During those somber and agonizing days when the Bab was no more, when the luminaries that had shone in the firmament of His Faith had been successively extinguished, when His nominee, a "bewildered fugitive, in the guise of a dervish, with kashkul (alms- basket) in hand" roamed the mountains and plains in the neighborhood of Rasht, Baha'u'llah, by reason of the acts He had performed, appeared in the eyes of a vigilant enemy as its most redoubtable adversary and as the sole hope of an as yet unextirpated heresy. His seizure and death had now become imperative. He it was Who, scarce three months after the Faith was born, received, through the envoy of the Bab, Mulla Husayn, the scroll which bore to Him the first tidings of a newly announced Revelation, Who instantly acclaimed its truth, and arose to champion its cause. It was to His native city and dwelling place that the steps of that envoy were first directed, as the place which enshrined "a Mystery of such transcendent holiness as neither Hijaz nor Shiraz can hope to rival." It was Mulla Husayn's report of the contact thus established which had been received with such exultant joy by the Bab, and had brought such reassurance to His heart as to finally decide Him to undertake His contemplated pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina. Baha'u'llah alone was the object and the center of the cryptic allusions, the glowing eulogies, the fervid prayers, the joyful announcements and the dire warnings recorded in both the Qayyumu'l- Asma' and the Bayan, designed to be respectively the first and last written testimonials to the glory with which God was soon to invest Him. It was He Who, through His correspondence with the Author of the newly founded Faith, and His intimate association with the most distinguished amongst its disciples, such as Vahid, Hujjat, Quddus, Mulla Husayn and Tahirih, was able to foster its growth, elucidate its principles, reinforce its ethical foundations, fulfill its urgent requirements, avert some of the immediate dangers threatening it and participate effectually in its rise and consolidation. It was to Him, "the one Object of our adoration and love" that the Prophet- pilgrim, on His return to Bushihr, alluded when, dismissing Quddus from His presence, He announced to him the double joy of attaining the presence of their Beloved and of quaffing the cup of martyrdom. He it was Who, in the hey- day of His life, flinging aside every consideration of earthly fame, wealth and position, careless of danger, and risking the obloquy of His caste, arose to identify Himself, first in Tihran and later in His native province of Mazindaran, with the cause of an obscure and proscribed sect; won to its support a large number of the officials and notables of Nur, not excluding His own associates and relatives; fearlessly and persuasively expounded its truths to the disciples of the illustrious mujtahid, Mulla Muhammad; enlisted under its banner the mujtahid's appointed representatives; secured, in consequence of this act, the unreserved loyalty of a considerable number of ecclesiastical dignitaries, government officers, peasants and traders; and succeeded in challenging, in the course of a memorable interview, the mujtahid himself. It was solely due to the potency of the written message entrusted by Him to Mulla Muhammad Mihdiy- i- Kandi and delivered to the Bab while in the neighborhood of the village of Kulayn, that the soul of the disappointed Captive was able to rid itself, at an hour of uncertainty and suspense, of the anguish that had settled upon it ever since His arrest in Shiraz. He it was Who, for the sake of Tahirih and her imprisoned companions, willingly submitted Himself to a humiliating confinement, lasting several days-- the first He was made to suffer-- in the house of one of the kad- khudas of Tihran. It was to His caution, foresight and ability that must be ascribed her successful escape from Qasvin, her deliverance from her opponents, her safe arrival in His home, and her subsequent removal to a place of safety in the vicinity of the capital from whence she proceeded to Khurasan. It was into His presence that Mulla Husayn was secretly ushered upon his arrival in Tihran, after which interview he traveled to Adhirbayjan on his visit to the Bab then confined in the fortress of Mah- Ku. He it was Who unobtrusively and unerringly directed the proceedings of the Conference of Badasht; Who entertained as His guests Quddus, Tahirih and the eighty- one disciples who had gathered on that occasion; Who revealed every day a Tablet and bestowed on each of the participants a new name; Who faced unaided the assault of a mob of more than five hundred villagers in Niyala; Who shielded Quddus from the fury of his assailants; Who succeeded in restoring a part of the property which the enemy had plundered and Who insured the protection and safety of the continually harassed and much abused Tahirih. Against Him was kindled the anger of Muhammad Shah who, as a result of the persistent representations of mischief- makers, was at last induced to order His arrest and summon Him to the capital-- a summons that was destined to remain unfulfilled as a result of the sudden death of the sovereign. It was to His counsels and exhortations, addressed to the occupants of Shaykh Tabarsi, who had welcomed Him with such reverence and love during His visit to that Fort, that must be attributed, in no small measure, the spirit evinced by its heroic defenders, while it was to His explicit instructions that they owed the miraculous release of Quddus and his consequent association with them in the stirring exploits that have immortalized the Mazindaran upheaval. It was for the sake of those same defenders, whom He had intended to join, that He suffered His second imprisonment, this time in the masjid of Amul to which He was led, amidst the tumult raised by no less than four thousand spectators,-- for their sake that He was bastinadoed in the namaz- khanih of the mujtahid of that town until His feet bled, and later confined in the private residence of its governor; for their sake that He was bitterly denounced by the leading mulla, and insulted by the mob who, besieging the governor's residence, pelted Him with stones, and hurled in His face the foulest invectives. He alone was the One alluded to by Quddus who, upon his arrival at the Fort of Shaykh Tabarsi, uttered, as soon as he had dismounted and leaned against the shrine, the prophetic verse "The Baqiyyatu'llah (the Remnant of God) will be best for you if ye are of those who believe." He alone was the Object of that prodigious eulogy, that masterly interpretation of the Sad of Samad, penned in part, in that same Fort by that same youthful hero, under the most distressing circumstances, and equivalent in dimensions to six times the volume of the Qur'an. It was to the date of His impending Revelation that the Lawh- i- Hurufat, revealed in Chihriq by the Bab, in honor of Dayyan, abstrusely alluded, and in which the mystery of the "Mustaghath" was unraveled. It was to the attainment of His presence that the attention of another disciple, Mulla Baqir, one of the Letters of the Living, was expressly directed by none other than the Bab Himself. It was exclusively to His care that the documents of the Bab, His pen- case, His seals, and agate rings, together with a scroll on which He had penned, in the form of a pentacle, no less than three hundred and sixty derivatives of the word Baha, were delivered, in conformity with instructions He Himself had issued prior to His departure from Chihriq. It was solely due to His initiative, and in strict accordance with His instructions, that the precious remains of the Bab were safely transferred from Tabriz to the capital, and were concealed and safeguarded with the utmost secrecy and care throughout the turbulent years following His martyrdom. And finally, it was He Who, in the days preceding the attempt on the life of the Shah, had been instrumental, while sojourning in Karbila, in spreading, with that same enthusiasm and ability that had distinguished His earlier exertions in Mazindaran, the teachings of His departed Leader, in safeguarding the interests of His Faith, in reviving the zeal of its grief- stricken followers, and in organizing the forces of its scattered and bewildered adherents. (66:2)

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