Lawḥ-i Aḥmad-i `Arabī
, ("The [Arabic] Tablet of Aḥmad")
For Mīrzā Aḥmad Yazdī (b. Yazd c.
1220/1805 -- d. Tehran [or Qazvīn?], c. 1320/1902), date of writing,
c. 1282 / 1865-6.
Arabic text in
-
(1) INBMC 36:41-2;
-
(2) Risāla-yi tasbīḥ va taḥlīl, 215-218;
-
(3) Ganj-i Shayigan, 74-5).
* English trans. Shoghi Effendi
An early translation is found
in the 1927 Prayers and Meditations, Bahā’-Allāh, `Abdu'l-Bahā,
(Compiled at the request of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahā'īs of the United States and Canada), New York City: Bahā'ī
Publishing Committee, 1929, 60f; also Prayers and Meditations,
Bāb, Bahā’-Allāh, `Abdu'l-Bahā (Reviewed by National Spiritual
Assembly of the Bahā'īs of the United States and Canada), New York
City: Bahā'ī Publishing Committee, 1931, p.24f = the revised, now
standard translation printed in many compilations entitled Bahā'ī
Prayers.. (see Collins 4.23ff) for example, Bahā'ī Prayers
. (Wilmette, Illinois: Bahā'ī Publishing Committee), 1949 67-70;
Bahā'ī Prayers, A Selection., (London: BPT., 1975, 47-50).
During the early Edirne (=
Adrianople) period of Bahā’-Allāh's ministry two of his major
Tablets were addressed to one-time Bābīs named Aḥmad. The first and
best known of these Tablets is the Arabic Tablet of Aḥmad (Lawḥ-i
Aḥmad-i `Arabī). It was addressed to the centenarian Mīrzā
Aḥmad-i Yazdī (b. Yazd c. 1220/1805 -- d. Tehran [or Qazvīn?], c.
1320/1902). He was a nephew of Mīrzā `Abd al-Riḍā’ Khān Yazdī,
the son of Taqī Khān Yazdī who had worked in the service of a son of
Fatḥ `Alī Shāh (Muḥaḍārāt, 653 cf. ZH VI:790). After travelling to
India (Bombay; around 1242/1826?) as a dervish on a mystical and
messianic quest, Mīrzā Aḥmad subsequently settled in Kāshān, Baghdad
and other Iranian localities where he pursued his craft of
hand-weaver.
Aḥmad became a Bābī in the
early years of the Bāb's ministry (c.1262/1846?) through contact,
among others, with Mīrzā `Abd al-Khāliq Yazdī and Mullā Ṣādiq-i-Muqaddas
Khurasānī (Māzandarānī, ZH VI:790). In 1264/1847 he met the Bāb
in Kāshān. Later in Baghdād, around 1274/1857-8, he entered the
presence of Bahā’-Allāh; subsequently also, it seems, in Istanbul
and Edirne. In another Tablet Bahā’-Allāh has confirmed that Aḥmad
had "gazed upon his hidden beauty" (RB 2:113). It was in Edirne (the
"remote prison") in c. 1282/1865-6, before Bahā’-Allāh had broken
with Mīrzā Yaḥyā (March 1866 CE) and publicly declared his mission,
that the Tablet of Aḥmad was revealed, Aḥmad apparently received it
in when in Istanbul [Constantinople], in the course of a cancelled
journey to Edirne (RB 2:113).
Through the widespread
dissemination of this well-known Tablet in many Iranian localities
(from Khurāsān to Ādhirbayjān) Aḥmad was among the first to boldly
communicate that Bahā’-Allāh was "Him Whom God will make manifest" (man
yuhiru-hu Allāh). Many Bābīs responded by becoming Bahā'īs;
including, for example, the Apostle of Bahā’-Allāh, Mīrzā
Maḥmūd-i-Furūghī (Faizi, 15f). Mystically inclined, he travelled
widely as a Bābī and Bahā'ī teacher.
Within the Tablet of Aḥmad
the truth of the claims of the Bāb, the "King of the Messengers"
(sulṭān al-rusul), is affirmed. Faithfulness to the Bābī
revelation ( the Bayān) is enjoined for such is recorded in
the archetypal umm al-kitāb, the "Mother Book" (cf.
Q.3:7;13:39;43:4). Bahā’-Allāh seems to refer to himself as the
"Nightingale of Paradise" (warqat al-firdaws.. warqā' lit.
"pigeon"), "Most Great Beauty" (manẓar al-akbar lit.
"Greatest Vista") and "Tree of Life" (shajarat al-rūḥ, lit.
"Tree of the Spirit").
Often chanted in times of
stress or danger, the Tablet of Aḥmad "has been invested by
Bahā’-Allāh with a special potency and significance" (Bahā'ī
Prayers, 47/87). Its sincere reader is promised that through its
recitation "God will solve his difficulties and remove his
afflictions" (ibid 50). "God", furthermore, "hath ordained for the
one who chants it, the reward of a hundred martyrs and a service in
both worlds" (ibid 49). In the postscript (untranslated) at the end
of the Tablet, Bahā’-Allāh addresses the Bābīs of Baghdad, the "City
of God" (madīnat Allāh) mentioning that God will raise them
up on the "Day of Resurrection" (INBMC 36:42), by which is
presumably meant the time of the open declaration of Bahā’-Allāh's
mission (mid-late 1860s).
There are a few letters of
Shoghi Effendi expository of phrases in the Tablet of Aḥmad (e.g.
Dawn of a New Day, 200). In a letter to the Bahā'īs of Kenosha
(USA), Shoghi Effendi's opinion is expressed as follows, "The Tablet
of Aḥmad was revealed by Baha’u'llāh to be read when one feels
himself in exceptionally difficult circumstances. There is nothing
obligatory about its use, and every person has to decide for himself
whether he desires to learn it by heart or not.." (cited, Lights
of Guidance 2 No. 1608. p.483).
