Kitáb-i-Íqán — §208
Persian source with Shoghi Effendi’s authorized English translation. Paragraph 208 of 291.
Source (Persian)
از جمله علومی که اين مرد مدّعی به آن شده صنعت کيمياست. بسيار طالبم که سلطانی و يا نفسی که مقتدر باشد ظهور اين علم را از عالم لفظ به عالم شهود و از قول به فعل از ايشان طلب نمايد و اين بی علم فانی هم که دعوی اين گونه علوم ننموده و بلکه کون اين علوم و فقدان آن را علّت علم و جهل نمی دانم با اين مرد در همين فقره قيام نمائيم تا صدق و کذب معلوم شود. و ليکن چه فائده، از ناس اين زمان جز زخم سنان نديده ام و غير سمّ قاتل چيزی نچشيده ام. هنوز اثر حديد بر گردن باقی است و هنوز علائم جفا از تمام بدن ظاهر.
Shoghi Effendi Translation
Among the sciences which this pretender hath professed is that of alchemy. We cherish the hope that either a king or a man of preeminent power may call upon him to translate this science from the realm of fancy to the domain of fact and from the plane of mere pretension to that of actual achievement. Would that this unlearned and humble Servant, who never laid any pretension to such things, nor even regarded them as the criterion of true knowledge, might undertake the same task, that thereby the truth might be known and distinguished from falsehood. But of what avail! All this generation could offer Us were wounds from its darts, and the only cup it proffered to Our lips was the cup of its venom. On our neck We still bear the scar of chains, and upon Our body are imprinted the evidences of an unyielding cruelty.
Translation Notes
فانی
literal: annihilation; perishing; extinction; cessation; the threshold
دانم
literal: this world; earthly life; temporal realm; lowest; base; mean; of little account; to know; to be acquainted with
