What follows is my provisional translation (in other words, not official or authorized; see here for more) of a Tablet of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the original text of which has been published in Makátíb-i-Ḥaḍrat-i-‘Abdu’l-Bahá, vol. 1, pp. 424–26.
He is God
O daystar of remembrance and praise, and O mountain who art illumined with the flame of guidance![1] What a poignant melody was this that kindled a fire in the hearts, what an ardent lament that consumed the souls of the friends?[2] Upon hearing it were the dwellers of the Concourse on High moved to moan and wail, and through the effects it produced did the dwellers of the Tabernacle of Holiness cry out in mourning. Tears rained down from their eyes and their sighs burned with anguish as they commenced their bellowing and shouting, for those two wronged ones fell into the hands of an ignorant and cruel[3] oppressor who inflicted upon them such harm and persecution that, from the inception of the Cause to the present day, no ravenous tyrant, no stinging serpent, no sharp-clawed wolf, no bloodthirsty and unscrupulous soul hath acted with such ferocity and atrocity. The wicked Yazíd and the hostile Valíd, both like unto ravening beasts and malevolent hounds, lacerated Muḥammad, the Manifestation of the favors of the Loving Lord, slashing that blessed throat of His with the blade of injustice and malice, but even they would not have seen fit to perpetrate such cruelty against a child of only twelve years—who was possessed of such beauty and sweetness, such eloquence and fluency, such a radiant face and mellifluous tongue—so utterly destroying and annihilating him as to leave no trace of his existence.
In brief, the oppression suffered by that noble father, and the blamelessness of this innocent and self-sacrificing son, were to such a degree that it hath neither peer nor likeness in the scrolls of ages and centuries gone by. Theirs was a sacrifice most pleasing, cherished, and precious in the Abhá Kingdom. I swear by Him Who is the Beauty of the Desired One and the glorious King that the essences of all created things in the realm of the unseen are watching with astonishment and desiring this bounty with the utmost envy.
Wherefore, O ye two nightingales trilling out in the rose-garden of oneness—ye pair of birds singing sweetly in the bower of detachment—be thankful and content that, in lamentation of these two brilliant stars in the heaven of singleness, ye have composed and recited so remarkable an elegy. This is truly among the most marvelous of elegies and the most eloquent of poems: lucid and unprecedented, simple yet inimitable, each word apt and fitting. Blessed are ye, and the recompense of your Lord is better for you than any other prize or reward.[4] This ode shall be made known in the Abhá Kingdom.
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[1] ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is alluding to the addressees of this Tablet through metaphor: “Daystar” is a translation of nayyir, which was the pen name of the Bahá’í poet Áqá Siyyid Maḥmúd Sidihí (1846–1909); and “mountain” is a translation of síná, which is both a reference to Mount Sinai and was also the pen name of Nayyir’s younger brother, the Bahá’í poet Áqá Siyyid Ismá‘íl Sidihí (1848–1917). A biography of both brothers has been published in ‘Azízu’lláh Sulaymání, Maṣábíḥ-i-Hidáyat, vol. 1 (2nd ed.), pp. 93–172. Details on their lives in English can be found in Moojan Momen, The Bahá’í Communities of Iran, vol. 2, pp. 50–53, 55, 56n, 97, 154, 162, 222–3, 236, 318, 353n, and 439.
[2] ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is referring to a poem written jointly by Nayyir and Sina as an elegy for Rúḥu’lláh, the twelve-year-old son of ‘Alí-Muḥammad Varqá, both of whom were martyred in a prison in Ṭihrán in 1896. The original Persian text of this poem can be found in Sulaymání, Maṣábíḥ, vol. 1 (2nd ed.), pp. 331–333. An English translation of it by John S. Hatcher and Amrollah Hemmat has been published under the title of “Alas! Alas!” in Reunion with the Beloved: Poetry and Martyrdom, pp. 79–81 (selection no. 9).
[3] The pair of words translated here as “ignorant” (jahúl) and “cruel” (ẓalúm) comes from Qur’án 33:72.
[4] cf. Qur’án 23:72.
A typescript of the original Persian text of this Tablet appears below (all punctuation and short vowel marks mine).
Adib Masumian 