A term for a sacred epistle containing a
revelation.
The giving of the Law to
Moses on tables or tablets is mentioned in the
Qur’án,
súrih 7:145: “We wrote for him (Moses) upon tables (
alwáḥ, plural of
lauḥ) a monition concerning every matter.“
Though sometimes referred to as the “
Tablet of the Seeker”, it is not a Tablet but an exerpt of seven paragraphs from
Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i-Íqán. These passages describe the qualities and the attributes of one who is a true seeker.
Súriy-i-Mulúk
Revealed by
Bahá’u’lláh in
Adrianople sometime around 1870, referred to by
Shoghi Effendi as “
the most momentous Tablet revealed by Bahá’u’lláh.” In it Bahá’u’lláh addresses collectively the monarchs of East and West, the Sultan of Turkey, the kings of Christendom, the French and Persian ambassadors to the
Ottoman Empire, the
Muslim clergy in
Constantinople, the people of Persia, and the philosophers of the world
In the Súriy-i-Mulúk Bahá’u’lláh unequivocally and forcefully proclaims His station.
Tablet, Most Great
Tablets of the Divine Plan
Fourteen
Tablets revealed by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1916 and 1917 and referred to as the charter for propagating the Bahá’í Faith. Addressed to the Bahá’ís of North America, the Tablets convey His mandate for the transmission of the Bahá’í Faith throughout the world.
Ṭaff, Land of
Takhi Khán Amír-Nezam, Mírzá
(circa. 1817 — August 1852)
Born Fáṭimih Baraghání, she is better known by the title Táhirih (“The Pure One”). She is also known as Qurratu’l-‘Ayn (“Solace / Consolation of the Eyes”)
It was during the
Conference of Badasht that the title “Táhirih” was conferred on her by
Bahá’u’lláh. It was also during this conference that Táhirih “
boldly discarded the veil and appeared for the first time before her companions with her face uncovered”
(Nabíl’s Narrative (Abridged), page 101), shouting “
aloud these words: ‘The Trumpet is sounding! The great Trump is blown! The universal Advent is now proclaimed!’ ”
(Memorials of the Faithful, page 202).
“They brought her into a garden, where the headsmen waited; but these wavered and then refused to end her life. A slave was found, far gone in drunkenness; besotted, vicious, black of heart. And he strangled Táhirih. He forced a scarf between her lips and rammed it down her throat. Then they lifted up her unsullied body and flung it in a well, there in the garden, and over it threw down earth and stones.”
Qur’án 56:29 refers to Ṭalḥ trees.
According to an extract from the Botony 2004 conference (http://2004.botanyconference.org/)
The adjective used to describe talh in the Quran literally means neatly stacked or piled one above another, descriptive of individual bananas in a hand. The adjective, however, describes the talh trees rather than fruits.
This same extract states that “All sources identified talh as either banana or acacia.” and also that “A critical reading of verses 27 to 33 of the 56th sura in the Quran suggests that the two trees, namely sidr and talh, are mentioned as sources of shade rather than fruit.”
Saul, appointed king of the Israelites by Samuel.
Teaching Committee, European
Teheran
Temple, Mother
Temples Fund
A ten-part process of divine
revelation described by
Shoghi Effendi. It began with Adam and is to end with the erection of the entire machinery of
Bahá’u’lláh’s
Administrative Order and the suffusion of the light of His Revelation, throughout future epochs of the Formative and Golden
Ages of the Faith, over the entire planet.
