The Book of the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf CHAPTER SIXTY TWO 12 страница
492.
Arise above the horizon of utterance to extol and praise your Lord, the All-Merciful.
493.
This is that which God hath purposed for you; well is it with them who perceive it.
494.
Say:
O people!
We have commanded you in Our Tablets to strive, at the time of the promised Revelation, to sanctify your souls from all names, and to purify them from all that hath been created in the heavens or on the earth,
495.
that therein may appear the splendours of the Sun of Truth which shineth forth above the horizon of the Will of your Lord, the Almighty, the Most Great.
496.
We have, moreover, commanded you to cleanse your hearts from every trace of the love or hate of the peoples of the world, lest aught should divert you from one course or impel you towards another.
497.
This, verily, is among the weightiest counsels I have vouchsafed unto you in the perspicuous [clearly written] Book, for whoso attacheth himself to either of these shall be prevented from attaining a proper understanding of Our Cause.
498.
To this beareth witness every just and discerning soul.
499.
Ye, however, have broken the Covenant of God, forgotten His Testament, and at last turned away from Him Whose appearance hath solaced the eyes of every true believer in the Divine Unity.
500.
Lift up the veils and coverings that obscure your vision, and consider the testimonies of the Prophets and Messengers, that haply ye may recognize the Cause of God in these days when the Promised One hath come invested with a mighty sovereignty.
501.
Fear God, and debar yourselves not from Him Who is the Dayspring of His signs.
This shall, in truth, but profit your own selves;
502.
as to your Lord, He, verily, can afford to dispense with all creatures.
From everlasting was He alone; there was none else besides Him.
503.
He it is in Whose name the standard of Divine Unity hath been planted upon the Sinai of the visible and invisible worlds, proclaiming that there is none other God but Me, the Peerless, the Glorious, the Incomparable.
504.
Behold, however, how those who are but a creation of His Will and Command have turned aside from Him and have taken unto themselves a lord and master beside God;
these, truly, are of the wayward.
505.
The mention of the All-Merciful hath at all times been upon their lips, and yet when He was manifested unto them through the power of truth they warred against Him.
506.
Wretched indeed shall be the plight of such as have broken the Covenant of their Lord when the Luminary of the world shone forth above the horizon of the Will of God, the Most Holy, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise!
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507.
It was against God that they unsheathed the swords of malice and hatred, and yet they perceive it not.
508.
Methinks they remain dead and buried in the tombs of their selfish desires, though the breeze of God hath blown over all regions.
509.
They, truly, are wrapt in a dense and grievous veil.
510.
And oft as the verses of God are rehearsed unto them, they persist in proud disdain;
it is as though they were devoid of all understanding, or had never heard the Call of God, the Most Exalted, the All-Knowing.
The Tablet of the Temple CHAPTER NINTEEN
Divisions 511-530
THE TEMPLE
511.
Say:
Alas for you!
512.
How can ye profess yourselves believers, when ye deny the verses of God, the Almighty, the All-Wise?
513.
Say:
O people!
Turn your faces unto your Lord, the All-Merciful.
514.
Beware lest ye be veiled by aught that hath been revealed in the Bayán:
515.
It was, in truth, revealed for no other purpose than to make mention of Me, the All-Powerful, the Most High, and had no other object than My Beauty.
516.
The whole world hath been filled with My testimony, if ye be of them that judge with fairness.
517.
Had the Primal Point been someone else beside Me as ye claim, and had attained My presence, verily He would have never allowed Himself to be separated from Me, but rather We would have had mutual delights with each other in My Days.
518.
He, in truth, wept sore in His remoteness from Me.
519.
He preceded Me that He might summon the people unto My Kingdom, as it hath been set forth in the Tablets, could ye but perceive it!
520.
O would that men of hearing might be found who could hear the voice of His lamentation in the Bayán bewailing that which hath befallen Me at the hands of these heedless souls,
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521.
bemoaning His separation from Me and giving utterance to His longing to be united with Me, the Mighty, the Peerless.
522.
