M E M O R A N D U M
From: Research Department
To: The Universal House of Justice
Date: 2 April 1996
Date of Revelation of Tablet of Ishraqat

In an email message of 9 February 1996, Mr. Sen McGlinn asks about the

date on which the Tablet of Ishraqat, specifically the Eighth Ishraq, was

revealed. He observes that none of the sources available to him in English

provide a date, and that unless the date was recorded by the amanuenses, it is

his assumption that "a dating would have to be based on correlating internal

indications with historical events". To this end, Mr. McGlinn cites a number

of passages from the Tablet of Ishraqat containing allusions to historical

events and he requests the assistance of the Research Department in investi-

gating this matter.1 We offer the following information based on our study

of the resources available at the Bahá'í World Centre:

In a Tablet of some 40 pages addressed to Varqa, which appears to have

been revealed over a period of more than a month and which bears on its

final page the date 19 Muharram 1303 A.H. (29 October 1885), Bahá'u'lláh

informs Varqa that on 9 Dhi Qa'dih 1302 (21 August 1885), a very long

Tablet has been revealed for Jalil-i-Khu'i on the Most Great Infallib-

ility. This date actually forms part of the text of the Tablet to Varqa.

Since the Most Great Infallibility is a theme discussed at great length

in the Tablet of Ishraqat, it seems likely that it is to this Tablet that

Bahá'u'lláh is referring.

The Tablet to Varqa has not, to date, been published, nor translated

into English.

1885 as the date of the revelation of the Tablet of Ishraqat would

appear to receive some additional support from the fact that Bahá'u'lláh,

in a Tablet revealed on 24 Safar 1304 A.H. (22 November 1886), employs a

sentence that is also found in the Ishraqat.2 The sentence is as follows:

A year ago an oppressor ruled over this city, and at every instant

caused fresh harm.3

In the Tablet of Ishraqat, this sentence occurs after the discussion

of the Most Great Infallibility, in the section that introduces the

individual Ishraqat.
The Date of Revelation of Tablet of Ishraqat
2 April 1996

With regard to the particular historical event alluded to in the above

passage, it is our view that the person referred to could well be

Muhammad-Yusuf Pasha whose hostility is attested to in "God Passes By".4

In "Bahá'u'lláh, the King of Glory", Balyuzi provides details of what

transpired.5

The earliest transcription of the Tablet of Ishraqat that is held in the

International Bahá'í Archives is dated 12 `Izzat 44 B.E. (1888). The

transcription is by Zaynu'l-Muqarrabin.

In the course of trying to determine the date of the revelation of the

Tablet of Ishraqat, we gleaned the following information which may be of

interest to Mr. McGlinn concerning the structure of this Tablet:

Included in the Tablet of Ishraqat is a quotation from a Tablet

Bahá'u'lláh had earlier revealed in honour of Haji Muhammad-Ibrahim

concerning some of the Islamic prophecies about the Day of God.6 He

explains to Jalil-i-Khu'i that

These are verses We sent down previously, and We have sent

them unto thee, that thou mayest be acquainted with what their

lying tongues have spoken, when God came unto them with might and

sovereignty.7

We have not, to date, been able to find a date for the revelation of the

Tablet to Haji Muhammad-Ibrahim. The same excerpt from this Tablet also

appears in "Epistle to the Son of the Wolf" (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing

Trust, 1988), pp. 131-34.8

The passage on Trustworthiness is also found in the Tablet of Tarazat

and in a Tablet addressed to Haji Mirza Buzurg-i-Afnan (and perhaps in

other Tablets as well).9 This is the passage in which Bahá'u'lláh

states: "One day of days We repaired unto Our Green Island". In a

Tablet addressed to Haji Amin, Bahá'u'lláh indicates that a "Tablet

of Trustworthiness" had been revealed in A.H. 1296 (around 1879).10

The date of the revelation of the Tablet of Tarazat was Dhi'l-Hajjih

1305 (approximately 1888).

Bahá'u'lláh responds to Jalil-i-Khu'i's question concerning "interest

and profit on gold and silver" by quoting from a Tablet that had been

previously revealed in honour of Zaynu'l-Muqarrabin.11 We have not, so

far, been able to determine the date on which this Tablet was revealed.

1. See "Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas" (Wilmette:

Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1995), p. 122, p. 123, p. 125, p. 131.

2. This Tablet is published in "Athar-i-Qalam-i-A'la" (Tihran: Baha'i

Publishing Trust, 132 B.E.), vol. 6, pp. 51-59. It has not, as yet, been

translated into English.

3. "Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas", p. 125.

4. See "God Passes By" (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1987), p. 232.

5. H. M. Balyuzi, "Bahá'u'lláh: The King of Glory" (Oxford: George Ronald,

1991). See pp. 366-371.

6. "Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas", pp. 117-119.

7. ibid., pp. 119-20.

8. For a discussion, see Adib Taherzadeh, "The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh"

(Oxford: George Ronald, 1987), vol. 4, pp. 153-54, p. 405.

9. "Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas", pp. 121-22.

10. See "The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh", vol. 4, pp. 16-17.

11. "Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas", pp. 132-33.