The Báb: The Herald of the Day of Days

by H. M. Balyuzi

One day they summoned him to the mosque urging and constraining him to recant, but he discoursed from the pulpit in such wise as to silence and subdue those present and to stablish and strengthen his followers. It was then supposed that he claimed to be the medium of grace from His Highness the Lord of the Age[CG] (upon him be peace); but afterwards it became known and evident that his meaning was the Gate-hood [Bábiyyat] of another city and the mediumship of the graces of another person whose qualities and attributes were contained in his books and treatises.[14]

Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥabíbu'lláh-i-Afnán has this record in his chronicle:

'The late Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad-Sádiq-i-Mu`allim [Teacher], who was a man of good repute, was relating the story of that day for the late `Andalíb.[15] My brother, Ḥájí Mírzá Buzurg, and I were present. This is the summary of what he said: "I was about twenty-five years old and able to judge an issue. It was noised abroad that the Governor, by the request of the divines, had ordered that the people of Shíráz, of all classes, should gather in the Masjid-i-Vakíl, as the Siyyid-i-Báb was going to renounce His claim. I too went to the mosque to find a place near [the pulpit] so that I might hear well all that He had to say. From the morning onwards, people, group by group, thronged the mosque. Three hours before sunset there was such a press of people in the mosque that the cloisters and the courtyard and the roofs, even the minarets, were fully crowded. The Governor, the divines, the merchants and the notables were sitting in the cloisters, near the stone pulpit. (This is a pulpit carved out of one piece of marble. It has fourteen steps.) I was also sitting near it. Voices were heard in the courtyard, saying: 'He is coming.' He came through the gate, accompanied by ten footmen and `Abdu'l-Ḥamíd Khán-i-Dárúghih [chief of police], and approached the pulpit. He had His turban on and an `abá on His shoulders. He displayed such power and dignity and His bearing was so sublime that I cannot describe it adequately. That vast gathering seemed as naught to Him. He paid no heed to that assemblage of the people. He addressed Ḥusayn Khán and the divines: 'What is your intention in asking Me to come here?' They answered: 'The intention is that you should ascend this pulpit and repudiate your false claim so that this commotion and unrest will subside.' He said nothing and went up to the third step of the pulpit. Shaykh Ḥusayn, the Tyrant, said with utmost vehemence: 'Go to the top of the pulpit so that all may see and hear you.' The Báb ascended the pulpit and sat down at the top. All of a sudden, silence fell upon that assemblage. It seemed as if there was not a soul in the mosque. The whole concourse of people strained their ears. He began to recite at the start a homily in Arabic on Divine Unity. It was delivered with utmost eloquence, with majesty and power. It lasted about half an hour, and the concourse of people, high and low, learned and illiterate alike, listened attentively and were fascinated. The people's silence infuriated Shaykh Ḥusayn, who turned to the Governor and said: 'Did you bring this Siyyid here, into the presence of all these people, to prove His Cause, or did you bring Him to recant and renounce His false claim? He will soon with these words win over all these people to His side. Tell Him to say what He has to say. What are all these idle tales?' Ḥusayn Khán, the Ṣáḥib-Ikhtiyár, told the Báb: 'O Siyyid! say what you have been told to say. What is this idle chatter?' The Báb was silent for a moment and then He addressed the crowd: 'O people! Know this well that I speak what My Grandfather, the Messenger of God, spoke twelve hundred and sixty years ago, and I do not speak what My Grandfather did not. "What Muḥammad made lawful remains lawful unto the Day of Resurrection and what He forbade remains forbidden unto the Day of Resurrection",[CH] and according to the Tradition that has come down from the Imáms, "Whenever the Qá'im arises that will be the Day of Resurrection".' The Báb, having spoken those words, descended from the pulpit. Some of the people, who had been inimical and hostile, that day foreswore their antagonism. But when the Báb came face to face with Shaykh Ḥusayn, that enemy raised his walking-stick to strike Him. The late Mírzá Abu'l-Ḥasan Khán, the Mushíru'l-Mulk,[CI] who was then a young man, brought forward his shoulder to ward off the attack, and it was his shoulder that was hit."

'That Ḥájí [Ḥájí Mírzá Muḥammad-Ṣádiq], who was not a believer but a well-wisher, related this story to the late `Andalíb. His meaning was that the Báb, on that occasion, affirmed His Cause and completed His proof before the concourse of people.'