He, verily, beholdeth at this very moment His Best-Beloved amidst those who were created to attain His Day and to prostrate themselves before Him,
523.
and yet who have inflicted in their tyranny such abasement upon Him as the pen confesseth its inability to describe.
524.
Say:
O people!
We, verily, summoned you, in Our former Revelation,
unto this Scene of transcendent glory, this Seat of stainless sanctity, and announced unto you the advent of the Days of God.
525.
Yet, when the most great veil was rent asunder, and the Ancient Beauty came unto you in the clouds of God's decree, ye repudiated Him in Whom ye had believed aforetime.
526.
Woe betide you, O company of infidels!
527.
Fear ye God, and nullify not the truth with the things ye possess.
528.
When the luminary of divine verses dawneth upon you from the horizon of the Pen of the King of all names and attributes, fall ye prostrate upon your faces before God, the Lord of the Worlds.
529.
For to bow down in adoration at the threshold of His door is indeed better for you than the worship of both worlds,
530.
and to submit to His Revelation is more profitable unto you than whatsoever hath been created in the heavens and on the earth.
The Tablet of the Temple CHAPTER TWENTY
Divisions 531-550
THE TEMPLE
531.
Say:
O people!
I admonish you wholly for the sake of God, and seek no reward from you.
532.
For My recompense shall be with God, He Who hath brought Me into being, raised Me up by the power of truth, and made Me the Source of His remembrance amidst His creatures.
533.
Hasten to behold this divine and glorious Vision, the Spot wherein God hath established His Seat.
534.
Follow not that which the Evil One whispereth in your hearts,
for he, verily, doth prompt you to walk after your lusts and covetous desires, and hindereth you from treading the straight Path which this all-embracing and all-compelling Cause hath opened.
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535.
Say:
The Evil One hath appeared in such wise as the eye of creation hath never beheld.
536.
He Who is the Beauty of the All-Merciful hath likewise been made manifest with an adorning the like of which hath never been witnessed in the past.
537.
The Call of the All-Merciful hath been raised, and behind it the call of Satan.
538.
Well is it with them who hearken unto the Voice of God, and turn their faces towards His throne to behold a most holy and blessed Vision.
539.
For whoso cherisheth in his heart the love of anyone beside Me, be it to the extent of a grain of mustard seed, shall be unable to gain admittance into My Kingdom.
540.
To this beareth witness that which adorneth the preamble of the Book of Existence, could ye but perceive it.
541.
Say:
This is the Day whereon God's most great favour hath been made manifest.
542.
The voice of all who are in the heavens above and on the earth below proclaimeth My Name, and singeth forth My praises, could ye but hear it!
543.
O Temple of Divine Revelation!
Sound the trumpet in My Name!
544.
O Temple of Divine mysteries!
Raise the clarion call of Thy Lord, the Unconditioned, the Unconstrained!
545.
O Maid of Heaven!
Step forth from the chambers of paradise and announce unto the people of the world:
546.
By the righteousness of God!
He Who is the Best-Beloved of the worlds He Who hath ever been the Desire of every perceiving heart, the Object of the adoration of all that are in heaven and on earth, and the Cynosure [counsel]of the former and the latter generations is now come!
547.
Take heed lest ye hesitate in recognizing this resplendent Beauty when once He hath appeared in the plenitude of His sovereign might and majesty.
548.
He, verily, is the True One, and all else besides Him is as naught before a single one of His servants, and paleth into nothingness when brought face to face with the revelation of His splendours.
549.
Hasten, then, to attain the living waters of His grace, and be not of the negligent.
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550.
As to him who hesitateth, though it be for less than a moment, God shall verily bring his works to naught and return him to the seat of wrath;
wretched indeed is the abode of them that tarry! [to do the will of God]
The Tablet of the Light Verse
The words of the Holy Koran 24:35-__
God is the Light of the heavens and of the earth
The likeness of His Light is even as the light streaming from a [lofty] niche containing a lamp;
the lamp is in a glass,
the glass even as a resplendent Star
enkindled from the oil of a blessed olive Tree, neither of the East nor of the West.
Its oil well near radiates forth even though fire hardly touches it.
It is Light upon Light
and God guideth unto His Light whomsoever He willeth.
