An Introductory Review of Bahá'u'lláh's Lawh-i-Qina'
First presented at the Irfan Colloquia Session #51
Louhelen Bahá'í School: Michigan, USA
October 10–13, 2003
(see list of papers from #51)
Next presented at the Irfan Colloquia Session #88
Bosch Bahá'í School: Santa Cruz, California, USA
May 28 – June 1, 2009
(see list of papers from #88)
Next presented at the Irfan Colloquia Session #89
Center for Bahá'í Studies: Acuto, Italy
June 28 – July 1, 2009
(see list of papers from #89)
published in Lights of Irfan, volume 11, pages 257-270
under new title"Towards a Contextualization of Baha'u'llah's Lawh-i Qina'" © 2010, ‘Irfán Colloquia
In 1867–68, Bahá'u'lláh addressed Karim Khan Kirmání in his Lawh-i Qiná` (Tablet of the Veil) in response to Kirmání's Risálah dar Javáb-i Su'alát-i Mulla Jamal-i Bábí (A Treatise in Response to Mulla Jamal-i-Bábí's Questions). The Lawh-i Qiná` is a wide-ranging Tablet covering themes such as grammatical points in the Writings of the Báb, references to Kirmání in the Qur'an, and rejections of the Qur'an in the early periods of Islam. The purpose of this paper is to place the Lawh-i Qiná` in historical context, and demonstrate how that context explains certain elements in the Tablet, including those listed above. Indeed, a number of similar themes run through Kirmíní's Irshád al-`avám (Guidance of Common People), Bahá'u'lláh's Kitáb-i Iqán, and the Lawh-i Qiná`. The paper will include provisional translations of sample passages from the Lawh-i Qiná`.
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