An Introduction to Tablet of Mulla Baqir

all such suns bow down in adoration? And this, if only they be true suns, Otherwise they are not even worthy of reflecting the loftiness of His sanctity, and the sublimity of His remembrance. 30 The addressee of the tablet is himself a letter of the living. We have seen that the Bab strongly chastises Mulla Baqir simply because he has entertained the thought of constraining the Promised one by his questions. In his response, the Bab contrasts this letter of the living with a Christian. At the time of the revelation of the Bab a letter of the living is a letter of light, but a Christian who has not recognized neither Muhammad nor the Bab belongs to the letters of negation. Yet at the time of the revelation of Him Whom God shall make manifest, the letter of the living who fails to recognize him turns into a letter of negation and a Christian believer of the Promised One becomes a member of sublime paradise: By the righteousness of Him Whose power causeth the seed to germinate and Who breatheth the spirit of life into all things, were I to be assured that in the day of His Manifestation thou wilt deny Him, I would unhesitatingly disown thee and repudiate thy faith inasmuch as thou wert not created but to recognise Him. If, on the other hand, I be told that a Christian, who beareth no allegiance to My Faith, will believe in Him, the same will I regard as the apple of Mine eye, and accept as My believer, without making the slightest allusion against him. For should the Christian, in the Day of His manifestation, believe in Him, all his worlds would be turned into the light; but should the believer, in the day of His Revelation, be veiled from Him, all his worlds would be turned into fire. 31 In order to make this point very clear, the Bab gives an example. He intends to say that after the passing of the Bab himself, no one can be truly assured that he has attained the pleasure of God. Allegiance to no one, and no good deed is sufficient for certitude of the realization of good pleasure of God: Even if all the Babis become the first believer, Mulla Husayn (the return of prophet Muhammad, and normally the vicegerent in the past religions when there was a category of vicegerent), and in a sense they all become equally the supreme leader of the Babi religion, and then Mulla Baqir becomes the absolute ruler of the world, spending all his wealth for the sake of the Faith universally vindicating Babi religion, and then he asks these leaders of the assurance of the pleasure of God for him, they all categorically testify that they cannot give him such assurance since this assurance can only be given by Him Whom God shall make manifest. This example of the Bab leaves no doubt that first, no one after the Bab represents the divine will, and secondly, no one after the Bab has the binding word to distinguish between the fire and light. The Bab writes: Imagine that God would make all who dwell on earth like the First who hath believed in Him, and they all would perform good deeds on account of God’s intrinsic worth, for the sake of His good-pleasure, and for nothing else. Then imagine that there could be found not even a single soul on earth who would not await eagerly His Revelation. Also imagine that God would make thee possess all that is on earth. Now, imagine that thou wouldst gather everyone and say to them: “I have performed all good deeds from the beginning of my life to its end solely to be assured of gaining the good-pleasure of God,” while offering up all that is on earth for that utmost purpose. Given all these, this is what they all would give thee as an answer:

30 Ibid. 31 Ibid.