CHAPTER 7
BELIEF AND DENIAL
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
* * *
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd:
The glory, jest and riddle of the world!
—Alexander Pope
The Báb was now a captive, and a captive, apart from a few short months, He remained to the very end. The escort, which should have arrested Him and taken Him in chains to the city of His birth, was subdued and reverent. He rode to Shíráz almost in triumph. It would have been feasible to avoid Ḥusayn Khán's horsemen and seek a safe retreat; but He Himself chose to reveal Himself to His would-be captors. Even more, He said to their spokesman who was enthralled by His unrivalled act, and was entreating Him to take the road to safety, to go to Mashhad and find refuge in the shrine of the eighth Imám:
May the Lord your God requite you for your magnanimity and noble intention. No one knows the mystery of My Cause; no one can fathom its secrets. Never will I turn My face away from the decree of God. He alone is My sure Stronghold, My Stay and My Refuge. Until My last hour is at hand, none dare assail Me, none can frustrate the plan of the Almighty. And when My hour is come, how great will be My joy to quaff the cup of martyrdom in His name! Here am I; deliver Me into the hands of your master. Be not afraid, for no one will blame you.[1]
When the identity of the Báb became known some members of His family felt concern, even alarm, lest great harm might come to Him, and they themselves suffer in the process. Only one uncle, Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid `Ali, His former guardian, who had reared Him and established Him in the world of commerce, believed in His Divine Mission. So did His wife. But the rest, even His mother, were sceptical and one or two were definitely antagonistic.
When Muḥammad, the Arabian Prophet, refused to bend to the dictates of His tribe, the elders of Quraysh went to His aged uncle, Abú-Ṭálib, in whose home He had grown to manhood, and demanded that Muḥammad be put under restraint. Abú-Ṭálib urged his Nephew to be moderate, but finding Muḥammad determined to pursue His course, assured Him that his protection would never waver. The elders of Quraysh then decided on a stratagem to erode the support that Muḥammad received from His clan—the Banú-Háshim. A boycott was ordered, but the descendants of Háshim, with the solitary exception of Abú-Lahab,[CA] one of the several uncles of the Prophet, moved to a section at the edge of the town and lived for three years in a state of siege, in defence of Muḥammad, although most of them still worshipped their old idols.
The relatives of the Báb did as Muḥammad's relatives before them. Whatever doubts they may have had, they stood by Him.
Ḥájí Mírzá Siyyid Muḥammad, another maternal uncle of the Báb, did not come to believe in his Nephew as the Qá'im of the House of Muḥammad until more than a decade later, when he presented his questions and his doubts to Bahá'u'lláh and received in answer the Kitáb-i-Íqán—The Book of Certitude. Yet, such were the magnetic powers of the Báb that when He reached Búshihr and was welcomed by this uncle, the latter wrote in these terms to his family in Shíráz: