Tablet to The Times of London
Exported from Holy-Writings.com on 2026-06-20 - 1 clipping

Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Bahá'u'lláh, Tablet to The Times of London, bahai-library.com.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Tablet to The Times of London

Bahá'u'lláh

Mehdi Wolf, editor
published in Revelation of Bahá'u'lláhVol. 4, by Adib Taherzadeh, pp. 348-50

1987
original date

1891

Adib Taherzadeh's Introduction

[1]
[2]

The seven martyrs[3] were executed less than a
month after the imprisonment of 'Mullá-'Alí-Akbar and
Hájí Amín[4] .....
Bahá'u'lláh wrote a Tablet in which He (p349) describes the two
events. Because He addresses The Times of London in this Tablet, it is referred
to as the 'Tablet to The Times'. In the opening paragraph
Bahá'u'lláh states that the martyrdom of the seven and the
imprisonment of the two have created the most joyous jubilation among the
Concourse on High. He describes in glowing terms the festive mood among the
inmates of the highest paradise as they rejoice and celebrate with exceeding
gladness the victory of the triumphant martyrs over their adversaries. Neither
the onslaught of the bloodthirsty tyrant nor the fury of the beastly oppressor
had succeeded in dampening their faith and enthusiasm or extinguishing the fire
of the love of their Lord within their hearts. Their steadfastness in the face
of such brutal treatment had endowed the Faith with enormous potentialities.

In this Tablet, Bahá'u'lláh describes the circumstances of the
martyrdom of the seven in detail, and recounts the story of each. Of
Múllá 'Alíy-i-Sabzavarí, one of the seven,
Bahá'u'lláh says that this great man of God proclaimed the Cause
of God at the very moment of martyrdom, and testified to its truth with his own
life-blood. Just before he was beheaded, he cried aloud to the teeming
multitudes who had assembled around him, these soul-stirring words: 'At the
time of his martyrdom on the plane of Karbilá, Imám Husayn, the
Prince of Martyrs, called out to those around him: "Is there any one capable of
helping, to help me." And I say to you: Is there any one capable of beholding,
to behold me!'[5] Bahá'u'lláh
showers His praise and blessings upon him for these words.

This Tablet is significant for its portrayal of the sufferings and
persecutions which the people of Persia inflicted upon the believers.

Translation of the Tablet

O 'Times', O thou endowed with the power of utterance! O dawning
place of news! Spend an hour with the oppressed of Irán, and witness how
the exemplars of justice and equity are sorely tried beneath the sword of
tyrants. Infants have been deprived of milk, and women and children have fallen
captive to the lawless. The blood of God's lovers hath dyed the earth red, and
the sighs of His near ones have set the universe ablaze.

O assemblage of rulers, ye are the manifestations of power and might, and the
fountainheads of the glory, greatness and authority of God Himself. Gaze upon
the plight of the wronged ones. O daysprings of justice, the fierce gales of
rancour and hatred have extinguished the lamps of virtue and piety. At dawn,
the gentle breeze of divine compassion hath wafted over charred and cast-out
bodies, whispering these exalted words: 'Woe, woe unto you, O people of
Irán! Ye have spilled the blood of your own friends and yet remain in
ignorance of what ye have done. Should ye become aware of the deeds ye have
perpetrated, ye would flee to the desert and bewail your crimes and tyranny.'

O misguided ones, what sin have the little children committed? Hath anyone,
in these days, had pity on the dependants of the oppressed? A report hath
reached Us that the followers of the Spirit (Christ)--may the peace of God and
His mercy be upon Him — secretly sent them provisions and befriended them out of
utmost sympathy. We beseech God the Eternal Truth, to confirm all in
accomplishing that which is pleasing to Him.

O newspapers published throughout the cities and countries of the world! Have
ye heard the groan of the downtrodden, and have their cries of anguish reached
your ears? Or have these remained concealed? It is hoped that ye will
investigate the truth of what hath occurred and vindicate it . . .

Notes

[1] This introduction and the text translation
of this section of the Lawh-i-Times (Tablet to the Times) is taken from
Taherzadeh, Adib. The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. Vol. IV.
"Mazrih and Bahji, 1877-1892" (Oxford, George Ronald, 1987), pp.
348-350. It was later reprinted in
Bahá'í World Vol. 18 976-7. Date in A Basic Bahá'í Chronology
121.
Formatting and notes added by Mehdi Wolf.

