With the numerous tests and uncertainties of motherhood, the Tablet of Ahmad is a wonderful gift to mothers. Shoghi Effendi wrote: “The Tablet of Ahmad was revealed by Bahá’u’lláh to be read when one feels himself in exceptionally difficult circumstances. There is nothing obligatory about its use, and every person has to decide for himself whether he desires to learn it by heart or not…”
In another letter he wrote:
[quote]These daily obligatory prayers, together with a few other specific ones, such as the Healing Prayer, the Tablet of Ahmad, have been invested by Bahá’u’lláh with a special potency and significance, and should therefore be accepted as such and be recited by the believers with unquestioning faith and confidence, that through them they may enter into a much closer communion with God, and identify themselves more fully with His laws and precepts.[/quote]
Here are 9 ideas for using the Tablet of Ahmad in your daily life.
1. Listen to the Tablet put to beautiful music
Create your own version or seek out one by someone else. You can purchase a lovely recording by Red Grammer here.
2. Record your own voice
Listen to your recording in the car, while taking a walk, after morning prayers, or at another meditative time during the day.
3. Choose a paragraph for each day or week
Focus on studying and reflecting on one paragraph each day or every week. (There are 16 paragraphs.)
4. Read Learn Well This Tablet
Learn Well This Tablet by H. Richard Gurinsky is a book which explores the meaning and history of all the phrases of the Tablet of Ahmad. (Find the details for the book here and check with your local Baha’i Distribution Service to get a copy of the book.)
5. Draw pictures
Illustrate some of the imagery in the prayer and what it means to you, how it makes you feel, or what images come to your mind when you read the words. You may like to create a book of these pictures with your children.
6. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
For 10 days make an effort to say the Tablet every day at the same time, out loud.
7. Chant the prayer
Recite the Tablet in a sing-song voice, not to any specific melody but as your heart dictates.
8. Write it out
Write a sentence of the prayer on a piece of paper after your morning devotions, and add a sentence each morning until you have written the whole prayer.
9. Memorize it
Make a goal for yourself to memorize it. After using the above ideas, you may find you have memorized much of the prayer already. Here are some more tips for how to memorize it:
[quote]My mother used to say this to us every night as we fell asleep, after our family prayers. There was no way we couldn’t have memorized it![/quote]
-Katurah Richmond (of Lucky Beans)
[quote]I memorized the Tablet of Ahmad in three days. I said it three times at morning, noon and night. I thought about the meaning and how the paragraphs flowed together. At the end of three days I had memorized it (and my big, difficult problem was solved).[/quote]
– Juliet Martinez
[quote]The kids were able to learn it easily (5, 8 and 10 years old) as a result of hearing us recite it for devotions repeatedly — this sparked their own desire to want to be able to memorize it. Years later it was reinforced when we would take turns reciting it in the car every weekend on our way to teaching children’s classes.[/quote]
-Pamela Douglas (of Gems of Oneness)
[quote]We broke the Tablet of Ahmad up into about 12 parts, each part being either one of the longer paragraphs or two short paragraphs. I asked my daughters (then 8 and 10) to memorize one part every two days. After three days, we would take a little break from memorizing and just practice reciting the parts they had already memorized back-to-back. It took them about a month to memorize the whole tablet well enough to recite it without their prayer book, spending about 20 minutes a day on it. Of course, once they memorized it, they have to use it regularly (at least one a week) or they’ll forget it.[/quote]
– Gisou Ravanbaksh
What experiences have you had with the Tablet of Ahmad? Do you have any special ways you like to incorporate it into your life?
