An Introduction to Tablet of Mulla Baqir

“Such assurance of the good-pleasure of God can only be vouchsafed by Him Whom God shall make manifest, or by a word that can be demonstrated that it is from God. But such word would be beyond the power of all and could in no wise be manifested by anyone save Him Whom God shall make manifest!” 32 This statement in Tablet to Mulla Baqir is perfectly compatible with frequent statements of the Bab in Persian Bayan which confirm that after the Bab there would remain no longer any binding word till the coming of the next revelation. This clearly means that although there would be Babi leaders after the Bab none of them bring divine words, none of them will bring authorized interpretive words, and none of them can offer any obligatory and binding words. In Persian Bayan the Bab writes: It is not permissible to engage in religious acts save those ordained in the Writings of the Point of the Bayán, for in this Dispensation the writings of the Letters of the Living all proceed directly from the Sun of Truth Himself. Divine verses [áyát] especially pertain to the Point of the Bayán, prayers [munáját] pertain to the Messenger of God [Muhammad], commentaries [tafásír] to the Imáms of guidance and educational discourse [suvar-i-‘ilmíyyih] to the Gates. However, all of these proceed from this Ocean so that all people can behold the exalted sublimity of these Writings of the Primal Truth... And from the time of the setting of the Sun [of the Báb] until the Rising of the Sun of Him Whom God shall make manifest, there will be no more binding Writings, and the Letters of the Living and all the believers in God and in the Bayán will be under their shadow [the Writings of the Point of the Bayán]. 33 Continuing with his example, the Bab says that while spending the wealth of the world for obtaining the pleasure of God is not a sufficient means of receiving that pleasure, in the day of the next revelation spending a tiny amount of money to ask the blessing of Him Whom God shall make manifest is the sufficient means for attaining the good pleasure of God: After understanding this, thou must recognise the exalted station of His Revelation: wert thou in the Day of His manifestation to fail to spend a small amount of all thy possessions, even to the extent of the price of a mustard seed, that Him Whom God shall make manifest, glorified be His mention, might reveal unto thee a verse confirming His good-pleasure of thee, which is the supreme desired fruit of all thy good deeds, and the utmost cherished end of all that pertaineth to thy life, then thou hast not performed any deed for God and His good pleasure. Then thou must readily testify that thou hast been deprived of the glory of His Revelation. Whereas He who shall believe in Him hath recognised God in all the worlds of revelation and creation. 34 Attaining the presence of Him Whom God shall make manifest in the year nine Although the Bab in his tablet is rejecting any limitation set on the next revelation, out of his love for his letter of the living, he gives him the glad tiding that in eight or nine years he will attain the presence of Him Whom God shall make manifest. Throughout his writings the Bab has emphasized that the Promised one appears whenever he wishes and there is no limit on his authority. But his writings sometime speak of nine years, sometime of nineteen years and sometimes of various years associated with the concept of ghawth (deliverance, calling for rescue) including Mustaghath (2001), Ghiyath or Ghayyath (1511). It is noteworthy that in the Tablet to Mulla Baqir which is directly a response to the question of the signs of the coming of the Promised one, there is no reference to any year except the

32 Ibid. 33 The Bab, Persian Bayan 3:16. 34 The Bab. Tablet to Mulla Baqir.