An Important Untitled Tablet for Nabīl (Zarandī? d. 1308/1892)
The Persian Tablet translated below was addressed to a certain Nabil (= abjad 92 like the name Muhammad). It addressee might have been the Apostle of Bahā'-Allāh named [Mullā] Muhammad Nabīl-i Zarandī (d. 1308/1892), the well-known Baha'i poet and historian who compiled a massive historically and theologically oriented history of the Babi-Baha'i religions, part of which as redacted by Shoghi Effendi came to be entitled The Dawn-Breakers (1st English ed. 1932). The text translated below comes from the collection of Bahā'-Allāh's writings entitled Iqtidārāt va chand lawh-i dīgār (n.p.) [Bombay] 1310/1892-3.
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A fairly large number of Bahā'-Allāh's writings bear directly or indirectly upon the theme of latter-day "catastrophe". It is stated that various of his revelatory "Tablets" (alwāh) as expressions of the creative Word are tantamount encapsulations of end-time, catastrophic "trumpet blasts" precipitating revolutionary "terror" and calamitous change. In this Tablet it is stated that certain of the major Tablets to the Kings, have suggestive qur'ānic rooted titles selected by Bahā'-Allāh himself. At one point Bahā'-Allāh dwells on the theme of his revelations in the light of end-time "judgement" or "catastrophe". He accords such tablets eschatologically charged epithets rooted in qur'anic apocalyptic (Iqtidarat, 298).
Each one of them [the "Tablets to the Kings"] hath been designated by a special name. The first hath been named "The Rumbling [Shout]" [al-Sāyha, Q. 54:31... etc], the second "The [Catastrophic] Blow" [al-Qāri'a, Q. 101] the third "The Inevitable [Calamity]" [al-Hāqqah, Q. 69], the fourth, "The Plain" [al-Sāhirah, Q. 79:14], the fifth "The Catastrophe" [al-Tāmmah, Q. 79:34] and the others, "The Stunning Trumpet Blast," [al-Sākhkhah, Q. 80:33] "The Near Event," [al-zulfah, Q. 67:27] "The Great Terror," [al-faza' al-akbar, Q. 21:103] "The Trumpet," [al-Súr, Q. 6:73...] "The Bugle," [al-Nāqúr, Q. 74:8] and their like...
Bahā'u'llāh, Iqtidārāt va chand lawḥ-i dígār published in Bombay in 1310/1892-3. 298, trans. Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come (Wilmette: Bahā'í Publishing Trust, 1980) 46, cf. God Passes By 212 + Per. trans. Mavaddat 425). I have supplied the transliteration and the qur'ānic references. Compare with the tablets as arranged by Bahā'u'llāh in his Súrat al-haykal, (1) Tablet to the Pope [Pius IX]; 2) Tablet to Napoleon III [2nd Tablet]; 3) = Tablet to the Czar of Russia; 4) = Tablet to Queen Victoria; 5) Tablet to Nāsir al-Dín Shāh; 6) Súrat al-Rā'is, etc. Later in this same tablet, Bahā'u'llāh addresses Nabíl informing him that it is his eschatological "Announcement (al-nidā)" which has caused the heavens to be "cleft asunder", the "mountains" crushed to dust and the "Great Terror" (al-faza' al-akbar, Q. 21:103) been made manifest (see Iqtidarat 300).
It is of particular interest to note that Bahā'u'llāh, alluding to Q. 79:34 in various of his writings of the late 'Akkā period cites an earlier (c. 1869/70?) tablet – dating to around the time of the universal proclamation to the kings and rulers of the earth – containing "perspicuous verses" in which the following line is contained:
A Persian Tablet of Baha'-Allah to Muhammad Nabil-i Zarandi (d. 1892 CE).
Prov. trans Stephen Lambden
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Each one of them [the "Tablets to the Kings"] has been designated by a special name.
[1] The first has been named "The Rumbling [Shout]" (al-Sāyha, Q. 54:31 ), [2] the second "The [Catastrophic] Blow" (al-Qāri'a, Q. 101), [3] the third "The Inevitable [Calamity]" (al-hāqqah, Q. 69), [4] the fourth, "The Plain" (al-sāhirah, Q. 79:14), [5] the fifth "The Catastrophe" (al-tāmmah, Q. 79:34) [6] and the others, "The Stunning Trumpet Blast," (al-Sākhkhah, Q. 80:33) [7] "The Near Event," (al-zulfah, Q. 67:27), [8] "The Great Terror," (al-faza' al-akbar, Q. 21:103) [9] "The Trumpet," (al-súr, Q. 6:73...) [10] "The Bugle," (al-nāqúr, Q. 74:8) and their like
