The Báb: The Herald of the Day of DaysBalyuzi, H. M.
Religion
The Báb: The Herald of the Day of Days
Balyuzi, H. M.
Bab, Ali Muhammad Shirazi, 1819-1850; Bahai Faith
Yet never had the martyrs of Zanján sought a holy war, nor
contemplated disloyalty to their country and sovereign. Assailed by
enemies who purposed only their destruction, they had courageously
defended themselves. The spirit of their defence shines in these words
of Ḥujjat in his last days:
The day whereon I found Thy beloved One, O my God, and
recognised in Him the Manifestation of Thy eternal Spirit, I
foresaw the woes that I should suffer for Thee.... Would
that a myriad lives were mine, would that I possessed the
riches of the whole earth and its glory, that I might resign
them all freely and joyously in Thy path.[27]
On January 6th 1851 Sheil closed his reports on Zanján:
For the present, the doctrines of Bâb have received a
check--In every part of Persia his disciples have been
crushed or scattered--But though there is a cessation of
the open promulgation of his tenets, it is believed that in
secret they are not the less cherished....[28]
The Dawn-Breakers had paid dearly with their lives that the Faith of
the Báb might live on. And it did live on, to attain its efflorescence
in the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh.
EPILOGUE
_I am the Primal Point from which have been generated all
created things.... I am the Countenance of God Whose
splendour can never be obscured, the Light of God Whose
radiance can never fade.... I am one of the sustaining
pillars of the Primal Word of God. Whosoever hath recognised
Me, hath known all that is true and right, and hath attained
all that is good and seemly._
--The Báb
On the third day after the martyrdom of the Báb, His remains,
inextricably united with those of His heroic, faithful disciple, were
placed in a casket and taken to a locality which was safe and secure.
What happened, during the next fifty years, to the remains of the Báb
cannot be better summarized than in the words of Shoghi Effendi, the
Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith:
Subsequently, according to Bahá'u'lláh's instructions, they
were transported to Ṭihrán and placed in the shrine of
Imám-Zádih Ḥasan. They were later removed to the
residence of Ḥájí Sulaymán [_Kh_]án[FN] himself in the
Sar-[_Ch_]a[_sh_]mih quarter of the city, and from his house
were taken to the shrine of Imám-Zádih Ma`ṣúm, where they
remained concealed until the year 1284 A.H. (1867-1868),
when a Tablet, revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in Adrianople,
directed Mullá `Alí-Akbar-i-[_Sh_]ahmírzádí[FO] and
Jamál-i-Burújirdí to transfer them without delay to some
other spot, an instruction which, in view of the subsequent
reconstruction of that shrine, proved to have been
providential.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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