Gleanings — §708
Arabic source with Shoghi Effendi’s authorized English translation. Paragraph 708 of 729.
Source (Arabic)
ای شیخ فانی معنی فنای از نفس و بقای بالله آنست که هر نفسی خود را در جنب ارادهٴ حقّ فانی و لاشیء محض مشاهده نماید مثلاً اگر حقّ بفرماید افعل کذا بتمام همّت و شوق و جذب قیام بر آن نماید نه آنکه از خود توهّمی کند و آن را حقّ داند در دعای صوم نازل و لو یخرج من فم ارادتک مخاطباً ایّاهم یا قوم صوموا حبّاً لجمالی و لا تعلّقه بالمیقات و الحدود فوعزّتک هم یصومون و لا یأکلون الی ان یموتون اینست معنی فنا در این مقام درست تفکّر نمائید تا بسلسبیل حیوان که در کلمات مالک امکان جاری و ساریست فائز شوید و شهادت دهید باینکه حقّ لمیزل منزّه از خلق بوده انّه لهو الفرد الباقی العلیم الخبیر این مقام اعظم از مقامات بوده و خواهد بود باید آن جناب به ما اراد الله قیام نمایند و ما اراد
Shoghi Effendi Translation
O S̱hayḵh, O thou who hast surrendered thy will to God! By self-surrender and perpetual union with God is meant that men should merge their will wholly in the Will of God, and regard their desires as utter nothingness beside His Purpose. Whatsoever the Creator commandeth His creatures to observe, the same must they diligently, and with the utmost joy and eagerness, arise and fulfill. They should in no wise allow their fancy to obscure their judgment, neither should they regard their own imaginings as the voice of the Eternal. In the Prayer of Fasting We have revealed: “Should Thy Will decree that out of Thy mouth these words proceed and be addressed unto them, ‘Observe, for My Beauty’s sake, the fast, O people, and set no limit to its duration,’ I swear by the majesty of Thy glory, that every one of them will faithfully observe it, will abstain from whatsoever will violate Thy law, and will continue to do so until they yield up their souls unto Thee.” In this consisteth the complete surrender of one’s will to the Will of God. Meditate on this, that thou mayest drink in the waters of everlasting life which flow through the words of the Lord of all mankind, and mayest testify that the one true God hath ever been immeasurably exalted above His creatures. He, verily, is the Incomparable, the Ever-Abiding, the Omniscient, the All-Wise. The station of absolute self-surrender transcendeth, and will ever remain exalted above, every other station.
Translation Notes
فنای
literal: annihilation; perishing; extinction; cessation; the threshold
تفکّر
literal: thoughts; ideas; fancies; opinions; to think; to reflect; to contemplate
امکان
literal: establishment; confirmation; empowerment; firm settlement; place; possibility; being (negated as ‘non-being’)
لمیزل
literal: to cease, to pass away; (with negation) to never cease, to remain eternally
