Letters of the Living

The Letters of the Living, in Arabic Hurúf-i-Hayy (Arabic: حروف الحي), is a term used by the Báb to entitle the first eighteen Bábís. The Letters were responsible for the initial establishment of the Bábí community in Persia and Iraq and their station also has a symbolic meaning.

In his history of the Bábí religion, The Dawn-Breakers, Nabíl-i-A‘ẓam lists the following eighteen as the Letters of the Living:

• Mullá Ḥusayn
• Muḥammad-Ḥasan Bushrú'í
• Muḥammad-Báqir Bushrú'í
• Mullá 'Alíy-i-Bastámí
• Mullá Khudá-Bakhsh-i-Quchání
• Mullá Ḥasan-i-Bajistání
• Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Yazdí
• Mullá Muḥammad Rawḍih-Khán Yazdí
• Sa‘íd Hindí
• Mullá Maḥmud Khu'í
• Mullá Jalíl-i-Urúmí
• Mullá Aḥmad-i-Ibdál Marághi'í
• Mullá Báqir Tabrízí
• Mullá Yúsúf-i-Ardibílí
• Mullá Hádí-i-Qazvini
• Mullá Muḥammad-`Alí Qazvíní
• Ṭáhirih
• Quddús

Background

In His Writings the Báb describes the Letters of the Living as being the manifestations of divine names and attributes of God with the Báb Himself being the supreme Mirror of God and the Letters being worldly Mirrors of God as mirrors of the Báb. Nader Saiedi notes that the word Living is a reference to the prophecy of the Day of Resurrection in Islam with the Letters being the first to be spiritually resurrected through the Báb's Revelation.

In the Persian Bayán the Báb writes the following regarding the Letters:

"It is for the Will, and through the manifestation of His own Self, that God hath fashioned, out of His Self, eighteen souls, ere the creation of all things, and He hath enshrined the sign of their recognition in the inmost reality of all things that all, from the depths of their essence, may bear witness that He is the Primal Unity and the Eternal, the Ever-Abiding. . . .
Know thou that He is the Supreme Mirror of God out of Whose revelation is manifested the worldly Mirror, Which is naught but the Letters of the Living, and naught is seen in that Supreme Mirror of God but God."

The Báb also described the Letters of the Living as being the spiritual return of sacred figures in Islam, representing figures who have recognized the Manifestation of God in past religions. Specifically they represent the fourteen immaculate souls of Islam and four manifestations of the Most Great Name of God, including Muhammad and the Twelve Imams.

In His Writings the Báb identifies Mullá Ḥusayn as the spiritual return of Muhammad in His station of servitude to God, with the Báb Himself representing the return of Muhammad in His station of Divinity as the source of the Quran. Mullá 'Alíy-i-Bastámí is referred to as the spiritual return of Ali, the first Imam.

In a Tablet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá states that the Báb and the Letters of the Living are nineteen of the twenty-four elders referred to in the Book of Revelation, with the twentieth being Vakílu’d-Dawlih, and the remaining four being unknown until the future.

History

Siyyid Kázim, the head of the Shaykhí sect of Islam instructed his followers to disperse in search of the Qá’im whose advent he taught was imminent shortly before his passing in 1843. His followers did not disperse until Mullá Ḥusayn arrived in Karbila in 1844 and encouraged them to depart the city.

Mullá Ḥusayn eventually traveled to Shiraz with his uncle and nephew where he met with the Báb in May, 1844. The Báb declared Himself to Mullá Ḥusayn and Mullá Ḥusayn accepted His claims becoming the first Letter of the Living with the Báb instructing him not to reveal His identity to others. A short time afterwards fellow Shaykhí Mullá ‘Alíy-i-Bastamí arrived in Shiraz with several others. Ḥusayn declined to reveal the identity of the Báb however after a period of prayer and meditation Bastamí deduced the identity of the Báb, met with Him, and became a Letter of the Living. The rest of Bastamí's company and Mullá Ḥusayn's uncle and nephew did likewise after him. After the initial letters Táhirih had her brother-in-law, Mullá Muḥammad-`Alí Qazvíní, deliver a letter to the Báb in which she recognized Him as a Manifestation with both her and Qazvíní being appointed Letters. Quddús also arrived in Shiraz and recognized the Báb being appointed as the last Letter of the Living.

Once all eighteen had been appointed the Báb instructed the Letters to disperse from Shiraz to teach His religion revealing a Tablet for each of them and while they experienced success in teaching the new Faith they also faced persecution. Mullá 'Alíy-i-Bastámí was arrested in Iraq in late 1844 after proclaiming the Bábí Faith and was sentenced to hard labor in Istanbul, passed in 1846, and is regarded as the first Bábí Martyr. Mullá Khudá-Bakhsh-i-Quchání, who accompanied Bastámí to Iraq, became inactive after a short time and fell into obscurity,, Mullá Muḥammad Rawḍih-Khán Yazdí recanted his Faith after teaching in Yazd and became a follower of Hájí Mírzá Karím Khán, and Sa‘íd Hindí traveled to India to teach losing contact with the Bábí movement.

Persecution of the early Bábí community escalated throughout the 1840's and culminated in several armed confrontations perhaps the most notable of which was the Siege of Shaykh Tabarsí. The Letters of the Living Mullá Ḥusayn, Muḥammad-Ḥasan Bushrú'í, Muḥammad-Báqir Bushrú'í, Mullá Maḥmud Khu'í, Mullá Jalíl-i-Urúmí, Mullá Aḥmad-i-Ibdál Marághi'í, Mullá Yúsúf-i-Ardibílí, Mullá Muḥammad-`Alí Qazvíní, and Quddús were all martyred in 1849 during the conflict or shortly afterwards when government troops violated the terms of the Bábí surrender and executed many of those who had surrendered.

In 1850 the Báb was martyred. Following His martyrdom two Bábí youth acting alone attempted to assassinate the Shah of Iran in retaliation resulting in a period of intense violent persecution of the Bábí's in response. In this period the Letters Ṭáhirih and Siyyid Ḥusayn-i-Yazdí were executed. Of the Letters who survived after 1852 Mullá Ḥasan-i-Bajistání lost faith in the Báb feeling unworthy of the station of Letter, Mullá Hádí-i-Qazvini became a supporter of Mírzá Yaḥyá, and Mullá Báqir Tabrízí became the only Letter to become a Bahá’í.