Letters of the Living

The Letters of the Living (Arabic: حروف الحي) was a title provided by the Báb to the first eighteen disciples of the Bábí Religion.

The Báb named the first eighteen believers in his mission as the Letters of the Living (Ḥurúfu'l-ḥayy in Arabic).

The terms 'Point' and 'Letter; were originally suggested by the formula Bi'smi'llahi'r-Rahmani'r-Rahim (In the Name of the Merciful, Compassionate God), which contains 19 letters, the first (B) distinguished by a point or dot beneath it; and by 'Ali's alleged saying, 'All that is in the Qurʼan is ... in the Bi'smi'llah ... and I am the Point beneath the B.

[1] The term "Hayy" means The Living and is used as one of the names of God in Islamic and Bábí scriptures.

He, his sons, Muḥammad-Báqir Bus͟hrú'í, and Mullá Ḥusayn travelled to Shiraz in search of the Qá'im; where the Báb revealed his message.

He and Muḥammad-Ḥasan Bus͟hrú'í (his father) travelled with his uncle Mullá Ḥusayn to Shiraz in search of the Qá'im where the Báb revealed his message.

Later named Mullá ʻAlí(*) "He died a natural death, but his son Mashiyyatu'llah later met with martyrdom in his youth."

Siyyid Ḥusayn Yazdí was executed in Tehran in 1852 in the aftermath on the attempt on the Shah's life.

Saʻíd Hindí reached Multan in that very year to share the Báb's message with his fellow countrymen.

[5] Sayyid Basir Hindí, one of Saʻíd Hindí's contacts and a blind man of Sufi background from the Multan area, embraced the Bábí Faith and set out on pilgrimage to Shiraz in Iran to meet the Báb.

He received a letter from the Báb saying he would attain "Him whom God shall make manifest" in the year 'eight' (1268 AH).

Soon after Baháʼu'lláh's release from the Siyáh-Chál of Tihran, Mullah Baqir obtained His presence and quickly became a believer and teacher of the Cause.

In the introduction to A Traveller's Narrative (page xvi), Edward Granville Browne wrote that Mírzá Yaḥyá was the fourth of the Letters of the Living, and also mentioned Baháʼu'lláh as included in the group.

The commonly accepted view is that Mulla Ḥusayn's brother and nephew recognised the Báb shortly after him (making them the third and fourth Letters).