The Báb’s stay in the Mu’tamid’s private residence ‘Imárat-i-Khurshíd
[Building of the Sun] lasted four months. The governor himself waited in person on the Báb, served His meals, and provided whatever was required for His comfort and safety.
60ACT5
The Mu’tamid’s Offer and the Báb’s Prophecies
One day, while seated with the Báb in his private garden, the Mu’tamid shared this with the Báb:
The almighty Giver has endowed me with great riches. I know not how best to use them. Now that I have, by the aid of God, been led to recognise this Revelation, it is my ardent desire to consecrate all my possessions to the furtherance of its interests and the spread of its fame. 61ACT5
The Mu’tamid then described to the Báb his plans:
It is my intention to proceed, by Your leave, to Tihran, and to do my best to win to this Cause Muhammad Sháh, whose confidence in me is firm and unshaken. I am certain that he will eagerly embrace it, and will arise to promote it far and wide. I will also endeavour to induce the Sháh to dismiss the profligate Hájí Mírzá Áqásí [the Grand Vazír], the folly of whose administration has well-nigh brought this land to the verge of ruin. Next, I will strive to obtain for You the hand of one of the sisters of the Sháh, and will myself undertake the preparation of Your nuptials. Finally, I hope to be enabled to incline the hearts of the rulers and kings of the earth to this most wondrous Cause and to extirpate every lingering trace of that corrupt ecclesiastical hierarchy that has stained the fair name of Islam. 62ACT5
The Báb lovingly responded to the noble Mu’tamid and prophesied:
May God requite you for your noble intentions. So lofty a purpose is to Me even more precious than the act itself. Your days and Mine are numbered, however; they are too short to enable Me to witness, and allow you to achieve, the realisation of your hopes. Not by the means which you fondly imagine will an almighty Providence accomplish the triumph of His Faith. Through the poor and lowly of this land, by the blood which these shall have shed in His path, will the omnipotent Sovereign ensure the preservation and consolidate the foundation of His Cause. That same God will, in the world to
Table of Contents
