Tablet of the Báb Revealed in Response to the Inquiry of Mullá Ibrāhím Maḥallātí

Abstract: This article presents a provisional English translation and analysis of a theologically intricate Tablet revealed by the Báb in response to formal questions submitted by Mullá Ibrāhím Maḥallātí concerning five Qur’ānic verses long marked by exegetical contention. No information regarding the date or place of the Tablet’s revelation is currently available.

The Tablet opens with an extended supplicatory prelude — omitted from the present translation — in which the Báb establishes, through a meditation on divine unknowability and pre-eternity, the metaphysical ground of all authority and judgment. The translation presented here is confined to the latter portion of the Tablet, constituting the doctrinal and hermeneutical core of the response. In this section, the Báb refrains from explicit citation, treating the verses as axiomatic declarations whose meaning is disclosed through divine authority rather than disputation. Internal evidence permits the identification, with certainty or high probability, of Qur’ān 2:136, 2:285, 4:59, 4:83, and a fifth allusive verse.

Based on INBA Vol. 91, pp. 139–145, this translation seeks fidelity to the Báb’s intent and an elevated scriptural style consonant with Shoghi Effendi, contributing to a clearer understanding of the Báb’s rearticulation of revelation, authority, and obedience.