THE
RESPONSE OF THE
BĀB
TO A
QUESTION
ABOUT
لَوْحٍ محْفُوظ
LAWḤ MAḤFŪẒ
("THE
PRESERVED TABLET")
IN PROGRESS
2008
Stephen N. Lambden
This brief and
early writing of the Bab seems to be that referred to in some versions of the
K. al-fihrist (Book of the Index) and thus predating the date of its
composition, namely, xxx /1845 . The text in reply to a question about the
lawḥ maḥfūẓ is translated below from INBA Ms.
6006C., 79-80. Aside from this mss. version, I am not aware of any others.
As this text is not always clear, I would greatly appreciate copies of further
mss.
The qur'ānic expression lawḥ maḥfūẓ loosely, "Preserved Tablet" occurs only once at Q. 85:
[21-] 2
بلْ
هُوَ قُرْآنٌ مَّجِيدٌ
Nay! it is a Glorious Qur'ān (Qur'ān
majīd)
فِي لَوْحٍ مَحْفُوظ
in a Preserved Tablet (lawḥ
maḥfūẓ)
The idea
of an archetypal, heavenly repository of human destinies and the divine Word, a
"Preserved" or "Guarded Tablet" is pre-Islamic. This concept is
reflected in
various pre-Christian Jewish sources most notably in the Book of Jubilees (2nd cent.
BCE., see Jubilees III:10f;etc). Summing up one
dimension of Muslim opinion as to the significance of lawḥ it has
been written,
"The decisions of the divine will are also written on the
lawḥ with the pen, qalam.. and the particulars contained as a
whole in God's consciousness are transmitted by this last, so that on the lawḥ are inscribed the archetypes of all things, past, present and
future. The popular mind represented by al-Bayhaqī, as created from a white
pearl, with its upper and lower surfaces of jacynth" ( Wensinck-Bosworth EI2
5:698 [translit. altered]).
In this latter connection we read at the beginning of the Qiṣaṣ al-`anbiyā'
of al-Kisā'ī,
"Ibn `Abbas said: The first thing God created was the
Preserved Tablet, on which was preserved all that has been and ever shall be
until the Day of Resurrection. What is contained thereon no one knows but
God. It is made of white Pearl" (al-Kisā'ī, trans. Thackston 1978:5).
Numerous Shi`i sources
expound and draw upon statements of the (Twelver) Imams about the
Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ ("Preserved Tablet"). In the Tafsīr of Abū al-Ḥasan `Ali
ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qummī (d. c. 307/919 or 329/941), for example,
we find the following:
قال علي بن ابراهيم في تفسيره: اللوح المحفوظ له طرفان: طرف على عين
العرش، وطرف على جبهة اسرافيل، فاذا تكلم الرب جل ذكره بالوحي ضرب
اللوح جبين اسرافيل، فنظر في اللوح فيوحي بما في اللوح الى جبرئيل عليه
الشلام
`Ali ibn Ibrāhīm [al-Qummī]
stated in his Tafsīr :
"The Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ
(Preserved Tablet) has two extremities (ṭarfān), the uttermost
[extremity] about the pivot of the Divine Throne (ṭarf `ala `ayn
al-`arsh) and that uttermost [extremity] at the forehead of [the
Archangel] Seraphiel (jabha Isrā'fīl). When the Lord, exalted be His
mention, speaks forth through waḥy (divine inspiration) the
forehead [brow] (jabīn) of Seraphiel strikes the (Preserved) Tablet
(lawḥ) whereupon he gazes into the (Preserved) Tablet (al-lawh) and
provides waḥy (divine inspiration) in accordance with what is in the
(Preserved) Tablet unto Gabriel (jibra'il), upon him be peace."
