Another famous advocate of the Cause of the Báb, even
fiercer in zeal than Vaḥíd, and almost as eminent in rank, was Mullá Muhammad-‘Alíy-i-Zánjání,
surnamed Hujjat. An Akhbárí, a vehement controversialist, of a bold and
independent temper of mind, impatient of restraint, a man who had dared condemn
the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy from the Abváb-i-Arba‘ih down to the
humblest mullá, he had more than once, through his superior talents and fervid
eloquence, publicly confounded his orthodox Shí‘ah adversaries. Such a person
could not remain indifferent to a Cause that was producing so grave a cleavage
among his countrymen. The disciple he sent to Shíráz to investigate the matter
fell immediately under the spell of the Báb. The perusal of but a page of the
Qayyúmu’l-Asmá’, brought by that messenger to Hujjat, sufficed to effect such a
transformation within him that he declared, before the assembled ‘ulamás of his
native city, that should the Author of that work pronounce day to be night and
the sun to be a shadow he would unhesitatingly uphold his verdict.
- Shoghi
Effendi (Chapter 1, ‘God Passes By’)