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While the situation was steadily deteriorating in the provinces, the bitter hostility of the people of Shiraz was rapidly moving towards a climax. Husayn Khan, vindictive, relentless, exasperated by the reports of his sleepless agents that his Captive's power and fame were hourly growing, decided to take immediate action. It is even reported that his accomplice, Haji Mirza Aqasi, had ordered him to kill secretly the would- be disrupter of the state and the wrecker of its established religion. By order of the governor the chief constable, Abdu'l- Hamid Khan, scaled, in the dead of night, the wall and entered the house of Haji Mirza Siyyid Ali, where the Bab was confined, arrested Him, and confiscated all His books and documents. That very night, however, took place an event which, in its dramatic suddenness, was no doubt providentially designed to confound the schemes of the plotters, and enable the Object of their hatred to prolong His ministry and consummate His Revelation. An outbreak of cholera, devastating in its virulence, had, since midnight, already smitten above a hundred people. The dread of the plague had entered every heart, and the inhabitants of the stricken city were, amid shrieks of pain and grief, fleeing in confusion. Three of the governor's domestics had already died. Members of his family were lying dangerously ill. In his despair he, leaving the dead unburied, had fled to a garden in the outskirts of the city. Abdu'l- Hamid Khan, confronted by this unexpected development, decided to conduct the Bab to His own home. He was appalled, upon his arrival, to learn that his son lay in the death- throes of the plague. In his despair he threw himself at the feet of the Bab, begged to be forgiven, adjured Him not to visit upon the son the sins of the father, and pledged his word to resign his post, and never again to accept such a position. Finding that his prayer had been answered, he addressed a plea to the governor begging him to release his Captive, and thereby deflect the fatal course of this dire visitation. Husayn Khan acceded to his request, and released his Prisoner on condition of His quitting the city. (13:1) Miraculously preserved by an almighty and watchful Providence, the Bab proceeded to Isfahan (September, 1846), accompanied by Siyyid Kazim- i- Zanjani. Another lull ensued, a brief period of comparative tranquillity during which the Divine processes which had been set in motion gathered further momentum, precipitating a series of events leading to the imprisonment of the Bab in the fortresses of Mah- Ku and Chihriq, and culminating in His martyrdom in the barrack- square of Tabriz. Well aware of the impending trials that were to afflict Him, the Bab had, ere His final separation from His family, bequeathed to His mother and His wife all His possessions, had confided to the latter the secret of what was to befall Him, and revealed for her a special prayer the reading of which, He assured her, would resolve her perplexities and allay her sorrows. The first forty days of His sojourn in Isfahan were spent as the guest of Mirza Siyyid Muhammad, the Sultanu'l- 'Ulama, the Imam- Jum'ih, one of the principal ecclesiastical dignitaries of the realm, in accordance with the instructions of the governor of the city, Manuchihr Khan, the Mu Tamidu'd- Dawlih, who had received from the Bab a letter requesting him to appoint the place where He should dwell. He was ceremoniously received, and such was the spell He cast over the people of that city that, on one occasion, after His return from the public bath, an eager multitude clamored for the water that had been used for His ablutions. So magic was His charm that His host, forgetful of the dignity of his high rank, was wont to wait personally upon Him. It was at the request of this same prelate that the Bab, one night, after supper, revealed His well- known commentary on the surih of Va'l- 'Asr. Writing with astonishing rapidity, He, in a few hours, had devoted to the exposition of the significance of only the first letter of that surih-- a letter which Shaykh Ahmad- i- Ahsa'i had stressed, and which Baha'u'llah refers to in the Kitab- i- Aqdas-- verses that equalled in number a third of the Qur'an, a feat that called forth such an outburst of reverent astonishment from those who witnessed it that they arose and kissed the hem of His robe.
(13:2)
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