The ten-part process, Shoghi Effendi writes, began
“...with the planting in the soil of the divine will, of the tree of divine revelation, and which has already passed through certain stages and must needs pass through still others ere it attains its final consummation. The first part of this process was the slow and steady growth of this tree of divine revelation, successively putting forth its branches, shoots and offshoots, and revealing its leaves, buds and blossoms, as a direct consequence of the light and warmth imparted to it by a series of progressive Dispensations associated with
Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus,
Muḥammad and other Prophets, and of the vernal showers of blood shed by countless martyrs in their path. The second part of this process was the fruition of this tree, ‘that belongeth neither to the East nor to the West,’ when the
Báb appeared as the perfect fruit and declared His mission in the Year Sixty [1844] in the city of
Shíráz. The third part was the grinding of this sacred seed, of infinite preciousness and potency, in the mill of adversity, causing it to yield its oil, six years later, in the city of Tabríz [1850]. The fourth part was the ignition of this oil by the hand of Providence in the depths and amidst the darkness of the
Síyáh-Chál of Ṭihrán a hundred years ago [1852]. The fifth, was the clothing of that flickering light, which had scarcely penetrated the adjoining territory of ‘Iráq, in the lamp of revelation, after an eclipse lasting no less than ten years, in the city of
Baghdád [1863]. The sixth, was the spread of the radiance of that light, shining with added brilliancy in its crystal globe in
Adrianople [1863- 1868], and later on in the fortress town of
‘Akká [1868-1877], to thirteen countries in the Asiatic and African continents. The seventh was its projection, from the
Most Great Prison, in the course of the ministry of the
Centre of the Covenant [1892-1921], across the seas and the shedding of its illumination upon twenty sovereign states and dependencies in the American, the European, and Australian continents. The eighth part of that process was the diffusion of that same light in the course of the first, and the opening years of the second, epoch of the Formative Age of the Faith [1921-1953], over ninety-four sovereign states, dependencies and islands of the planet, as a result of the prosecution of a series of national plans, initiated by eleven national spiritual assemblies throughout the Bahá’í world, utilizing the agencies of a newly emerged, divinely appointed Administrative Order, and which has now culminated in the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission. The ninth part of this process—the stage we are now entering [1953]—is the further diffusion of that same light over one hundred and thirty-one additional territories and islands in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, through the operation of a
decade-long world spiritual crusade whose termination will, God willing, coincide with the
Most Great Jubilee commemorating the centenary of the declaration of Bahá’u’lláh in Baghdád. And finally the tenth part of this mighty process [1963-] must be the penetration of that light, in the course of numerous crusades and of successive
epochs of both the Formative and Golden Ages of the Faith, into all the remaining territories of the globe through the erection of the entire machinery of Bahá’u’lláh’s Administrative Order in all territories, both East and West, the stage at which the light of God’s triumphant Faith shining in all its power and glory will have suffused and enveloped the entire planet”
(Messages to the Bahá’í World, pages 154-55).
The international teaching plan inaugurated by
Shoghi Effendi in 1953 and completed in 1963, some six years after his death.
It was the first global plan in which all national Bahá’í communities pursued their respective goals in one co-ordinated effort. It culminated with the first election of the
Universal House of Justice at
Riḍván 1963.
This is the first letter of ‘
Thamárih’ which means ‘fruit’.
Shoghi Effendi, in his writings, refers to the
Báb as the ‘
Thamárih’ (fruit) of the Tree of God’s successive
Revelations. (See Shoghi Effendi’s letter to the Bahá’ís of the East dated
Naw-Rúz 110, page 5.)
A tribe of an ancient Hamitic people, inhabiting the borders of Edom and living in caves. They were nearly exterminated by Chedorlaomer, the Elomite conqueror. The survivors fled to Mt. Seir where they dwelt in the time of
Isaac and Jacob.
20 October 1819 — 9 July 1850
The Báb (Arabic for “Door” or “Gate”); the title assumed by
Siyyid ‘Alí Muḥammad after declaring His mission in
Shíráz on 23 May 1844. The
Qá’im and
Mihdí of
Islám.
His birth (see note under
Holy Day) and His death by public execution (9 July, 1850) are celebrated as Holy Days on which work is suspended. His Declaration (May 23, 1844) is likewise celebrated as a Holy Day on which work is suspended.
See Balyuzi, The Báb.
Image courtesy of
Bahá’í Library Online
The “
Bábí place or the centre of the Bábís”: a house in Ma
shhad, Írán, that served as a residence for
Mullá Ḥusayn (the first of the
Letters of the Living) and
Quddús (the eighteenth Letter of the Living, whose rank was second only to that of the
Báb) and as a place to which inquirers came to learn about the Bábí Faith.
The Bahá’í historian
Nabíl writes that
“A steady stream of visitors, whom the energy and zeal of
Mullá Ḥusayn had prepared for the acceptance of the Faith, poured into the presence of Quddús, acknowledged the claim of the Cause, and willingly enlisted under its banner. The all-observing vigilance with which Mullá Ḥusayn laboured to diffuse the knowledge of the new
Revelation, and the masterly manner in which Quddús edified its ever-increasing number of adherents, gave rise to a wave of enthusiasm which swept over the entire city of Ma
shhad, and the effects of which spread rapidly beyond the confines of
Khurásán. The house of Bábíyyih was soon converted into a rallying centre for a multitude of devotees who were fired with an inflexible resolve to demonstrate, by every means in their power, the great inherent energies of their Faith.”
