Translations
Tablet of Consolation (Lawḥ-i ta`ziya)
Translated by Joshua Hall (Title given by the translator)
Click here to open or download a file with the Arabic side by side with the English translation.
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J.
God consoles you as a token of His grace, and He is, in truth, the Comforter, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. Do not be sorrowful on account of your father. He has ascended to God and from him the perfume of My cherished love is diffused. It is for one that is heedless that you ought to grieve, not for one who has attained to the remembrance of Me, the All-Wise.
God forgave him before his ascension and, after his departing, He caused him to enter a station that the pen of the worlds is powerless to describe.
Convey My greetings to the one named Ali. Say: Beware lest you be sorrowful in My days or that anything should perturb you. Look upon the ocean of the loving kindness of your Lord and be among them that rejoice.
I was younger than you upon the passing of My father, and I had the comfort of some of His servants. Yet you have the consolation of God by His own tongue, the Holy, the Cherished, the Wondrous. Be just: is it befitting that one should mourn after this? No, I swear by My beauty that shines in effulgence from this manifest horizon! This is an address that We have revealed lest you should be grieved by anything that might come to pass on earth. In truth, your Lord is the Expounder, the All-Knowing.
This is not the day of grief and weeping. Rather, it is befitting that you and the believers should rejoice in the days of your Lord, the Forgiving, the Compassionate.
He is sufficient unto you in truth, and more loving is He than a thousand fathers. Even this sentiment, however, is within the limitation of this world[1]. Otherwise, He Himself is far above His attributes being constrained by any bound or circumscribed by the pen and ink. All possessed of discerning knowledge testify to this.
Trust in Him and immerse yourself in His praise. Be gladdened, moreover, that He should make mention of you in this, His Most Great Prison, with verses that all the treasures of the universe could not surpass.
Blessed is the one who ascended. He is indeed among them that have been guided by the light of Revelation and who turned unto the Beloved with a radiant visage. Out of his goodwill have you come into being and arisen in the service of Him who is your Lord, the Ancient of Days. Remember him with joy and gladness as We remember him in this glorious vision. Upon him be the glory of God and the glory of those in My kingdom, as well as every beauteous praise.
From La'ali'u'l-Hikma Volume Three, Passage 78
[1] al-insha': This term can also have the meaning of composition and writing.