وفيه عن أبي عبدالله عليه الشلام قال : بينا رسول الله صلى الله
عليه وا-له جالس وعنده جبرئيل عليه الشلام إذ حانت من جبرئيل نظرة قل
السماء إلى ان قال: قال جبر"نبيل: ان هذا اسرافيل صاحب الرب واقرب خلق
الله منه، واللوح بين عينيه من ياقوتة حمراء، فاذا تكلم الربت بارلا
وتعالى بالوحي ضرب اللوح جبينه فظرفيه، نم القاه الينا نسعى به في
السماوات
٤
٦مم/
وا اا لكل ٠
والصوفية يؤوزلون اللوح المخفوخا الوارد في الشريعة المطهرة بالنفس
الكلي، والفلاسفة بالنفوس الفلكية الردة، ولا ييا.بهم ولا بقولهم، إذ
لاخلاف بين المسلمين في ارتفاع الحياة عن الفلك وما يشتمل عليه من
الكواكب، وانها مسخرة مدبذة مصرفة، وذلك معلوم من الدين ضرورة، وفي
كثير من الأخبار
(١)
تفسير القمن ٢ :ه ٤١.
(٢)
نورالقلين ه : ٤٨ ه ،٣ عن تفسير القمي
.
557
ما
يعمل مابين غروب الشمس إلى وقت النوم مسسسهسسه ٥٥٧
((لما
قضيتها لين)) ليما بالتشديد بمعنى ((إلا)) يفال: اسالك لما فعلت كذا،
أي: ما اسالك إلأ نقل كذا، وقد يقرا بالتخفيف ايضا، فلا حاجة إلى تأويل
الفعل المثبت باليي وتكون لفظة ((ما)) زائدة، وقد قرىء. بالوجهين قوله
تعالى: ((إن گل نفس لقا غليشها حافظ)) ا ا
______________________
Qur’an 85:22 or phrases within it have
been much commented upon by numerous Islamic writers, especially Sufi and early Shaykhī writers,
with the respect to its deep, esoteric meanings, cosmological implications and
position as a celestial repository of the sacred books. It is also significant
as the celestial locale of the
mysteries of fate and human destiny.
Diverse aspects of the inner and outer meaning of
lawh maḥfūẓ, the "Preserved
Tablet" or "Guarded Tablet", have been much commented upon by Islamic mystics and philosophers. The
influential Andalusian born mystic and exegete Ibn al-`Arabī (d. 638/1240) in his
massive 560 chapter al-Futuḥāt
al-makkiyya (Meccan Illuminations), for example, associated
the Lawḥ maḥfūẓ with the al-qalam al-a`lā ("Supreme Pen") and
with the al-nafs al-kulliyya ("Universal Soul"), the
"The Universal Logos-Soul" as well as with the beginnings
of all existence (Futuhat 1:139; 3:399, etc).
His disciple, the Shi’ite Sufi `Abd al-Karim
al-Jili (d. 832/1428) has a complex section 42 on al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ
("Presreved Tablet") in his seminal al-Insān al-kāmil...
(The Perfect Man...). There "Preserved Tablet" is seen to be indicative of the
celestial nūr ilāhī ("Divine Light") which is
in some sense the personalized divine Reality, ḥaqqī,
transfigured within the domain of human witness [testimony] (mashad)"apparent, that is, before God’s "creation" or "creatures" (al-Insan, 146).
The two earliest Shaykhī leaders, Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ahsā'ī (d. 12XX/1826) and Sayyid Kāẓim
Rashtī (d. 1259/1843), like many other Shi`i Muslim writers, wrote about the qur'anic motif of the Lawḥ Maḥfūẓ ,
the Preserved or Guarded
Tablet. A short 120 verse treatise was written by Shaykh Aḥmad
on this subject in Yazd, for example, his Risāla fī jawab su'al
Sayyid Abu'l-Hasan al-Jilani which dates to the 8th Jamadi II 1223/
XXXX
[2]
"If Belief and Unbelief are written upon the Guarded Tablet (lawh
mahfuz), then why did the Prophet call the unbeliever to faith and impose
obligations upon him when he knew that he would not believe for his name was
written as an unbeliever on the Guarded Tablet on which there can be no
additions or erasures? Shaykh Aḥmad states that it is the very appearance of the
Prophet and his imposing religious obligations that is the cause of the iman
(belief) of the believer and the kufr (unbelief) of the unbeliever" (Momen,
BSBM1:XX)
In his Tafsīr Sura wa’l-`aṣr
(" Commentary on the Surah of `By the Afternoon [Declining Day]', Q. 103)
the Bab makes an interesting and instructive interpretation of the Lawḥ al-Ḥafīz
or Lawḥ al-Mahfuz
"[I swear] by the
`Aṣr. Indeed mankind is in a state of loss Except those who
believe and do good works, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one
another to endurance" (Q. 103).
