Brief stop in the town of Muscate – the Báb had a religious conversation with one of the inhabitants

“In time he arrived at Mascate where he rested for several days during which he sought to convert the people of that country but without success. He spoke to one among them, a religious man probably, one of high rank, whose conversion might also have been followed by that of his fellow citizens, at least so I believe, though he gives us no details upon this subject. Evidently he did not attempt to convert the first comer who would have had no influence on the other inhabitants of the city. That he attempted a conversion and did not succeed is an indisputable fact because he himself affirms it: ‘The mention of God, in truth, descended upon the earth of Mascate and made the way of God come to one of the inhabitants of the country. It may be possible that he understood our verses and became one of those who are guided. Say: This man obeyed his passions after having read our verses and in truth this man is by the rules of the Book, among the transgressors. Say: We have not seen in Mascate men of the Book willing to help him, because they are lost in ignorance. And the same was true of all these voyagers on the boat with the exception of one who believed in our verses and became one of those who fear God.’” (A. L. M. Nicolas’ “Siyyid ‘Alí-Muhammad dit le Báb,” pp. 207–208.) 

(Footnotes to chapter 7 provided by Shoghi Effendi)

The effects of the Báb’s prayer: the sudden appearance of “evidences of an industrial and economic revolution” in the West

The peoples of the West, among whom the first evidences of this great Industrial Revolution have appeared, are, alas, as yet wholly unaware of the Source whence this mighty stream, this great motive power, proceeds—a force that has revolutionised every aspect of their material life. Their own history testifies to the fact that in the year which witnessed the dawn of this glorious Revelation, there suddenly appeared evidences of an industrial and economic revolution that the people themselves declare to have been unprecedented in the history of mankind. In their concern for the details of the working and adjustments of this newly conceived machinery, they have gradually lost sight of the Source and object of this tremendous power which the Almighty has committed to their charge. They seem to have sorely misused this power and misunderstood its function. Designed to confer upon the people of the West the blessings of peace and of happiness, it has been utilised by them to promote the interests of destruction and war. 

(Chapter 7, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)

“acts of the vilest kind” witnessed by the Báb on the way to Mecca

“I have seen (on the way to Mecca) acts of the vilest kind, in the eyes of God, which were sufficient to undo the good resulting from the pilgrimage. These were the quarrels among the pilgrims! Verily, the House of God has no need of such people!” (Ibid., p. 155.) (The Báb, “Le Bayán Persan,” vol. 2, p. 155, translated to French by A.L.M. Nicolas) 

(Footnotes to chapter 7 provided by Shoghi Effendi)

God’s recompense for hardworking sailors

“One cannot imagine on the sea anything but discomfort. One cannot have all the necessities as in land travel. The mariners are obliged to live thus but by their services they come nearer to God, and God rewards actions performed on the land and on the sea but He grants a two-fold recompense for those services accomplished by one of the servants on the sea, because their work is more arduous.” (The Báb, “Le Bayán Persan,” vol. 2, pp. 155-156, translated to French by A.L.M. Nicolas)

(Footnotes to chapter 7 provided by Shoghi Effendi)

Scarcity of water during the voyage

“It is thus that I myself saw, on the voyage to Mecca, a notable who was spending considerable sums of money but who hesitated to spend the price of a glass of water for his fellow-traveler. This happened on the boat where the water was scarce, so scarce in fact, during the voyage from Búshihr to Mascate, which lasted twelve days with no opportunity to get water, that I had to content myself with sweet lemons.”  (The Báb, “Le Bayán Persan,” vol. 2, p. 154, translated to French by A.L.M. Nicolas) 

(Footnotes to chapter 7 provided by Shoghi Effendi)

The Báb “supplicated the Almighty to grant that the means of ocean travel might soon be speedily improved”

The Báb Himself, in the Persian Bayán, refers to the hardships of that voyage. “For days,” He wrote, “we suffered from the scarcity of water. I had to content myself with the juice of the sweet lemon.” Because of this experience, He supplicated the Almighty to grant that the means of ocean travel might soon be speedily improved, that its hardships might be reduced, and its perils be entirely eliminated. Within a short space of time, since that prayer was offered, the evidences of a remarkable improvement in all forms of maritime transport have greatly multiplied, and the Persian Gulf, which in those days hardly possessed a single steam-driven vessel, now boasts a fleet of ocean liners that can, within the range of a few days and in the utmost comfort, carry the people of Fárs on their annual pilgrimage to Hijáz. 

(Chapter 7, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)