It was at the request of this same prelate [the Imám-Jum‘ih
of Isfahán] that the Báb, one night, after supper, revealed His well-known
commentary on the súrih of Va’l-‘Asr. Writing with astonishing rapidity, He, in
a few hours, had devoted to the exposition of the significance of only the
first letter of that súrih—a letter which Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsá’í had stressed,
and which Bahá’u’lláh refers to in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas—verses that equalled in
number a third of the Qur’án, a feat that called forth such an outburst of
reverent astonishment from those who witnessed it that they arose and kissed
the hem of His robe.
- Shoghi Effendi (Chapter 1, ‘God Passes By’)