Gleanings — §10

Arabic source with Shoghi Effendi’s authorized English translation. Paragraph 10 of 729.

Source (Arabic)

امروز روز فضل اعظم و فيض اکبر است بايد کلّ بکمال اتّحاد و اتّفاق در ظلّ سدره عنايت الهی ساکن و مستريح باشند و تمسّک نمايند بآنچه اليوم سبب عزّت و ارتفاع است طوبی لقوم تحرّک علی ذکرهم قلمی الأعلی و نعيمًا للّذين سترنا أسمائهم حکمة من عندنا از حق بطلبيد تا جميع را مُؤيّد فرمايد

Shoghi Effendi Translation

This is the Day in which God’s most excellent favors have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused into all created things. It is incumbent upon all the peoples of the world to reconcile their differences, and, with perfect unity and peace, abide beneath the shadow of the Tree of His care and loving-kindness. It behooveth them to cleave to whatsoever will, in this Day, be conducive to the exaltation of their stations, and to the promotion of their best interests. Happy are those whom the all-glorious Pen was moved to remember, and blessed are those men whose names, by virtue of Our inscrutable decree, We have preferred to conceal.

Translation Notes

امروز

r-w-z → “This”

literal: command; cause; matter; affair; Cause (of God); to command; to order

فضل

f-ḍ-l → “favors” Distinctive

literal: grace; bounty; generosity; excellence

اعظم

ʿ-ẓ-m → “most excellent” Distinctive

literal: greatest; supreme; mightiest

فيض

f-y-ḍ → “grace”

literal: flood; abundance; overflow; emanation; grace; overflowing; emanating; surplus

اکبر

k-b-r → “most mighty” Distinctive

literal: liver; soul; essence

است

b-w-d → “is”

literal: to be; are (third person plural present copula)

بايد

b-y-d → “is incumbent” Distinctive

literal: by hand; with hands; eternal; perpetual; everlasting

کلّ

k-l-l → “all the peoples”

literal: for us; to us

بکمال

k-m-l → “perfect”

literal: perfection; completeness; fully; with full; in complete; to complete, perfect, fulfill

اتّحاد

w-ḥ-d → “unity”

literal: unity; union; unification

اتّفاق

w-f-q → “aid” Distinctive

literal: accord, agreement, harmony; to agree, accord with

در

d-r-r → “in”

literal: in; in, at; radiant

ظلّ

ẓ-l-l → “shadow”

literal: to take shelter; to dwell in shadow

سدره

s-d-r → “Tree”

literal: lote-tree; divine tree

عنايت

ʿ-n-y → “care and loving-kindness”

literal: to concern; to mean; to turn away from; bounty; loving-kindness; grace; divine care; attention; meaning; significance; inner sense

الهی

ʾ-l-h → “His” Distinctive

literal: God; Allah; deity; Divinity; divine nature; godhood

ساکن

s-k-n → “abide”

literal: stillness, rest, quietude, tranquility

مستريح

r-w-ḥ

literal: rest; ease; comfort; tranquility; wind; breeze; spirit; fragrance; scent; aroma

تمسّک

m-s-k → “cleave”

literal: musk; to seize; grip; to hold fast; to cling to; to grasp

نمايند

n-m-ʾ → “will” Distinctive

literal: to show, display, exhibit; to grow, develop

بآنچه

b-ch-h → “whatsoever”

literal: building, structure, edifice; to build, construct; structure, edifice

اليوم

y-w-m → “this Day”

literal: day; age; period; era; a day

سبب

s-b-b → “conducive” Distinctive

literal: cause; reason; means; instrument

عزّت

ʿ-z-z → “exaltation” Distinctive

literal: glory; might; honor; dignity; power; majesty

ارتفاع

r-f-ʿ

literal: to be raised, elevated, exalted, lifted up

طوبی

ṭ-w-b → “Happy”

literal: happiness; blessedness; felicity

لقوم

q-w-m → “people”

literal: rising; standing; uprising; resurrection

تحرّک

ḥ-r-k → “moved”

literal: movement; motion; trembling; activity; حراک is unusual; possible typo or dialectal. Standard Arabic would be حرك or اهتزاز for ‘trembling’

ذکرهم

dh-k-r → “remember”

literal: remembrance; mention; memory; invocation; reminders; commemorations

قلمی

q-l-m → “Pen”

literal: pen; writing instrument

الأعلی

ʿ-l-w → “all-glorious” Distinctive

literal: highest; most high; supreme

نعيمًا

n-ʿ-m → “blessed”

literal: bliss; bounty; grace; comfort; felicity

للّذين

l-dh-y → “which” Distinctive

literal: for those who; to those who (preposition + definite relative pronoun)

