# Tablet to The Times of London

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 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)*