Table of Contents
Section Six: Conference of Badasht
Upon His arrival at Badasht, Bahá’u’lláh rented three gardens, one of which He assigned exclusively to QuddĂşs, another He set aside for Táhirih and her attendant, and the third He reserved for Himself. The other believers who were from different parts of the land, camped in the fields besides the gardens. NabĂl records:
Those who had gathered in Badasht were eighty-one in number, all of whom, from the time of their arrival to the day of their dispersion, were the guests of Bahá’u’lláh.”89ACT6
Conference of Badasht
The gathering in Badasht in the presence of Bahá’u’lláh lasted twenty-two days.90ACT6 The year was 1848. It was the beginning of summer. Most of the participants were unaware that what happened at the gathering was fully guided and controlled by Bahá’u’lláh. Up to this stage, the majority of the BábĂs viewed the Báb as fulfilling the Islamic Dispensation. The BábĂs accepted that the Báb was the return of the twelfth Imám, the Qá’im, but most were not expecting the end of the Islamic Dispensation – they were not expecting the Islamic laws, ordinances, and religious community order and structure to change that much. They did not fully grasp that the actual claim of the Báb was that of a new Manifestation of God on par with Manifestations such as Jesus and Muhammad, and that He was starting a whole new Dispensation with its own Holy Book which superseded the Islamic Dispensation. The Persian Bayán, the Báb’s book of laws, had been only recently revealed by the Báb while He was in Máh-KĂş, and most BábĂs did not even know about it. The Badasht gathering was therefore the occasion which Bahá’u’lláh used to guide the BábĂ’s to this new understanding. 91ACT6 On each day of the gathering, Bahá’u’lláh revealed a new tablet, which was read to all the gathered believers. Most were not aware who was the author of these new tablets. Each day marked the repudiation of a long-standing tradition and abrogation of one of the old laws of Islám.
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