# Tablet to the Physician, or Tablet of Medicine: Tablet study outline

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> Name of Tablet in Arabic or Persian: 
> Lawh-i-Tibb. This Tablet has been published by the Wilmette Bahá'í Publishing Trust in 
> _Majmu'a-yi  Alwah-i Mubaraka_ (Cairo 1920, reprinted Wilmette 1981), pages 222-226.
> 
> 
> Translation into English: 
> Tablet of Medicine, Tablet to a Physician. Not much has been written about this very 
> important Tablet. It also hasn't been translated authoritatively, though a few passages have 
> appeared in John Esslemont's _Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era_ and in the 1984 compilation 
> from the Bahá'í World Centre Research Department _Bahá'í Writings on Some Aspects of 
> Health, Healing, Nutrition and Related Subjects_. 
> 
> Regarding the language used in the original, the Guardian wrote "The Tablet to a Physician 
> was addressed to a man who was a student of the old type of healing prevalent in the East 
> and familiar with the terminology used in those days, and. He addresses him in terms used 
> by the medical men of those days. These terms are quite different from those used by 
> modern medicine, and one would have to have a deep knowledge of this former school of 
> medicine to understand the questions Bahá'u'lláh was elucidating" (ibid. 58, also cited 
> _Lights of Guidance_ #945).
> 
> 
> Significance of Name: 
> Was revealed to a physician and contains specific teachings regarding medicine, health, and 
> the nature of spiritual healing.
> 
> 
> Tablet was revealed in: 
> The first sentences, most of the Tablet, are in Arabic; the last few are in Persian
> 
> 
> Name of Recipient:
> Aqa Mírzá Muhammad-Riday-i-Tabib, a physician from Yazd
> 
> 
> Reason for Revelation of the Tablet:
> The tablet was written in praise of its recipient, and to provide him and the Bahá'ís with a 
> number of teachings about health.
> 
> 
> Date of Revelation:
> Most probably the early 1870s; date not certain.
> 
> 
> Place of Revelation:
> 'Akká, probably while Bahá'u'lláh was in the house of 'Udi Khammar (1871-73) or of 
> Ilyas Abbud (1873-77)
> 
> 
> Tone, subject, and genre of the Tablet:
>         Tone: Authoritative. 
>         Subject:  The subject of the tablet deals with matters of learning and knowledge 
>                 concerning medicine and health. At the end of the Tablet Bahá'u'lláh 
>                 also "exhorts men to education, goodly character and divine virtues" 
>                 and "deals with social teachings."
>         Genre:   Letter addressed to an individual.
> 
> 
> Voice of Tablet: [?]
> Bahá'u'lláh
> 
> 
> Outline Contents of Tablet:
> In the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh vol. 3, 358-60, Taherzadeh summarizes the contents as 
> follows (I've excerpted this discussion and omitted ellipses):
> 
> In the Tablet known as the Lawh-i-Tibb Bahá'u'lláh: 
>        * advocates medical treatment when it is necessary 
>        * recommends treating the patient first through diet and resorting to 
>                medicine if the former proves ineffective 
>        * enumerates some of the basic prescriptions for good health and gives 
>                some dietary advice. 
>        * stresses the importance of contentment under all circumstances 
>                for good health 
>        * asserts that grief and sorrow will cause man the greatest misery 
>        * warns that jealousy will consume the body while anger will burn the liver. 
>        * exhorts the physician to heal the patient by first turning to God and 
>                seeking His assistance, and then prescribing the remedy 
>        * affirms that a physician who has recognized Him and has become 
>                filled with His love will exert such an influence that his mere 
>                visit will restore health to the patient [elsewhere phrased by 
>                Taherzadeh as "the mere visit of a physician who has drunk deep 
>                of the wine of His love will cure the patient"]
>        * praises the science of medicine as being the most meritorious of 
>                all sciences 
>        * states that it is the means which God has created for the well-being 
>                of mankind 
>        * states the importance of courage and steadfastness in His Cause as 
>                well as wisdom in teaching it
>        * categorically affirms that if the believers had faithfully carried out 
>                His commandments, the majority of the peoples of the world 
>                would have embraced His Faith in His days.
