Already in Shíráz,
at the earliest stage of His ministry, He had revealed what Bahá’u’lláh has
characterized as “the first, the greatest, and mightiest of all books” in the
Bábí Dispensation, the celebrated commentary on the súrih of Joseph, entitled
the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá, whose fundamental purpose was to forecast what the true
Joseph (Bahá’u’lláh) would, in a succeeding Dispensation, endure at the hands
of one who was at once His arch-enemy and blood brother. This work, comprising
above nine thousand three hundred verses, and divided into one hundred and
eleven chapters, each chapter a commentary on one verse of the above-mentioned
súrih, opens with the Báb’s clarion-call and dire warnings addressed to the
“concourse of kings and of the sons of kings;” forecasts the doom of Muḥammad Sháh; commands his Grand Vizir, Ḥájí Mírzá Aqásí, to
abdicate his authority; admonishes the entire Muslim ecclesiastical order;
cautions more specifically the members of the Shí’ah community; extols the
virtues, and anticipates the coming, of Bahá’u’lláh, the “Remnant of God,” the
“Most Great Master;” and proclaims, in unequivocal language, the independence
and universality of the Bábí Revelation, unveils its import, and affirms the
inevitable triumph of its Author.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
