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 Táríkh-i-Amríy-i-Hamadán, p. 353.
Delivered via the pilgrim Monsieur André, upon him be the Glory of God
To Jináb-i-Ḥájí Mírzá Ṭáhir Khán, Jináb-i-Ḥájí Mírzá Ibráhim Farídíyán, Jináb-i-Ḥakím Naṣír, Jináb-i-Mírzá Ya‘qúb, Jináb-i-Mírzá Ilyáhú, Jináb-i-Mírzá Nuṣratu’lláh, Jináb-i-Mírzá Yahúdá, Jináb-i-Mírzá Núru’lláh; the handmaid of God, Ṭúṭí; the handmaid of God, Fáṭimih Sulṭán; the handmaid of God, Áfarín; the handmaid of God, Ṭávus; the handmaid of God, Ṣughrá and Maryam; and the handmaid of God, Táj, upon those men and women be the Glory of God, the All-Glorious
He is God
O ye roses in the garden of guidance! Monsieur André[1] arrived in the Holy Land and is now in Haifa, having just gone to make pilgrimage to the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh. While at the Shrine of the Báb, that Spot round which circle the all-glorious Concourse, he thought of you all and requested ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to write this letter. Thus have I, in spite of endless preoccupations, set myself to writing this epistle, in order that the sweet savors of God might rouse the souls of those friends to exhilaration and delight, and that they may observe how the bounties of Bahá’u’lláh have connected these hearts, for you all are in that most distant area while ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is in the snow-white Spot, stirred by his remembrance of you and communing with you in heart and soul. We are in one gathering and a single abode. In an Arabic poem it is said:[2]
O you who’ve come to see beloved Laylí!
Forgive my frenzied ecstasy and love
For you have visited but mere bodies
While we paid visits to the souls thereof
Upon you men and women be the Glory of the All-Glorious.
—‘Abdu’l-Bahá ‘Abbás
Haifa, 25 November 1919
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[1] Monsieur André Sulaymán, the adopted name of Mírzá ‘Abdu’lláh (1889–1926), an Iranian Bahá’í who for a time ran a school set up for boys and girls in Hamadan by the Alliance Israélite Universelle, a Jewish organization in Paris, where he himself had completed his education and eventually died. For more details on his life and a photograph of him, refer to Moojan Momen, The Bahá’í Communities of Iran, vol. 2, pp. 206–208.
[2] Possibly a paraphrase of a verse by Ibn al-‘Aríf.
A typescript of the original Persian and Arabic text of this Tablet appears below (all punctuation and short vowel marks are mine).
Adib Masumian 