The story of how Mullá Husayn was able to discover Baha’u’llah in Tihran and have delivered to Him a scroll containing passages from the Writings of the Báb

Mírzá Músá, Áqáy-i-Kalím, the brother of Bahá’u’lláh, recounted to me [Nabil] the following:

“I have heard Mullá Muhammad-i-Mu’allim, a native of Núr, in the province of Mázindarán, who was a fervent admirer of both Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kázim, relate this story:

‘I was in those days recognised as one of the favoured disciples of Hájí Mírzá Muhammad, and lived in the same school in which he taught. My room adjoined his room, and we were closely associated together. On the day that he was engaged in discussion with Mullá Husayn, I overheard their conversation from beginning to end, and was deeply affected by the ardour, the fluency, and learning of that youthful stranger. I was surprised at the evasive answers, the arrogance, and contemptuous behaviour of Hájí Mírzá Muhammad.

That day I felt strongly attracted by the charm of that youth, and deeply resented the unseemly conduct of my teacher towards him. I concealed my feelings, however, and pretended to ignore his discussions with Mullá Husayn. I was seized with a passionate desire to meet the latter, and ventured, at the hour of midnight, to visit him. He did not expect me, but I knocked at his door, and found him awake seated beside his lamp. He received me affectionately, and spoke to me with extreme courtesy and tenderness. I unburdened my heart to him, and as I was addressing him, tears, which I could not repress, flowed from my eyes.

Mullá Husayn’s days in Tihran

During his stay in Tihrán, Mullá Husayn each day would leave his room early in the morning and would return to it only an hour after sunset. Upon his return he would quietly and alone re-enter his room, close the door behind him, and remain in the privacy of his cell until the next day. 

(Chapter 4, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)

Mullá Husayn was the bearer of a Tablet for Muhammad Sháh

According to Samandar (manuscript, p. 2), Mullá Ḥusayn, on his way from Shíráz to Ṭihrán in the year 1260 A.H., was the bearer of a Tablet revealed by the Báb for Muhammad Sháh. 

(Footnotes to Chapter 4, provided by Shoghi Effendi)

circa 1930s: Tehran

(The Dawn-Breakers)

Muhammad Sháh and Prime Minister, Hájí Mírzá Aqásí, met Mullá Husayn

Portrait of Muhammad Shah and
his Vizier Haj Mirza Aghasi

“He [Mullá Husayn] passed several days in that capital but he did not appear in public. He limited himself to confidential conversations with those who visited him. He thus received many and won over to his doctrine a fairly large number of enquirers. Each one wished to see him, or to have seen him, and the King, Muhammad Sháh and his Minister, Hájí Mírzá Aqásí, true Persians as they were, did not fail to have him brought before them. He laid before them his doctrine and gave to them the Books of the Master.” (Comte de Gobineau’s “Les Religions et les Philosophies dans l’Asie Centrale,” p. 131.) 

(Footnotes to Chapter 4, provided by Shoghi Effendi)

Mullá Husayn arrived in Tihrán and was soon reproached by a leader of the shaykhí community of Tihrán

Tihran - late 19th Century

From Qum, Mullá Ḥusayn proceeded directly to Tihrán. He lived, during his stay in the capital, in one of the rooms which belonged to the madrisih of Mírzá Sáliḥ, better known as the madrisih of Pay-i-Minar. Hájí Mírzá Muhammad-i-Khurásání, the leader of the shaykhí community of Tihrán, who acted as an instructor in that institution, was approached by Mullá Husayn but failed to respond to his motivation to accept the Message. “We had cherished the hope he said to Mullá Husayn, “that after the death of Siyyid Kázim you would strive to promote the best interests of the shaykhí community and would deliver it from the obscurity into which it has sunk. You seem, however, to have betrayed its cause. You have shattered our fondest expectations. If you persist in disseminating these subversive doctrines, you will eventually extinguish the remnants of the shaykhís in this city.” Mullá Ḥusayn assured him that he had no intention of prolonging his stay in Tihrán, that his aim was in no wise to abase or suppress the teachings inculcated by Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kázim. 

(Chapter 4, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)

From Káshan Mullá Husayn went to Qum

Arriving in Qum, Mullá Husayn found its people utterly unprepared to heed his call. The seeds he sowed among them did not germinate until the time when Bahá’u’lláh was exiled to Baghdád. In those days Hájí Mírzá Músá, a native of Qum, embraced the Faith, journeyed to Baghdád, and there met Bahá’u’lláh. He eventually quaffed the cup of martyrdom in His path. 