And God does indeed strike similitudes for the people, [God making shadows on the wall,
for God is aware of it all things. appears to be a inference to Plato's Cave]
The idea of a lamp hidden high in the tent, cave, or building is a major theme of the Koran, representing the station of the prophet, and the prophetic words of God.
Provisionally translated by S. Lambden
Revision 2015
Tafsīr al-ḥurūfāt al-muqaṭṭa`āt (Commentary on the Isolated Letters) or
Lawḥ-i āyah-yi nūr (Tablet about the Light Verse)
Introduction adapted from that of S. Lambden
A more detailed introduction and partially annotated translation and reproduction of a good [Haifa supplied] Arabic mss will erelong appear in the [new] periodical, Syzygy: A Journal of Bābī-Bahā'ī Studies 2/1. The forthcoming translation corrects and supersedes two earlier (partial) postings on H-Bahā'ī (from Wed, 10 Sep 1997 12:37; April 1998) of about one third of the translation. These earlier versions should be consigned to the Bābī-Bahā'ī geniza (`sacred repository'). The version posted here is also still in progress and will doubtless contains errors in need of correction. It was last slightly revised early 2004.
Incorporated below are a few (rather speedily pasted together) details from my paper `Light, Letters and Alchemy: Dimensions of the Lawḥ-i ḥurūfāt al-muqaṭṭa`āt ("Tablet of the Isolated [Isolated] Letters") of Mīrzā Ḥusayn `Alī Bahā'-Allāh (1817-1892 CE).' first (partially) presented at the last Californian Bosch Bahā'ī Mysticism Conference (1998) and from my Traces from the Musk Scented Pen.. In making the translation I have consulted three further mss. along with the (only) printed text (it is riddled with errors) found in vol. 4 of `Abd al-Ḥamīd Ishrāq Khāvarī's compilation Mā'idih-yi āsmānī 4: 49-88.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The forty or more page wholly Arabic mid-Iraq period (? c. 1857-8?) scriptural tablet of Mīrzā Ḥusayn `Alī Bahā'-Allāh (1917-1892 CE) known as the Lawḥ-i āyah-yi nūr ("Tablet about the Light Verse [Quran 24:35]") in various sources is also entitled Tafsīr [Lawḥ-i] ḥurūfāt al-muqaṭṭa`āt ("Commentary [Tablet] on the Isolated Letters"). This since it (among other things) contains a detailed non-literal exegesis of both the well-known and much commented upon qur'ānic Light Verse (Quran 24:35) and select al-ḥurūfāt al-muqaṭṭa`āt (loosely, `isolated letters'). It was written in reply to questions posed by the early Bābī-believer and Bahā'ī martyr [Ḥajjī] Āqā Mīrzā [Āqā] Rikab-Sāz Shīrāzī, about whom relatively little seems to be known.
Rikab-Sāz Shīrāzī was presumably a trader in saddles / riding equipment. He is known to have been much occupied with copying and studying Bābī-Bahā'ī scripture despite illness in his later years. It was in the context of clerical and local governmental anti-Bahā'ī activity that a fatwa for his death was issued by the Shīrāzī mujtahid Shaykh Ḥusayn-i Nazim, stigmatized as al-Ẓālim (`The Tryant') by Bahā'-Allāh. He was put to death in Shiraz in 1288/1871 along with Mashadī Muhammad Nabīl and Mashadī [Rafi`] Ja`far-i Khayyāt (Mazandarani, ZH VI:857-9; Ishrāq Khāvarī, Ganj, 21-2; GPB:200).
To date the text of the Lawḥ-i ḥurūfāt.. has neither been befittingly published (no critical edition exists) nor authoritatively translated by Bahā'ī agencies. A complete though wholly inadequate printing of the Arabic exists in volume 4 pages 49-86 of Ishrāq Khavrari's compilation of Bahā'ī scripture entitled Mā'idih-yi āsmanī -- the mss source on which this printing is based is not indicated (cf. also the partial printing in Ganj, 46-49). Three futher mss. texts are known to the present writer including (at least) one (Haifa supplied) in the hand of Bahā'-Allāh's important amanuensis Zayn al-Muqarrabīn This is not to say that the following prov. trans' is based upon a critical edition; there being probable errors in all mss seen.
