The Tablet of Twenty Questions Revealed by the Báb and Addressed to Mullá 'Abdu'l-Jalíl Urūmī

Abstract: This article presents a critical study and provisional English translation of a significant Tablet revealed by the Báb, distinguished by its engagement with a wide spectrum of devotional, doctrinal, and juridical questions submitted by early believers. Rather than responding to a single correspondent, the Tablet constitutes a comprehensive reply to multiple letters conveying inquiries, greetings, affirmations of obedience, and appeals for spiritual clarification. As such, it offers rare insight into the formative period of the Bábí Dispensation and exemplifies the Báb’s dual role as Manifestation of God and attentive guide to a nascent community facing intense spiritual and historical pressures.

The Báb Himself explicitly affirms the scope and structure of this revelation, declaring near the conclusion of the Tablet: "I have answered, by Thy judgement, twenty questions from Thy servants, in that hour of the month of fasting." This authoritative statement establishes that the Tablet’s organization is grounded not in later analytical reconstruction but in the internal testimony of the Revelation itself.

Drawing upon internal textual evidence and external historical sources, the study situates the Tablet within a narrow but complex chronological framework. On the one hand, the Tablet explicitly refers to the imprisonment of Mullá ‘Alí Bastamí in Baghdád, an event known to have occurred in January 1845 and referenced again by the Báb in a Tablet dated 14 March 1845. On the other hand, Denis MacEoin identifies the Tablet as one listed in the Kitāb al-Fihrist, compiled by the Báb in Būshihr and completed on 21 June 1845, thereby establishing a latest possible date for its revelation. These combined indicators suggest that the Tablet was revealed between January and June 1845. However, this conclusion is complicated by the Báb’s explicit statement that the Tablet was revealed during the month of Ramaḍán, which in 1845 fell in September. The resulting tension between calendrical data and internal testimony precludes a definitive dating or localization of the Tablet at present.

The article further examines the question of transmission and addressee, noting that although the Tablet addresses multiple inquiries, evidence suggests that these were likely conveyed by a single intermediary. On the basis of external cataloguing sources, the Tablet is provisionally identified as addressed to Mullá ‘Abdu’l-Jalíl Urūmī. This provisional translation seeks to preserve the elevated scriptural tone and theological precision of the original Arabic.