Tablet to Áqá Mírzá Áqá (Lawh-i-Áqá Mírzá Áqá):
Excerpt

by Bahá'u'lláh

O My Afnán! ^[2] That which thou hadst repeatedly sent to Our Name Mihdí^[3] was read in Our presence, and from it We sensed the fragrance of sorrow caused by this calamity^[4] which hath robed the Temple of Grandeur with the garment of grief. Thy Lord is, in truth, the Source of praise, the All-Knowing. Verily, over this supreme affliction, My Most Exalted Pen hath lamented. To this beareth witness what the Maker of the heavens hath sent down in His manifest Book. Well is it with him who recalleth those who met a martyr‘s death in the path of God, whether in former or in recent times, or in these days, and readeth what was sent down for them from God, the Lord of the worlds. O My Afnán! Verily the divine Lote-Tree hath moaned and the Rock^[5] hath cried out, but the evil-doers are deep in slumber. Ere long, the scourge of the wrath of thy Lord shall make them aware.^[6] Verily, He is the All-Knowing, the All-Informed. O My Afnán! It is incumbent on everyone who hath drunk of the wine of the love of God to share, with the denizens of the Supreme Concourse, in this supreme affliction and great calamity, for they mourn as they see the utmost sorrow of this Wronged One - the evidence of His grace, His fidelity and His bounty. Verily, He is the Gracious, the Ancient of Days. Nevertheless, thou and all the other beloved ones of God should evince the utmost resignation, acquiescence, patience and submissiveness to the will of God ...

^[1] This Tablet is listed by Balyuzí as being unpublished, no MS is named, and the work is not included in the Leiden List of the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh. This text is not the same as the one translated and published in Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh pp.. 238-240.

^[2] Áqá Mírzá Áqáy-i-Afnán (Núru’d-Dín) (1842 - 1905). His mother was a sister of Khadíjih Bagum, the wife of the Báb. She acquainted Mírzá Áqá with the mission of the Báb when he was only 13, and from that time on, he was a devoted Bábí. It was due to the efforts of the youth that Hájí Mírzá Siyyid Muhammad, the eldest maternal uncle of the Báb, went to Baghdád to seek the presence of Bahá’u’lláh and inquire from Him the proofs of his Nephew’s Mission. It was in response to these queries that Bahá’u’lláh revealed the Kitáb-i-Íqán. Soon after, when Nabíl was sent to Persia, proclaiming to the Bábís the advent of ‘Him Whom God shall make manifest’, Mírzá Áqá immediately recognized Bahá’u’lláh. He was soon teaching the Faith in Shíráz, and about 50 souls became Bahá’ís. He was a close friend and business associate of the two brothers, Mírzá Muhammad Husayn and Mírzá Muhammad Hasan, the Beloved of Martyrs and the King of Martyrs. The deaths of his dearest friends, and the danger in which these events placed him, forced Áqá Mírzá Áqá to leave Shíráz and establish a trading house in Bombay. He later arose to teach the Faith in Egypt and Beirut. During the Ministry of ’Abdu’l-Bahá’, Áqá Mírzá Áqá tended to the restoration of the House of the Báb, overseeing the rebuilding of two rooms which had been destroyed during the time it was occupied by Khadíjih Bagum. Among many other Tablets, the Lawh-i-Dunyá (Tablet of the World) was revealed in his honour in 1891. See The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, Vol 4. Ch. 22 and H.B. Balyuzí Eminent Bahá’ís in the Time of Bahá’u’lláh. Ch. 17 (MW’s note).

^[3] ’Ismu’lláhu’l-Mihdí, Siyyid Mihdíy-i-Dahají of Yazd. He was known among the believers to be a great teacher of the Faith, acquiring fame throughout the community, but he was actually vain and egotistical. Following the passing of Bahá’u’lláh, he broke the Covenant and rebelled against ’Abdu’l-Bahá’ in the hope of becoming head of the Faith in Persia. There is a Tablet addressed to him in Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 193-201. See also The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, Vol. 2, p 272-3. As testified by Shoghi Effendi, he died in obscurity and poverty, along with his wife and sons (See God Passes By, p. 319). (MW’s note).

^[4] This refers to the martyrdom of Mírzá Muhammad Husayn and Mírzá Muhammad Hasan, the Beloved of Martyrs and the King of Martyrs. Describing this incident, Shoghi Effendi writes:

A month later occurred in that same city the tragedy of the two famous brothers Mírzá Muhammad-Hasan and Mírzá Muhammad-Husayn, the “twin shining lights,” respectively surnamed “Sultánu’sh-Shuhadá” (King of Martyrs) and “Mahbúbu’sh-Shuhadá” (Beloved of Martyrs), who were celebrated for their generosity, trustworthiness, kindliness and piety. Their martyrdom was instigated by the wicked and dishonest Mír Muhammad-Husayn, the Imám-Jum’ih, stigmatized by Bahá’u’lláh as the “she-serpent,” who, in view of a large debt he had incurred in his transactions with them, schemed to nullify his obligations by denouncing them as Bábís, and thereby encompassing their death. Their richly-furnished houses were plundered, even to the trees and flowers in their gardens, all their remaining possessions were confiscated; Shaykh Muhammad-Báqir, denounced by Bahá’u’lláh as the “wolf,” pronounced their death-sentence; the Zillu’s-Sultán ratified the decision, after which they were put in chains, decapitated, dragged to the Maydan-i-Sháh, and there exposed to the indignities heaped upon them by a degraded and rapacious populace. (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By. pp 200-1) (MW’s note).


^[5] Peter the Apostle. See The Proclamation of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 84, cf. Matt. 16:18 (MW’s note).

^[6] Of the fate of the two conspirators of the King of Martyrs and the Beloved of Martyrs, Shoghi Effendi writes:

Shaykh Muhammad-Baqír, surnamed the “Wolf,” who, in the strongly condemnatory Lawh-i-Burhán addressed to him by Bahá’u’lláh, had been compared to “the last trace of sunlight upon the mountain-top,” witnessed the steady decline of his prestige, and died in a miserable state of acute remorse. His accomplice, Mír Muhammad-Husayn, surnamed the “She-Serpent,” whom Bahá’u’lláh described as one “infinitely more wicked than the oppressor of Karbilá,” was, about that same time, expelled from Isfahán, wandered from village to village, contracted a disease that engendered so foul an odor that even his wife and daughter could not bear to approach him, and died in such ill-favor with the local authorities that no one dared to attend his funeral, his corpse being ignominiously interred by a few porters (God Passes By, p. 232-3) (MW’s note).