The Tablet of the Holy Mariner

Among the episodes recounted by Adib Taherzadeh in the first volume of *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh* is the revelation of the *Lawḥ-i-Malláḥu'l-Quds*, the *Tablet of the Holy Mariner*, in the spring of 1863, a few weeks before Bahá'u'lláh's declaration in the Garden of Riḍván.

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At Naw-Rúz that year Bahá'u'lláh had pitched His tent in a field on the outskirts of Baghdád known as the Mazra'iy-i-Vashshásh, rented by His faithful brother Mírzá Músá. He was celebrating the festival with a number of His companions, who were also living in tents in the open countryside.

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On the fifth day of Naw-Rúz the Tablet of the Holy Mariner was revealed. Mírzá Áqá Ján, Bahá'u'lláh's amanuensis, came out of Bahá'u'lláh's tent, gathered the believers around him and chanted the Tablet to them. During that last year in 'Iráq Bahá'u'lláh had more than once alluded to trials yet to come, but His companions had never felt such sadness as they did that day. Nabíl, who was present, recorded that *oceans of sorrow surged in the hearts of the listeners*, and that it was evident to everyone that the chapter of Baghdád was about to close.

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No sooner had the Tablet been chanted than Bahá'u'lláh ordered the tents to be folded and His companions to return to the city. The tents, He observed, might be likened to the trappings of this world, which are no sooner spread out than the time comes for them to be rolled up. Before they had been taken away, a messenger arrived from Námiq Páshá, the Governor of Baghdád, asking to meet Him. The next day, at a mosque in the city, the Governor's deputy informed Bahá'u'lláh of the Ottoman government's decision that He should go to Constantinople.

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The Tablet is in two parts, one in Arabic and one in Persian, and is revealed in symbolic language. Bahá'u'lláh refers to Himself as the Holy Mariner and to the believers as the dwellers in the ark. In His Writings, Taherzadeh explains, the ark often symbolizes the Cause of God and the Covenant, and the theme of the Tablet is the story of the Covenant and man's unfaithfulness to it. 'Abdu'l-Bahá said of it:

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> Study the Tablet of the Holy Mariner that ye may know the > truth, and consider that the Blessed Beauty hath fully > foretold future events. Let them who perceive, take warning!

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On 22 April 1863 Bahá'u'lláh entered the Garden of Riḍván and declared His mission to a few of His companions, and on the twelfth day He left Baghdád for Constantinople.

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Taherzadeh writes that the Tablet foreshadowed the suffering Bahá'u'lláh would endure from the unfaithfulness of some who professed to follow Him, and that it was the realization of this that brought deepest anxiety to His companions when they first heard it.

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*A retelling based on **The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Vol. 1 — Baghdád 1853-63** (Adib Taherzadeh). For the fuller account, see the original.*

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