Chapter Nine

As Mullá Husayn and his followers went through each town, they bravely told everyone about the New Day. They invited people to follow the Báb and join the march on the way to help Quddús. On the way, Mullá Husayn stopped for three days at a small town so that everyone could rest. On the third day, he said to his followers, "If there is anyone here who is not prepared to suffer greatly for this cause, he should now turn back and return to his home." he repeated thses words several times. Finally, he said, "Soon I, together with seventy-two of you men, shall suffer death for the sake of our Beloved. If you are afraid to die for the cause, you must leave immediately. Later, there will be no chance to escape." So terrible did Mullá Husayn make the future sound to his men that twenty of them decided to return to their homes.

In Bárfurúsh, the news was received that Mullá Husayn and his men were coming near. The Sa'ídu'l-'Ulamá' in that town had hated Mullá Husayn since he had told him of the Báb. as soon as he heard the news, he hurried to the mosque and called all of his followers to hear him. The Muslims of Bárfurúsh gathered at the Mosque, and when they were all together, they listened to their leader. The priest threw his turban on the ground, tore open the neck of his shirt, and started to speak.

"Awake!" he said. "The enemies of Muhammad are marching toward the city. they will wipe out everything that we love about our holy Faith. We must fight them. if we do not fight, they will kill all of us. The man who is the head of these killers, Mullá Husayn, came one day to my class. He paid no attention to what I was saying and he insulted me in front of my own diciples. When I refused to agree with him, he became angry and said he would force me to accept his ideas in the future. Now he is coming. His men are near the gates of the city. It is the duty of all the people of Bárfurúsh, both young and old, both men and women, to collect every gun and knife, stick and stone, and fight against these dangerous men. Tomorrow, at the hour of dawn, you must kill every man in Mullá Husayn's company."

So afraid were the people of Bárfurúsh that they would be killed by Mullá Husayn that they prepared to fight. They did not know that Mullá Husayn and his men wanted only to pass through their town peacefully and tell them about the comming of the Promised One. No! They believed their leader without thinking, and prepared themselves to kill.

Mullá Husayn knew what was going to happen next. he knew the Sa'ídu'l-'Ulamá' in Bárfurúsh, and he knew that he was a troublemaker. This Muslim chief was still jealous of Mullá Husayn because Mullá Husayn was such an intelligent man and had proved to him that the Báb was the Promised One. But the Sa'ídu'l-'Ulamá' was an ambitious and cruel man. He did not want to follow anyone. He only wanted to be a leader.

As they approached the town, Mullá Husayn told his companions thay they must now throw away everything they owned, except their horses and their swords. He knew the people of Bárfurúsh were afraid he and his men would want to kill them and rob them. So he said: "Leave behind all your belongings, and be content with your horses and swords, so that all may see that you have no interest in earthly things, and that you have no desire to guard your own property, much less to covet the property of others!" About five kilometres from the town, they were suddenly attacked. People with guns began to shoot at them. Six of Mullá Husayn's men were hit immediately. One of them called to Mullá Husayn, "Beloved leader, we have come with you for no other reason than to sarifice ourselves for the Cause. But please, let us defend ourselves."

But Mullá Husayn said, "The time has not yet come. The number is not yet complete." at that moment a bullet hit Siyyid Ridá in the chest and killed him instantly. Siyyid Ridá was a man of pure and simple ways, a strong believer, and Mullá Husayn's closest helper. Siyyid Ridá had walked all the way from Mashhad alongside Mullá Husayn's horse so he would be ready to help him at a moment's notice. When Mullá Husayn saw his dear companion fall, he raised his eyes to heaven and prayed: "Behold, O God, my God, the trouble which we have come into, and see what kind of a welcome we have received from these people. We have come for no other reason than to teach them the way of Truth. You have always commanded us to protect our lives aganst the enemy. We will now follow Thy command, and fight to protect ourselves."

With these words, he took hold of his sword and began to defend himself. He rode into the middle of the enemy without fear. Mullá Husayn was a slender man, not very strong, whose hand even trembled when he wrote. But, on that day, he showed such strength that only God could have given it to him. He went after the man who had killed his beloved Siyyid Ridá. The soldier was running away to hide, but Mullá Husayn followed him on his horse. The soldier hid himself behind a tree, and also tried to protect himself with his gun. But, Mullá Husayn rushed forward, and with one stroke of the sword he cut through the trunk of the tree, the barrel of the soldier's gun, and through the body of the soldier himself. The tree, gun, and the body fell into six pieces. It seemed impossible to any man, but it was true.

