Twelve hundred and seventy years have elapsed since the
declaration of Muhammad, and each year unnumbered people
have circumambulated the House of God [Mecca]. In the concluding year of this
period He Who is Himself the Founder of the House went on pilgrimage. Great
God! There was a vast concourse of pilgrims from every sect. Yet not one
recognized Him, though He recognized every one of them—souls tightly held in
the grasp of His former commandment. The only person who recognized Him and
performed pilgrimage with Him is the one round whom revolve eight Vahíds, [1]
in whom God hath gloried before the Concourse on high by virtue of his absolute
detachment and for his being wholly devoted to the Will of God. This doth not
mean that he was made the object of a special favour, nay, this is a favour
which God hath vouchsafed unto all men, yet they have suffered themselves to be
veiled from it. (The Báb, excerpts from the Qayyumu’l-Asma, ‘Selections from
the Writings of the Báb)
[1] This is a reference to Quddús, ‘whom the Persian Bayán
extolled as that fellow-pilgrim round whom mirrors to the number of eight
Vahíds revolve’. (God Passes By)
