LI KHAN cordially invited
Mulla Husayn to tarry a few days in his home before his departure from
Mah-Ku. He expressed a keen desire to provide
every facility for his journey to Mazindaran. The
latter, however, refused to delay his departure or to avail
himself of the means of comfort which Ali Khan had so
devotedly placed at his disposal.
He, faithful to the instructions he had received, stopped
at every town and village that the Bab had directed him to
visit, gathered the faithful, conveyed to them the love, the
greetings, and the assurances of their beloved Master, quickened
afresh their zeal, and exhorted them to remain steadfast
in His way. In Tihran he was again privileged to enter the
presence of Baha'u'llah and to receive from His hands that
spiritual sustenance which enabled him, with such undaunted
courage, to brave the perils that so fiercely assailed the closing
days of his life.
From Tihran Mulla
Husayn proceeded to Mazindaran in
eager expectation of witnessing the revelation of the hidden
treasure promised to him by his Master. Quddus was at
that time living in Barfurush in the home which had originally
belonged to his own father. He freely associated with all
classes of people, and by the gentleness of his character and
the wide range of his learning had won the affection and
unqualified admiration of the inhabitants of that town. Upon
his arrival in that city, Mulla Husayn went directly to the
home of Quddus and was affectionately received by him.
Quddus himself waited upon his guest, and did his utmost
to provide whatever seemed necessary for his comfort. With
his own hands he removed the dust, and washed the blistered
skin of his feet. He offered him the seat of honour in
the company of his assembled friends, and introduced, with
On the night of his arrival, as soon as the believers who
had been invited to dinner to meet Mulla Husayn had returned
to their homes, the host, turning to his guest, enquired
whether he would enlighten him more particularly regarding
his intimate experiences with the Bab in the castle of Mah-Ku.
"Many and diverse," replied Mulla Husayn, "were the things
which I heard and witnessed in the course of my nine days'
association with Him. He spoke to me of things relating
both directly and indirectly to His Faith. He gave me,
however, no definite directions as to the course I should
pursue for the propagation of His Cause. All He told me
was this: `On your way to Tihran, you should visit the
believers in every town and village through which you pass.
From Tihran you should proceed to Mazindaran, for there
lies a hidden treasure which shall be revealed to you, a treasure
which will unveil to your eyes the character of the task
you are destined to perform.' By His allusions I could,
however dimly, perceive the glory of His Revelation and was
able to discern the signs of the future ascendancy of His
Cause. From His words I gathered that I should eventually
be called upon to sacrifice my unworthy self in His path.
For on previous occasions, whenever dismissing me from His
presence, the Bab would invariably assure me that I should
again be summoned to meet Him. This time, however, as
He spoke to me His parting words, He gave me no such
promise, nor did He allude to the possibility of my ever
meeting Him again face to face in this world. `The Feast
of Sacrifice,' were His last words to me, `is fast approaching.
Arise and gird up the loin of endeavour, and let nothing
detain you from achieving your destiny. Having attained
your destination, prepare yourself to receive Us, for We too
shall ere long follow you.'"
Quddus enquired whether he had brought with him any
of his Master's writings, and, on being informed that he had
none with him, presented his guest with the pages of a
manuscript which he had in his possession, and requested
him to read certain of its passages. As soon as he had read
a page of that manuscript, his countenance underwent a
How grave, how appalling the mistake of Haji Mirza
Aqasi! This foolish minister had vainly imagined that by
condemning the Bab to a life of hopeless exile in a remote
and sequestered corner of Adhirbayjan, he would succeed in
concealing from the eyes of his countrymen that Flame of
God's undying Fire. Little did he perceive that by setting
up the Light of God upon a hill, he was helping to diffuse
its radiance and to proclaim its glory. By his own acts, by
his amazing miscalculations, instead of hiding that heavenly
Flame from the eyes of men, he gave it still further prominence
and helped to excite its glow. How fair, on the other
hand, was Mulla Husayn, and how keen and sure his judgment!
Of those who had known and seen him, none could
for one moment question the erudition of this youth, his
charm, his high integrity and amazing courage. Had he,
after the death of Siyyid Kazim, declared himself the promised
On the very night he was brought in contact with the
Bab, Mulla Husayn, though at first conscious of his own
infinite superiority and predisposed to belittle the claims
advanced by the son of an obscure merchant of Shiraz, did
not fail to perceive, as soon as his Host had begun to unfold
His theme, the incalculable benefits latent in His Revelation.
