THE GARDEN OF JUSTICE, PART I 
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This Tablet was written for one Muhammad Rida, but it begins as an address to God's Name, Justice. This Name of God--Justice--is personified, almost recalling for me the Zoroastrian/Iranian-Muslim Angel, Surush, or the ancient conception of Mithra as guardian of the sanctity of contract. Ironically, Bahá'u'lláh bids Justice itself be just, and humble. He refers to Justice as an ornament for Rulers, necessary to their sovereignty. This is in line with classical Perso-Islamic thinking about justice and kingship. Bahá'u'lláh also looks orward to the rise of just monarchs and rulers. This Tablet was proBábly written in winter-spring of 1867, at a time before Bahá'u'lláh decisively promulgated the ideal of constitutional monarchy and parliamentary governance, which he does only once he arrives in 'Akká.
He chastises the Bábis for not accepting Him, and includes an important passage comparing the Báb to John the Baptist and himself to Jesus. He refers to the Covenant, and grounds it in the Pre-Existent Scene, when God asks His creatures-to-be, "Am I not your Lord," and they reply "Bala"--Yes! This is in Bahá'u'lláh's view the Primal Covenant. He refers repeatedly to the image of a Garden in which the trees of Justice are planted. The word used for Garden, "ridwan," has connotations also of paradise.
A few laws and principles of the Aqdas are anticipated in this tablet, including the command to be just and fair, to be polite, and the command not to engage in fighting with the people and not to shed blood. In the rough and tumble world of the Iranian bazaar at this time, and given the militancy of many Bábis, these commands represented a new ethic.
This Tablet toward the end refers to some Baha'is who were recently martyred. The first Baha'is to be martyred were Mirza Mustafa, Shaykh Ahmad, and Mirza `Ali Naqi, all of Khurasan, at Tabriz on 8 January 1867. These three believers had been en route to Edirne to see Bahá'u'lláh, but were arrested by the Iranian authorities in Tabriz. I think it most likely that these are the martyrs referred to by Bahá'u'lláh in this Tablet, which would then date it to winter-spring, 1867.
This is the Garden of Justice.
In the Name of God, the Just, the Wise
This is a Tablet, wherein God hath sent forth His Name, the Just, and hath breathed the spirit of equity into the temples of all created things. Thereby might all preserve pure justice and judge themselves and others, nor transgress against it to the extent of a blemish on a date pit.
O this Name! We have rendered Thee one of the suns of Our most beautiful Names between the heavens and the earth. Shed Thine illumination upon all things created by Thy powerful and wondrous lights, that perhaps the people might gather under Thy penumbra and cast the darkness behind them, and shine with Thy holy and luminous rays. O this Name! We have made Thee the source of Our justice among those of Our servants who have drawn near. By means of Thee, the justice of every just one is made manifest and our servants who are advancing toward Us have been emblazoned with Thine ornament.
O this Name! Beware lest this station entice Thee away from submission in the presence of God, the Mighty, the Omnipotent. Know that Thy relationship to Us is the same as that of any other, and there is no difference between Thee and aught else created between the heavens and the earth. For when We seated Ourselves upon the throne of justice, We created the contingent creatures by a Word from Us. Thus was Thy Lord wise with regard to all things. And we raised some of the Names up to the realm of eternity as a bestowal of grace from Us, for, verily, We are Powerful, Exalted, Mighty and Wondrous. Say: Verily, no relationship exists between Him and His creation. Praised may He be above all that He hath created and all that of which Our servants make mention. The relationship that binds, which is mentioned in the Tablets, only appeared from His Will, which was sent forth from His Volition, and which in turn was generated by My all-encompassing and irrevocable decree.
We have, however, chosen Thee out especially and exalted Thee in this Tablet, that Thou mightest give thanks to Thy Lord and be among those who have attained detachment. Beware lest the exaltation of Thy name become a barrier between Thee and God, Thy Lord and the Lord of the Worlds. Verily, We exalt whoever We please by Our decree, and verily, We are Powerful to accomplish whatever We purpose and Sovereign in achieving what We wish. See nothing in Thyself save the effulgence of the sun of the commanding Word, which rose from the horizon of the lips of the Will of Thy Lord, the Merciful, the Compassionate. See in Thine essence neither power or might, neither movement nor stillness, save what deriveth from the decree of God, the King, the All-Powerful, the Omnipotent. Move with the breeze of Thy Lord, the Exalted, the Most Glorious, not with the gales that blow from the direction of self and passion. Thus doth the Most High Pen command thee, that Thou mightest act accordingly. Beware lest Thou be like the one whom We adorned with the ornament of the Names in the realm of creation, for when he gazed upon himself and the exaltation of his name, he turned against the very God Who created and nourished him, and plummeted from the highest of stations to the lowest of the low.
Say: The Names are as garments, with which we array whoever We please among Our devoted servants, and which We strip from whoever We desire by Our command, for verily We are the Omnipotent, the Sovereign, the Omniscient. We give our servants now, at the time of Our withdrawal, the same counsel we offered them at the time of bounty. Thus, know the command of thy Lord and be completely assured that nothing can detract from Our Potency, and that the hand of Power shall never be chained up, if Thou art among those who know. Say: The glory of each Name that knoweth its Lord and hath not transgressed against His law increaseth every moment, and at every instant there shineth upon it the sun of the loving-kindness of its Lord, the Forgiving, the Generous; and it ascendeth by the ladder of detachment unto a station that shall never reveal aught but its Creator nor speak save by His leave, nor move save by His Will. Verily, He is the Mighty, the Just, the Knowing, the Wise.
O this Name! Take pride within Thyself, insofar as We have
made Thee the dawning-place of Our justice in all the worlds. We shall dispatch from Thee
manifestations in the realm, whereby the pavilions of tyranny shall be folded up and the
carpet of justice rolled out between the heavens and the earth. By means of them, God
shall efface the traces of despotism from the world and adorn all corners of the earth
with their names among the worlds. Because of them, the mouth of visible and invisible
being broke into a smile. They are the mirrors of My justice among My servants and the
dawning places of My names among My creation. By them, the hands of oppression are cut
off, and the right arm of the Cause is strengthened. Thus have We decreed in this
preserving and sanctified Tablet.
ART TWO
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