In this presentation a synopsis and partial translation will be given of the
brief (2 page), relatively unknown Arabic treatise of the Báb on the meaning
of al-lawh al-mahfuz (The Preserved Tablet). This along with some aspects of the
Islamic and Shaykhí background.
The phrase al-lawh al-mahfuz occurs once only in the Qur'an. It is at Qur'an
85: [21] 22 that we read, "Nay! It is a Glorious Qur'an (qur'an majid) in
a Preserved Tablet (lawh mahfuz)". The idea of an archetypal, heavenly repository
of the human destinies and the divine Word, a "Preserved Tablet" is
pre-Islamic. It is early on found in pre-Christian Jewish sources such as the
Book of Jubilees (2nd cent. BCE).
Qur'an 85:22 or phrases within it have been much commented upon by Islamic,
especially Sufi and Shaykhí writers, with the respect to
its deep, esoteric meanings, cosmological implications and position as a celestial
repository of the sacred books and locale of the mysteries of fate and human destiny.
Dimensions of the "Preserved Tablet" have been much commented upon
by Islamic mystics and philosophers. The influential mystic and exegete Ibn al-`Arabi
d.638/1240) in his al-Futuhat al-makkiyya (Meccan Revelations) and other works,
for example, associated the Lawh Mahfuz with the "Supreme Pen" (al-qalam
al-a`la) and "The Universal Logos-Soul" (al-nafs al-kulliyya) as well
as the beginning of 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 on al-lawh al-mahfuz
(Presreved Tablet) in section 42 of his seminal al-Insan al-Kamil... (The Perfect
Man). There "Preserved Tablet" is seen to be indicative of the "Divine
Light" (nur ilahi) which is "My Divine Reality" (haqqi) transfigured
in the domain of human witness [testimony] (mashad) " before God's "creation"
or "creatures" (al-Insan, 146.
At the very outset the Báb's commentary identifies the Báb himself,
the manifestation of God (mazhar-I ilahi), as being the Lawh Mahfuz (Preserved
Tablet) as a "Most Great Tablet" (al-lawh al-akbar). This Báb's
work also reflects the abovementioned Islamic esoteric traditions; as well, most
notably, as the sometimes arcane Khutba al-tutunjiyya (The Sermon of the
Gulf) ascribed to Imam `Alí (d.40/661), an oration which both the Báb
and Báhá'u'lláh (like Shaykh Ahmadal-Ahsa'i and Sayyid Kazim
Rashti), regarded very highly.
It will also be shown in this paper that the influence of the qur'anic expression
Lawh Mahfuz (Preserved Tablet) is evident throughout the Bábí-Bahá'í
revelations. In, for example, Bahá'u'lláh's Surat al-Qadir (The
Surah of the Omnipotent) addressed to "the Sun of My Name al-Qadir"
around 1866, we read at the outset (after its prescript and basmalah),
"Then Praised be unto He Who decreed the destined measures (muqadir) of
all things in Mighty, Preserved Tablets (al-lwah`izz mahfuz)" (AQA 4:317-320).
