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| Badasht, circa 1930 |
Badasht was a hamlet, situated on the borders of Mazindaran.
When Baha'u'llah reached this hamlet, He rented three gardens: one He assigned
to Quddus, Haji Mulla Muhammad-'Aliy-i-Barfurushi, the eighteenth and the last
of the Bab's Letters of the Living, and the first of them in rank. A second
garden was specified as the residence of Qurratu'l-'Ayn, [later to be known as
Tahirih] whom Baha'u'llah had rescued from the perils surrounding her in
Qazvin, her native town. Baha'u'llah, Himself, stayed in the third garden.
An epoch-making conference took place among the followers of
the Báb at this hamlet. The Conference of Badasht was unique and unparalleled
in the religious annals of mankind. Never before, in the lifetime of a
Manifestation of God, had His followers gathered to take counsel together, as
one body, regarding the nature of their Faith and their future course of
action. The moving Genius and the Convener of that unprecedented conference was
no less a person than Mirza Husayn-'Aliy-i-Nuri, Who subsequently became known
in the Babi community as Jinab-i-Baha. [1] [Baha’u’llah] As the Guardian of the
Baha'i Faith has particularly remarked: 'The primary purpose of that gathering
was to implement the revelation of the Bayan by a sudden, a complete and
dramatic break with the past - with its order, its ecclesiasticism, its
traditions, and ceremonials. The subsidiary purpose of the conference was to
consider the means of emancipating the Báb from His cruel confinement in
Chihriq. The first was eminently successful; the second was destined from the
outset to fail. (Adapted from ‘Baha’u’llah, The King of Glory’, by Balyuzi)
Nabil writes:
. . . Those who had gathered in Badasht were eighty-one in
number, all of whom, from the time of their arrival to the day of their
dispersion, were the guests of Baha'u'llah. Every day, He revealed a Tablet
which Mirza Sulayman-i-Nuri chanted in the presence of the assembled believers. Upon each He bestowed a new name. He Himself was henceforth designated by
the name of Baha; upon the Last Letter of the Living was conferred the
appellation of Quddus, and to Qurratu'l-'Ayn was given the title of Tahirih
[the Pure]. To each of those who had convened at Badasht a special Tablet was
subsequently revealed by the Báb, each of whom He addressed by the name
recently conferred upon him. When, at a later time, a number of the more rigid
and conservative among her fellow-disciples chose to accuse Tahirih of
indiscreetly rejecting the time-honoured traditions of the past, the Báb, to
whom these complaints had been addressed, replied in the following terms: 'What
am I to say regarding her whom the Tongue of Power and Glory has named Tahirih
. . ?' (Nabil, ‘The Dawn-Breakers, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)
It was indeed Qurratu'l-'Ayn, the Pure, who, on that
never-to-be-forgotten day, in the beginning of summer 1848, first raised the
resonant clarion call to emancipation from the man-made fetters of the past, to
the horror and consternation of a large number of her fellow-believers. She
appeared before them, with her veil discarded, her face adorned and uncovered
for all to see. To many of them it seemed as if the Day of Resurrection had
overtaken them - as, in truth, it had. One of them, 'Abdu'l-Khaliq-i-Isfahani,
cut his own throat - so horrified and scandalized he felt - and, screaming,
with blood pouring out, rushed from the assemblage of his co-religionists. A
number of others followed him, walked out and away from the Faith of the Báb.