"Then regarding the
23rd letter which is [the letter] "L" (al-lām). It signifieth on
this level al-lawḥ al-a`ẓam (the Most Great Tablet) in which
exist all
modalities (al-shu’ūn).
[2] Then [additionally it] signifieth the
lawḥ al-amr (Tablet of the Command)
for God did not send down [reveal] a single thing except He had it penned
therein.
[3] Then [additionally it] signifies the Lawḥ al-Ḥafīz ("Preserved Tablet")
which indicates the actions [deeds] of the totality of all the creatures such as
have been encompassed in the knowledge of God.
[4] Then [additionally it] signifieth the Lawḥ which God hath assuredly created through the
knowledge of `Azrā’īl through the constriction of all who are possessed
of a spirit [soul] (bi-qaby rūḥ kull
dhiya rūḥ). For he gazeth upon it [Lawḥ] at
every moment. And he followeth the amr (Cause-command) of His Lord in accordance
with what hath been stipulated, with the permissionof God -- exalted
and glorified be He -- in the dictates (aḥkam) of that Lawḥ".
At the very
outset of the Bab’s commentary, the lawh mahfuz (Preserved Tablet)
is presented as
the "Greatest Tablet" (al-lawḥ al-akbar). This work of
the Bab reflects
Islamic esoteric traditions; as well, most notably, as the
sometimes arcane Khuṭba al-ṭutunjiyya (The Sermon of the Gulf) ascribed
to Imam `Ali (d.40/661), an oration which both the Bab and Bahā’-Allāh, like Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ahsā`ī and Sayyid Kāẓim Rashtī, regarded very highly.
The influence
of the qur’anic expression lawḥ maḥfūẓ (Preserved Tablet) is evident
throughout the Bābī-Bahā'ī revelations. In, for example, Baha’-Allah’s Sūrat
al-qadīr (The Surah of the the Omnipotent) addressed to "the Sun of My Name
al-Qadīr" around 1866, we read after its prescript and basmala,
"Then Praised be unto He Who decreed the destined measures
(muqadir)
of all things in Mighty, Preserved Tablets (alwāḥ `izz maḥfūẓ)"
(AQA 4:317-320).
A treatise of the Bāb in reply to a question about the
لَوْحٍ محْفُوظ
Lawh
maḥfūẓ
("The Preserved Tablet").
ADD HERE SCAN OF MSS.
TEXT
The text translated here is INBA ms. 6006C, pp. 79-80.
This is the only mss. of this short work that I am aware
of...
[1]
[1] The questioner hath
assuredly asked thee about al-lawḥ al-maḥfūẓ ("Preserved
Tablet").
[2] Inform him then according to what God the All-Encompassing
(al-muḥīṭ) hath taught thee [the Bāb] for ......?? [3] Now I
shall assuredly cast upon thee something of the sprinklings
[revelations] (rashḥāt) of those splendid [Archetypal,
Guarded] Tablets [of Destiny]
(al-alwāh) [4] until [such time as] all people become aware of the
source of their regulated condition [lit. drinking-place, mashrab).
[5] This in view of the fact that God ordained (ja`ala)
that the supremely secreted mystery (fī mustansirr al-sirr)
of their [future condition] be something concealed (sarā'ir)
for [6] He hath assuredly taught the people that God did indeed
create the heavens and the earth for their instruction in the
knowledge of God (`ilm Allāh), for their coming to
faith. [7] And it was undoubtedly the case that the "Book [of
Destiny]" (al-kitāb)
took precedence relative to [recording] the [actual]
condition of [peoples] faith (bi'l-īmān).
