Tablet to Jinab-i Khalil “the Friend” 13 страница
66.
to the extent that they considered that what issued forth from their mouths
was the balance by which [the truth of] human utterance should be weighed,
or the astrolabe(sextant) with which the calendar of the beginning and the end should be fixed.
67.
Despite all this, in the days of the spring-time of the All-Merciful
and the blowing of the winds of trials,
we did not discover in them either acceptance or constancy.
68.
If a soul were today to be omniscient in all the sciences of the world
and yet hesitate in affirming his belief (or, speaking the word "yes"),
he would not be mentioned in the Divine Presence
and would be accounted among the most ignorant of people.
69.
The goal of the religious sciences is to attain knowledge of the Absolute Reality.
70.
Any soul who holds back from this most holy and most mighty adornment
is recorded in the tablets as being [numbered with] [of] the dead.
71.
O Husyan!
This wronged one declares: Words need deeds.
72.
Words without deeds are as bees without honey or as trees without fruit.
73.
Consider the philosopher Sabzivárí.
74.
Among his verses, there is a poem, which conveys the following meaning:
75.
"No Moses is alive to hear it,
otherwise the chant of `I verily am God!' exists in every tree [bush]."
76.
Such words as these has he spoken and his meaning is
that the true knower of God rises to such a station that his eyes perceive the lights
of the effulgences of the luminous Source of manifestation
and his ears discern His call from all things.
77.
There is no objection to these words of the philosopher,
yet, as we have already stated, this is the realm of words.
78.
In the realm of deeds, however,
it can be seen that although the call of the divine lote-tree
has been raised upon the highest spot in creation in clear and unambiguous language
and is inviting all beings through the loftiest of summonses,
he has paid no heed whatsoever.
79.
For had he hearkened, he would have arisen to make mention of it.
80.
Either we must say that these were empty words which flowed from his mouth,
or that, for fear for his reputation and love of his livelihood (or, his bread),
he remained deprived of this station (of belief) and of testifying to it.
81.
Either he understood and concealed [his belief]
or he understood and denied [Bahá'u'lláh's claim].
82.
Woe to those who waste their whole lives in trying to establish the truth of their vain imaginings
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83.
and yet, when the lights of the Divine Presence [of God] are shining forth
from the horizon [of the name of the Self-Subsistent], they remain deprived thereof.
84.
The Cause is in God's hands.
85.
He grants what He wishes to whomever He wishes,
and withholds whatever He desires from whomever He desires.
85.
He is to be praised in His doings and obeyed in His judgements.
No God is there but He, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
Tablet of the Unmixed Reality CHAPTER FOUR
Divisions 86-120
UNMIXED REALITY
86.
In these days, the following was revealed in a tablet:
87.
How many men, attired with a turban (the Learned),
have held back and opposed
88.
and how many women wearing veils have recognized and accepted
and have said "Praise be to Thee, O God of the Worlds!"
89.
Thus it is that we have made the most exalted among them to become the most abased,
and the most abased to become the most exalted.
90.
Verily your Lord is Ruler over whatsoever He wishes.
91.
O Husayn!
Say to the questioner:
forsake this small pond when the most mighty ocean is before you.
92.
Draw near and drink from its waters in the name of your Lord,
the Knowing, the All-Informed.
93.
By my life!
It will cause you to reach a station wherein you will see in the whole world
naught but the effulgences of the presence of the Ancient of Days
94.
and you will hearken unto the lote-tree
which has been elevated upon the knowledge that there is no god but He,
the Powerful, the Mighty, the Omnipotent.
95.
In this day, it is encumbent upon all souls,
when they hear the call from the Dawning-Place of Creation,
to leave behind the people of the world and their opinions
96.
and arise and say: "Yes, O my Desire!"
and then to say: "I obey! O Beloved of the Worlds."
97.
Say:
O questioner!
Were the sweetness of the wine of the exposition of your Lord to seize you
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and were you to recognize the wisdom and illumination that is in it,
you would forsake this contingent world
and arise to assist this wronged exile and would proclaim:
98.
"Praise be to the one who has manifested the fluid [waters] as the solid [ice],
and the uncompounded [reality] as a circumscribed [creation], and the hidden as the manifest;
99.
the one who, were one to behold him in his outward form,
one would find him in the form of a man standing before the people of tyranny.
100.
Were one to contemplate him his inner reality, however,
one would recognize him as lord over all who are in the heavens and earths."
101.
Listen to what the fire is proclaiming
from the luminous lote-tree raised upon the crimson spot:
102.
"O People!
Hasten with all of your hearts to the shore of the Beloved.
103.
Thus has the matter been decided and the decree has issued forth
from He who is all-powerful and trustworthy."
104.
O questioner!
Your words have been mentioned in the Divine Presence in this manifest prison.
