The Khuṭbat al-Ṭutunjiyya in the writings Mirza Husayn `Ali Nuri, Baha'-Allah (d. 1892 CE).
Echoes of the Du`a al-simāt (Prayer of the Signs) in the writings of the Sayyid `Ali Muhammad, the Bab and Mirza Husayn `Ali Nuri, Baha'-Allah are not infrequent. Occasional traces, in other words, of the influence of the Du`a al-simāt can be found in the writings or scriptural Tablets of both the Bāb and Bahā'u'llāh as well as their later Bahā'ī successors.
Both the Bāb and Bahā'-Allāh saw themselves as the eschatological theophany of the Sinaitic speaker (mukallim al-ṭūr) whose future advent is predicted by `Alī in the Kh-T at XI:13 in the translation below (see Bursī, Mashariq, 168; Lambden 1986, index):
فتوقعوا ظهور مكلم موسی من الشجره علی الطور
"then anticipate ye the theophany of the Speaker who conversed with Moses (ẓuhūr mukallim mūsā) from the Tree upon the Mount [Sinai] (min al-shajarat `ala al-ṭūr) for He shall assuredly be outwardly unveiled and publicly celebrated...
The Lawḥ-i Jawhar-i ḥamd.
لوح جوهر حمد
The Lawḥ-i jawhar-i hamd (Tablet of the Essence of Praise) is an unpublished Persian Epistle of Bahā'-Allāh largely addressed to the people of the world collectively. It opens with a paragraph in which God's supreme transcendence and essential incomprehensibility are clearly and categorically set forth. The next few paragraphs contain many points of interest and serve to underline the elevated status of the Manifestations or Messengers of God. The "Blessed and Primordial Word (kalimat) which shone forth from the Dawning-Place of the mashiyya (Will) of the King of the Divine Oneness/ God" as the agent of creation is equated with the nafs (Logos-Self) of the mazhar-i ilahi (Manifestation of God). As the exclusive intermediaries between God and creation, the great Prophets represent the Godhead and express His divinity. Prophecies about the eschatological advent of God refer to them and to Bahā'-Allāh in particular for, as the zuhúr i-a'zam ("Most Great Theophany"), he has been manifested in every age and cycle with a particular Name, and appeared on the "Day of God." Despite the fact that "He Who Conversed with the Speaker (mukallam-i kalím) [Moses]" disclosed the ism-i a'ẓam ("Greatest Name") or identity of Bahā'-Allāh, souls have remained veiled from him.
About half way through his Tablet of the Essence of Praise, Bahā'-Allāh mentions how different religious factions have been held back from faith on account of his various claims to nubuwwa ("Prophethood") wilāya ("authoritative Guidance") and ulūhiyya ("Divinity"). He expresses astonishment that Jews, Christians, and other communities in possession of a Holy Book object to his claim to divinity and writes:
"Say: 0 thou who art dumb! Hast thou not heard the Call of God from the [Sinaitic] Tree (al-shajarat) raised up from the Luminous Spot (al-buq'a an-nūrā), "No God is there except Him." Then consider this and be not such as hearken but fail to comprehend."
It is implied that Bahā'-Allāh's claim to divinity was foreshadowed on Sinai. In defending the legitimacy of his claim to divinity, Bahā'-Allāh also quotes and comments on that line of the "blessed Sermon of the Gulf which shone forth from the horizon of the heaven of wilāya [Imam 'Ali]" in which the advent of "He Who conversed with Moses" (mukallim musa) on Sinai is mentioned. He stresses the importance of this prophecy and declares that through it "all the peoples of the world were given the glad-tidings of the [eschatological] manifestation of God (zuhur Alláh)." Referring to himself, he explains: "Today He Who conversed with Moses (mukallam musa) hath appeared and hath cried out, 'I, verily am God.' " That a Prophet of God would be made manifest and make such claims is, Bahā'-Allāh also argues, anticipated in various Islamic traditions (hadith) and quranic texts. The "Day of Resurrection" is the time of the rising up of the "Manifestation of the Logos-Self of God" (mazhar-i nafs Alláh). (adapted from Lambden, 1987: 156-7) It is clear from the Lawh-i Jawhar-i hamd that the above cited line (XI:13 below) of the Kh-T is central to the theophanic self-understanding of both the Bāb and Bahā'-Allāh who both saw themselves as the fulfillment of the words,
فتوقعوا ظهور مكلم موسی من الشجره علی الطور
... then anticipate ye the theophany of the Speaker who conversed with Moses (ẓuhūr mukallim mūsā) from the Tree upon the Mount [Sinai] (min al-shajarat `ala al-ṭūr) for He shall assuredly be outwardly unveiled and publicly celebrated...