[II]
[1] Wherefore was the intention nothing other than that the creatures should be
unaware of their [resultant] state for the matter is not something
disclosed. [2] He [God] is the Subtle, the Well-Acquainted. [3] These two
[conditions] are both subordinated to ??... as opposed to the sincerely
motivated people of the Gate
(ahl al-bāb) in the Book (kitāb). [4] That is
the ink which God caused to flow in the obstructing Tablet (al-lawḥ al-saddād) for God is indeed one well-informed of everything. [5] God did make
for the weak and arrogant ones, [in faith] whether men or women, a preserved
book (kitab an maḥfūẓ an). [6] So praised be
unto God who created everything according to a chosen artistry in the light of
what it is [destined to be].
[III]
[1]... from the wonders of the [divine] Lights God willed through the mashiyyat ("divine Will") the mystery of contingent Beings
(sirr al-mumkināt),
through the al-irādat ("divine Intention") [he originated] the inmost secrets of existent realities (mustansirr al-mawjūdāt) and through al-qadar ("divine Foreordainment") [he ordained] the
decree of triplicity [threefoldness] (ḥukm al-tathlīth) as pertains
to the people of sensate disposition (ahl mash`ar), which is
a restrictive [delimiting] state (al-taḥdīd). [2] "It was from this
[threefoldness] that the Christians took the form of the cross (shakl al-ṣalīb) and [the idea of] the descent of the Divinity (al-lāhūt) into the human
realm (al-nāsūt)". [3] The position of the Beloved (al-maḥbūb) [Jesus] was announced contrary to their inmost conscience as the Beloved
(al-maḥbūb) [God] [4] And thus did the Christians exclaim, "The third of three"
(thālith
al-thalātha) (Q.5:87) even though God is
[categorically] One (wāḥid). [5] So praised be God above their joining
partners to God (shirk).
[IV]
[1]
And the All-Merciful decreed after He created al-qadar (the divine
Foreordainment), the divine Accomplishment (al-qiḍā') as pertains to the people
of uncertainty [obliteration] (al-maḥw) and firmness [strength]
(al-thabt), for the decree of divinely altered fate [?] (ḥukm al-badā)
[al-bidā'] does not pertain to them [2] for when God taught their particular
selves it was necessarily something pre-ordained (al-iqtiḍā'). [3] Thus did God cause them torment (IV-m-ḍ-y) in accordance with the
divine decree
though that was not something which unendingly (ta`ṭīlan)
derives from God.
[3] The All-Merciful hath indeed cautioned His servants as accords
with the decree of forthcoming judgement (ḥukm al-qaḍā) in the light of [such
factors] as [faith] negation (al-maḥw) and
steadfastness [of faith] (al-thabt), perchance, that is, the people will affirm nothing but such
truth as accords with God['s will]. [4] The Imam said,
"Human
spirits pre-destined [for Paradise] (al-arwāḥ al-qadariyya) are exposed to hell-fire... until the
[eschatological] "Hour" (al-sa`at). [5] And when the "Hour" is realized
they are tormented along with the people of [infidelity ? text unclear] at the [judgement
Day] when there is differentiation for punishment (bi'l-anwā` al-`adhāb). And they will [petition God] saying, `O our Lord! Do thou subject us to punishment [both]
for a specific reason and also punish us generally?' And He will take issue, disputing
against them, and they shall be [made to] taste a palpable sickness, something inducing sleep
which We created according to the Divine Predestination [Foreordainment] (bi'l-qadar).... ["]
[V]
[1]
And the All-Merciful set down, after the stipulation of the divine Foreordainment
[Predestination] (ḥukm al-qiḍā'), [He initiated] the realization of divine Determination
(al-imḍā'). This implies that He will never either firmly seize anybody [in divine
determinism] nor ever graciously extend [His favor] [in divine
foreordination] [to anybody]. [2] And, furthermore, He shall never single out [compel, w-j-d] any single thing within all existence
(fi'l-imkān) save
[ it is fully in line] with the express permission of the All-Merciful. [3] God expressly decreed through [the realization of] divine Determination
(al-imḍā), that
when God has ordained (j-`-l) something through divine Foreordainment (al-qiḍā'), [it was yet something] in line with the secret of what is required
[necessary] (sirr al-iqtiḍā). [4] And they shall never find
the practise of God (sunnat Allāh) to be something necessitating alteration
(taḥwīl an).