(The Dawn-Breakers, p. 267)
The Book of Fáṭimih
A history of the early
Bábí and Bahá’í Faiths. Written by
Nabíl-i-A‘ẓam and translated by
Shoghi Effendi into English. Published in 1932. Also known as
Nabíl’s Narrative. An abridged version is also available.
The nineteen-day period of the
Bahá’í month of ‘Alá’ (Loftiness), the 19
th month, a time of spiritual renewal and development during which Bahá’ís abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset. A symbol of self-restraint, the Fast is a time of meditation, prayer, and spiritual recuperation and readjustment.
The Father of Folly
The Greatest Name
Bahá’u’lláh’s most important ethical work. Revealed circa 1858. Described by
Shoghi Effendi as a “marvellous collection of gem-like utterances … with which Bahá’u’lláh was inspired, as He paced, wrapped in His meditations, the banks of the Tigris.”
Originally designated
The Hidden Book of Fátimih, the title of this work is an allusion to the
Muslim tradition that the Angel
Gabriel revealed a Book to
Fáṭimih to console her following the death of the Prophet
Muḥammad, her Father, and that this Book remained hidden in the spiritual worlds thereafter.
The Intercalary Days
The Kitáb-i-‘Ahd
The Most Holy Book (Kitáb means “book”; Aqdas means “Most Holy”): the chief repository of
Bahá’u’lláh’s laws and the Mother Book of His
revelation, revealed in
‘Akká in 1873 and termed by
Shoghi Effendi “the Charter of the future world civilization.”
For a summary of its contents, see
God Passes By, pages 213-16;
The Kitáb-i-Aqdas,
pages 12-16.
Book of Certitude
Written by
Bahá’u’lláh over 48 hours in 1862, interpreting symbols in the Bible and
Qur’án and explaining the progressive nature of divine
revelation.
The Most Exalted Leaf
The Most Holy Book
The Most Holy Court
The Prince of Hypocrites
The Purest Branch
The Sacred Fold
the Veridical
The Wolf
This Decisive Hour: Messages from Shoghi Effendi to the North American Bahá'ís, 1932-1946. Title of the volume containing communications from the
Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith addressed to the Bahá’ís of North America, from June 21, 1932, to December 3, 1946.
Originally published in 1947 under the title
Messages to America: selected Letters and Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá’ís of North America, 1932-1946. A later review of the volume saw the addition of a further fourty seven (47) cables from Shoghi Effendi to the Bahá’ís of North America. Their inclusion was prompted by the efforts of an ad hoc committee appointed by the
Universal House of Justice in 1973 at the
Bahá’í World Centre to check the texts of the cablegrams in the original edition, and the proposal to incorporate them into the compilation was approved by the Universal House of Justice.
Threshold
Throne of Tyranny
In July, 2014, the
Universal House of Justice announced “
that Ṭihrán, the birthplace of the Abhá Beauty, will be the spot on the earth that will serve as the standard for determining, by means of astronomical computations from reliable sources, the moment of the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere and thereby the day of Naw-Rúz for the Bahá’í world.” (
Document : 10 July 2014)
Tongue of Grandeur
Torah
The authoritative record of inspired sayings and acts of the
Prophet, in addition to the
revelation contained in the
Qur’án.
Transition, Age | Period of
Tree of Anísá
Tree of Life
A thorny tree so called, which bears fruit like an almond, but extremely bitter. Therefore the tree symbolizes a very severe punishment and bitter remorse for the unbelievers.
A tree in the Infernal Regions.
Title or family name of Ḥimyar kings in Yemen of the Hamadán tribe.
The Ḥimyar were an ancient race. At one time they seem to have extended their hegemony over all Arabia and perhaps beyond, to the East African Coast.
Their earliest religion seem to have been Sabianism. At different times later on they professed the Jewish and the Christian Faiths.
An embassy sent by
Muḥammad in
ah 9-10 led to their entry into
Islám.
A sum of money equivalent to a dollar.
Muḥammad, son of the eleventh Imám; died at age five in the year
a.h. 260.
Shí‘íhs believe that he did not die, but disappeared and would return.
Twigs
Refers to the
Báb, Founder of the
Bábí Faith, and to
Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Bahá’í Faith.
Twin Manifestations
Allusions to the ‘Abbásid and Umayyad dynasties, respectively.