Gleanings — §680

Arabic source with Shoghi Effendi’s authorized English translation. Paragraph 680 of 729.

Source (Arabic)

ای مؤمن مهاجر عطش و ظمأ غفلت را از سلسبيل قدس عنايت تسکين ده و شام تيره بعد را بصبح منير قرب منوّر گردان بيت محبّت باقی را بظلم شهوت فانی و خراب مکن و جمال غلام روحانی را بحجبات تيره نفسانی مپوش . تقوای خالص پيشه کن و از ما سوی اللّه انديشه منما و معين قلب منير را بخاشاک حرص و هوی مسدود مکن و چشمه جاريه دل را از جريان باز مدار بحق متمسّک شو و بحبل عنايت او متوسّل باش چه که دون او احدی را از فقر بغنا نرساند و از ذلّت نفس نجات نبخشد

Shoghi Effendi Translation

O banished and faithful friend! Quench the thirst of heedlessness with the sanctified waters of My grace, and chase the gloom of remoteness through the morning-light of My Divine presence. Suffer not the habitation wherein dwelleth My undying love for thee to be destroyed through the tyranny of covetous desires, and overcloud not the beauty of the heavenly Youth with the dust of self and passion. Clothe thyself with the essence of righteousness, and let thine heart be afraid of none except God. Obstruct not the luminous spring of thy soul with the thorns and brambles of vain and inordinate affections, and impede not the flow of the living waters that stream from the fountain of thine heart. Set all thy hope in God, and cleave tenaciously to His unfailing mercy. Who else but Him can enrich the destitute, and deliver the fallen from his abasement?

Translation Notes

ای

ʾ-y-y → “O”

literal: O; vocative particle; oh (vocative particle)

مؤمن

ʾ-m-n → “faithful”

literal: to believe; to have faith; to be secure; trust; trustworthiness; covenant; deposit; believer, faithful

مهاجر

h-j-r → “remoteness” Distinctive

literal: to emigrate, migrate, forsake; migration, emigration

عطش

ʿ-ṭ-sh → “thirst”

literal: thirsty, athirst

ظمأ

ẓ-m-ʾ

literal: thirsty; thirst

غفلت

gh-f-l → “heedlessness”

literal: heedlessness; negligence; inattention

را

r-ʾ-ʾ

literal: object marker; object-marker; to

از

ʾ-z → “with” Distinctive

literal: from

سلسبيل

s-l-s → “chains” Distinctive

literal: Salsabil; a spring in Paradise; easy to drink

قدس

q-d-s → “sanctified” Distinctive

literal: holy, sacred, sanctified

عنايت

ʿ-n-y → “grace”

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

تسکين

s-k-n → “lived”

literal: stillness, rest, quietude, tranquility

ده

d-ʾ-d

literal: میدهند is Persian verb from دادن (to give), not Arabic د-و-ن

شام

sh-ʾ-m → “night”

literal: evening/night; evening, night

تيره

t-y-r → “obscured”

literal: arrow; dark; gloomy

بعد

b-ʿ-d → “remoteness”

literal: after; behind; distance

بصبح

ṣ-b-ḥ → “through the morning-light”

literal: morning, dawn; daybreak

منير

n-w-r → “luminous”

literal: light; illumination

قرب

q-r-b → “presence”

literal: place of sacrifice; altar

گردان

g-r-d → “become” Distinctive

literal: to become; to happen; to come to pass

بيت

b-y-t → “habitation” Distinctive

literal: house; household; family; verse

محبّت

ḥ-b-b → “love”

literal: love; affection

باقی

b-q-y → “eternal”

literal: remaining; everlasting; eternal; immortal; permanence; duration; continuance

بظلم

ẓ-l-m → “tyranny”

literal: wrongedness, oppression, meekness; state of being wronged or oppressed

شهوت

sh-h-w → “desires”

literal: desire; lust; passion; appetite

فانی

f-n-y → “shall perish” Distinctive

literal: annihilation; perishing; extinction; cessation; the threshold

خراب

kh-r-b → “most desolate”

literal: ruin; desolation

مکن

k-r-d → “Suffer not”

literal: establishment; confirmation; empowerment; firm settlement; place; possibility; being (negated as ‘non-being’)

