Introduction

Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablets, although often addressed to individuals, were often sent to groups in different areas throughout the Ottoman and Qajár territories. This Tablet, revealed for the Bahá’ís of Sarvistán, a city approximately 90km southeast of Shíráz, is an uplifting homily stressing unity under God’s word, cultivation of goodly virtues, teaching with the wisdom contained in the scriptures, and the importance of reciting the verses of God. In summary, this Tablet is a meet illustration of Bahá’u’lláh’s correspondence with His believers, not strictly intended to answer specific queries, but rather to uplift the soul, inspire the heart, and strengthen ties amongst the believers and Bahá’u’lláh.

View interlinear file with the original Arabic

Tablet to the Bahá’ís of Sarvistán

Provisional Translation by Joshua Hall

The Most Holy, the Most Great, the Transcendent

My beloved ones in Sarvistán,

Give ear to the call of the All-Merciful in the contingent realm, saying, None other god is there beside Him, the Almighty, the Beneficent. We have inhaled the fragrance of your love and have remembered you in this prison in which the Well-Beloved of the lands is captive. The people were awaiting My days, yet when We revealed Him Who is Mine own Self unto them, they disbelieved in Him, except those who had renounced the world and turned to God, the Lord of all men.

Be united under the word of God, and call His servants to remembrance with the wisdom revealed in Psalms and Tablets. Say: O people, set your gaze unto the horizon of grace. By God! It is illumined by the luminary of the remembrance of our Lord’s name, the Cherished, the All-Bounteous.

We counsel ye to hold fast unto sanctified morals, detachment, and that whereby the Cause of God is exalted amidst the climes of the earth. Be lamps of guidance to mankind and day-springs of goodness to all the world. Let nothing grieve you, for God is ever with you and has ordained for you such as shall profit you so long as He Himself, the Possessor of being, shall endure. Rejoice in this day, for this is in truth the Day of God, and yet the generality are in heedlessness and error.

Recite the verses of God, for by them are the hearts of the righteous enraptured. They are indeed the flowing fountain of life everlasting unto the people of knowledge, and the sealed wine unto them that have set themselves toward the Almighty, the Unconstrained. This world shall perish, yet that which lieth within them shall remain, as well as such as hath been ordained for you by Him at Whose behest the winds are subdued.

Glory be upon you and upon those who have attained unto the lights of the divine countenance, and have stood steadfast in this Cause, by which the bondsmen are humbled.