Quddus was furious… (Balyuzi, ‘Baha’u’llah, The King of Glory’)
Nabil continues:
His threatening attitude failed, however, to move her. Her
countenance displayed that same dignity and confidence which she had evinced at
the first moment of her appearance before the assembled believers. A feeling of
joy and triumph had now illumined her face. She rose from her seat and,
undeterred by the tumult that she had raised in the hearts of her companions,
began to address the remnant of that assembly. Without the least premeditation,
and in language which bore a striking resemblance to that of the Qur'an, she
delivered her appeal with matchless eloquence and profound fervour. She
concluded her address with this verse of the Qur'an: 'Verily, amid gardens and
rivers shall the pious dwell in the seat of truth, in the presence of the
potent King.' As she uttered these word she cast a furtive glance towards both
Baha'u'llah and Quddus in such a manner that those who were watching her were
unable to tell to which of the two she was alluding. (Nabil, ‘The
Dawn-Breakers, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)
Qurratu'l-'Ayn's [Tahirih] bold bid for emancipation happened on a day
when Baha'u'llah was indisposed. Quddus had gone to visit Him in His garden,
and other companions had also gathered there around Him. Then Tahirih came in,
and her entry, as we have seen, was exactly like a thunderbolt. 'I am the
Word', she declared, 'which the Qa'im is to utter, the Word which shall put to
flight the chiefs and nobles of the earth!' And, at the very end, she said:
'This day is the day of festivity and universal rejoicing, the day on which the
fetters of the past are burst asunder. Let those who have shared in this great
achievement arise and embrace each other.' (Balyuzi, ‘Baha’u’llah, The King of
Glory’, quoting Nabil, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)
After the pandemonium had subsided, Baha'u'llah quietly took
command. Nabil writes:
That memorable day and those which immediately followed it
witnessed the most revolutionary changes in the life and habits of the
assembled followers of the Báb. Their manner of worship underwent a sudden and
fundamental transformation. The prayers and ceremonials by which those devout
worshippers had been disciplined were irrevocably discarded. A great confusion,
however, prevailed among those who had so zealously arisen to advocate these
reforms. A few condemned so radical a change as being the essence of heresy,
and refused to annul what they regarded as the inviolable precepts of Islam.
Some regarded Tahirih as the sole judge in such matters and the only person
qualified to claim implicit obedience from the faithful. Others who denounced
her behaviour held to Quddus whom they regarded as the sole representative of
the Báb, the only one who had the right to pronounce upon such weighty matters.
Still others who recognized the authority of both Tahirih and Quddus viewed the
whole episode as a God-sent test designed to separate the true from the false
and distinguish the faithful from the disloyal. . . . (Nabil, ‘The
Dawn-Breakers, translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)
This state of tension persisted for a few days until
Baha'u'llah intervened and, in His masterly manner, effected a complete
reconciliation between them. He healed the wounds which that sharp controversy
had caused, and directed the efforts of both [Quddus and Tahirih] along the
path of constructive service. (Nabil, ‘The Dawn-Breakers, translated and edited
by Shoghi Effendi)
Baha'u'llah had the fifty-sixth surih of the Qur'an, 'The
Event' read to that assemblage, and when their minds comprehended the meaning
and the allusions and the purport of those verses of the Qur'an they understood
that indeed the Day of Resurrection had overtaken them:
When the event inevitable cometh to pass. Then will no
(soul) entertain falsehood concerning its coming. (Many) will it bring low,
(many) will it exalt; When the earth shall be shaken to its depths, And the
mountains shall be crumbled to atoms, Becoming dust scattered abroad, And ye
shall be sorted out into three classes. Then (there will be) the Companions of
the Right Hand -- what will be the Companions of the Right Hand? And the
Companions of the left hand -- what will be the Companions of the Left Hand?
And those Foremost (in Faith) will be Foremost (in the Hereafter). These will
be those Nearest to God: (Qur’an, translated by Yusuf Ali) (Adapted from
‘Baha’u’llah, The King of Glory’, by Baluzi)
Baha'u'llah stayed in Badasht for twenty-two days. Then, the
Babis - those who had remained constant and steadfast - with their faith
fortified, set out from the environs of that epoch-making conference towards
Mazindaran.
(Adapted from ‘The Dawn-Breakers’, by Nabil; translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi]
(Adapted from ‘The Dawn-Breakers’, by Nabil; translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi]
[1] It ought to be noted that the name 'Baha'u'llah was
first mentioned by the Báb in His Book, the Persian Bayan; and that it was as
'Jinab-i-Baha' that Mirza Husayn-'Aliy-i-Nuri became known in the Bábi
community, after the Conference of Badasht.
