Table of Contents
Upon hearing this shepherd’s story, Siyyid Kázim became joyful. His companions, however, were filled with sorrow. Siyyid Kázim soothed them saying: “Is not your love for me for the sake of that True One whose advent we all await? Would you not wish me to die, that He may be revealed?”63ACT1
Siyyid Kázim calmly and happily completed his visit to KázĂmayn and returned to Karbalá’ whereupon he immediately fell ill. As foretold in shepherd’s dream, three days later, on 31 December 1843, he died.64ACT1 He was buried in Karbalá’ close to the shrine of Imám Husayn.
Siyyid Kázim’s final instructions
In the almost fifteen years since Shaykh Ahmad’s death,65ACT1Siyyid Kázim had done everything he could to prepare his disciples for the coming of the Promised One. But he also knew that although his disciples were eager, the road to recognizing the Promised One wasn’t going to be easy. It would require humility and detachment from everything including what others said and did. It would require spiritual vision and courage to fight one’s own limitations and ego. NabĂl records the disciples of Siyyid Kázim relating that during the last days of his life:
…repeatedly and emphatically, Siyyid Kázim had bidden them quit their homes, scatter far and wide, purge their hearts from every idle desire, and dedicate themselves to the quest of Him to whose advent he had so often alluded. “He told us,” they said, “that the Object of our quest was now revealed. The veils that intervened between you and Him are such as only you can remove by your devoted search. Nothing short of prayerful endeavour, of purity of motive, of singleness of mind, will enable you to tear them asunder.” 66ACT1
The Bridge of Sirát
62 Dawn-Breakers Chapter 2, p43-44
63 Chapter 2, p45
64 Chapter 2, p44-45 and p44 footnote 1
65 Chapter 1, p18 states death of Shaykh Ahmad occurred in 1242 AH (which is 1826 CE).
66 Chapter 3, p47-48
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