Circumstances leading to the revelation of the Tablet of Kullu’t-Ta‘ám by Bahá'u’lláh and the resulting attraction of the Bábís to Him

It was at this time that Haji Mirza Kamálu’d-Din-i-Naráqí came to Baghdad. He was a grandson of Hàji Mullá Ahmad-i-Naràqi, a distinguished divine of past times, and was himself a man of learning. Through Áqáy-i-Kalím, he asked Mirza Yahyá to write for him a commentary on the Qur'ânic verse: ‘All food was allowed to the children of Israel'. Of course as soon as Mirza Yahyá became aware of the fact that the Bábís of Naráq had learned of his whereabouts, fear overcame him. Nevertheless, he wrote a commentary, but it was an affront to the intellect of such a man as Hájí Mirzá Kamálu'd-Dín, who saw clearly Mirzá Yahyá's incompetence. Instead he looked to Bahá'u'lláh for guidance and enlightenment, and in response to his request Bahá'u'lláh revealed a Tablet which is known as the Tablet of Kullu't-Ta'am (All Food). In this Tablet, as the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith writes,

 “... Israel and his children were identified with the Báb and His followers respectively - a Tablet which by reason of the allusions it contained, the beauty of its language and the cogency of its argument, so enraptured the soul of its recipient that he would have, but for the restraining hand of Bahá'u'lláh, proclaimed forthwith his discovery of God's hidden Secret in the person of the One Who had revealed it.” (‘God Passes By’) 

- Hasan Balyuzi (‘Bahá’u’lláh King of Glory’)

Mírzá Áqá Ján’s spiritual transformation “was instantly detected by both Mírzá Yahyá and his fellow-conspirator Siyyid Muhammad”

The confidence instilled in Mírzá Áqá Ján by this unexpected and sudden contact with the spirit and directing genius of a new-born Revelation stirred his soul to its depths—a soul already afire with a consuming love born of his recognition of the ascendancy which his newly-found Master had already achieved over His fellow-disciples in both ‘Iráq and Persia. This intense adoration that informed his whole being, and which could neither be suppressed nor concealed, was instantly detected by both Mírzá Yaḥyá and his fellow-conspirator Siyyid Muḥammad. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)

Mirzá ‘Áqá Ján becomes Báhá’u’lláh’s attendant, amanuensis and companion

Mirzá ‘Áqá Ján

Nabil writes that Mirzá Áqá Ján further related to him that the Abhá Beauty (Bahá’u’lláh) said to him: “‘If you see Me in the marketplace, do not show any sign of recognition, unless I call you Myself.’” That day, when I went out to the bazar, I encountered His Blessed Person. He called out loudly for me and I ran into His presence. For a while, an hour or more, He spoke to me there in the market-place. Afterwards, He went to Najaf. He instructed me: ‘Stay in Karbilá. When I return [from Najaf], should I pass this way, I shall take you with Myself to Baghdad, and should I go [to Baghdád] by way of Hillih, I shall send for you.’

“I stayed in Karbilá for three months. I used to gather thorn and sell it to the bath-keepers. One day. Shaykh Abú-Turáb [-i-Ishtahárdí] told me, ‘If I could get hold of a copy of the Persian Bayán, I would read something out of it to you.’ I said: ‘It can be found.’ ‘Where?’ enquired Shaykh Abú-Turáb. I replied that Háji ’Abdu’l-Majíd-i-Shírází in Kázimayn had a copy, and I left that very hour for Kázimayn to obtain it. When I neared Baghdád I ran into Abu’l-Qásim-i-Káshání and enquired about Háji ‘Abdu'l-Majid. At first, he thought that I intended to meet Azal, but when he realized that my heart had been captivated by someone else, he asked me for a reason, and, when I mentioned the gait and the speech of the Abhá Beauty, he gave me a luminous Tablet revealed for me, in which the People of Bahá and the qualities of the Abhá Beauty had been mentioned. When the news of my coming was given to His Blessed Person, He summoned Me and said that He had intended to send for me.”

Thus began Mirzá Áqá Ján's forty-year-long service to Bahá'u'lláh as attendant, amanuensis and companion. 

- Hasan Balyuzi (‘Bahá’u’lláh King of Glory’)