In various of his writings Bahā'-Allāh himself has made occasional reference to the Lawḥ-i ḥurūfāt. In, for example, the Arabic 1868 Lawḥ-i Ra'is ("Tablet of the Leader", namely Mehmed Emin `Alī Pāshā [1815-1871]) it is written:
"We, verily, have clarified all that We have mentioned in the Tablets which We revealed when we made reply to the one who asked about the isolated letters (al-ḥurūfāt al-muqaṭṭa`āt) of the Furqan (= Qur`ān). Refer ye thereto that ye may be illumined in the light of what hath been sent down from the heavenly realm of God (jabarūt Allāh), the Mighty, the Praised One" (MAM: [87-102]100).
And in another Persian Tablet we read,
"And additionally thou hast enquired about the isolated letters (ḥurūfāt-i muqaṭṭa`āt). During the day of the sojurn in `Iraq unnumbered [scriptural] traces respecting these matters (maqāmat) were sent down a few of which have been sent.." (Mazandarni, Asrar 3:90)
Very brief notices have been given the Tablet by Shoghi Effendi (GPB: 140) and a few other Bahā'ī writers, including Fāḍil-i Māzandarānī (Asrar.. 3:90-9X), Ishrāq Khāvarī, Ganj: 21-2, 45-49 trans. Habīb Taherzadeh The Bahā'ī World XIV [1963-8] 627) and Adib Taherzadeh RB I:125-128). Details of the Sitz im Leben (`setting in life'; circumstances of composition) are not supplied in the texts of any manuscripts known to the present writer. Some details can be gleaned from an examination of the text itself.
Āqā Mīrzā Āqā is the main addressee ("O my brother" LII:6 etc). Other pericopes [paragraphs] are also addressed to:
10) The "concourse of lovers" = Bābī believers + mystics..
11) "O concourse of the Bayān" X4
12) "O people!.." several times addressed.
13) "O concourse of the Criterion" (= Qur'ān) = Muslims.
14) "O Assemblage occupied with the Alchemical Task [Divine Artistry] (malā' al-san`a)!
Within the Lawḥ-i hurufāt Bahā'-Allāh refers to this Tablet as divine revelation:
"Hearken then unto what is revealed (w-ḥ-y) unto thee in this blessed [Sinaitic] Spot (buq`a[t] al-mubārkah) from this all-eternal [Sinatic] Tree [Bush] (al-shajarat al-sarmadiyya) which is not consumed by Fire (ma qabasa `anhā al-nār) [cf. Exodus 3:2b?]. Unto this do none draw near except such as circumambulate about its domain and, with His consent, sacrifice themselves in His path thereafter rendering thanks."
Following a 4-5 page cosmologically and mystico-alphabetically oriented prolegomenon, the person who communicated Aqā Mīrzā Aqā (= Rikab-Saz]'s letter to Bahā'-Allāh (possibly Aqā Mirzā Āqā himself ?) [fn.1] is mentioned allusively by means of the phrase letter حرف القاف ḥarf al-qāf ق qāf ("The [Arabic letter] "q"). [fn.2]
We received a communication [kitāb letter] from [through?] the letter "Q" (min ḥarf al-qāf) who had journeyed from his self and emigrated unto God, the Protector, the Self-Subsistent. He attained unto the regions of holiness and entered the Egypt of certitude (miṣr al-īqān) in a region [`locale' maqām ) wherein the Fire of God (nār Allāh) blazed up beyond the veils of Light and in which the Luminary of Singleness (sirāj al-aḥadiyya) was ignited in a mighty, concealed Lāmp [cf. Quran 24:35]. Thus are those to be preferred who have left their homes for the love of God above those who failed to turn towards the precincts of holiness in the City which those who are near unto God have circumambulated. In his letter there was enquiry about mysteries (asrār) which none among the creatures hath anticipated; the veil on the face of which none among humankind hath drawn aside and which hath not been comprehended by the mystic knowers..." (Mā'idih, 4:52 etc).
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