When the men and women of Bárfurúsh saw Mullá Husayn's great strength and courage, they dropped their guns and ran for their lives. During all this confusion, Mullá Husayn had disappeared from sight. His men raced their horses toward Bárfurúsh to try to find him.

Mullá Husayn had ridden his horse into the town and staight to the house of the Sa'ídu'l-'Ulamá'. Three times he rode his horse around the house, and as he did so, he called out to him saying, "Come out of your house, you coward. you have forced the people of this town to wage holy war against us, but you have hidden yourself in your own house. Don't you know that anyone who preaches holy war must himself ride in front of his followers so they can see how brave and strong he is? Come out!"

But the Sa'ídu'l-'Ulamá' did not come out, and when Mullá Husayn's men arrived, they found him seated calmly on his horse, unhurt and waiting for them to come. So happy were his men to see him that each one of them kissed his feet while he sat on his horse.

As the people of Bárfurúsh came running back into town, they raised their voices in a call of "Peace! Peace!" On the evening of that day, Mullá Husayn spoke to a crowd of people. He said to them, "O followers of the Prophet Muhammad, why have you risen against us? Why do you try to spill our blood? Do you think that this is  approved by God? Did we ever say that your Faith was not true? Is this the kindness which Muhammad has commanded you to show to believers and non-believers? What have we done, for you to try to kill us? Just think---I, with only my sword, was able to face thousands of bullets which you shot at me--- and yet I was not hit, nor was even my horse hit. I received only a slight scratch on my face. De you know what this means? It means that God  was protecting me through everything, so that you would be able to see that our Faith is from God."

That evening, although the people of Bárfurúsh cried for peace, they would not give Mullá Husayn or his men either bread to eat or water to drink. When they were refused all help, Mullá Husayn and his men closed the gates of the yard where they were to sleep for the night and put themselves into the hands of God.

The hour had come for the evening prayer. As is the custom in Muslim countries, someone always gets onto a high place and calls the believers to prayer. Mullá Husayn asked that someone in his group climb onto the roof of the building and chant the evening prayer. Everyone present knew that if he climbed up on the roof he might lose his life, because someone in Bárfurúsh might shoot him down. But, so in love with the Faith were they, that several offered to do it. The first to start the prayer was a youth. As soon as he had said the first words, he was shot down. Mullá Husayn said, "Let another of you continue with the prayer." Another youg man climbed onto the roof and started the prayer where the boy had left off. He too was shot. Then another. Each person was killed while in prayer. When the third person had been killed, Mullá Husayn threw open the gate of the yard, jumped on his horse, called to his men, and they all rode out to attack the enemy. Within a few minutes the entire crowd was either killed, or they had ran away. the street was filled with the dead people of Bárfurúsh, and God once again proved to them that He could win over His enemies.

To show how God punishes men who go against His Will, this is what later happened to the Sa'ídu'l-'Ulamá', who was the cause of all this trouble. The Sa'ídu'l-'Ulamá' became sick with a terrible disease. Although he wore heavy furs and kept a fire burning all the time in his room, he shivered with cold. At the same time, his fever was so high that he was always dry and could not stop his thirst. He soon died, and his house, which was very beautiful, was left with no one in it and no one to take care of it. It fell to pieces, and little by little the people of the town began to dump all their garbage and junk in the yards. So well known has become this story that even today, when people quarrel, they say to each other: "I hope the same thing happens to your house that happened to the house of the Sa'ídu'l-'Ulamá'."

Mullá Husayn and his companions left Bárfurúsh the next day and the day after that, at dawn, Mullá Husayn called all his companions together and told them that they were almost at the end of the journey. Noticing that some of the men were carrying some of the enemy's belongings, he ordered them to leave everything behind. He said, "It is necessary that you arrive at the end of this journey with nothing except your swords and your horses." He then walked ahead of his men until he came to a shine, a small building which contained the tomb of the Muslim saint, Shaykh Tabarsi.