Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois 60091

Copyright Š 1978, 1988 by the
Universal House of Justice
Copyright under the Berne Convention
All Rights Reserved. First U.S. hardcover edition 1994
Printed in the United States of America

98 97 96 95 94 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
BahĀ' Allāh, 1817-1892.
[Selections. English. 1993]
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas /
compiled by the Research Department of the Universal House of
Justice and translated by Habib Taherzadeh, with the assistance of a
committee at the Bahá'í World Centre. 1st U.S. hardcover ed.
p. crn.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87743-174-4
1. Bahai FaithDoctrines. I. Taherzadeh, Habib. II. Universal
House of Justice. Research Dept. III. Title. IV. Title: Tablets
of Bahá'u'lláh.
BP360.B11913 1993

297'.9382dc20

93-40286

CIP

Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh was first issued in 1978 in a hardcover edition (ISBN 0-85398-077-2) by the Bahá'í World Center, Haifa, Israel. A lightweight edition (ISBN 0-85398-137-X), with many corrections and an index, was issued in 1982. The first pocket-size edition, published in 1988, and the first U.S. hardcover edition, published in 1994, were released by the Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, with the permission of the Bahá'í World Center.

Cover design by John Solarz

PREFACE

'The formulation by Bahá'u'lláh, in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas, of the fundamental laws of His Dispensation was followed, as His Mission drew to a dose, by the enunciation of certain precepts and principles which lie at the very core of His Faith, by the reaffirmadon of truths He had previously proclaimed, by the elaboration and elucidation of some of the laws He had already laid down, by the revelation of further prophecies and warnings, and by the establishment of subsidiary ordinances designed to supplement the provisions of His Most Holy Book. These were recorded in unnumbered Tablets, which He continued to reveal until the last days of His earthly life,...These Tabletsmighty and final effusions of His indefatigable penmust rank among the choicest fruits which His mind has yielded, and mark the consummation of His forty-year-long ministry.'¹
Six of the Tablets referred to in the above passage and which are included in this volume, were, on the instructions of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, translated into English and published, in 1917, by Bahá'í Publishing Society, Chicago. That volume has long been out of print and its contents are now known to most Bahá'ís only through excerpts printed compilations or quoted in other writings. Moreover, as Shoghi Effendi's translations of the Sacred Text increasingly flowed from his pen, it became apparent that the earlier translations could well be improved, both in accuracy and style. The Universal House of Justice therefore commissioned

¹ Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By (Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Ill. 1944, page 216).

this volume, which it describes as yet one more attempt to render into adequate English Bahá'u'lláh's matchless utterance. Wherever any portion of the text had already been translated by the Guardian, that translation has been used. These passages are identified by the Notes at the end of the book.

PASSAGES TRANSLATED BY SHOGHI EFFENDI

Wherever possible, translations made by Shoghi Effendi have been used in preparing this book. In many instances his renderings of individual phrases have been incorporated, but these are too numerous to list. Below are listed two categories of translation that have been used. One is a direct translation of the actual Tablet concerned, or of excerpts therefrom. The second category is slightly less direct: in a number of His later Writings Bahá'u'lláh used to quote passages from His own Tablets, but when doing so He often modified the passage from which He was quoting. Thus, when Shoghi Effendi's translations of such quoted passagesas, for example, in the Epistle to the Son of the Wolfhave been used, they have had to be adjusted to agree with the passage as it appeared in the Tablet from which Bahá'u'lláh was quoting, as it is these original Tablets that are here translated. Such adjustments are slight and have not been specially noted, but will be apparent to anyone who compares the passages as they appear in this book with the volumes from which Shoghi Effendi's translations are taken.

Abbreviations

ADJ	The Advent of Divine Justice
ESW	Epistle to the Son of the Wolf
GPB	God Passes By
GWB	Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh
HWA	The Hidden Words (In Arabic)
PDC	The Promised Day Is Come
SW	Star of the West (An early periodical in which a number of Shoghi Effendi's first translations were published)
WOB	The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh (A compilation of letters by Shoghi Effendi written between 1929 and 1936)

