Quddus, [the last Letter of Living] immortalized by Him [the
Báb] as Ismu'llahi'l-Akhir (the Last Name of God); on whom Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet
of Kullu't-Ta'am later conferred the sublime appellation of Nuqtiy-i-Ukhra (the
Last Point); whom He elevated, in another Tablet, to a rank second to none
except that of the Herald of His Revelation; whom He identifies, in still
another Tablet, with one of the ‘Messengers charged with imposture’ mentioned
in the Qur'án; whom the Persian Bayan extolled as that fellow-pilgrim round
whom mirrors to the number of eight Vahids revolve; on whose ‘detachment and
the sincerity of whose devotion to God's will God prideth Himself amidst the
Concourse on high;’ whom 'Abdu'l-Bahá designated as the ‘Moon of Guidance;’ and
whose appearance the Revelation of St. John the Divine anticipated as one of
the two ‘Witnesses’ into whom, ere the ‘second woe is past,’ the ‘spirit of
life from God’ must enter. (Shoghi Effendi, 'God Passes By')
Quddus would sometimes ask his Iráqí companions to chant
various passages of the Qur’án, to which he would listen with close attention,
and would often be moved to unfold their meaning. In the course of one of their
chantings, they came across the following verse:
“With somewhat of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and
lives and fruits, will We surely prove you: but bear good tidings to the
patient.” (Surih [chapter]: ‘The Cow’, Rodwell translation)
These words,” Quddús would remark, “were originally revealed
with reference to Job and the afflictions that befell him. In this day,
however, they are applicable to us, who are destined to suffer those same
afflictions. Such will be the measure of our calamity that none but he who has
been endowed with constancy and patience will be able to survive them.” (Nabil, ‘The Dawn-Breakers’, translated and
edited by Shoghi Effendi)
