorded Him by His fellow-disciples, His
inspection of the fortifications which they had hurriedly erected for
their protection, and the advice He gave them, which resulted in the
miraculous deliverance of Quddús, in his subsequent and close association
with the defenders of that Fort, and in his effective participation in the
exploits connected with its siege and eventual destruction. We are amazed
at the serenity and sagacity of that same Quddús, the confidence he
instilled on his arrival, the resourcefulness he displayed, the fervor and
gladness with which the besieged listened, at morn and at even-tide, to
the voice intoning the verses of his celebrated commentary on the Sád of
Samad, to which he had already, while in Sarí, devoted a treatise thrice
as voluminous as the Qur’án itself, and which he was now, despite the
tumultuary attacks of the enemy and the privations he and his companions
were enduring, further elucidating by adding to that interpretation as
many verses as he had previously written. We remember with thrilling
hearts that memorable encounter when, at the cry “Mount your steeds, O
heroes of God!” Mullá Ḥusayn, accompanied by two hundred and two of the
beleaguered and sorely-distressed companions, and preceded by Quddús,
emerged before daybreak from the Fort, and, raising the shout of “Yá
Sáhibu’z-Zamán!”, rushed at full charge towards the stronghold of the
Prince, and penetrated to his private apartments, only to find that, in
his consternation, he had thrown himself from a back window into the moat,
and escaped bare-footed, leaving his host confounded and routed. We see
relived in poignant memory that last day of Mullá Ḥusayn’s earthly life,
when, soon after midnight, having performed his ablutions, clothed himself
in new garments, and attired his head with the Báb’s turban, he mounted
his charger, ordered the gate of the Fort to be opened, rode out at the
head of three hundred and thirteen of his companions, shouting aloud “Yá
Sáhibu’z-Zamán!”, charged successively the seven barricades erected by the
enemy, captured every one of them, notwithstanding the bullets that were
raining upon him, swiftly dispatched their defenders, and had scattered
their forces when, in the ensuing tumult, his steed became suddenly
entangled in the rope of a tent, and before he could extricate himself he
was struck in the breast by a bullet which the cowardly Abbás-Qulí
_Kh_án-i-Laríjání had discharged, while lying in ambush in the branches of
a neighboring tree.
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