On the occasion of Naw-Rúz* 1863, Bahá'u'lláh had pitched His tent in a field on the outskirts of Baghdád, known as the Mazra'iy-i-Vashshásh--a place rented by His faithful brother Mírzá Músá. Bahá'u'lláh was celebrating this festival with a number of His companions, who were likewise living in tents in the open countryside. Outings at this time of year when the spring season had just begun and the weather was mild were extremely pleasant, and Bahá'u'lláh always enjoyed nature and beautiful scenery and loved to be in the country.

On the fifth day of Naw-Rúz, the Lawh-i-Malláhu'l-Quds (Tablet of the Holy Mariner) was revealed. Mírzá Áqá Ján, Bahá'u'lláh's amanuensis, emerged from the tent of Bahá'u'lláh, gathered the believers around him and chanted that mournful Tablet to them. Although during the last year of His sojourn in 'Iráq He had, on several occasions, alluded to trials and tribulations which were to come, His companions had not felt previously such sadness as they did on that day.

Nabíl, who was present, has recorded the following:

Oceans of sorrow surged in the hearts of the listeners when the Tablet of the Holy Mariner was read aloud to them...It was evident to every one that the chapter of Baghdád was about to be closed, and a new one opened, in its stead. No sooner had that Tablet been chanted than Bahá'u'lláh ordered

* An ancient festival when the Persians celebrate their New Year on the day of the vernal equinox, usually on the 21st March. The Bahá'í calendar also begins with Naw-Rúz which is one of the Bahá'í Holy Days. In 1863, Naw-Rúz was celebrated on the 22nd March as the vernal equinox took place after sunset on the 21st.

that the tents which had been pitched should be folded up, and that all His companions should return to the city. While the tents were being removed He observed: 'These tents may be likened to the trappings of this world, which no sooner are they spread out than the time cometh for them to be rolled up.' From these words of His they who heard them perceived that these tents would never again be pitched on that spot.¹

Námiq Páshá, like his predecessors, admired Bahá'u'lláh and was deeply conscious of His innate knowledge and exalted position. He held Bahá'u'lláh in such high esteem that for three months he could not bring himself to tell Him of the decision of the Ottoman government that He should proceed to Constantinople. After being ordered for the fifth time by the Prime Minister to arrange the transfer of Bahá'u'lláh to the capital, Námiq Páshá reluctantly took the necessary step of informing Bahá'u'lláh of this. Feeling ashamed to meet Him face to face on that fateful occasion, the Governor sent his deputy, Amín Effendi, to the mosque to deliver the message. A few weeks later, when Bahá'u'lláh was in the Garden of Ridván, Námiq Páshá went there, attained His presence and paid his respects to the One Whom he regarded as one of the lights of the age.

The Tablet of the Holy Mariner is in two parts, one in Arabic and the other in Persian. So far only the Arabic Tablet has been rendered into English and is published.

The theme of this Tablet is the story of the Covenant and man's unfaithfulness to it. Its message is applicable not only to the days of Bahá'u'lláh, but also to the ministries of 'Abdu'l Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, and indeed to the present time. Con-

Not only did 'Abdu'l-Bahá ask the believers to study this Tablet during His own ministry, when the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh was being violated by the Covenant-breakers, but He urged them shortly before His passing to study it again. For He knew too well that there were a few among His followers who would violate the Covenant and rise up against Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Cause of God.

The Tablet of the Holy Mariner is revealed in symbolic language. To appreciate it one must acquire for himself a knowledge of the spiritual verities enshrined within Bahá'u'lláh's Writings and meditate upon His words. Although the allegorical terms Bahá'u'lláh has used in this Tablet assume various meanings, He has nonetheless manifestly foreshadowed coming events and conveyed some aspects of the Covenant.

The following is a translation of the Tablet of the Holy Mariner from the original Arabic.†

He is the Gracious, the Well-Beloved!

O Holy Mariner!

Bid thine ark of eternity appear before the Celestial Concourse,

Launch it upon the ancient sea, in His Name, the Most Wondrous,

And let the angelic spirits enter, in the Name of God, the Most High.

Unmoor it, then, that it may sail upon the ocean of glory,

Haply the dwellers therein may attain the retreats of nearness in the everlasting realm.