He eagerly embraced His Cause and disdainfully abandoned
whatever might hamper his own efforts for the proper understanding
and the effective promotion of its interests. And
when, in due course, Mulla Husayn was given the opportunity
of appreciating the transcendent sublimity of the writings of
Quddus, he, with his usual sagacity and unerring judgment,
was likewise able to estimate the true worth and merit of
those special gifts with which both the person and the utterance
Such was the transformation wrought in the attitude of
Mulla Husayn towards Quddus that the believers who gathered
the next morning at his house were extremely surprised
to find that the guest who the night before had occupied
the seat of honour, and upon whom had been lavished such
kindness and hospitality, had given his seat to his host and
was now standing, in his place, at the threshold in an attitude
of complete humility. The first words which, in the company
of the assembled believers, Quddus addressed to Mulla
Husayn were the following: "Now, at this very hour, you
should arise and, armed with the rod of wisdom and of might,
silence the host of evil plotters who strive to discredit the
fair name of the Faith of God. You should face that multitude
and confound their forces. You should place your
reliance upon the grace of God, and should regard their
machinations as a futile attempt to obscure the radiance of
the Cause. You should interview the Sa'idu'l-'Ulama', that
notorious and false-hearted tyrant, and should fearlessly disclose
to his eyes the distinguishing features of this Revelation.
From thence you should proceed to Khurasan. In the town
Mulla Husayn set out the next day at the hour of sunrise
to interview the Sa'idu'l-'Ulama'. Alone and unaided, he
sought his presence and conveyed to him, as bidden by
Quddus, the Message of the new Day. With fearlessness
and eloquence, he pleaded, in the midst of the assembled
disciples, the Cause of his beloved Master, called upon him
to demolish those idols which his own idle fancy had carved
and to plant upon their shattered fragments the standard of
Divine guidance. He appealed to him to disentangle his
mind from the fettering creeds of the past, and to hasten,
free and untrammelled, to the shores of eternal salvation.
With characteristic vigour, he defeated every argument with
which that specious sorcerer sought to refute the truth of
the Divine Message, and exposed, by means of his unanswerable
logic, the fallacies of every doctrine that he endeavoured
to propound. Assailed by the fear lest the congregation of
his disciples should unanimously rally round the person of
Mulla Husayn, the Sa'idu'l-'Ulama' had recourse to the
meanest of devices, and indulged in the most abusive language
in the hope of safeguarding the integrity of his position.
He hurled his calumnies into the face of Mulla Husayn,
and, contemptuously ignoring the proofs and testimonies
adduced by his opponent, confidently asserted, without the
least justification on his part, the futility of the Cause he
had been summoned to embrace. No sooner had Mulla
Husayn realised his utter incapacity to apprehend the significance
of the Message he had brought him than he arose
from his seat and said: "My argument has failed to rouse
you from your sleep of negligence. My deeds will in the
days to come prove to you the power of the Message you
have chosen to despise." He spoke with such vehemence
and emotion that the Sa'idu'l-'Ulama' was utterly confounded.
Alone and with a heart wholly detached from all else
but God, Mulla Husayn set out on his journey to Mashhad.
His only companion, as he trod his way to Khurasan, was
the thought of accomplishing faithfully the wishes of Quddus,
and his one sustenance the consciousness of his unfailing
promise. He went directly to the home of Mirza Muhammad-Baqir-i-Qa'ini,
and was soon able to buy, in the neighbourhood
of that house in Bala-Khiyaban, a tract of land on
which he began to erect the house which he had been commanded
to build, and to which he gave the name of Babiyyih,
a name that it bears to the present day. Shortly after it
was completed, Quddus arrived at Mashhad and abode in
that house. A steady stream of visitors, whom the energy
and zeal of Mulla Husayn had prepared for the acceptance
of the Faith, poured into the presence of Quddus, acknowledged
the claim of the Cause, and willingly enlisted under
its banner. The all-observing vigilance with which Mulla
Husayn laboured to diffuse the knowledge of the new Revelation,
and the masterly manner in which Quddus edified its
ever-increasing adherents, gave rise to a wave of enthusiasm
which swept over the entire city of Mashhad, and the effects
of which spread rapidly beyond the confines of Khurasan.
The house of Babiyyih was soon converted into a rallying
centre for a multitude of devotees who were fired with an
inflexible resolve to demonstrate, by every means in their
power, the great inherent energies of their Faith.
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