جمال

j-m-l → “beauty”

literal: beauty; comeliness

غلام

gh-l-m → “Youth”

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

روحانی

r-w-ḥ → “spirit”

literal: to go; to depart; to rest; spirit; soul

بحجبات

ḥ-j-b → “veils”

literal: to veil oneself, to be veiled

نفسانی

n-f-s → “self”

literal: self; soul; psyche; person; essence

مپوش

p-w-sh → “clothed it with the mantle” Distinctive

literal: hidden, concealed, covered

تقوای

w-q-y → “righteousness”

literal: to protect, safeguard, shield

خالص

kh-l-ṣ → “essence”

literal: sincere; devoted; pure one

پيشه

p-y-sh

literal: before; in front; ago; forward; leader; guide; one who precedes

کن

k-w-n → “be”

literal: to do; to make; to perform; to be; was

ما

m-ʾ

literal: what; which; that which; relative pronoun; interrogative

سوی

s-w-y → “none except” Distinctive

literal: worst; evil; bad; other than; besides; save; except

اللّه

ʾ-l-h → “God”

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

انديشه

a-n-d-i-sh → “afraid”

literal: thought

منما

n-m-ʾ

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

معين

ʿ-y-n → “spring” Distinctive

literal: eye; fountain; spring; essence

قلب

q-l-b → “soul” Distinctive

literal: heart; to turn; to overturn

بخاشاک

kh-sh-ʾ-k → “thorns and brambles”

literal: chaff; refuse; sweepings

حرص

ḥ-r-ṣ → “insatiable” Distinctive

literal: greedy; eager; insatiable; covetous

هوی

h-w-y → “passion”

literal: desire; vain desire; inclination; passion; whim; realm; region

مسدود

s-d-d → “closed”

literal: threshold; barrier; seat of authority

چشمه

ch-sh-m → “eyes”

literal: eye; vision; sight

جاريه

j-r-y → “stream”

literal: trade; commerce; business; to flow; to run; to be in effect; flowing

دل

d-l → “heart”

literal: to argue; to demonstrate; proof

باز

b-ʾ-z

literal: back; open; back, open

مدار

d-ʾ-sh-t → “have no” Distinctive

literal: mother

بحق

ḥ-q-q → “God”

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

متمسّک

m-s-k → “cleave” Distinctive

literal: musk; to seize; grip

شو

sh-w-d → “be” Distinctive

literal: be; become

بحبل

ḥ-b-l → “cord”

literal: cord; rope; bond; connection

او

h-w-w → “is”

literal: he; it (third person pronoun); refuge; shelter; dwelling place; abode; lamentation, cry, woe; melody, song

متوسّل

w-s-l

literal: seeking-means; supplicating; seeking-means-ones

باش

b-w-d

literal: be, exist; do not be (in negative imperative)

چه

ch-h

literal: what; what/for; whatsoever, that which

که

k-h

literal: that; who; who, that

دون

d-w-n → “except Thee” Distinctive

literal: below; lower than; beneath

احدی

ʾ-ḥ-d → “Divine” Distinctive

literal: oneness; unity; absolute unicity; singleness of divine essence

فقر

f-q-r → “destitute” Distinctive

literal: poor; needy; the poor one; pauper

بغنا

gh-n-y

literal: to be independent of; to be in no need of; to dispense with; rich; wealthy; needless

نرساند

r-s-d → “reached” Distinctive

literal: to reach; to convey; to cause to arrive; to deliver

ذلّت

dh-l-l → “abasement”

literal: abasement; humiliation; lowliness; to be abased

نجات

n-j-w → “deliver”

literal: you (singular/plural pronoun)

نبخشد

b-kh-sh

literal: to grant; to give; to forgive; to bestow

Model Translations by Shoghi Effendi

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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

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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 ¶