The Message Spreads15 – Dawn Breakers

of rose-water which He caused to be sprinkled on my face. This restored my vigour and enabled me to follow His reading to the end.

When He had completed His recital, the Báb arose to depart. He entrusted me, as He left, to the care of His maternal uncle. ”He is to be your guest,” He told him, ”until the time when he, in collaboration with Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím, shall have finished transcribing this newly revealed commentary, and shall have verified the correctness of the transcribed copy.” Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Karím and I devoted three days and three nights to this work. We would in turn read aloud to each other a portion of the commentary until the whole of it had been transcribed. We verified all the traditions in the text and found them to be entirely accurate. Such was the state of certitude to which I had attained that if all the powers of the earth were to be leagued against me they would be powerless to shake my confidence in the greatness of His Cause.

Right after the third meeting with the Báb, Vahíd remained several days at the house of the uncle of the Báb. He did eventually return to the governor Husayn Khán’s residence, who had started to suspect that something had happened.

Vahíd’s Conversion is reported to the Sháh

When Vahíd returned to the governor’s residence, Husayn Khán quizzed him to see if he had fallen victim to the Báb’s magic influence. Vahíd responded: “No one but God, who alone can change the hearts of men, is able to captivate the heart of Siyyid Yahyá. Whoso can ensnare his heart is of God, and His word unquestionably the voice of Truth.” Vahíd’s answer silenced the governor, but Husayn Khán realized what had happened. He wrote to the Sháh complaining: “Though nominally my guest, he frequently absents himself for a number of consecutive days and nights from my house. That he has become a Babi, that he has been heart and soul enslaved by the will of the Siyyid-i-Báb, I have ceased to entertain any doubt.”

After his return to the governor’s residence, Vahíd wrote to his contacts including the Sháh’s Master of Ceremonies Mírzá Luft-‘Alí, the person who had conveyed the Sháh’s order to Vahíd to go to Shíráz and investigate the Bàb’s claims. Vahíd asked Mírzá Luft-‘Alí to advise the Sháh that he had accepted the claims of the Báb and

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