[2] Má'idiy-i-Ásamání, vol. 4, pp. 129-30. The extract printed here has been authorized by the Universal House of Justice. [Taherzedeh's note]

[3]
Refers to the martyrdom of seven believers in Yazd on May 19th, 1891. Shoghi
Effendi's description of this incident is as follows:

In Yazd, at the instigation of the mujtahid of that city, and by order of the
callous Mahmud Mirza, the Jalulu'l-Dawlih, the governor, a son of
Zillu's-Sultán, seven were done to death in a single day in horrible
circumstances. The first of these, a twenty-seven year old youth,
'Alí-Asghar, was strangled, his body delivered into the hands of some
Jews who, forcing the dead man's six companions to come with them, dragged the
corpse through the streets, surrounded by a mob of people and soldiers beating
drums and blowing trumpets, after which, arriving near the Telegraph office,
they beheaded the eighty-five year old Múllá Mihdí and
dragged him in the same manner to another quarter of the city, where, in view
of a great throng of onlookers, frenzied by the throbbing strains of the
music, they executed Aqa 'Ali in like manner. Proceeding thence to the house
of the local mujtahid, and carrying with them the four remaining companions,
they cut the throat of Múllá 'Alíy-i-Sabzivarí, who
had been addressing the crowd and glorying in his imminent martyrdom, hacked
his body to pieces with a spade, while he was still alive, and pounded his
skull to a pulp with stones. In another quarter, near the Mihriz gate, they
slew Muhammad-Baqir, and afterwards, in the Maydan-i-Khán, as the
music grew wilder and drowned the yells of the people, they beheaded the
survivors who remained, two brothers in their early twenties,
'Alí-Asghar and Muhammad-Hasan. The stomach of the latter was
ripped open and his heart and liver plucked out, after which his head was
impaled on a spear, carried aloft, to the accompaniment of music, through the
streets of the city, and suspended on a mulberry tree, and stoned by a great
concourse of people. His body was cast before the door of his mother's house,
into which women deliberately entered to dance and make merry. Even pieces of
their flesh were carried away to be used as a medicament. Finally, the head of
Muhammad-Hasan was attached to the lower part of his body and, together with
those of the other martyrs, was borne to the outskirts of the city and so
viciously pelted with stones that the skulls were broken, whereupon they
compelled the Jews to carry the remains and throw them into a pit in the plain
of Salsabil. A holiday was declared by the governor for the people, all the
shops were closed by his order, the city was illuminated at night, and
festivities proclaimed the consummation of one of the most barbarous acts
perpetrated in modern times.
(Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, pp.
201-2)

[4] Two early believers (the latter a Hand of
the Cause) who were both arrested during this same period in 1891.
Hájí Amín was sent to the prison of Qazvín, and
Ibn-i-Abhar was consigned for four years in Tíhran, in which he bore the
same chains as Bahá'u'lláh did, during the Latter's imprisonment
in 1852. [Mehdi Wolf's note]

[5]
In the original Arabic the two sayings sound almost the same. The only
difference between the two is that the letter 's' in Nasir (helper) is changed
into 'z' In Nazir (beholder). [Taherzadeh's note]

METADATA

Views16368 views since posted 2003-02; last edit 2025-06-14 16:44 UTC;

previous at archive.org.../bahaullah_lawh_times_london;
URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
Inventory #
BH00279
Language
English
Permission
public domain
History
Formatted 2003-02 by Mehdi Wolf; Proofread 2003-02 by Jonah Winters.
Share

Shortlink: bahai-library.com/864
Citation: ris/864

select Collection:
Archives
Articles
Articles-unpublished
Audio
Bibliographies
BIC
Biographies
Books
Chronologies
Compilations
Compilations-NSA
Compilations-personal
Documents
East-asia
Encyclopedia
Essays
Etc
Excerpts
Fiction
Glossaries
Guardian
Histories
Introductory
Letters
Maps
Music
Newspapers
NSA-documents
NSA-letters
Personal
Pilgrims
Poetry
Presentations
Resources
Reviews
Scripts
Software
Statistics
Study
Talks
Theses
Transcripts
Translations
UHJ-documents
UHJ-letters
Video
Visual
Writings

home

sitemap

series

chronology

search:
author

title

date

tags

adv. search
languages

inventory

bibliography

abbreviations

links

about

contact

RSS

new
-- Tablet to The Times of London (Used by permission of the curator)