Tahirih’s Magical Influence Over the Masses

Tahirih, with her learning, her poetry and her devotion to the Babi Faith—the precursor of the Baha’i Faith—had a tremendous influence in life as well as in death.

The story of her conversion from Islam to the Babi Faith inspired many:

One night when it was getting along toward dawn [Tahirih] laid her head on her pillow, lost all awareness of this earthly life, and dreamed a dream; in her vision a youth, a Siyyid [a descendent of Muhammad], wearing a black cloak and a green turban, appeared to her in the heavens; he was standing in the air, reciting verses and praying with his hands upraised. At once, she memorized one of those verses, and wrote it down in her notebook when she awoke. After the Báb had declared His mission, and His first book, “The Best of Stories,” [The Ahsanu’l-Qisas, the Bab’s commentary on the Surih of Joseph] was circulated, Tahirih was reading a section of the text one day, and she came upon that same verse, which she had noted down from the dream. Instantly offering thanks, she fell to her knees and bowed her forehead to the ground, convinced that the Bab’s message was truth.- Abdul Baha, Read the full text here