> 
> Interestingly, Shoghi Effendi also had this to say about the Tablet of Medicine: 
>        "There is a Tablet of Medicine that Bahá'u'lláh has revealed and which 
>        is translated into English.  That does not contain much of scientific 
>        informations [sic] but has some interesting advices for keeping 
>        healthy." (_Light of Divine Guidance_ vol. 2, 21)
> 
> 
> Principal themes of the Tablet:
> One student provided the following summary of the Tablet's contents, based on 
> Taherzadeh's descriptions:
>        1. Bahá'u'lláh advocates medical treatment when necessary, recommending 
>                treatment first through diet. Should this treatment prove ineffective, 
>                to resort to medicine: 
>        2. He enumerates some basic prescriptions for good health and offers dietary 
>                advice
>        3. Bahá'u'lláh stresses the following:
>                a. contentment under all conditions for good health
>                b. asserts that grief and sorrow will cause man the greatest misery
>                c. jealousy will consume the body and anger will burn the liver
>        4. Bahá'u'lláh exhorts the physician first to turn to God for assistance, then 
>                prescribe the remedy
>        5. The physician who has recognized Bahá'u'lláh and is filled with His love, 
>                will exert such an influence that a mere visit will restore health to 
>                the patient
>        6. Bahá'u'lláh praises the science of medicine as the most meritorious of all 
>                sciences
>        7. At the end of this Tablet,Bahá'u'lláh reveals a prayer for healing, one which 
>                is commonly known and recited by the friends
>        8. In this Tablet, Bahá'u'lláh states the importance of courage, steadfastness, 
>                and wisdom in teaching His Cause
>        9. He affirms that if the believers had carried out His commandments, most 
>                people would have accepted the Faith in His days
> 
> 
> Tablet's relationship to other tablets:
> 
> 1) It is at the end of this Tablet that Bahá'u'lláh reveals one of His most used healing 
> prayers:
>        "Thy Name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy. 
>        Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion. Thy mercy 
>        to me is my healing and my succour in both this world and the world to come. 
>        Thou, verily, art the All-Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise."
> 
> 2) The Tablet also relates to the few places in the Aqdas in which Bahá'u'lláh prescribes 
> specific practices for health, such as paring the nails, washing the feet, not using drugs or 
> alcohol, and not using Persian pools. In verse 113, Bahá'u'lláh also has this to say:
>        Resort ye, in times of sickness, to competent physicians; We have not set 
>        aside the use of material means, rather have We confirmed it through this Pen, 
>        which God hath made to be the Dawning-place of His shining and glorious Cause. 
> 
> 3) This was one of a number of Tablets Bahá'u'lláh addressed to Áqá Mírzá Muhammad-
> Ridáover his lifetime.
> 
> 4) In _Gleanings_ CVI is included an excerpt from Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet to Maneckji Sahib, 
> in which He says:
>        The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth 
>        the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath 
>        its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world 
>        needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a 
>        subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye 
>        live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements. 
> 
> 5) Abdu'l-Bahá also expands on some Bahá'í teachings on health and healing in _Some 
> Answered Questions_, in a number of his talks, and in some pilgrims' notes.
> 
> 
> Biography or bio note of the recipient of the Tablet: 
> Taherzadeh quotes Hájí Muhammad Tahir-i-Malmiri's description of Muhammad-Riday-
> i-Tabib from Malmiri's unpublished memoirs (_Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh_ vol. 3, 359):
> 
> "One of the early believers who embraced the Faith when Siyyid Yahyáy-i-Darabi, known 
> as Vahid, came to Yazd, was Áqá Mírzá Muhammad-Riday-i-Tabib. He was a skilled and 
> distinguished physician, and an embodiment of grace and steadfastness. The Pen of the Most 
> High revealed the Lawh-i-Tibb in his honour. In that exalted Tablet, Bahá'u'lláh states 
> that the mere visit of a physician who has drunk deep of the wine of His love will cure the 
> patient. Mírzá Muhammad-Ridáwas truly the fulfilment of these words of Bahá'u'lláh. He 
> used to cure the patient by administering very simple remedies. Truly, he possessed 
> wonderful qualities which made him a very special person in the community of the Most 
> Great Name. Owing to his intense piety he became highly disturbed when Mírzá Yahyá 
> broke the Covenant. As a result he was bewildered and stunned; he even became hesitant in 
> the Cause for a short time. Then it was as though Divine Providence sent Mullá Zaynu'l-
> 'Abidin, a native of Najafabad (he was entitled by Bahá'u'lláh as Zaynu'l-Muqarribin) to 
> Yazd in order to calm his agitation and dispel his doubts. Zaynu'l-Muqarribin at first 
> stayed in the house of this servant in the district of Malamir, but when he learned of the 
> intense anguish and distress that Mírzá Muhammad-Ridáwas subjected to, he changed his 
> residence and stayed in his home instead. Consequently, Mírzá Muhammad-Ridábecame 
> fully aware of the circumstances of the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. He later received many 
> Tablets from the Pen of the Most High, and served the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh with devotion 
> and love till the end of his life. He was about eighty years old when he passed away."
>
> — *Tablet to the Physician, or Tablet of Medicine: Tablet study outline (Used by permission of the curator)*