Table of Contents
Prologue
For Shí’a Muslims, the Day of Resurrection will be ushered in by the return of the twelfth Imám, the Qá’im [He who ariseth], followed by the coming of Imám Husayn and his hosts. For Sunní Muslims, the Day of Resurrection will see the coming of the Mahdí [One who is guided] followed by the return of Jesus Christ.
Siyyid Kázim had told his disciples:
For soon after the first trumpet-blast which is to smite the earth with extermination and death, there will be sounded again yet, another call, at which all things will be quickened and revived. Then will the meaning of the sacred verse be revealed: “And there was a blast on the trumpet, and all who are in the heavens and all who are in the earth expired, save those whom God permitted to live. Then was there sounded another blast, and lo! Arising, they gazed around them. And the earth shone with the light of her Lord, …”1_ACT15 Verily I say, after the Qá’im, the Qayyúm [the Self-Subsisting] will be made manifest. For when the star of the Former has set, the sun of the beauty of Husayn will rise and illuminate the whole world. 2_ACT15
On the eve of 22 May 1844, the First Trumpet Blast had sounded – the Qá’im had arisen. He had claimed the title of “the Báb” [the Gate]. He was the gate to a new Revelation. He was the gate that closed the cycle of prophecy and opened the cycle of fulfillment for all religions. 3_ACT15 But His main role was as the gate to the Qayyúm, the One Who was to arise after Him; the One greater than Himself; the One whose coming all past religions have prophesied. The Báb called Him: “Him Whom God shall make manifest”.
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