“It was a strange circumstance,” writes Lady Sheil, “that among those who adopted [the] Báb’s doctrine there should have been a large number of mullás, and even mujtahids, who hold a high rank as expounders of the law in the Muhammadan church. Many or these men sealed their faith with their blood.”
(Lady Sheil, “Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia,” pp. 178–9; footnotes provided by Shoghi Effendi to chapter 9)
“Certainly the fact of writing, currente calamo, a new commentary on a súrih whose meaning is so obscure, should deeply astonish the Siyyid Yahyá, but that which surprised him even more was to find, in this commentary, the explanation that he, himself, had found in his meditation on these three verses. Thus he found himself in agreement with the Reformer in the interpretation that he had believed himself to be the only one to have reached and that he had not made known to anyone.”
(A. L. M. Nicolas’ “Siyyid
‘Alí-Muhammad dit le Báb,” p. 234.; footnotes provided by Shoghi Effendi to
chapter 9)
“God had given him such power and such fluency of expression that, if a scribe wrote with the most extreme rapidity during two days and two nights without interruption, he would reveal, out of this mine of eloquence, the equivalent of the Qur’án.”
(“Le Bayán Persan,” vol. 2, p. 132 by A.L.M. Nicolas; footnotes provided by Shoghi Effendi to chapter 9)