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 Zia Eblaghi, Gul-háy-i-‘Ishq dar Shúrih-zár-i-Tárík, pp. 51–52.
Shíráz
Delivered via Jináb-i-Bashír-i-Iláhí
Iṣṭahbánát
Jináb-i-Muhtadí (?) Muhhadí and that handmaid of God, his respected wife; Siyyid Muhtadí (?); Muḥammad-Taqí; Jináb-i-Karbalá’í Ḥusayn, that handmaid of God, his respected wife, and those maidservants of the All-Merciful, their daughters, upon all those men and women be the Glory of the Most Glorious
“O my Companion in the prison!”*
He is God
O servants and maidservants of the All-Merciful! It can truly be said that, upon the Path of God, ye are in hardship and immersed in an ocean of toil and trouble. The absence of Jináb-i-Karbalá’í Ḥusayn hath caused estrangement, but this adversity and difficulty is borne on the Way of God. Therefore, I hope ye may endure this distress with the utmost gladness, for it shall end with bounty and result in celestial favors. My anticipation of Providence’s grace is such that erelong the means of joy, delight, comfort, and prosperity may be provided and prepared; that the star of everlasting glory may rise; that the lights of God’s bestowal may shine forth; and that the friends may turn, with the utmost assurance, toward the Abhá Kingdom.
Upon you men and women be the Glory of the Most Glorious.
=========
* In a research note written in Persian, Dr. Muḥammad Afnán has observed that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá began some of His Tablets with this heading, which appears to originate in a very similar form with Qur’án 12:39 and 12:41 as an address by Joseph to his fellow prisoners, but which has probably been repurposed in these Tablets as a supplicatory invocation to Bahá’u’lláh, the significance being that Bahá’u’lláh spent much of His life as a prisoner and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, at the time of writing, was also a prisoner, thus making Bahá’u’lláh His figurative companion in confinement. For more details, see Muḥammad Afnán, “Yá Ṣáḥibíya’s-Sijn” (Safíniy-i-‘Irfán, vol. 17, pp. 367–68), available online here.
A typescript of the original Persian text of the Tablet appears below (all punctuation mine).
Adib Masumian 