First and foremost among them [“those who quaffed the cup of
martyrdom while defending the fort of Tabarsí”] stands Quddús, upon whom the
Báb bestowed the name of Ismu’lláhu’l-Akhar.
He, the Last Letter of the Living and the Báb’s chosen companion on His
pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, was, together with Mullá Ṣádiq and Mullá
‘Alí-Akbar-i-Ardistání, the first to suffer persecution on Persian soil for the
sake of the Cause of God. He was only eighteen years of age when he left his
native town of Barfurúsh for Karbilá. For about four years he sat at the feet
of Siyyid Kázim, and at the age of twenty-two met and recognised his Beloved in
Shíráz. Five years later, on the twenty-third day of Jamádiyu’th-Thání in the
year 1265 A.H., [May 16, 1849 A.D.] he was destined to fall, in the
Sabzih-Maydán of Barfurúsh, a victim of the most refined and wanton barbarity
at the hands of the enemy. The Báb and, at a later time, Bahá’u’lláh have
mourned in unnumbered Tablets and prayers his loss, and have lavished on him
their eulogies. Such was the honour accorded to him by Bahá’u’lláh that in His
commentary on the verse of Kullu’t-Tá’am, [Qur’án, 3:93] which He revealed
while in Baghdád, He conferred upon him the unrivalled station of the Nuqṭiy-i-Ukhrá,
[Literally “The Last Point] a station second to none except that of the Báb
Himself.
- Nabil (‘The Dawn-Breakers’, translated and edited by Shoghi
Effendi)
