I am the Primal Point from which have been generated all created things.... I am the Countenance of God Whose splendour can never be obscured, the Light of God Whose radiance can never fade.... I am one of the sustaining pillars of the Primal Word of God. Whosoever hath recognised Me, hath known all that is true and right, and hath attained all that is good and seemly.

—The BÁb

On the third day after the martyrdom of the BÁb, His remains, inextricably united with those of His heroic, faithful disciple, were placed in a casket and taken to a locality which was safe and secure.

What happened, during the next fifty years, to the remains of the BÁb cannot be better summarized than in the words of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the BahÁ'Í Faith:

Subsequently, according to BahÁ'u'llÁh's instructions, they were transported to ?ihrÁn and placed in the shrine of ImÁm-ZÁdih ?asan. They were later removed to the residence of ?ÁjÍ SulaymÁn KhÁn[FN] himself in the Sar-Chashmih quarter of the city, and from his house were taken to the shrine of ImÁm-ZÁdih Ma`?Úm, where they remained concealed until the year 1284 A.H. (1867-1868), when a Tablet, revealed by BahÁ'u'llÁh in Adrianople, directed MullÁ `AlÍ-Akbar-i-ShahmÍrzÁdÍ[FO] and JamÁl-i-BurÚjirdÍ to transfer them without delay to some other spot, an instruction which, in view of the subsequent reconstruction of that shrine, proved to have been providential.

Unable to find a suitable place in the suburb of ShÁh `Abdu'l-`A?Ím, MullÁ `AlÍ-Akbar and his companion continued their search until, on the road leading to Chashmih-`AlÍ [the `AlÍ Springs], they came upon the abandoned and dilapidated MasjÍd-i-MashÁ'u'llÁh, where they deposited, within one of its walls, after dark, their precious burden, having first re-wrapt the remains in a silken shroud brought by them for that purpose. Finding the next day to their consternation that the hiding-place had been discovered,[FP] they clandestinely carried the casket through the gate of the capital direct to the house of MÍrzÁ ?asan-i-VazÍr, a believer and son-in-law of ?ÁjÍ MÍrzÁ Siyyid `AlÍy-i-TafrishÍ, the Majdu'l-AshrÁf, where it remained for no less than fourteen months.[FQ] The long-guarded secret of its whereabouts becoming known to the believers, they began to visit the house in such numbers that a communication had to be addressed by MullÁ `AlÍ-Akbar to BahÁ'u'llÁh, begging for guidance in the matter. ?ÁjÍ ShÁh Mu?ammad-i-ManshÁdÍ, surnamed AmÍnu'l-BayÁn, was accordingly commissioned to receive the Trust from him, and bidden to exercise the utmost secrecy as to its disposal.

Assisted by another believer, ?ÁjÍ ShÁh Mu?ammad buried the casket beneath the floor of the inner sanctuary of the shrine of ImÁm-ZÁdih Zayd, where it lay undetected until MÍrzÁ Asadu'llÁh-i-I?fahÁnÍ was informed of its exact location through a chart forwarded to him by BahÁ'u'llÁh. Instructed by BahÁ'u'llÁh to conceal it elsewhere, he first removed the remains to his own house in ?ihrÁn, after which they were deposited in several other localities such as the house of ?usayn-`AlÍy-i-I?fahÁnÍ and that of Mu?ammad-KarÍm-i-`A??Ár, where they remained hidden until the year 1316 (1899) A.H., when, in pursuance of directions issued by `Abdu'l-BahÁ, this same MÍrzÁ Asadu'llÁh, together with a number of other believers, transported them by way of I?fahÁn, KirmÁnshÁh, BaghdÁd and Damascus, to Beirut and thence by sea to `AkkÁ, arriving at their destination on the 19th of the month of Rama?Án 1316 A.H. (January 31, 1899), fifty lunar years after the BÁb's execution in TabrÍz.[1]

Forty years after the martyrdom of the BÁb, on a day in spring, BahÁ'u'llÁh was standing under the shade of a cluster of cypress trees on the slopes of Mount Carmel. In front of Him stretched the curve of the Bay of Haifa, beyond which loomed a sinister sight, the grim citadel of `AkkÁ—His first abode when He was brought, a Prisoner and an Exile, to the Holy Land. In darkest days He had told His people not to grieve, the prison gates would open and He would raise His tent on the fair mountain across the bay.

He it was Whose advent the BÁb had come to herald. For Him—He Whom God shall make manifest—the young Martyr-Prophet had suffered tribulations, had sacrificed His life. In His Dispensation, the Dispensation of His Forerunner had found its fulfilment, regained its splendour. And now as BahÁ'u'llÁh—the Lord of Hosts—looked at the expanse of rock below those cypress trees (which today still stand, firm and proud), He told His Son, `Abdu'l-BahÁ, who would shortly wield authority in His Name, that a mausoleum should be raised on that mountain-mass to receive the remains of the BÁb.

A decade went by before `Abdu'l-BahÁ could carry out that command. The sons of BahÁ'u'llÁh, who had strayed away from His Covenant, strove hard to block the enterprise. But at last the land was secured, the access route was obtained, the foundation-stone was laid, and construction work had begun. Then the mischief wrought by those violators of the Covenant of BahÁ'u'llÁh led to the incarceration of `Abdu'l-BahÁ within the walls of `AkkÁ. His life was in peril, but though, for a while, all His activities were either curtailed or stopped, the work of constructing that mausoleum on Mount Carmel was never allowed to lapse.

In the year 1908, the despotism of the Ottoman rulers came to an end, and `Abdu'l-BahÁ found His freedom. The next year on Naw-RÚz Day—March 21st—in a vault beneath the building which He had raised with undaunted resolution and with heart-ache, He deposited the casket containing the remains of the BÁb within a marble sarcophagus, the gift of the BahÁ'Ís of Rangoon. Nearly forty years later, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the BahÁ'Í Faith, undertook to adorn the Shrine of the BÁb with a superstructure, both strong and beautiful, crowned with a golden dome. Today it shines dazzlingly in the heart of Mount Carmel—the Mountain of God—a spiritual home for a flourishing world community and a beacon of hope for the whole of mankind.