As the Báb bade farewell to the Letters of the Living, He
instructed them, each and all, to record separately the name of every believer
who embraced the Faith and identified himself with its teachings. The list of
these believers He bade them enclose in sealed letters, and address them to His
maternal uncle, Hájí Mírzá Siyyid ‘Alí, in Shíráz, who would in turn deliver them
to Him. “I shall classify these lists,” He told them, “into eighteen sets of
nineteen names each. Each set will constitute one váhid.[1] All these names, in
these eighteen sets, will, together with the first váhid, consisting of My own
name and those of the eighteen Letters of the Living, constitute the number of
Kull-i-Shay’.[2] Of all these believers
I shall make mention in the Tablet of God, so that upon each one of them the
Beloved of our hearts may, in the Day when He shall have ascended the throne of
glory, confer His inestimable blessings, and declare them the dwellers of His
Paradise.”
- Nabil ('The Dawn-Breakers', translated and edited by Shoghi Effendi)
[1] The numerical value of the word “váhid,” which means
“unity,” is 19
[2] The numerical value of “Kull-i-Shay’,” which means “all
things,” is 361, or 19 X 19.