[VI]
[1] And the Wise One (ḥakīm) did assuredly announce after these
five modes (aḥkām al-khamsa) *
[2] the
[sixth] divinely allotted deadline (al-ajl) and
[seventhly] the "Book" (al-kitāb), perchance there will
never expire anything [determined by] the dictates of the Bāb (aḥkām
al-bāb). (3) And God assuredly determined the allotted time (al-ajl)
of the various [allotted] deadlines (ājāl) [of things] to be determinative of their
causes (li-ajāl al-asbāb). [4] And He raised up the Book (al-kitāb) through the instrumentality of these aspects, namely the [seven
interacting] causative factors (bi-aḥkām al-musabbibāt) for there does
not fail to be realized out of all existence the essence of any single
thing [the destiny of ] which is [written up] within the Book (al-kitāb) save, that is, there was assuredly already found therein the ramifications of its
causality (mashrūḥ al-`ilāl), within this selfsame Book.
[5] This furthermore, along with an exposition of the causes determinative of the mystery of
this Gate (fi sirr hadha al-bāb).
*
These are evidently the (previously mentioned) [1] mashiyya,
[2] irāda [3] qadar [4] qiḍā' and
[5] al-imḍā' .
[VII]
[1] And God assuredly decreed
that that Book (al-kitāb) be the Supremely Great Tablet (al-lawh al-akbar). [2] And therein He assuredly decreed the generative locus relative to
the beginning and the end [of things] (abda` fi al-bad` wa'l-khatm).
[3] God did indeed foreordain for that Book (al-kitab) two Gates
(bābayn) unto the mystery of the two gulfs (li-sirr al-ṭutunjayn), through the
water of the two Gulfs (mā’ al-khalījayn). [4] One of these two [streams
of water] is the
water of the Euphrates of the realities of the elevated beings (mā’ al-firāt ḥaqā’iq al-`aliyyīn) [who
are] from the inmates of the two Easts (min ahl al-mashriqayn), from the two [regions] most proximate [unto God]
(min al-aqrabayn).
[5] The second of the two [streams] is the water of the fiery Hellish expanse of the saline bitterness [streaming] from the inmates of the two Wests (min ahl al-maghribayn), from the two [regions] most remote [from God]
(min al-ab`adayn [sic.]).
[VIII]
[1] And God fashioned above every entrance
(`alā kull bāb) the triadic form (ṣūrat al-tathlīth).
[2] And within the triadic form is the trinitarian personage [temple =
Jesus as one wrongly worshipped?] (haykal al-tathlīth) [leading] unto the totality of the gates of Genenna (li-tamām abwāb al-jaḥīm), the nineteen waystations of the
pre-existent Judge (min al-ḥākim al-qadīm) (cf. Q. XX:XX).
[3] And God assuredly made in the interior dimension (bāṭin) of that [aforementioned Guarded]
Tablet [of Destiny] (al-lawḥ [al-maḥfūẓ]) [naught but] a Mercy and a [sweet] repose
(raḥmat wa rāḥat) [4] though in its exterior dimension
(ẓāhir) did he
of old ordain punishment (al-`udhāb). [5] And praised be unto God, their Unifier
(mawaḥḥid) transcendent above whatsoever they resolve.
ENDNOTES
[1] From
the beginning of his religious mission the Bāb quite frequently cited and
sometimes creatively refashioned lines of the Khuṭba al-ṭutunjiyya. Thus, for
example, in expressing his claims in his first major work we at one point read,
" I am XXX ." (QA XX: ).
[2] This
work can be found at "Bib: F2; S80. / Mss: 1. KM Mss No. A3, Item 2 / 2.
Princeton, p. 98, No. 424; Mss no. 79 (pp. 185b-187a), dated 1235
/ 3. Danishgah 12, p. 2623; Mss no. 3621 (Item 11); written
by `Abd al-Rahim ibn Muhammad Sharif Nahawandi in Madrasa Mu'mina of Nahawand.
/ Pub: Majmu`a, Vol. 30, 238-243"
(BSBM1:XX).
[3] ADD
HERE
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