Aḥmad and His Tablet

In the second volume of *The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh,* Adib Taherzadeh devotes a chapter to the *Tablet of Aḥmad,* one of the best-known Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, revealed in Adrianople around 1865 for Aḥmad, a native of Yazd.

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Aḥmad was born into a wealthy family in Yazd. Drawn to mysticism in his youth, he left home secretly to search for the Promised One, travelling as far as India in the garb of a dervish. Disappointed, he returned to Persia, settled in Káshán, married and worked as a hand-weaver. There he heard of the Báb, walked to Mashhad in search of guidance, and accepted the new Faith. He met the Báb when He passed through Káshán.

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When ruffians attacked the believers in Káshán, Aḥmad hid in the wind tower of a house for forty days. Life there became difficult, and he went to Baghdád, where Bahá’u’lláh was living. He stayed six years, working as a weaver and living in the outer apartment of Bahá’u’lláh’s house. When Bahá’u’lláh left Baghdád for Constantinople in 1863, Aḥmad was among those who stayed behind.

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He served the Faith in Baghdád, but he longed to attain his Lord’s presence again. In time he could no longer bear to stay away, and he set out for Adrianople. When he arrived in Constantinople, Bahá’u’lláh sent him the Tablet now universally known as the Tablet of Aḥmad.

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On reading it, Taherzadeh writes, Aḥmad knew what was expected of him. He surrendered his own will, and instead of completing his journey to Adrianople, he returned to Persia with the sole purpose of teaching the Bábís about Bahá’u’lláh. He travelled widely. In Khurásán a Bábí, Mullá Mírzá Muḥammad, and his brothers attacked him while he was teaching them and broke his tooth.

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When the fighting stopped, they brought out the Writings of the Báb they kept hidden in a wall, and in the first one Aḥmad opened they found a passage indicating that He Whom God shall make manifest would bear the name of Bahá. They embraced the Faith.

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He lived to a great age. One account says he lived to be a hundred and died in 1902; another puts his age at a hundred and thirteen. A believer who knew him in his last years recalled that he spent most of his time reading the Holy Writings, especially his own Tablet, which he chanted very often.

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In the Tablet, Bahá’u’lláh refers to Himself as the *Nightingale of Paradise,* and He counsels Aḥmad:

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> Rely upon God, thy God and the Lord of thy fathers.

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Taherzadeh notes that believers often recite the Tablet at times of difficulty or trouble.

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*A retelling based on **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Vol. 2 — Adrianople 1863-68** (Adib Taherzadeh). For the fuller account, see the original.*

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