Do the Math pg.48
The significance of the verse, ‘Be thou glad for this name that hath been conferred upon thee — a name through which the Day-star of grace hath shed its splendour, through which both earth and heaven have been illumined’, is that, numerically, ‘Ta’ (the first letter of Tihran) is equal to nine, which is the numerical value of Baha, the greatest Name of God, and this in the sight of God is a great distinction. In fact Bahá’u’lláh in one of His Tablets has referred to the letter T as the king of letters. To appreciate this, however, some basic knowledge of Arabic is necessary. It is a language vast in its vocabulary and expressive in its terms, and because each letter of its alphabet has a numerical value, it is possible to express numbers in words and vice versa. Literature has been enriched by scholars and writers employing this technique. Although its origin is in the Arabic language, this art has also been used extensively in Persian. It is often considered more eloquent in these two languages to use words instead of numbers. For instance, Nabil-i-A’zam, the famous chronicler and poet, on the occasion of the ascension of Bahá’u’lláh wrote a most moving elegy which he concluded with a verse signifying the year of His passing: ‘The Lord has departed from this world’. By adding the numerical value of all the letters in this Arabic verse, the year 1309 A.H. (A.D. 1892) is obtained. This use of words is more expressive than merely giving a number. Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb have both used this art in Their Writings, not only to elucidate many prophecies of the Qur’án and the hadith which had hitherto remained obscure and undisclosed, but also to express some deeper meaning of a name, word or number.
-Adib Taherzadeh
I was aware that the number 9 had a significance in this world and in the Faith, but I had no idea that words and letters in Arabic could numerically add up to a number that holds such relevance with unmistakable accuracy.