The English translation of
the Arabic Tablet of Aḥmad can be found in many Bahā'ī payer
books and devotional compilations. It is probably more frequently
read and memorized by modern Bahā'īs internationally, than most
other medium-length devotional Tablets. Late in life a son of Aḥmad
named Jamāl entrusted the Arabic autograph (manuscript in the
handwriting of Bahā’-Allāh) of the Tablet of Aḥmad to the Hand of
the Cause and Trustee of the Ḥuquq-Allāh, Valīu'llāh Varqā. He in
turn, at the direction of Shoghi Effendi, presented it to the
American Bahā'īs on the occasion of the 1953 Jubilee dedication
ceremony of the Wilmette, Illinois Bahā'ī Temple. It is today kept
in the archives of the Bahā'īs of the United States (Faizi, 20, cf.
Whitmore, Dawning Place, 229f).
Bibliography, Arabic
Tablet of Aḥmad
Fāḍil-i Māzandārānī,
Ishrāq Khavārī (ed.),
-
Muḥaḍarāt (Tehran: BPT., 1973/130),
-
`Sharḥ-i āl-i Aḥmad va
Lawḥ-i Aḥmad' (incorporating some biographical memoirs preserved by
the LSA of the Bahā'īs of Ishqābād) 653-661.
Faizi, A.Q.
Taherzadeh,
Shoghi Effendi,
Helen Hornby (Comp.),
Lawḥ-i Aḥmad Farsi
(Per.) "The Persian Tablet of Aḥmad".
For Ḥajjī Mīrzā Aḥmad-i Kāshānī
(d. Baghdad c. 1866).
Text Lawḥ-i-Aḥmad-i-Farsī ,
-
(1) INBMC 35:73-81..
-
(2) Majmū`a-yi alwāḥ Cairo: 1338 / 1919-1920 (Rep.
Wilmette, Illinois: BPT., 1982), pp. 315-334.
Eng. translations.
-
(1) Partial, in Star of the
West, VII/6 pp. 44-5 + Horace Holley (ed.) Bahā'ī
Scriptures (2nd ed. 1928; Nos 435-443; pp.223-4);
-
(2) Shoghi Effendi
Gleanings.. CLII and CLIII a translation of over half of
the Persian Tablet of Aḥmad.
The second major Tablet of Aḥmad is the Persian (Lawḥ-i-Aḥmad-i-fārsī). It was addressed
to the one-time Bābī merchant and ultimately staunch Azalī, Hajjī
Mīrzā Aḥmad-i-Kāshānī (d. Baghdad c. 1866). It was most likely
revealed in 1282/1865-6, during the difficult period just prior (?)
to Bahā’-Allāh's disassociation from Yaḥyā, a period characterized
in the Tablet as "the year of the most great testing and mighty
sedition" (sanih-i-tammī va fitnih-i-`umī) (MAM:328). The
basic purpose of the Tablet was to guide Aḥmad away from his
disruptive ways, his divisive attachment to Mīrzā Yaḥyā and various
Azalī Bābīs. He is addressed as a "banished and faithful friend"
(MAM:396, Gl:322). Aḥmad is exhorted to turn to the effulgent person
of Bahā'-Allāh who is "the Manifestation of the Almighty and
All-Glorious Being" (MAM:221 trans. Gl:323). The qur'ānic "Light
Verse" (Q. 24:35) is mystically interpreted relative to the "Light"
of the person of Bahā’-Allāh (MAM:324 tr.Gl:324).
Aḥmad-i Kāshānī met
the Bāb in 1263/1847 in the home of his Bābī half-brother, Hajjī
Mīrzā Jānī Kāshānī (martyred, 1269/1852). He was among those
whom Bahā’-Allāh chose, apparently for reasons of controlling his
unstable behaviour, to accompany him on his exile from Baghdad to
Istanbul and Edirne. His support of Mīrzā Yaḥyā led Bahā’-Allāh to
advise him to quit Edirne for Iraq. In Baghdad he was apparently
"murdered by an Arab, who was supposed to have been a Bahā'ī" (Balyuzi,
BKG:157, 231; idem, E.G. Browne, 64).
Many paragraphs of the
Tablet of Aḥmad (Persian) are addressed to the "servants of God" (to
Bābīs collectively or mankind in general). In diverse ways Aḥmad and
others are called to detachment and purity. They are called upon to
use all their faculties in order to witness the radiant light of
Bahā'-Allāh and return to Him who is the "Source" of their creation
(MAM:321 tr.Gl:324). The Bābīs are called to be firm in the covenant
of the Bāb (MAM:328 tr. Gl:327).
Bahā’-Allāh likens the
enormity of his revelation to an "ocean" containing numerous "pearls
of great price" (MAM:324 tr. Gl:324 cf. Matt 13:45-6). Sinaitic
imagery is present at various points in the Tablet. Bahā’-Allāh is
the now unveiled subordinate divinity who is not limited by the
interjection addressed to Moses, "Thou shalt not see Me" (Qur'ān
7:143b cited MAM:330, cf. ibid 221 trans. Gl:324). His "deathless
beauty" is radiantly apparent. At one point words of the "Son of
Mary" (Jesus) about the "tree" that fails to bring forth fruit being
fit for the "fire", are briefly commented upon (MAM:320 cf. Matt
7:19).
Bibliography,
Persian Tablet of Aḥmad
Ustād
Muhammad `Alī Salmānī,
Hasan Balyuzi,
Bahā’-Allāh, King of Glory, Oxford: GR.,
1980 (index);
A. Taherzadeh,
