Tablet concerning the Divine Test
INTRODUCTION
In September 1867 the Baha'is maintain that Mirza Yahya Subh-i Azal, who was widely recognized as the vicar of the Bab, issued a challenge to Baha'u'llah, who had put forth claims to be the promised one of the Bab, "He whom God shall make manifest." Azal is said to have challenged Baha'u'llah to come to the Sultan Selim mosque in Edirne on a Friday afternoon, where the two would sit facing one another and call down imprecations on one another until God should give a sign as to with which the truth lay. This custom was known as the "divine test" or Mubahalih.
The news of the challenge was brought by a partisan of Azal then visiting Edirne, Mir Muhammad Mukari of Shiraz to Mirza Muhammad Quli Nuri, Baha'u'llah's brother, who informed him of it. Baha'i sources maintain that Baha'u'llah went to the mosque and waited for Azal, who never appeared. He had sent Mir Muhammad of Shiraz to summon Azal, yet he was told he was sick that day. Mir Muhammad came back to the Sultan Selim mosque.
Baha'u'llah sat there all afternoon after the Friday prayers till sundown and prayed with Mir Muhammad, and with his amanuensis, Aqa Jan Kashani Khadimu'llah. He left the mosque and stopped in at the Mevlevi Sufi center, where the mystics were dancing and chanting. Then he went home and wrote the Tablet of the Divine Test.
Baha'u'llah then sent Muhammad "Nabil" Zarandi to an Azali gathering-place, the tobacco shop of Hasan Aqa, with the Tablet of the Divine Test, setting two other possible days for the test to take place. Nabil reported that he was never able to obtain an agreement from Azal about a second rendezvous. Thereafter the split between the Azali Babis and the Baha'is became permanent. Azal's failure to show up, whatever its reasons, appears to have hurt him very badly with the Babi public, and to have led more Babis to side with Baha'u'llah.
Introduction by N.B.
(*1)
Notes on the letter
(1) I have taken as the base text here the one in the 1867 letter of Mirza Javad Qazvini in Asadu'llah Fadil Mazandarani, Tarikh-i Zuhur al-Haqq, vol. 5 (East Lansing, Mi.: H-Bahai, 1999), pp. 29n-44n. Much but not all of this discourse is also in `Abdu’l-Hamid Ishraq-Khavari, ed. Ma’idih-‘i Asmani, 9 vols. (Tehran: MMMA, 1973), 4: 277-281, with minor textual variations.
(4) Passages in brackets are in the 1867 Qazvini letter, but omitted from the Lawh-i Mubahalih. Some of these passages, but not all, are in Ishraq-Khavari, Ma’idih-‘i Asmani, 7:243-744.
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(5) Qazvini gives wajh or “countenance” here, whereas the printed text gives “amr” or Cause: Ishraq-Khavari, Ma’idih-‘i Asmani, 7:243.
(6) Ishraq-Khavari, Ma’idih-‘i Asmani, 7:244 adds and guides (hada)
(7) Ishraq-Khavari, Ma’idih-‘i Asmani, 7:244 gives has come to him (atahu)
Tablet of the Divine Test CHAPTER ONE
Divisions 1-25
THE DIVINE TEST
1.
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
2.
This is a letter from this youth to all who are upon the earth.
3.
Worship none except God, the king, the exalted, the mighty.
4.
Thus has the decree been revealed in all the tablets from the powerful, the Omnipotent.
5.
We heard that some of our opponents desired to come into the presence of this youth.
6.
Say:
Come, and do not delay!
7.
We have appointed as the meeting-place the house of God,
which was erected by one of the emperors,
and was called “Selim” in the kingdom of names, if you only knew.
8.
We selected as the days for the meeting Sunday and Monday.
9.
God was a witness to what I say.
10.
Were all who are on earth to gather,
this youth would come to them With a mighty announcement.
11.
Say:
When he stirs, there move with him the hosts of the invisible,
then the people of the concourse on high, then the realities of the worlds.
12.
Fear God, concourse of opponents,
then judge equitably with regard to the Cause of this youth and what he has brought,
and be not of the wrongdoers.
13.
He is the one intended by your Lord, the Knowing, the Wise.
Baha-ullah quoted in a letter of Mirza Javad Qazvini, in 1867.
14.
When we heard, [about the test] we issued from our house with manifest sovereignty.
15.
We said,
“Muhammad, the spirit has departed from its seat
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and along with it the spirits of the pure ones went forth, as did the realities of the Messengers.
16.
In truth, you shall behold the people of the most exalted panorama above my head.
17.
Then in my grasp are the proofs of the prophets.
18.
Then open your eyes.
19.
