Extracts from

A Tablet of Bahā’-Allāh

to

Mīrzā Khalīl, Ibrahim-i muballigh-i Shirazi.


 

Prov. Trans.

Stephen N. Lambden

 

A Tablet of Bahā'-Allāh incorrectly attributed to the Bāb is found in Tehran Baha'i Archives Ms 3003C (unpaginated). This Arabic+Persian Tablet is addressed to a certain Khalīl (= Ibrahim) which may indicate Mīrzā Ibrahim-i muballigh-i Shirazi (?).

The complex Tablet  of Baha'-Allah is  in some respects similar to parts of the Bab's  Kitāb-i panj sha`n  (Book of the Five Modes)

        To sum up. Bahā'-Allāh relates the Bābī cipher  mustaghath   (abjad  2001) to the numbers 9 and19. He associates himself as the personification of the ism Allah al-a`ẓam (Greatest Name of God) with the Divine Name al-mustaghath. In other Tablets Bahā'-Allāh claim to be man yuẓhiru-hu Allāh  manifest in al-mustaghath:

"I am the one promised in al-mustaghath with the name man yuzhiru-hu Allah (Him Whom God shall make manifest)" (Tablet to Mīrzā Assad-Allāh Nūrī / unpublished, INBMC  36:ADD ).

        I am fairly sure that somewhere Baha'u'llah also claims that the figures 1511 (Ghiyath) and/or 2001 (al-mustaghath) relate also to future manifestations. It is also the case that the Guardian in letters to A. L. M. Nicholas and others, seems to imply that these figures refer to future Manifestations (cf. Dawn of a New Day, Messages to India 1923-1957, p. 94) .


Tablet to Khalil (Ibrahim-i Shirazi)

prov. trans. Stephen Lambden.

TO BE COMPLETED 2006-7

 

[0]

In the Name of God, the All-Knowing the All-Wise (al-`alam al-`alim).

[1]

Praise be to God who made the ornament of the Tablets (ṭaraz al-alwah) to be enumerated through the Uniquely One  (al-a`dad bi'l-al-wahid)

Who hath ever been sanctified above Oneness [units] (al-ahad)

[2]

and [Who Himself] caused the origin of differentiation  (al-mabda' al-ishtiqaq)  to appear in the kingdom of numerical realization

(malakut al-ijad).

 [3]

 He indeed is not subject to enumeration in His Own Logos-Self (fi nafsihi)  by means of counting,  for enumeration (al-a`dad) does fly away from Him

to the degree that it is [well nigh] consumed away.

[4]

Wherefore did he reveal Himself through His Sovereingty  (tajalli bi-sultanihi) upon His Pillars (arkān) and manifested the [number] four

which is realized in the [number] ten (1+2+3+4 = 10).

And it passes through the grades of ...

[XX]

And when the scripts are manifest there cometh the ornamentation through the [Divine] Names according to the number of Our Name al-Bahhaj ... al-mustaghath which We made to be the origin of the [Divine] Names  (mabda' al-asma')  in terms of enumeration and their balance in the Kingdom of Existence

(malakut al-insha')

XXXX

[1]

And as for what thou hast asked concerning the knowledge which was hidden  in the knowledge of God,  treasured up in the Veil of Might and Grandeur.  Know that the Point of the Bayān [the Bāb] desired naught  from its appearance save that He might teach all about  their genesis and return ... and the fruit of this knowledge and the fruits of all the sciences  is the gnosis the Object of knowledge (al-ma`lum) who shall appear  after the Qā'im in His Name al-Qayyūm (`The Self-Subsisting').   Whoso attains unto Him shall assuredly have been raised up  unto the furthermost extremity (al-ghayat al-quswa)  and then will understand the [eschatological] Origin and the Distant Goal  (al-mabda' wa'l-muntaha).  And whoso in this Greatest Day (al-yawm al-akbar) is cut off from [sanctifed from] the Fruit (= Bab?)  is assuredly the most ignorant of creatures. If he should attain a knowledge of the Firsts and the Lasts  [2 Pages missing]

 

[XX]

whereupon the Sun of Our Name al-mustaghath  shone forth from that luminous, manifest Horizon ...  If thou should  consider this there would appear before thee the Proof of this knowledge and this Elevated Book.  It is [registered] in the interior dimension of the exterior sense of the Real Truth (batin al-zuhur al-haqq) through the [Our name] mustaghath.  By My Life! This is assuredly the intention! ...  Wherefore do We expound for thee that which the Point [al-nuqta, the Bab] intended by the interiority of the interior sense (batin al-batin), [of the Bab's meaning] through His Exposition (bayan)  to the end that thou might be of those that bear witness. ..  Naught did he intend by nineteen except this Most Transcendent,  Elevated Theophany [Manifestation, = Baha'] (al-zuhur)..  Know that Our Name al-mustaghath is the Exterior Mode of Reality (zahir al-haqq),  the Exteriority of the demonstrative [letter] al-Ṭā's (al-ṭā'āt)  suggestive of the Greatest Name (`alā al-ism al-a`zam).

 Then Observe ye the exterior Mustaghath  (al-mustaghath al-zahir) through the resultant Name ( al-ism al-bariz), the King of Names  in the [Name] al-mustaghath.

 

Say:

Unto Thee be praise, O Genesis of the worlds!

By My Life!

This is the Greatest Mystery of God (sirr Allah al-akbar), His Most Great Treasury, His Cause made Glorious through the Ornament of the Ancient of Days and His Hidden Token in the Manifest Book;  the most arcane Intended One through al-mustaghath  which was sent down  in the Tablets and [through] the Theophany  [Manifestation] of the Truth therein ."  (pp.13ff)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BAHA'U'LLAH  baha'u'llah  Bahá'u'lláh Baha'-Allah  Bahá