(Chapter 4, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)

Mullá Husayn left Isfahán for Káshán

From Isfáhán, Mullá Husayn proceeded to Káshán. The first to be enrolled in that city among the company of the faithful was a certain Hájí Mírzá Jání, surnamed Par-Pa, who was a merchant of note.  Among the friends of Mullá Husayn was a well-known divine, Siyyid ‘Abdu’l-Báqí, a resident of Káshán and a member of the shaykhí community. Although intimately associated with Mullá Husayn during his stay in Najaf and Karbilá, the Siyyid felt unable to sacrifice rank and leadership for the Message which his friend had brought him. 

(Chapter 4, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)

Opposition to Mullá Husayn’s success in Isfahán

“The sojourn of Bushrú’i [Mulla Husayn] in Isfáhán proved a triumph for the Báb. The conversions that he performed were numerous and brilliant; but, such are the ways of the world, that they drew down upon him the fierce hatred of the official clergy to which he was obliged to yield and he withdrew from that city. In fact, the conversion of Mullá Muhammad Taqí-i-Hiratí, a jurist of the first rank, brought their fury to a climax, because over-flowing with zeal as he was, he would go every day to the mambar where he talked to men openly of the greatness of the Báb to whom he gave the rank of Na’ib-i-khass of the twelfth Imám.” (A. L. M. Nicolas’ “Siyyid ‘Alí-Muhammad dit le Báb,” p. 255.)

(Footnotes to Chapter 4, provided by Shoghi Effendi)

Another early believer in Isfahan

Gobineau (p. 129) mentions Mullá Muhammad-Taqíy-i-Haratí, a well-known juris-consult, as one of the earliest converts to the Faith. (Footnotes to Chapter 4 provided by Shoghi Effendi)

The story of how Mullá Sádiq-i-Muqaddas, surnamed by Bahá’u’lláh, Ismu’lláhu’l-Asdaq, (The name of God, the Most Truthful) recognized the Báb through Mullá Husayn in Isfahán

As soon as he [Mullá Sádiq-i-Muqaddas] learned of the arrival of Mullá Husayn in Isfáhán, he hastened to meet him. He gives the following account of his first interview, which took place at night in the home of Mírzá Muhammad-‘Alíy-i-Nahrí:

“I asked Mullá Husayn to divulge the name of Him who claimed to be the promised Manifestation. He replied: ‘To enquire about that name and to divulge it are alike forbidden.’ ‘Would it, then, be possible,’ I asked, ‘for me, even as the Letters of the Living, to seek independently the grace of the All-Merciful and, through prayer, to discover His identity?’ ‘The door of His grace,’ he replied, ‘is never closed before the face of him who seeks to find Him.’

I immediately retired from his presence, and requested his host to allow me the privacy of a room in his house where, alone and undisturbed, I could commune with God. In the midst of my contemplation, I suddenly remembered the face of a Youth whom I had often observed while in Karbilá, standing in an attitude of prayer, with His face bathed in tears at the entrance of the shrine of the Imám Husayn. That same countenance now reappeared before my eyes. In my vision I seemed to behold that same face, those same features, expressive of such joy as I could never describe. He smiled as He gazed at me. I went towards Him, ready to throw myself at His feet. I was bending towards the ground, when, lo! that radiant figure vanished from before me.

Some of the first believers in Isfahán who subsequently identified themselves with the Message proclaimed by the Báb

Among the siyyids of Isfáhán, a few, such as Mírzá Muhammad-‘Alíy-i-Nahrí, whose daughter was subsequently joined in wedlock with the Most Great Branch, [1] Mírzá Hádí, the brother of Mírzá Muhammad-‘Alí, and Mírzá Muhammad-Riḍáy-i-Pa-Qal’iyí, recognised the truth of the Cause. Mullá Sádiq-i-Khurásání, formerly known as Muqaddas, and surnamed by Bahá’u’lláh, Ismu’lláhu’l-Asdaq, who, according to the instructions of Siyyid Kázim, had during the last five years been residing in Iṣfáhán and had been preparing the way for the advent of the new Revelation, was also among the first believers who identified themselves with the Message proclaimed by the Báb. 

(Chapter 4, ‘The Dawn-Breakers)

[1] Reference to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s marriage with Munírih Khánum