Gleanings — §682

Arabic source with Shoghi Effendi’s authorized English translation. Paragraph 682 of 729.

Source (Arabic)

موده‌ايد آيا بدايع قدرت سلطان احديّتم مفقود شده و يا نفوذ مشيّت و احاطه اراده‌ام از عالميان ممنوع گشته اگر نه چنين دانسته‌ايد چرا جمال عزّ قدس احديّتم را از ظهور منع نموده‌ايد و مظهر ذات عزّ ابها را از ظهور در سمآء قدس ابقاء ممنوع داشته‌ايد اگر چشم انصاف بگشائيد جميع حقايق ممکنات را از اين باده جديده بديعه سرمست بينيد و جميع ذرّات اشياء را از اشراق انوارش مشرق و منوّر خواهيد يافت فبئس ما انتم ظننتم و ساء ما انتم تظنّون

Shoghi Effendi Translation

O My servants! Let not your vain hopes and idle fancies sap the foundations of your belief in the All-Glorious God, inasmuch as such imaginings have been wholly unprofitable unto men, and failed to direct their steps unto the straight Path. Think ye, O My servants, that the Hand of My all-encompassing, My overshadowing, and transcendent sovereignty is chained up, that the flow of Mine ancient, My ceaseless, and all-pervasive mercy is checked, or that the clouds of My sublime and unsurpassed favors have ceased to rain their gifts upon men? Can ye imagine that the wondrous works that have proclaimed My divine and resistless power are withdrawn, or that the potency of My will and purpose hath been deterred from directing the destinies of mankind? If it be not so, wherefore, then, have ye striven to prevent the deathless Beauty of My sacred and gracious Countenance from being unveiled to men’s eyes? Why have ye struggled to hinder the Manifestation of the Almighty and All-Glorious Being from shedding the radiance of His Revelation upon the earth? Were ye to be fair in your judgment, ye would readily recognize how the realities of all created things are inebriated with the joy of this new and wondrous Revelation, how all the atoms of the earth have been illuminated through the brightness of its glory. Vain and wretched is that which ye have imagined and still imagine!

Translation Notes

آيا

ʾ-y-y → “signs”

literal: does; is it that (interrogative particle); sign; verse; O! (vocative particle); him; them (object pronoun)

بدايع

b-d-ʿ → “wondrous works”

literal: to create; most wondrous; excel

قدرت

q-d-r → “power”

literal: power; might; decree; measure; worth

سلطان

s-l-ṭ → “sovereignty”

literal: dominion; authority; power; sovereignty; control

احديّتم

ʾ-ḥ-d → “one” Distinctive

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

مفقود

f-q-d → “forgotten”

literal: to lose; to miss; lost; missing

شده

sh-d → “been”

literal: to become; to be

يا

y-ʾ → “or”

literal: O; or

نفوذ

n-f-dh → “potency”

literal: penetrating, effective; piercing; decisive

مشيّت

sh-y-ʾ → “will and purpose”

literal: way; manner; gait; to walk; to go; to proceed

احاطه

ḥ-w-ṭ → “all-encompassing” Distinctive

literal: to encompass, surround, envelop, embrace

اراده‌ام

r-w-d → “desire” Distinctive

literal: to will, to intend, to wish, to desire; to want; to intend; to desire

از

ʾ-z → “from being”

literal: from

عالميان

ʿ-l-m → “mankind”

literal: world; universe; the worlds

ممنوع

m-n-ʿ → “deterred” Distinctive

literal: forbidden; prevented; deprived

گشته

g-sh-t → “have been” Distinctive

literal: become; became; to become

اگر

ʾ-g-r → “were they”

literal: although; even if; though; notwithstanding

نه

n-h-y

literal: end; ended; utmost

چنين

ch-n-n

literal: such; thus; in this manner; like this

دانسته‌ايد

d-ʾ-n → “considered” Distinctive

literal: fancy; supposition; vain imagination; idle conjecture

چرا

ch-r-ʾ → “Why should”

literal: why; wherefore

جمال

j-m-l → “Beauty”

literal: beauty; comeliness

عزّ

ʿ-z-z → “gracious” Distinctive

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

قدس

q-d-s → “sacred” Distinctive

literal: holy, sacred, sanctified

را

r-ʾ-ʾ

literal: object marker; object-marker; to

ظهور

ẓ-h-r → “unveiled” Distinctive

literal: manifestation; appearance; to appear; to manifest

نموده‌ايد

n-m-ود → “hath” Distinctive

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

ذات

dh-w-t → “Being” Distinctive

literal: self; essence; being

ابها

b-h-w

literal: splendor; glory; magnificence; Bahá (Proper Name in Bahá’í texts)

در

d-r-r → “upon”

literal: in; in, at; radiant

سمآء

s-m-w

literal: heaven; sky

ابقاء

b-q-y

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

داشته‌ايد

d-ʾ-sh-t → “hath”

literal: have; had; to have

چشم

ch-sh-m → “eyes”

literal: eye; vision; sight

انصاف

n-ṣ-f → “fair”

literal: justice; fairness; equity

جميع

j-m-ʿ → “all”

literal: to gather; to assemble; group; number

حقايق

ḥ-q-q → “realities”

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

ممکنات

m-k-n → “created things”

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

اين

ʾ-y-n → “this”

literal: this; these

باده

b-d-h

literal: lest; perhaps; in order that not

جديده

j-d-d → “new”

literal: new, novel, renewed; novelty, innovation

سرمست

s-r-m-s-t → “inebriated”

literal: intoxication; drunkenness; ecstasy

بينيد

d-y-d → “seen” Distinctive

literal: to manifest; to make clear; clear, evident; in; among; between; at this moment

ذرّات

dh-r-r → “atoms”

literal: them (pronoun + object marker)

اشراق

sh-r-q → “radiance”

literal: radiance; splendor; dawn; illumination

انوارش

n-w-r → “glory”

literal: light; illumination

خواهيد

kh-w-h

literal: to want; to wish; will (future auxiliary); brother; sibling

يافت

y-f-t

literal: to find; to discover; to obtain

فبئس

b-ʾ-s

literal: wretched; adversity; harm

ما

m-ʾ → “that”

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

انتم

n-t-m → “you”

literal: you

ظننتم

ẓ-n-n → “imagined”

literal: fancy; supposition; vain imagination; idle conjecture

ساء

s-w-ʾ → “thy sins” Distinctive

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

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 ¶