Table of Contents
frequent confidential conversations with him, which aroused the jealousy of some of the disciples who considered themselves learned..
After Shaykh Ahmad left Yazd, ‘Abdu’l-Vahháb didn’t associate much with Shaykh Ahmad’s other disciples except for Hasan of Náyin13, to whom ‘Abdu’l-Vahháb confided the secrets his master Shaykh Ahmad had taught him. After ‘Abdu’l-Vahháb died Hasan continued to try to impress upon receptive souls among Shaykh Ahmad’s disciples that they were standing on the verge of a new Revelation from God. He met with limited success.14
One of Hasan’s disciples, Mahmúd 15, reported that, at sunrise one morning in 1817, he found Hasan prostrate, in wrapt devotion, repeating the words “Alláh-u-Akbar” [God is Great]. Hasan turned to Mahmúd and said: “That which I have been announcing to you is now revealed. At this very hour the light of the Promised One has broken and is shedding illumination upon the world. O Mahmúd, verily I say, you shall live to behold that Day of days.”16 Years later, after Mahmúd had become a follower of the Báb, he was puzzled because the Bab’s birth was in 1819, and not 1817. What, he wondered, had happened in 1817? It took a few more years for Mahmúd to find the answer to the significance of 1817. The full story of ‘Abdu’l-Vahháb, Hasan and Mahmúd is described by Nabíl in the Dawn-Breakers.17
The Second Awakener Emerges: Siyyid Kázim
Siyyid Kázim was born in the city of Rasht, nestled in the northern Persian province of Gílán , near the Caspian Sea, earning him the appellation Siyyid Kázim-i-Rashtí . The title “Siyyid” denotes lineage tracing back to the Prophet Muhammad, symbolizing sacred ancestry. 18ACT1 Those with such roots often wore green turbans.
13 Hájí Hasan-i-Náyiní, Dawn-Breakers Chapter 1, p7
14Dawn-Breakers Chapter 1, p7
15Mírzá Mahmúd-i-Qamsárí, Dawn-Breakers Chapter 1, p8
15Mírzá Mahmúd-i-Qamsárí, Dawn-Breakers Chapter 1, p8
16Dawn-Breakers Chapter 1, p8
17Dawn-Breakers Chapter 1, p7-9
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