Concealment and Revelation

THE J OURNAL OF BAHÁ ’ Í S TUD I E S 9 . 3 . 1 9 9 9

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issue. 15 However, Cole, in discussing his own interpretation of the Book of the River, suggests that the tablet

raises the most acute questions about the nature of the “intimation” Baha’u’llah is said to have experienced in the Siyah Chal. If one reads the account in Epistle to the Son of the Wolf carefully, it appears that it consisted more of ilham or inspiration than of wahy or revelation, and that Baha’u’llah began thinking of islah or reform of Babism rather than of making any claim of his own. (“Commentary”) But in fact, Bahá’u’lláh has explicitly used the term wahy ( vah. y ) and not ilham with regard to his Síyáh-Chál experience. In another tablet, Bahá’u’lláh gives the same account of the experience in different words and adds that this is already mentioned in the Tablet to the Shah—obviously he means the same account of what happened in the Síyáh-Chál. However, here he uses the word vah. y . Bahá’u’lláh says: By God! Verily I was asleep, when lo! the breezes of Revelation [ vah. y ] bestirred Me. I was silent, and thy Lord, the Almighty, the All-Powerful, caused Me to speak forth. Were it not for His behest I would not have revealed Myself. Verily, His Will prevailed over My will and raised Me up to establish a Cause which hath made Me the target of the darts of the infidels. Read what We have revealed to the kings that thou mayest be assured that this Servant speaketh as bidden by the All-Knowing, the All-Informed. ( Majmú‘iy-i-Alváh. 234; provisional translation) It should also be noted in this connection that Bahá’u’lláh uses the same concept and same wording in the Kitáb-i-Badí‘, which was written at the end of the Adrianople period—the same period as the revelation of the Tablet to the Shah—to discuss his station explicitly as the Manifestation of God and the Promised One of the Bayán. These repeated statements of Bahá’u’lláh clearly show that the statement in the Tablet to the Shah unequivocally refers to the inception of Bahá’u’lláh’s new Revelation. For instance, asserting that he is the Promised One of the Bayán, Bahá’u’lláh writes the following: O people! I am ‘Alí Himself [the Báb] and the Beauty of Muh. ammad amongst you and the essence of Spirit [Jesus] between the heavens and the earth. O people, fear ye God! Verily, I am a servant Who truly believeth in God and in His verses. I was asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and awakened Me to the Truth, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been and all that is to be, and revealed Me by the ornament of His own Self, and caused Me to speak His praise, should ye understand. O people! even if ye fail to believe in Me, at least do not protest against Me. . . . O people, fear ye God. I was

15. See Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By 101–2.