Having reached the sacred strand, the shore of the crimson seas,

Bid them issue forth and attain this ethereal invisible station,

A station wherein the Lord hath in the Flame of His Beauty appeared within the deathless tree;

Wherein the embodiments of His Cause cleansed themselves of self and passion;

Around which the Glory of Moses doth circle with the everlasting hosts;

Wherein the Hand of God was drawn forth from His bosom of Grandeur;

Wherein the ark of the Cause remaineth motionless even though to its dwellers be declared all divine attributes.

O Mariner! Teach them that are within the ark that which we have taught thee behind the mystic veil,

Perchance they may not tarry in the sacred snow-white spot,

But may soar upon the wings of the spirit unto that station which the Lord hath exalted above all mention in the worlds below,

May wing through space even as the favoured birds in the realm of eternal reunion;

May know the mysteries hidden in the Seas of light.

They passed the grades of worldly limitations and reached that of the divine unity, the centre of heavenly guidance.

They have desired to ascend unto that state which the Lord hath ordained to be above their stations.

Whereupon the burning meteor cast them out from them that abide in the Kingdom of His Presence,

And they heard the Voice of Grandeur raised from behind the unseen pavilion upon the Height of Glory:

'O guardian angels! Return them to their abode in the world below,

'Inasmuch as they have purposed to rise to that sphere which the wings of the celestial dove have never attained;

'Whereupon the ship of fancy standeth still which the minds of them that comprehend cannot grasp.'

Whereupon the maid of heaven looked out from her exalted chamber,

And with her brow signed to the Celestial Concourse,

Flooding with the light of her countenance the heaven and the earth,

And as the radiance of her beauty shone upon the people of dust,

All beings were shaken in their mortal graves.

She then raised the call which no ear through all eternity hath ever heard,

And thus proclaimed: 'By the Lord! He whose heart hath not the fragrance of the love of the exalted and glorious Arabian Youth,

'Can in no wise ascend unto the glory of the highest heaven.'

Thereupon she summoned unto herself one maiden from her handmaidens,

And commanded her: 'Descend into space from the mansions of eternity,

'And turn thou unto that which they have concealed in the inmost of their hearts.

'Shouldst thou inhale the perfume of the robe from the Youth that hath been hidden within the tabernacle of light by reason of that which the hands of the wicked have wrought,

'Raise a cry within thyself, that all the inmates of the chambers of Paradise, that are the embodiments of the eternal wealth, may understand and hearken;

'That they may all come down from their everlasting chambers and tremble,

'And kiss their hands and feet for having soared to the heights of faithfulness;

'Perchance they may find from their robes the fragrance of the Beloved One.'

Thereupon the countenance of the favoured damsel beamed above the celestial chambers even as the light that shineth from the face of the Youth above His mortal temple;

She then descended with such an adorning as to illumine the heavens and all that is therein. She bestirred herself and perfumed all things in the lands of holiness and grandeur.

When she reached that place she rose to her full height in the midmost heart of creation,

And sought to inhale their fragrance at a time that knoweth neither beginning nor end.

She found not in them that which she did desire, and this, verily, is but one of His wondrous tales.

She then cried aloud, wailed and repaired to her own station within her most lofty mansion,

And then gave utterance to one mystic word, whispered privily by her honeyed tongue,

And raised the call amidst the Celestial Concourse and the immortal maids of heaven:

'By the Lord! I found not from these idle claimants the breeze of Faithfulness!

'By the Lord! The Youth hath remained lone and forlorn in the land of exile in the hands of the ungodly.'

She then uttered within herself such a cry that the Celestial Concourse did shriek and tremble,

And she fell upon the dust and gave up the spirit. It seemeth she was called and hearkened unto Him that summoned her unto the Realm on High.

Glorified be He that created her out of the essence of love in the midmost heart of His exalted paradise!

Thereupon the maids of heaven hastened forth from their chambers, upon whose countenances the eye of no dweller in the highest paradise had ever gazed.

Glorified be our Lord, the Most High!

They all gathered around her, and lo! they found her body fallen upon the dust;

Glorified be our Lord, the Most High!