105.
Thus has been revealed this tablet
from the horizon of which shines forth the sun of the benevolence of your Lord,
the Mighty, the All-Praised.
106.
Know its true worth and value it greatly.
107.
This would be best for you,
if you are among those who have true knowledge.
108.
We ask of God that He confirm you in His Cause
and make mention of you
and decree for you that which will profit you in this world and the next.
109.
He verily answers the prayers of those who call upon Him
and He is the most merciful of the merciful.
110.
O servant!
Were you to be attracted by the breezes of the utterances of the Lord of Names
and were you to seek illumination from the lights of the [Divine] Face,
which shine forth from the Dawning-place of eternity,
you would turn your face towards the all-highest Horizon.
111.
Say:
O Creator of the heavens and Lord of Names!
112.
I ask You by Your name through which You have opened the door of meeting to Your creatures and have caused the sun of Your bounty to shine forth upon those who are in Your kingdom,
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113.
that You may cause me to be sincere in Your love,
detached from all save You, arising for Your service,
looking towards Your Face, and speaking in praise of You.
114.
O Lord!
Assist me in the days of the Manifestation of Your Self and the Dawning-place of Your Cause,
such that I may burn away the clouds [that obscure You] by Your grace and favour
and may consume the veils [that separate me from You] with the fire of Your love.
115.
O Lord! You are strong and I am weak;
You are rich and I am poor.
116.
I ask You, by the ocean of Your bounty,
that You do not cause me to be deprived of Your grace and Your Love.
117.
All things bear witness to Your greatness, Your glory,
Your power, and Your might.
118.
Guide and assist me through Your will
and save me by Your sovereignty.
119.
Write down then for me what You have written down for Your confidants,
those who have near acces to You and are faithful to Your Covenant and Testament,
who soar in the atmosphere of Your will, and speak Your praise among Your creatures.
120.
Verily You are the Powerful, the Protector,
the Lofty, the Mighty, the Generous.
Translated by Moojan Momen
NOTATIONS
16. Basít al-Haqíqa. Basít is here translated as "uncompounded". It has been translated by James Morris as "simple" (The Wisdom of the Throne, pp. ). Although this is technically a correct translation in the philosophical sense of the word as something that is uncompounded, I felt that the word "simple" has too many other meanings in common use and would be confusing. The translator of the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh (p. 61) has translated the term as "elementary". There is also the fact that this word is being used in a genitive construction and not adjectivally (i.e. the Arabic may be rendered literally as "the uncompounded of reality"). The root of the word basít means "to spread out" or "to stretch out", and in this sense of something spread out, I was tempted to translate the phrase as "the field of reality". This would render the passage "the field of reality is all things" which has a striking resonance with modern physics in the sense that all physical reality is in modern physics considered to consist of electro-magnetic fields in which fluxes occur. This would however, apart from being anachronistic also be a departure from the sense in which the original author Mullá Sadrá intended this passage. His meaning was derived from the philosophical notion that all reality is compounded and that the only uncompounded reality is God.
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17. i.e. those perfections that are positive and existent, rather than those which are negative and privative.
18. This is a somewhat unusual use of the word wájid, which derives from the root meaning "to get" or "obtain". According to Sayyid Ja`far Sajjádí, (Farhang-i Ma`árif-i Islámí, Tehran, 1373, 3rd vol., p. 2090, citing Sharh-i Kalamát-i Bábá Táhir) wájid is used by Bábá Táhir `Uryán to refer to someone who has emptied himself of all vestige of self and has detached himself from all save God.
19. The basic language of the text changes from Arabic to Persian at this point, although there continue to be numerous Arabic phrases and passages in what follows.
20. These numbers refer to the page numbers in the original text in Iqtidarát.
21. Qur'án 28:88
22. Qur'án, see note 19
23. Qur'án 41:53
24. The name Idrís can be considered to derive from the root "d-r-s" which means "to teach".
(address)
25. Lit. Attained to the word "Balá" (lit. "Yes"). A reference to Qur'án
7:172, where, in the pre-eternal Covenant, to God's question "Am I not your Lord?" The children of Adam are made to reply "Yes (Balá)." In other words, Bahá'u'lláh is saying that were Mullá Sadrá together with his supporters and opponents all to be alive in Bahá'u'lláh's day, they would all be in the position of having to face the challenge of Bahá'u'lláh's claim.
26. See note 23
27. Mullá Hádí Sabzivárí (d. 1878) the most prominent of the Iranian philosophers of the nineteenth century. An English translation of one of his major works is available The Metaphysics of Sabzavárí (trans. T. Izutsu and M. Mohaghegh, New York, 1977).