Ḥájí Mírzá Habíbu'lláh goes on to say: 'Then the divines came together and passed a sentence of death on the Báb. They wrote out their verdict and affixed their seals to it. The instigator of this move and the source of all mischief was Shaykh Ḥusayn, the Tyrant, who held the title of Náẓim'ush-Sharíy`ih. Their numbers included Shaykh Abú-Háshim, Shaykh Asadu'lláh, Shaykh Mihdíy-i-Kujúrí and Mullá Muḥammad-`Alíy-i-Maḥallátí. Next they took what they had written and sealed to the late Shaykh Abú-Turáb, the Imám-Jum`ih, because he had refused to heed their pleas and had declined to attend their meeting. Now they presented their paper to the Imám-Jum`ih and asked him to put his seal on it that "we may finish off this Siyyid". Shaykh Abú-Turáb, on perusing the verdict, became very angry, threw that piece of paper on the ground and said, "Have you gone out of your minds? I will never put my seal on this paper, because I have no doubts about the lineage, integrity, piety, nobility and honesty of this Siyyid. I see that this young Man is possessed of all the virtues of Islám and humanity and of all the faculties of intellect. There can be only two sides to this question: He either speaks the truth, or He is, as you allege, a liar. If He be truthful I cannot endorse such a verdict on a man of truth, and if He be a liar, as you aver, tell me which one of us present here is so strictly truthful as to sit in judgment upon this Siyyid. Away with you and your false imaginings, away, away!" No matter how hard they tried and how much they insisted, the late Shaykh Abú-Turáb did not grant them their wish; and because he declined to put his seal on their paper, their plan was brought to naught and they did not succeed in achieving their objective.'

According to Nicolas, Muḥammad Sháh asked Siyyid Yaḥyáy-i-Dárábí to go to Shíráz and investigate the Cause of the Báb, when the account of the gathering in the Mosque of Vakíl was presented to him.[16]

`Abdu'l-Bahá tells us that when the news of the journeys of Siyyid Yaḥyáy-i-Dárábí and the anger provoked by them reached Zanján, Mullá Muḥammad `Alí the divine, who was a man of mark possessed of penetrating speech, sent one of those on whom he could rely to Shíráz to investigate this matter. This person, having acquainted himself with the details of these occurrences in such wise as was necessary and proper, returned with some [of the Báb's] writings. When the divine heard how matters were and had made himself acquainted with the writings, notwithstanding that he was a man expert in knowledge and noted for profound research, he went mad and became crazed as was predestined: he gathered up his books in the lecture-room saying, 'The season of spring and wine has arrived,' and uttered this sentence:-'Search for knowledge after reaching the known is culpable.' Then from the summit of the pulpit he summoned and directed all his disciples [to embrace the doctrine], and wrote to the Báb his own declaration and confession....

Although the doctors of Zanján arose with heart and soul to exhort and admonish the people they could effect nothing. Finally they were compelled to go to Teherán and made their complaint before the late king Muḥammad Sháh, requesting that Mullá Muḥammad `Alí be summoned to Teherán.

Now when he came to Teherán they brought him before a conclave of the doctors ... after many controversies and disputations nought was effected with him in that assembly. The late king therefore bestowed on him a staff and fifty túmáns for his expenses, and gave him permission to return.[17]

The confidant whom Mullá Muḥammad-`Alí of Zanján, better known as Ḥujjat (the Proof),[CJ] sent to Shíráz to investigate the Cause of the Báb was named Mullá Iskandar. Nabíl-i-A`ẓam describes his return:

He arrived at a time when all the leading `ulamás of the city had assembled in the presence of Ḥujjat. As soon as he appeared, Ḥujjat enquired whether he believed in, or rejected, the new Revelation. Mullá Iskandar submitted the writings of the Báb ... and asserted that whatever should be the verdict of his master, the same would he deem it his obligation to follow. 'What!' angrily exclaimed Ḥujjat. 'But for the presence of this distinguished company, I would have chastised you severely. How dare you consider matters of belief to be dependent upon the approbation or rejection of others?' Receiving from the hand of his messenger the copy of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', he, as soon as he had perused a page of that book, fell prostrate upon the ground and exclaimed: 'I bear witness that these words which I have read proceed from the same Source as that of the Qur'án. Whoso has recognised the truth of that sacred Book must needs testify to the Divine origin of these words, and must needs submit to the precepts inculcated by their Author. I take you, members of this assembly, as my witnesses: I pledge such allegiance to the Author of this Revelation that should He ever pronounce the night to be the day, and declare the sun to be a shadow, I would unreservedly submit to His judgment, and would regard His verdict as the voice of Truth.'[18]