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 Muntakhabátí az Makátíb-i-Ḥaḍrat-i-‘Abdu’l-Bahá, vol. 3, pp. 172–73 (selection no. 239).
Here, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá uses a variety of metaphors to portray His fatigue from having to write so many Tablets in such quick succession and various modes of expression—whether religious or literary—culminating in this very Tablet, where He states, “this valley, too, is it compelled to cross.”
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He is the All-Glorious[1]
O handmaid of God! My pen is rushing like a phoenix, but to what avail? For after all that rushing, it hath become fatigued and drained of ability, owing to the fact that from morn till now, being the evening, it was charging with the utmost speed. It ran awhile through a sloping meadow, then for a time in the field of literature. At one moment it darted across the greatest arena, at another it hastened to Mount Sinai, and at still another it dashed through the sacred vale.[2] It traversed the branching paths of these lands and fields, these hills and valleys, and at dusk it hath reached the vast plain of the beauteous Countenance.[3] Now doth it struggle even to take a step, and yet this valley, too, is it compelled to cross. Rush forth, O pen, and put thy heart and soul into it! Run with heavenly grace; demonstrate the power of the bestowals of the Blessed Beauty and write! Depict the sublime forms of the Concourse on High in this nether world, and illustrate the images of the holiness of the Abhá Kingdom upon the pages of this realm. Perchance the embodiments of limitation may hasten to the domain of divine unity, and the captive prisoners of this earthly plane apprehend the conduct and qualities of the noble denizens of the Kingdom. May they rend asunder the veils of self and passion, and shine with the lights of guidance; taste the sweetness of celestial perfections, and drink from the cup of bounty; turn into tokens of sanctity and manifestations of oneness, and become daysprings of brilliant splendor and dawning-places of the effulgent radiance of the Daystar of the world.
O handmaid of God! Convey to the believing leaves that now is the time for holiness and purity, and the moment to manifest the signs of singleness. Their remembrance of God day and night must so warm them that the heat of the fire of divine love may affect the whole world, and the ardent fervor thereof reach the Holy Land. This indeed would not be hard for God.[4]
Glory rest on thee and on every handmaid who hath believed in God.
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[1] This incipit has been omitted from Muntakhabátí az Makátíb-i-Ḥaḍrat-i-‘Abdu’l-Bahá, vol. 3, p. 172, but it is present in INBA 88:160.
[2] The valley of ayman, where Moses is said to have grazed sheep.
[3] Bahá’u’lláh.
[4] cf. Qur’án 14:20.
A typescript of the original Persian and Arabic text of this Tablet appears below.
Adib Masumian 