The Bab and Baha'-Allah saw this line as a very significant eschatological prediction strongly suggestive of the (subordinate) Divinity of the latter-day manifestation of God. This Persian Lawḥ-i Jawhar-i ḥamd ("The Tablet of the Essence of Praise') of Bahā'-Allāh explicitly refers to the Kh-T as a "blessed sermon" (khuṭbat-i mubārakah) which 'radiated forth' (ishrāq namūdah) from Imam `Alī who is referred to as "the horizon of the heaven of absolute walāya ("divine guidance") (ufq-i samā'-yi vilāyat-i muṭlaqah). The Persian text and translation of pertinent sections of the Lawḥ-i jawhar-i hamd may now be selectively cited: and loosely translated:
اگر چه خطبه مباركه طتنجيه كه از افق سما ولايت مطلقه اشراق نموده بلسان ابدع پارسی شرح نشده ...
مقصود آن حضرت از ذكر خطبه اين كلمه مباركه بوده كه ميفرمايد: فتوقعوا ظهور مكلم موسی من الشجره علی الطور
و اين كلمه بمنزله قطب است يدور حولها رحی الحكمة و البيان و باين كلمه جميع اهل عالم را بظهوراللّه بشارت دادهاند ... اليوم مكلم موسی ظاهر و بانّی انااللّه ناطق ًانتهی
... although the blessed Khuṭbah-yi ṭutunjiyya ("Sermon of the Gulf") which shone forth from the horizon of the heaven of absolute walāya ("divine guidance") (ufq-i samā'-yi vilāyat-i muṭlaqah) hath not been commented upon in the most wondrous Persian tongue (bi-lisān-i abda`-i pārsī) ... the intention of that Holy Personage [= Imam `Alī] in delivering that Sermon (Khuṭbah [Ṭutunjiyya]) was [essentially for the sake of] this blessed statement (kalimat-i mubārakah), wherein he says, "then anticipate ye the theophany of the Speaker who conversed with Moses (ẓuhūr mukallim mūsā) from the Tree upon the Mount [Sinai] (min al-shajarat `alā al-ṭūr)". And this [particular] statement (kalimat), as the locus of the revelation of the Pivot (manzilat-i quṭb) [Imam Alī], is circled about by the very millstones of wisdom and exposition (ruḥīy al-ḥikmat wa'l-bayan) for through this statement (kalimat) all of the peoples of he world were given the glad-tidings of the [eschatological] theophany of God (ẓuhūr Allāh)... today the "One Who conversed with Moses" (mukallim Mūsās) [= Bahā'-Allāh] is apparent (ẓāhir) and crieth out [saying], "I, verily, I am God"... (Lawḥ-i Jawhar-i ḥamd, mss. p. XX; INBMC 36: [161-8] ADD; cf. Ishrāq Khāvarī, Raḥīq Makhtum X: XXX).
The Lawh-i Ibn-i Dhi`b (Epistle to the Son of the Wolf) (c. 1891 CE).
One of the latest major works of Baha'-Allah this lengthy Persian epistle was addressed to Shaykh Muhammad Taqī Najafī (d. 1914) the son of Muhammad Baqir Najafi (d. ) is fairly rich in Sinaitic and related theological materials fn. 253 and contains an important section on the question of Bahā'-Allāh's claim to divinity. About a quarter of the way through his treatise, he records that either Shaykh Muhammad or some other opponent of the Bahā'ī religion had suggested that the qur`anic Sūrat at-tawḥīd ("Sura of the Divine Unity", Qur'an 112) be translated [into Persian], to the end that it may be clear to all that "the one true God begetteth not, nor is He begotton." This was with a view to countering the assertions of such "Bábís" (i.e., Bahá'ís) as "believe in his [Bahá'u'lláh's] Divinity", his rubūbiyya, ( lit.) "Lordship" and ulūhiyya ("Godhood" or "Divinity")". fn. 254 Immediately after recording such views, Bahā'-Allāh defends his claim to divinity in the following terms:
"This station [Divinity] is the station in which one dieth to himself (fanā' az nafs) and liveth in God (baqā' bi-Allāh)" fn. 255
Concluding Note
It is thus evident that many Babi-Baha'i sources have reference in Arabic (or Persian trans.) خطبة الطتنجيه / خطبة ' طتنجيه almost always with the طتنج spelling which is most likely due to Shaykhi influence or more precisely the influence of the Sharh Khutbat al-Ṭutunjiyya of Sayyid Kazim Rashti where this spelling is dominant. Whatever the earliest or "correct" spelling of the most probably Arabic loanword (Ṭ[T]-N-J) the spelling preferred by (Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i and) Sayyid Kazim Rashti became dominant in Babi-Baha'i literatures in which the writings of the revered second Shaykhi leader and one time "teacher" of the Bāb were very highly regarded.
