Table of Contents
Grand Vazír to submit to the Sháh that Hujjat had overstepped the boundaries of Islam and absolutely needed to be called in and corrected.
So, Hujjat was summoned to the capital a second time.
Hujjat tries to rescue the Báb [Spring 1847]
While the ‘ulamá of Zanján were petitioning the Grand Vazír, Hujjat himself had written to the Báb.16_ACT14 The Báb by this time had left Isfáhán and was being escorted to the capital [DB 10-12, Section 4]. He was just outside of Tihrán. It is spring of 1847, just after Naw-Rúz. In his letter to the Báb, Hujjat had asked to be granted permission to come and rescue Him. Nabíl recounts the Báb’s response to Hujjat:
The Báb assured him that His deliverance the Almighty alone could achieve and that no one could escape from His decree or evade His law. “As to your meeting with Me,” He added, “it soon will take place in the world beyond, the home of unfading glory.”17_ACT14
Hujjat is destined to not meet the Báb face-to-face in this physical realm. The day he received the Báb’s message, he also got the Sháh’s order to go the capital.18_ACT14 Meanwhile, the Báb’s proposed meeting with the Sháh had been cancelled by the Grand Vazír, and orders issued that the Báb be sent to Tabríz and eventually Máh-Kú prison. The route from Tihrán to Tabríz is via Zanján. The authorities were now particularly concerned that Hujjat might meet the Báb, so they hastily escorted Hujjat to the capital to avoid this. Hujjat knew the authorities’ intentions.
Hujjat arrived in Tihrán the same day the Báb left the village of Kulayn, outside Tihrán on his way to Zanján and then Tabríz.19_ACT14 While Hujjat himself had been escorted to Tihrán, His companions were following at a distance behind him. Hujjat sent a secret message to a group of them to stealthily return, find the Báb’s location and again offer to release Him. The group did just that, and we know the Báb again declined.20_ACT14 [These events are discussed in detail in DB 10-12, Section 4].
510 / 803