CHAPTER 3
ṬIHRÁN
Rejoice with great joy, for God hath made thee 'the Day-Spring of His light', inasmuch as within thee was born the Manifestation of His Glory. Be thou glad for this name that hath been conferred upon thee—a name through which the Day-Star of grace hath shed its splendour, through which both earth and heaven have been illumined.
—Bahá'u'lláh, addressing the city of Ṭihrán
... We stand, life in hand, wholly resigned to His will; that perchance, through God's loving kindness and His grace, this revealed and manifest Letter may lay down His life as a sacrifice in the path of the Primal Point,[AS] the most exalted Word.
—Bahá'u'lláh, from the Kitáb-i-Íqán
Mullá Ḥusayn was sorely disappointed when he realized that he was not to be the companion of the Báb, on His pilgrimage to Mecca. But for the man who was the first to find Him and believe in Him the Báb had marked out a task infinitely glorious. Mullá Ḥusayn was to go from Shíráz to Ṭihrán, where the fulfilment of that task awaited him. He had travelled to Shíráz on a quest. There he had reached its end, had found the Qá'im of the House of Muḥammad. Now he was to undertake another quest, and he was not entirely aware of the consequences that would attend its success. To him the Báb said:
In this pilgrimage upon which We are soon to embark, We have chosen Quddús as Our companion. We have left you behind to face the onslaught of a fierce and relentless enemy. Rest assured, however, that a bounty unspeakably glorious shall be conferred upon you. Follow the course of your journey towards the north, and visit on your way Iṣfahán, Káshán, Qum, and Ṭihrán. Beseech almighty Providence that He may graciously enable you to attain, in that capital, the seat of true sovereignty, and to enter the mansion of the Beloved. A secret lies hidden in that city. When made manifest, it shall turn the earth into paradise. My hope is that you may partake of its grace and recognise its splendour. From Ṭihrán proceed to Khurásán, and there proclaim anew the Call. From thence return to Najaf and Karbilá and there await the summons of your Lord. Be assured that the high mission for which you have been created will, in its entirety, be accomplished by you. Until you have consummated your work, if all the darts of an unbelieving world be directed against you, they will be powerless to hurt a single hair of your head.[1]
When the time came for Mullá Ḥusayn to leave Shíráz, the Báb told him:
Grieve not that you have not been chosen to accompany Me on My pilgrimage to Ḥijáz. I shall, instead, direct your steps to that city which enshrines a Mystery of such transcendent holiness as neither Ḥijáz nor Shíráz can hope to rival. My hope is that you may, by the aid of God, be enabled to remove the veils from the eyes of the wayward and to cleanse the minds of the malevolent. Visit, on your way, Iṣfahán, Káshán, Ṭihrán, and Khurásán. Proceed thence to `Iráq, and there await the summons of your Lord, who will keep watch over you and will direct you to whatsoever is His will and desire. As to Myself, I shall, accompanied by Quddús and My Ethiopian servant,[AT] proceed on My pilgrimage to Ḥijáz. I shall join the company of the pilgrims of Fárs, who will shortly be sailing for that land. I shall visit Mecca and Medina, and there fulfil the mission[AU] with which God has entrusted Me. God willing, I shall return hither by the way of Kúfih, in which place I hope to meet you. If it be decreed otherwise, I shall ask you to join Me in Shíráz. The hosts of the invisible Kingdom, be assured, will sustain and reinforce your efforts. The essence of power is now dwelling in you, and the company of His chosen angels revolves around you. His almighty arms will surround you, and His unfailing Spirit will ever continue to guide your steps. He that loves you, loves God; and whoever opposes you, has opposed God. Whoso befriends you, him will God befriend; and whoso rejects you, him will God reject.[2]
Mullá Ḥusayn was known in Iṣfahán, for there he had obtained testimonials from the great mujtahid, Ḥájí Siyyid Muḥammad-Báqir, in support of Siyyid Káẓim-i-Rashtí. That eminent divine was now dead, but his son, Ḥájí Siyyid Asadu'lláh, walking in the footsteps of his illustrious father, refused to associate himself with the adversaries of Mullá Ḥusayn. Another noted divine, Ḥájí Muḥammad-Ibráhím-i-Kalbásí, did likewise, and sternly admonished those who opposed Mullá Ḥusayn to cease their clamouring and investigate dispassionately whatever he was advocating. The Governor, Manúchihr Khán, the Mu`tamidu'd-Dawlih, similarly declined to heed their strictures.
The first person in Iṣfahán to embrace the new Faith was a youth, a sifter of wheat. The Báb immortalizes his memory in the Persian Bayán:[3]
Iṣfahán, that outstanding city, is distinguished by the religious fervour of its shi`ah inhabitants, by the learning of its divines, and by the keen expectation, shared by high and low alike, of the imminent coming of the Ṣáḥibu'z-Zamán.[AV] In every quarter of that city, religious institutions have been established. And yet, when the Messenger of God had been made manifest, they who claimed to be the repositories of learning and the expounders of the mysteries of the Faith of God rejected His Message. Of all the inhabitants of that seat of learning, only one person, a sifter of wheat, was found to recognise the Truth, and was invested with the robe of Divine virtue![4]