page	line
3		The entire Tablet of Carmel (GWB XI)
10	23	'We, verily, have come . . .' to '. . . hath gone astray.' (PDC p. 110)
11	1	'Open the doors of your hearts. . .' to '. . . grievous error.' (PDC p. 110)
13	6	'O concourse of priests!. . .' to '. . . His great glory!' (PDC p. 105)
13	15	'He that summoneth . . .' to '. . . that are on earth' (PDC p. 105)
13	28	'Let the Breeze of God . . .' to '. . . among the well-assured.' (PDC p. 105)
14	1	"O concourse of bishops . . .' to '. . . from His Purpose.' (PDC p. 105)
14	16	'O concourse of monks. . .' to '. . . the All-Merciful.' (PDC p. 106)
14	24	'Bethlehem is astir . . .' to '. . . the Best-Informed.' (PDC pp. 106-107)
15	24	'I never passed. . .' to '.. .crucified upon thee.' (PDC p. 42)
23	1	'behave towards. . .' to '. . . honesty and truthfulness.' (GPB p. 219)
27	3	'O people of God! . . .' to '. . . life to the world.' (ADJ p.23)
36	17	'A good character. . .' to '. . . and the radiance thereof.' (ADJ p. 20)
36	31	' "O Son of Spirit." . . .' to '. .. before thine eyes (HWA No. 2)
37	26	'"We will now mention. . .' to '. . . Lord of creation."' (ESW pp. 136-137)
39	26	'swiftly appearing newspapers' and 'the mirror of the worid' (GPB p. 219)
39	30	'an amazing and potent phenomenon' (GPB p. 219)
51	27	'Knowledge is as wings. . .' to '. . . witness the Mother Book' (ESW p. 26)
52	6	'In truth, knowledge is . . .' to '. . . gladness unto him.' (ESW p. 27)

page	line
63	9	'Verily I say: The fear of God . . .' to '. . . do not possess it.' (ESW p. 27)
63	21	'The Pen of the Most High. . .' to '. . . endued with discernment!' (ESW p. 28)
64	13	'O son of man! If. . .' to '. . .woe betide the wayward.' (ESW p. 29)
66	30	'The light of men . . .' to '. . . unity among men.' (ADJ p.23)
68	17	'It is incumbent . . .' to '. . . the Provider, the Omniscient.' (WOB p. 23)
70	16	'My imprisonment doeth . . .' to '. . . My pen to lament.' (ESW p. 23)
77	30	'Of all the tributes . . .' to '. . . justice to His Cause.' (WOB p. 100)
84	8	'O Afnán, . . .' to '. . . vain and worthless people.' (GWB XLIII)
86	1	'Every man of insight. . .' to '. . . God's holy Book' (GWB XLIII)
88	24	'O people of Justice! . . .' to '. . . resurrection of all men.' (GWB XLIII)
93	30	'Incline your hearts, . . .' to '. . . the Most High.' (GWB XLIII)
117	19	'O thou who hast set thy face . . .' to '. . . wondrous station.' (ESW pp. 131-135)
121	26	'Admonish men . . .' to '. . . the Lord of creation." (ESW pp. 136-137)
126	22	'In this Revelation . . .' to 'reigneth over all things.' (ESW p. 26)
128	29	'O people of God! . . .' to '. . . life to the world.' (ADJ p. 23)
138	31	'Let your eye . . .' to '. . . your heart enlightened. (ADJ p. 21)
155		All the Words of Wisdom, except for the thirteenth and fourteenth verses. (SW Vol. 14, No. 4, p. 99)
161	24	'Man is the supreme Talisman. . . .' to '. . . rising hills.' (GWB CXXII)

page	line
163	24	'Behold the disturbances . . .' to '. . . reward punishment.' (GWB CXII)
164	24	'In another passage . . .' to '. . . justice and wisdom.' (GWB CXII)
164	29	'Blessed is the king . . .' to '. . . completely transformed.' (GWB CXII)
165	5	'The Great Being, wishing . . .' to '. . .onslaught of tyranny.' (GWB CXVII)
166	5	'The day is approaching. . .' to '. . . reality and action.' (GWB CXVII)
167	19	'That one indeed . . .' to '. . . mankind its citizens (GWB CXVII)
168	8	'The Great Being saith: . . .' to '. . . remedy it requireth.' (GWB CX)
169	12	'It is incumbent . . .' to '. . , influence upon men (GWB CX)
171	16	'Please God, the peoples. . .' to '. . . face of society?' (GWB CX)
171	28	'The winds of despair . . .' to '. ,. beseemeth their station.' (GWB CX)
187	11	'As to thy question . . .' to '. . . hearken unto Our Voice.' (GWB LXXIX)
205	1	'He is the Almighty, . . .' to '. . . recorded in the preserved Tablet' (ESW pp. 79-82)
207	6	'O thou who hast gone astray! . . .' to '. . . insight and understanding.' (ESW pp. 82-86)
210	27	'Peruse thou the Kitáb-i-Íqán . . .' to '. . . horizon of certitude.' (ESW pp. 97-98)
211	29	'O thou who art gone astray!. . .' to '. . . in clear ruin.'! (ESW pp. 98-100)
213	27	'O My Supreme Pen! . . .' to '. . . the Lord of the worlds!' (ESW pp. 100-103)
221	23	'It is incumbent upon the Aghsán . . .' to '. . . the All-Powerful.' (WOB p. 134)
227	1	'Praise be to Him . . .' to '. . . another land rejoiceth.' (WOB p. 136)
227	19	'Blessed, doubly blessed, . , .' to '. . . His writings.' (WOB p. 136)

INDEX