published in Lights of Irfan, Volume 11, pages 257-270 Wilmette, IL: Irfan Colloquia, 2010
Abstract:
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`.
