It was the end of June, 1848. Outside the village of
Badasht, located about 400 Km northeast of Tehran, Persia, on the other side of the
Elburz Mountains in the Province of Semnan, there was a great open field that
contained some gardens and a stream that flew through its center.
Warm breezes rustled the leaves of trees whose fruits would
slowly ripen into peaches and pomegranates, cherries and apples-plump, juicy,
and sweet. Amidst these pleasant surroundings Baha’u’llah had rented three gardens.
One was assigned to Quddus, but according to ‘Abdu’l-Baha that “was kept a
secret.” Another was set apart for Tahirih, and in a third was raised the
pavilion of Bahá'u'lláh. In each of the
three gardens was a tent spread with soft carpets large enough for guests to
gather.
There, near the gentle ripple and splash of a stream, with
the mountains tall and purple in the distance, tents were pitched for the
eighty-one Bábis who attended what would become later known as the Conference
of Badasht. These disciples who had gathered from various
provinces were Baha’u’llah’s guests from the day of their arrival to the day
they dispersed. Tahirih was the only woman present among them. Mulla Husayn was
unavoidably absent, since he had been detained by authorities in Mashhad.
The conference at Badasht lasted twenty-two days. Its purpose was to make clear the Báb's true mission and to make a decisive break with past traditions. With the Báb in a remote prison, few of His followers had been able to talk to Him or to have access to His holy book, the Bayán. Many still thought of the Báb as a reformer of Islam, unaware that His Cause was much greater. From its first day the conference at Badasht began to open the eyes of the Bábis.
The Guardian explains: “On each of the twenty-two days of
His [Baha’u’llah’s] sojourn in that hamlet He revealed a Tablet, which was
chanted in the presence of the assembled believers. On every believer He
conferred a new name, without, however, disclosing the identity of the one who
had bestowed it. He Himself was henceforth designated by the name Bahá. Upon
the Last Letter of the Living was conferred the appellation of Quddus, while
Qurratu'l-'Ayn was given the title of Tahirih. By these names they were all
subsequently addressed by the Báb in the Tablets He revealed for each one of them.”
(Shoghi Effendi, 'God Passes By')
‘Abdu’l-Baha explains that Bahá'u'lláh, Quddus and Tahirih
would come together in the evenings. “In those days the fact that the Báb was
the Qá'im had not yet been proclaimed; it was the Blessed Beauty, with Quddus,
Who arranged for the proclamation of a universal Advent and the abrogation and
repudiation of the ancient laws.” (Abdu'l-Baha, 'Memorials of the Faithful')
“Then one day, and there was a wisdom in it, Bahá'u'lláh
fell ill; that is, the indisposition was to serve a vital purpose. All of a
sudden, in the sight of all, Quddus came out of his garden, and entered the
pavilion of Bahá'u'lláh. But Tahirih sent him a message, to say that their Host
being ill, Quddus should visit her garden instead. His answer was: "This
garden is preferable. Come, then, to this one." Tahirih, with her face
unveiled, stepped from her garden, advancing to the pavilion of Bahá'u'lláh;
and as she came, she shouted aloud these words: "The Trumpet is sounding!
The great Trump is blown! The universal Advent is now proclaimed!"[1] The
believers gathered in that tent were panic struck, and each one asked himself,
"How can the Law be abrogated? How is it that this woman stands here
without her veil?" (Abdu'l-Baha, 'Memorials of the Faithful') They gasped in
horror at what they saw!
Tahirih stood before them with her face unveiled – an unthinkable
act for any decent Muslim woman of the time. Though she was modestly dressed,
it was as if she stood unclothed before them.
The Bábi men, who normally refrained even from looking upon
her shadow, were aghast. Some quickly covered their eyes with their hands or hid
them in the folds of their clothing to avoid looking upon her face. Others ran
out of the tent altogether. One Bábi was so distressed that he cut his own
throat with a knife.
Tahirih remained calm. The removal of her veil expressed her
insight into the true spirit of Badasht more powerfully than a thousand well-chosen
words. The time had come to cast aside old ideas and outworn ways, to open wide
one's arms and receive the bounties of a new revelation.
One bounty to come, of which Tahirih was confident, would be
the unveiling of the true and equal worth of women. "I am the blast of the
trumpet, I am the call of the bugle," Tahirih proclaimed. "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," she said to the assembled Bábis. [2]
But the emotional disturbance caused by her bold act was
like the unsettling tremor of an earthquake. Some Babis were shaken to the very
core, their perceptions so shattered that they left the gathering at Badasht and
no longer chose to call themselves Bábis.
Baha’u’llah soothed the other agitated Bábis and restored
calm to their assembly by calling for a chapter from the Koran to be read
aloud. "Read the Surih of the Inevitable,"[3] said Bahá'u'lláh; and
the reader began: ‘When the Day that must come shall have come suddenly... Day
that shall abase! Day that shall exalt!...’ and thus was the new Dispensation
announced and the great Resurrection made manifest.
“At the start, those who were present fled away, and some
forsook their Faith, while some fell a prey to suspicion and doubt, and a
number, after wavering, returned to the presence of Bahá'u'lláh. The Conference
of Badasht broke up, but the universal Advent had been proclaimed.” (Abdu'l-Baha,
Memorials of the Faithful)
The words seemed to describe how many of the believers felt
that very day at Badasht, but their deeper meaning predicted an upheaval for all
humankind - the beginning of a great new cycle in the world. That this passage
from the Koran was chosen to be read that day, under the guiding hand of
Baha’u’llah, was not accidental. The great new cycle had begun, and it could not
be turned back.
When the followers of the Báb left the gardens of Badasht at
the end of the twenty-two days, their new spirit matched their new names. They felt
enlightened and energized, strong and eager to teach the Cause of the Báb. Most
did not know, however, that their new names had been given to them by Baha’u’llah,
nor did they know that each new tablet at the conference had been revealed by
Baha’u’llah, though some guessed that it might be so. The Báb alone knew, for
between Him and Baha’u’llah had flowed a constant stream of letters.
Together the Báb and Baha’u’llah had guided the Babis a step
closer toward their destiny. The tremendous change in store for humankind would
require not only new laws and customs, but a new mind and spirit - a transformation
that would not take place easily. At Badasht the Babis had seen the first
glimmer of what it would mean for them to be the dawn-breakers for a new Day.
(Adapted from ‘Memorials of the Faithful’, by ‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘God Passes By’, by
Shoghi Effendi, and ‘The Story of Baha’u’llah’, by Druzelle Cederquist)
It’s remarkable that while these events were taking place in
Persia in 1848, many significant events were also taking place in Europe and
America. For a brief summary please visit: Discovering
Something New
Notes
[1] Cf. Qur'án 74:8 and 6:73. Also Isaiah 27:13 and
Zechariah 9:14.
[2] See Nabil, ‘Dawn-Breakers’, pp.295-96, 297 n2
[3] Qur'án 56:4-6: The passage referred to the Day of
Judgment, "when the earth shall be shaken with a shock, And the mountains
shall be crumbled with a crumbling, And shall become scattered dust.”