سترنا

s-t-r → “conceal”

literal: to veil; to conceal; to cover; veil; covering

أسمائهم

s-m-w → “names”

literal: name

حکمة

ḥ-k-m → “decree” Distinctive

literal: government; rule; governance; wisdom

من

m-n → “from”

literal: from; out of; than (preposition and particle)

عندنا

ʿ-n-d → “Our”

literal: obstinacy; opposition; enmity

از

ʾ-z

literal: from

حق

ḥ-q-q → “God”

literal: truth; right; that which is true or just

بطلبيد

ṭ-l-b

literal: seeking; seek; seeker

تا

t-y-y

literal: so that/until

جميع

j-m-ʿ

literal: to gather; to assemble; group; number

را

r-ʾ-ʾ

literal: object marker; object-marker; to

مُؤيّد

ʾ-y-d

literal: to support; to assist; to strengthen; to confirm

فرمايد

f-r-m

literal: to say; to decree; to ordain; to command

Model Translations by Shoghi Effendi

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The last outstanding Tablet revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, written around 1891 and addressed to Shaykh Muḥammad-Taqí of Iṣfahán. It calls upon that rapacious priest to repent, quotes the most celebrated passages from Bahá’u’lláh’s own writings, and adduces proofs establishing the validity of His Cause.

268 ¶

Fire Tablet

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Revealed in late 1871 during a period of severe hardship in ‘Akká, this Tablet takes the form of an anguished dialogue between Bahá’u’lláh and God. Questions about the sufferings of the faithful are answered with divine assurances, building to a crescendo of triumph over tribulation.

50 ¶

Kitáb-i-’Ahd

Bahá’u’lláh

The Book of the Covenant — Bahá’u’lláh’s Will and Testament, written entirely in His own hand and unsealed on the ninth day after His ascension. It designates ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as His successor and establishes what Shoghi Effendi called the mightiest Covenant in all religious history.

16 ¶

Kitáb-i-Íqán

Bahá’u’lláh

The principal doctrinal work of the Faith, revealed in Baghdad within the space of two days and two nights in response to questions from the Báb’s maternal uncle. Shoghi Effendi described it as occupying a position unequalled by any work except the Kitáb-i-Aqdas — a model of Persian prose, at once original, chaste, vigorous, and remarkably lucid.

291 ¶

Prayers and Meditations

Bahá’u’lláh

Published in 1938, this companion volume to Gleanings contains 184 prayers and meditations selected by Shoghi Effendi from Bahá’u’lláh’s devotional writings revealed across successive exiles from Baghdad to ‘Akká. Shoghi Effendi described it as a volume whose perusal would deepen the spirit of devotion and faith.

858 ¶

Tablet of Aḥmad

Bahá’u’lláh

Revealed in Adrianople and addressed to a believer named Aḥmad, this Tablet has been invested by Bahá’u’lláh with a special potency and significance. Its central imagery draws on the metaphor of fire and water: “Be thou as a flame of fire to My enemies and a river of life eternal to My loved ones.”

17 ¶

Tablet of Carmel

Bahá’u’lláh

Revealed during a visit to Mount Carmel, this Tablet addresses the mountain directly and prophesies its future as the world spiritual and administrative center of the Faith. Shoghi Effendi designated it one of three foundational Charters. Its imagery of the Ark and the dwellers therein prefigures the Universal House of Justice.

5 ¶

Tablet of the Holy Mariner

Bahá’u’lláh

Chanted aloud in the outskirts of Baghdad just weeks before the Declaration in the Garden of Riḍván, its gloomy prognostications aroused the grave apprehensions of all who heard it. Only the Arabic portion has an authorized translation; the Persian portion remains untranslated.

57 ¶

The Hidden Words

Bahá’u’lláh

Seventy-one Arabic and eighty-two Persian aphorisms revealed around 1858 while walking along the banks of the Tigris in Baghdad. Originally designated the “Hidden Book of Fáṭimih,” Shoghi Effendi described it as a marvelous collection of gem-like utterances occupying a position of unsurpassed preeminence among the ethical writings of the Faith.

160 ¶

Will and Testament

‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Written by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in three parts between 1901 and 1908, opened and read after His passing on 28 November 1921. Shoghi Effendi designated it the Charter of the New World Order — the mightiest instrument forged to ensure the continuity of the three ages of the Bahá’í Dispensation.

59 ¶