Table of Contents
Section One: The Quest Begins
I’tikáf at the Mosque in Kúfa
The Shaykhí’s had a spiritual retreat practice called i’tikáf 1ACT2 . It involved seclusion in a mosque, usually for forty days, during which participants prayed, meditated and fasted from sunrise to sunset, as well as observing nightly prayer vigils. Someone in an i’tikáf would be secluded from everyone else. I’tikáfs were regarded as a means of searching for truth by abstinence from physical desires as well as purification through prayer. For the Shaykhí’s, a condition for an i’tikáf was that it be held in one of four holy mosques. The ruined mosque at Kúfa where Imám ‘Alí was killed was one of these holy mosques. In fact, traditions linked the appearance of the Qá’im with that location and so it made perfect sense for these particular seekers to hold their i’tikáf at the mosque in Kúfa.
It is February 1844, Mullá Husayn, his brother and his young nephew, become the first of the initial wave of seekers of the Qá’im to arrive in Kúfa. Mullá Husayn and his brother began their i’tikáf as soon as they arrive. The young nephew provides their meals and sees to their daily needs, while also fasting and praying.2ACT2
Soon thereafter, Mullá ’Alíy-i-Bastámí and his twelve companions arrive and begin their forty-day i’tikáf at the mosque in Kúfa.
To Shíráz, like moths to a Flame
Mullá Husayn and his companions leave the mosque the same night they complete their i’tikáf . Guided solely by Mullá Husayn’s intuition, they go to the port city of Búshihr on the Persian Gulf. Mullá Husayn’s intuition was correct in sensing that the Qá’im had spent much time in that city, but He was no longer there.
1 Arabic, means to adhere or commit to something.
2 Dawn-Breakers Chapter 3, p50
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