The high honours accorded to the Báb served further to inflame the hostility of the ‘ulamás of Isfáhán. With feelings of dismay, they beheld on every side evidences of His all-pervasive influence invading the stronghold of orthodoxy and subverting their foundations. They summoned a gathering, at which they issued a written document, signed and sealed by all the ecclesiastical leaders of the city, condemning the Báb to death. They all concurred in this condemnation with the exception of Hájí Siyyid Asadu’lláh and Hájí Muhammad-Ja’far-i-Abadiyí, both of whom refused to associate themselves with the contents of so glaringly abusive a document. The Imám-Jum’ih, though declining to endorse the death-warrant of the Báb, was induced, by reason of his extreme cowardice and ambition, to add to that document, in his own handwriting, the following testimony: “I testify that in the course of my association with this youth I have been unable to discover any act that would in any way betray his repudiation of the doctrines of Islám. On the contrary, I have known him as a pious and loyal observer of its precepts. The extravagance of his claims, however, and his disdainful contempt for the things of the world, incline me to believe that he is devoid of reason and judgment.”
- Nabil (‘The Dawn-Breakers’, chapter 10)