And as they beheld her state and comprehended a word of the tale told by the Youth, they bared their heads, rent their garments asunder, beat upon their faces, forgot their joy, shed tears and smote with their hands upon their cheeks, and this is verily one of the mysterious grievous afflictions--

Glorified be our Lord, the Most High! ³

To grasp the significance of this Tablet we must remember that with the coming of Bahá'u'lláh, the Day of God Himself has been ushered in, and that mankind has been given the most precious gift of His Faith.

Throughout His Writings there are many references to the greatness of His Revelation. The following are only a few passages gleaned from His Tablets:*

'The purpose underlying all creation is the revelation of this most sublime, this most holy Day, the Day known as the Day of God, in His Books and Scriptures--the Day which all the Prophets, and the Chosen Ones, and the holy ones, have wished to witness.' 'The highest essence and most perfect expression of whatsoever the peoples of old have either said or written hath, through this most potent Revelation, been sent down from the heaven of the Will of the All-Possessing, the Ever-Abiding God.' (p. 65.)

'By the righteousness of God! These are the days in which God hath proved the hearts of the entire company of His Messengers and Prophets, and beyond them those that

* These passages are quoted in The Advent of Divine Justice by Shoghi Effendi; page nos. refer to this text.

stand guard over His sacred and inviolable Sanctuary, the inmates of the celestial Pavilion and dwellers of the Tabernacle of Glory.' 'Should the greatness of this Day be revealed in its fullness, every man would forsake a myriad lives in his longing to partake, though it be for one moment, of its great glory--how much more this world and its corruptible treasures!' (p. 67.)

'By the righteousness of Mine own Self! Great, immeasurably great is this Cause! Mighty, inconceivably mighty is this Day!' 'Every Prophet hath announced the coming of this Day, and every Messenger hath groaned in His yearning for this Revelation--a revelation which, no sooner had it been revealed than all created things cried out saying, "The earth is God's, the Most Exalted, the Most Great!"' (p. 65.)

'Verily I say! No one hath apprehended the root of this Cause. It is incumbent upon every one, in this day, to perceive with the eye of God, and to hearken with His ear. Whoso beholdeth Me with an eye besides Mine own will never be able to know Me. None among the Manifestations of old, except to a prescribed degree, hath ever completely apprehended the nature of this Revelation.' (p. 64.)

'Great indeed is this Day! The allusions made to it in all the sacred Scriptures as the Day of God attest its greatness. The soul of every Prophet of God, of every Divine Messenger, hath thirsted for this wondrous Day. All the divers kindreds of the earth have, likewise, yearned to attain it.' (p. 65.)

'This is the Day whereon human ears have been privileged to hear what He Who conversed with God [Moses] heard upon Sinai, what He Who is the Friend of God [Muhammad] heard when lifted up towards Him, what He Who is the Spirit of God [Jesus] heard as He ascended unto Him, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.' (p. 66.)

When the individual recognizes Bahá'u'lláh and is assured of His divine station, he then enters the 'ark'. The spiritual energies released by Bahá'u'lláh, as well as His Teachings, will assist him to advance and deepen in the Cause, but at the same time his tests will correspondingly multiply. For the faith of a believer is tested in various ways. Some are afflicted with suffering and persecution, others have spiritual battles which may last a lifetime. But if one has faith and is ready at all times to surrender his will fully to that of Bahá'u'lláh, he can win through. Otherwise, any trace of self or passion, of desire for and attachment to earthly things, will bar his spiritual advancement, and may in the end kill the spark of his faith altogether.

The station to which a true believer can attain in this day is extremely high. This is because Bahá'u'lláh has ushered in the Day of God and has shed His glory upon mankind. The world of being has become filled with the ocean of His Revelation and mankind has been given a new capacity. The following are the words of Bahá'u'lláh concerning the station of the true believer:

'O people of Bahá! The river that is Life indeed hath flowed for your sakes. Quaff ye in My name, despite them that have disbelieved in God, the Lord of Revelation. We have made you to be the hands of Our Cause. Render ye victorious this Wronged One, Who hath been sore-tried in the hands of the workers of iniquity. He, verily, will aid every one that aideth Him, and will remember every one that remembereth Him. To this beareth witness this Tablet that hath shed the splendour of the loving-kindness of your Lord, the All-Glorious, the All-Compelling.' 'Blessed are the