28. Indeed Bahá'u'lláh himself says much the same in one of the prayers for the fast: "...this Revelation - a Revelation the potency of which hath caused every tree to cry out what the Burning Bush had aforetime proclaimed unto Moses, Who conversed with Thee" (Prayers and Meditations, no. 85, p. 144).
29. This paragraph is paraphrased and quoted by Bahá'u'lláh in the Words of Paradise (Kalimát Firdawsiyyih), Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 61
30. See 23
31. Cf. Bahá'u'lláh, Prayers and Meditations, no. 38, p. 49
32. lit. "before the Face"; a Qur'ánic allusion, see note 19
33. Qur'ánic reference, see note 19
Tablet of the Maiden CHAPTER ONE
Divisions 1-30
THE MAIDEN
1.
In the name of God, the most holy, the most exalted.
2.
Praise be to Thee, O God, My God.
3.
I make mention of Thee at this time,
when the sun of Thy Godhead hath risen from the horizon of the splendid divinity of Thy unity,
4.
and the lights of Thy lordship have flashed forth from the dawning of the ineffable encounter
with the eternal kingdom of Thy independent autonomy,
5.
and the darkness of this world hath been illumined
by the radiance of the faithful realm of Thy cause
in such wise that the garden of paradise came into being above the essence of Thy glorious being.
6.
Therein were planted the trees of Thy quintessence, which put forth the fruits of Thine essence,
and therein wafted the breezes of Thy spirit and the breaths of Thy sanctity.
7.
Therein were foreordained the gems of Thy bounties and the substance of Thy magnificence;
and therein were uncovered the treasures of Thy knowledge and mystery.
8.
Over its terraces flow the streams of Thy glorious life,
the channels of Thy radiant eternality, and the springs of the wine of Thine inaccessibility.
9.
When Thou didst desire, O my God, to manifest it,
Thou didst raise it up to the throne of grandeur and greatness,
embellish it with the rays of might and power,
render it brilliant by Thine essence,
and didst make to shine upon it the sun of union from the pre-eternal lights of Thy features.
10.
Thou didst light for it the wick of eternity in the lamp of pre-existence.
11.
Now, Thy most exalted decree hath come to the kingdom of command by Thy signature,
so that a visage might appear therefrom,
12.
that the brilliance of Thy beauty might be manifest to all who dwell on earth,
and that the glory of Thy countenance might be seen by all who are in the realm of Thy cause.
13.
There arose the nymph,
Who had dwelt in pre-eternity in the pavilions of holiness, protection, and glorification
and in the canopies of sinlessness, greatness and splendor.
14.
Upon Her white brow the most high pen hath written in crimson ink,
"Praise be to God!
15.
This is a nymph upon Whom none have gazed save God, the Exalted, the Most High.
16.
God hath purified the hem of Her purity
from the knowledge of the concourse of names in the realm of eternity,
and Her face from the view of all who are in the kingdom of creation.
17.
When She arose with the ornament of God from Her palace,
She looked with one glance toward the sky.
18.
The people of the heavens swooned at the rays of Her visage
and at the wafting of Her perfume.
19.
Then She looked with another glance toward the earth,
and it was illumined by the lights of Her beauty and the loveliness of Her splendor.
20.
Praise be to Thee, O my God,
for all the wonders of Thy handiwork that Thou hast shown Me through Her,
for the ensemble of Thy power, manifest in Her creation.
21.
She levitated there, suspended.
22.
Then She journeyed through the sky as though striding across the horizon in mid-air.
23.
It is as though I discovered that the chain of being was set in motion by Her footfalls.
24.
She descended, drew nigh, and came until She halted before Me.
25.
I was bewildered by the subtleties and wonders of Her creation.
26.
Behold, I discovered within myself a passion that grew out of my yearning for Her.
27.
I raised my hands toward Her,
and lifted the hem of Her veil from Her shoulder.
28.
I found Her hair to be sandy, wavy and curly,
lying on Her back in ringlets, hanging down almost to Her legs.
29.
And when the gales blew it to the right of Her shoulder,
it perfumed the heavens and the earth.
30.
When it was blown to the left,
from its fragrance there wafted a holy musk scent. [of the female in heat]
Tablet of the Maiden CHAPTER TWO
Divisions 31-60
THE MAIDEN
31.
It is as though the motion of Her tresses
caused the spirit of life to quake in the inner essence of creation,
and caused the kingdom of mystical insight to tremble in the realities of being.
32.
Exalted be God, Her creator, for what He caused Me to see within Her.
33.
Then blessed be God, Her fashioner,
for the manifestation of might that I witnessed vis-a-vis Her beauty,
and the modalities of power that I saw vis-a-vis Her splendor.
34.
At one time, I perceived Her as the sweet water of life,
delicious and flowing through the realities of beings and the dark recesses of contingent things.
35.
I grew certain that the entirety of being survived by virtue of Her eternity,
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