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Already in Shiraz, at the earliest stage of His ministry, He had revealed what Baha'u'llah has characterized as "the first, the greatest, and mightiest of all books" in the Babi Dispensation, the celebrated commentary on the surih of Joseph, entitled the Qayyumu'l- Asma', whose fundamental purpose was to forecast what the true Joseph (Baha'u'llah) would, in a succeeding Dispensation, endure at the hands of one who was at once His arch- enemy and blood brother. This work, comprising above nine thousand three hundred verses, and divided into one hundred and eleven chapters, each chapter a commentary on one verse of the above- mentioned surih, opens with the Bab's clarion- call and dire warnings addressed to the "concourse of kings and of the sons of kings;" forecasts the doom of Muhammad Shah; commands his Grand Vizir, Haji Mirza Aqasi, to abdicate his authority; admonishes the entire Muslim ecclesiastical order; cautions more specifically the members of the Shi'ah community; extols the virtues, and anticipates the coming, of Baha'u'llah, the "Remnant of God," the "Most Great Master;" and proclaims, in unequivocal language, the independence and universality of the Babi Revelation, unveils its import, and affirms the inevitable triumph of its Author. It, moreover, directs the "people of the West" to "issue forth from your cities and aid the Cause of God;" warns the peoples of the earth of the "terrible, the most grievous vengeance of God;" threatens the whole Islamic world with "the Most Great Fire" were they to turn aside from the newly- revealed Law; foreshadows the Author's martyrdom; eulogizes the high station ordained for the people of Baha, the "Companions of the crimson- colored ruby Ark;" prophesies the fading out and utter obliteration of some of the greatest luminaries in the firmament of the Babi Dispensation; and even predicts "afflictive torment," in both the "Day of Our Return" and in "the world which is to come," for the usurpers of the Imamate, who "waged war against Husayn (Imam Husayn) in the Land of the Euphrates."
(23:1)
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