This is `Ali [the Bab], then Muhammad, the messenger of God,
who has risen above the horizon of the House with evident sovereignty
and come to you with all the verses from God, the mighty, the Omnipotent.”
20.
Say:
Were all the clergy and mystics on earth, and all the kings and emperors, to be gathered,
I would stand before them and recite the verses of God, the King, the Glorious, the Wise.
21.
I am he who fears no one,
even should all who are in the heavens and the earth assemble against me.
22.
The very verses have humbled themselves before my countenance,
and all sounds are submissive before my wondrous and most amazing melodies.
23.
This is my palm, which God has rendered white for all the worlds,
and this is my staff.
24.
Were we to cast it down, it would swallow the entire creation.
25.
All that has been created between the heavens and the earth
is merely a handful of clay to your Lord.
26.
Go, Muhammad, to the concourse of idolaters and say,
“The youth has come to you, and with him are the hosts of revelation and inspiration.
27.
The kingdom of the Cause marches before him,
and behind him are the tribes of the concourse on high
and [then] the inhabitants of the cities of eternity, and the angels who are near.”
28.
Say:
Fear God,
and do not oppose the [Lord] by whose command every wise decree was ordained.
29.
Then come into the presence of God with your ropes and your staffs
and with whatever you possess, if you are able to do so.
30.
We go now to the house of God that was erected by one of the kings and named the “Selim.”
[________]
Tablet of the Divine Test CHAPTER TWO
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Divisions 26-60
THE DIVINE TEST
31.
I, alone, have come to you from the dawning place of eternity
with a great, a most great announcement.
32.
I shall wait until the sun sets in the west,
so that perhaps my opponents will find the opportunity within themselves to repent.
33.
Know that God forbade his friends from meeting with the idolaters and hypocrites.
34.
Nevertheless, we departed from our house depending upon God,
with our gaze set toward the precincts of the Cause,
so that thereby the heedless servants of God might be made aware.
35.
Those who have denied God or joined partners with him [Azali] shall never believe in God,
even should he bring them the sacred scrolls,
or the hosts of the Invisible, or the proofs of the Messengers
and meeting with God only increases them in their oppression and unbelief. (4)
36.
Thus was it revealed in the tablets, and in this mighty and inaccessible Tablet.
37.
Know, Muhammad, that every Name that is related to me
has been exalted in the kingdom of names, if you but knew.
38.
Say:
Today, the bond with all loved ones has been severed,
save for those who entered under the shadow of this radiant and illumined Countenance.(5)
39.
Whoever clings to one of the divine Names, while turning away from its Creator,
is not of me, and God is [innocent] [clear] of him [and innocent of his guilt].
40.
In truth, we created the names just as we created any other thing, if you but knew.
41.
Say:
Verily, I have manifested myself for the sake of God,
and have gone out for the sake of God,
and I speak before all who are on earth just as I speak before your face.
42.
I fear no one.
My actions testify to that, if you only knew.
43.
Say:
In truth, the signs of the Absolute Truth
are as obvious as the light and rays of the sun.
44.
Nay, by God, they are even more apparent to anyone with sharp vision.
45.
Do you think anyone other than he can exist alongside him?
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46.
No, by his exalted and mighty self.
47.
Say:
All the realities of all things walk when this youth walks,
and when he becomes still, so too do our steadfast servants.
48.
[Sever thee from] [Cleave thee to] the Names, [the names = ______]
and be satisfied with your Lord, and be not among the ignorant.
49.
Those who have devoted themselves to the divine names,
they are worshippers of idols, if you would bear witness.
50.
Verily, a prophet is one who prophesies to the people [that preaches, more than just predictions!]
of these pre-existent and most precious tidings.
51.
A messenger is one who fulfills my mission to (6) those who have lost their path.
52.
The vicar [imam] is one who stands before my visage with manifest humility.
53.
The lieutenant [vali] is one who seeks shelter in the fortress of my secure protection.
54.
The successor [vasi] is one who counsels the people
with what we have commanded them (7) in a guarded tablet.]
55.
He whom the idolaters have taken to themselves as their lord, [Azali]
whereby they have risen in opposition to God, the Mighty, the August, the Beautiful
—he was just like any of the servants.
56.
He used to enter my presence morning and night.
57.
Then there wafted upon him, from the region of his base person,
the gales of passion, as a result of his past behavior.
58.
Finally, they cast him down off his seat
and abandoned him in the lowest depths.
59.
We had made his name renowned among the servants for a secret reason of our own.
Az = Persian Turkish name.
There was a rivalry, and possibly a decision to sideline the Turkish fellow for political reasons.
60.
In truth, your Lord is ruler over what He desires.
Translated by J. R. Col
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