The Deepest Winter: Darkness, Expectation, and the Cry for Renewal
As discussed in earlier articles, by the 19th century the world of Islam—like Christendom and the Jews before—had entered a spiritual winter. Division, dogmatic rigidity, and the decay of the original fire had become endemic:
- Shi’ah and Sunni, Sufi and Salafi, each clung to their traditions, wary of each other and exhausted by political decline.
- Corruption sapped the vitality of institutions; the cry for the “Promised One”—Mahdi, Qa’im, or Divine Helper—was heard in every pulpit and echoed through every alley.
Outside Islam, Christians longed for Christ’s return, Jews for the Messiah, Zoroastrians for their own Saoshyant, and even Hindus and Buddhists awaited righteous avatars or buddhas. The world was staggered by a sense that the old order was spent and a new Day must soon break.
This climate of expectation, fervor, exhaustion, and confusion—spiritual late winter—prepared the soil for an unprecedented new spring.
The Advent of the Báb—Opening the Gate for the New Age
On May 23, 1844, in Shiraz, Persia, a young merchant named Siyyid ‘Ali-Muhammad—later known by His title the Báb (“the Gate”)—boldly declared His religious mission. His message was at once electrifying and bewildering:
- To the Muslim world, He came as the Promised Qa’im, the return of the Hidden Imam and long-awaited Mahdi, foretold in Shi’ah prophecies and traditions, but in form utterly unexpected.
- To the world, He announced the dawn of a new Revelation—one that would transcend the boundaries of Islam and gather humanity for a new era of spiritual and social justice.
The Báb’s first followers, later known as Bábís, were drawn from every stratum—scholars, merchants, women, youth, even clerics—and soon swept Persia in a wave of reform, hope, and sacrificial courage.
Bahá’u’lláh writes of the Báb’s role:
“The appearance of the Báb resembles the appearance of John the Baptist... For in this day the shout of the Báb, like the [Baptizer’s], was raised in the wilderness of oblivion, in the midst of the ‘perverse and quarrelsome generation,’ foretelling the coming of the Promised One...”
—Kitáb-i-Íqán, par. 173 (official text)
But the Báb was more than a precursor. He brought a code of prayer, law, moral discipline, and spiritual principle that both renewed faith and announced, at its heart, that “One Whom God shall make manifest” was at hand.
The Pattern of Divine Spring—Crisis, Martyrdom, and New Possibility
The Báb’s short six-year ministry (1844–1850) was marked by both wild fruitfulness and harrowing winter:
- After winning tens of thousands of followers and shaking the foundations of Persian society, the Báb and His disciples faced ferocious persecution from church and state alike.
- Hundreds of Bábís suffered torture, imprisonment, and death for their faith—culminating in the martyrdom of the Báb Himself in 1850.
The Qur’anic and biblical pattern exacts its price: just as Jesus was crucified and Husayn was martyred at Karbala, so, too, the Báb’s broken body became the seed from which a new order was to sprout. The spring was watered with sacrifice.
The Báb’s message was one of hope, preparation, and boundless expectation:
“O ye peoples of the earth! Enter ye all through this Gate, by which God is come unto you.”
—Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Báb, p. 54
Bahá’u’lláh, quoting the Qur’an, draws the cosmic analogy:
“No Messenger cometh unto them but they laugh Him to scorn.”
—Qur’an 36:30, cited in Kitáb-i-Íqán, par. 11
Messianic Fulfillment—Closing an Age and Opening the New
What made the Báb’s appearance so singular was not only His anticipation by Muslim prophecy (Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsa’i, Siyyid Kazim, and others accurately foretold His timing and station), but the confluence of expectation across all the world’s faiths.
The Báb declared:
- The Age of Islam had reached its fulfillment.
- The true promise of the Qur’an, Bible, and earlier scriptures was about to be unveiled in One yet to come—“Him Whom God shall make manifest.”
- The “Gate” was thus both an end and a beginning—closing the winter of past dispensations and opening a path to the long-expected unity and maturity of humanity.
Bahá’u’lláh affirms the Báb’s revolutionary role:
“The Báb, the Lord, the most exalted—may the life of all be a sacrifice unto Him—hath specifically revealed an Epistle unto the divines of every city, wherein He hath fully set forth the character of the denial and repudiation of each of them…”
—Kitáb-i-Íqán, par. 176 (official text)
The Blueprint: Pruning the Old and Planting the New
The Báb’s revelation is a perfect instance of the cyclical “spring” promised in the Bahá’í Writings:
- Pruning: The roots and shoots of the old order are cut back—rituals, priesthood, confusion—so that space is made for a more universal, just, and living faith.
- Planting: New teachings—purity, equality, the abolition of violence, preparation for universal justice—are sown.
- Anticipation: The Báb’s law is not an endpoint, but a direct pointer to Bahá’u’lláh and an era when all Revelations’ promises converge.
Seedbed for Bahá’u’lláh—The Next Spring
The Báb’s impact cannot be overstated:
- His martyrdom and the suffering of the Bábís catalyzed questions and longings across Persia and beyond.
- The movement’s energy—its example and its theological insistence on “continuous revelation”—prepared the world for Bahá’u’lláh, Who, just a few years later, would declare His own mission, fulfilling both the Báb’s prophecies and the deepest yearnings of every people.
Just as John the Baptist’s cry in the wilderness presaged Christ, the Báb’s Gate opens to the new Day of God.
Questions for Reflection
- Where are the “Gates” in your own life—the places where the old order is spent, but new expectation, preparation, and courage are required?
- What patterns of “spring”—risk, sacrifice, spiritual awakening—can you identify in your own tradition, family, or work?
Next week: The coming of Bahá’u’lláh—the One promised by all religions—bringing not only a blueprint for spiritual renewal, but a detailed plan for remaking the world as the long-awaited Divine Civilization.
With hope,
—Wade Fransson
References & Further Reading
- The Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Báb, p. 54
- Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Íqán, esp. pars. 11, 173, 176 (official text)
- Qur’an 36:30
- H.M. Balyuzi, The Báb: The Herald of the Day of Days
- “Progressive Revelation: God’s Sequential Blueprints…” (Series Articles 1–11)
- The People of the Sign (and sequels)
In every darkness, a Gate is opened. In every winter, the stirring of spring is near. The Báb’s sacrifice prepares the furrows for the next harvest—one for all humanity.
