Such was the devotion of this youth, [the sifter of wheat in
Isfáhán] that the Báb, in the Persian Bayán, refers to him in such terms:
“Isfáhán, that outstanding city, is distinguished by the
religious fervour of its shí’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 Sáhibu’z-Zamán. 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!”
(Chapter 4, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)
