Gleanings — §667

Arabic source with Shoghi Effendi’s authorized English translation. Paragraph 667 of 729.

Source (Arabic)

قسم باسم اعظم حیف است این ایّام نفسی بشئونات عرضیّه ناظر باشد بایستید بر امر الهی و با یکدیگر بکمال محبّت سلوک کنید خالصاً لوجه المحبوب حجبات نفسانیّه را بنار احدیّه محترق نمائید و با وجوه ناضرهٴ مستبشره با یکدیگر معاشرت کنید کل سجایای حقّ را بچشم خود دیده‌اید که ابداً محبوب نبوده که شبی بگذرد و یکی از احبّای الهی از این غلام آزرده

Shoghi Effendi Translation

The Most Great Name beareth Me witness! How sad if any man were, in this Day, to rest his heart on the transitory things of this world! Arise, and cling firmly to the Cause of God. Be most loving one to another. Burn away, wholly for the sake of the Well-Beloved, the veil of self with the flame of the undying Fire, and with faces joyous and beaming with light, associate with your neighbor. Ye have well observed, in all its aspects, the behavior of Him Who is the Word of Truth amidst you. Ye know full well how hard it is for this Youth to allow, though it be for one night, the heart of anyone of the beloved of God to be saddened by Him.

Translation Notes

قسم

q-s-m

literal: to sacrifice; to ransom; to redeem

باسم

s-m-w → “Most Great Name”

literal: harm; strength; blame; hardship, adversity, tribulation, distress

اعظم

ʿ-ẓ-m

literal: greatest; supreme; mightiest

حیف

ḥ-y-f → “pity”

literal: pity, injustice, wrong; to wrong, to treat unjustly

است

b-w-d → “were” Distinctive

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

این

ʾ-y-n → “this Chapter”

literal: this; these

ایّام

y-w-m

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

نفسی

n-f-s → “any man” Distinctive

literal: self; soul; psyche

بشئونات

sh-ʾ-n

literal: affair; concern; matter; aspect; quality; state; affairs; matters; conditions; circumstances; affair, matter, station, rank, dignity; station; rank; importance; matter, affair, concern, dignity, rank

عرضیّه

ʿ-r-ḍ → “turned away” Distinctive

literal: to turn away; to avert; to abstain; heedless

ناظر

n-ẓ-r → “Consider” Distinctive

literal: neck; slaves; those held in bonds

بایستید

ʾ-y-s-t-ʾ → “Arise”

literal: in the shade; under the shadow; rested; to be necessary; to behoove; to arise

بر

b-r-r → “righteous” Distinctive

literal: by, with, through (preposition)

امر

ʾ-m-r → “Cause”

literal: command; cause; matter; affair

الهی

ʾ-l-h → “God”

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

با

b-ʾ-ʾ → “with”

literal: to; with; by

یکدیگر

d-y-g-r → “others”

literal: other; another; different

بکمال

k-m-l → “perfect”

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

محبّت

ḥ-b-b → “loving” Distinctive

literal: love; affection

سلوک

s-l-k

literal: conduct; behavior; way; path; spiritual wayfaring

کنید

k-r-d

literal: do; to do; do, make

خالصاً

kh-l-ṣ → “wholly”

literal: sincere; devoted; pure one

لوجه

w-j-h → “for the sake”

literal: face; countenance; direction; aspect

حجبات

ḥ-j-b → “veil”

literal: states; conditions; circumstances; situations; affairs

را

r-ʾ-ʾ

literal: object marker; object-marker; to

بنار

n-ʾ-r → “with the flame”

literal: fire; blaze; flame

احدیّه

ʾ-ḥ-d → “none”

literal: oneness; uniqueness; absolute unity; singularity of God

محترق

ḥ-r-q → “consumed”

literal: to burn; to be consumed by fire; burning

نمائید

n-m-ʾ

literal: to show, to display, to manifest, to exhibit; to manifest; to display; to show

ناضرهٴ

n-ḍ-r → “brightness” Distinctive

literal: verdant; fresh; flourishing; to look

مستبشره

b-sh-r → “announce” Distinctive

literal: human; mankind; human nature

معاشرت

ʿ-sh-r → “associate”

literal: association; companionship; social interaction; عشرين (twenty) is from numeral root ع-ش-ر, distinct from ‘association’ meaning

کل

k-l-l → “in all its aspects”

literal: for us; to us

سجایای

s-j-w → “behavior”

literal: nature; character; disposition; temperament

حقّ

ḥ-q-q → “Truth”

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

بچشم

ch-sh-m → “eyes”

literal: eye; vision; sight

خود

kh-w-d

literal: self; himself; herself; itself; own

دیده‌اید

d-y-d

literal: to give; to grant; to present; justice; judgment; to see; sight; eye; seen

که

k-h

literal: that; who; who, that

ابداً

ʾ-b-d

literal: in place of; instead of; to change; to alter (preposition or verb stem)

شبی

sh-b → “night”

literal: night; nights

بگذرد

g-dh-r → “renounced” Distinctive

literal: to place, to put, to leave, to set, to pass

یکی

w-ḥ-d → “one”

literal: one; any; each

از

ʾ-z

literal: from

غلام

gh-l-m

literal: youth; boy; servant; the Youth (Bahá’u’lláh)

آزرده

ʾ-dh-y → “saddened”

literal: harmed; harm; hurt/pained

Model Translations by Shoghi Effendi

Epistle to the Son of the Wolf

Bahá’u’lláh

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

Bahá’u’lláh

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 ¶