Baháulláhs Rash-i-Ama is a Persian poem of 19 couplets which takes its name from the opening words of its first hemistich. Widely regarded by Baháís as the earliest extant example of divine revelation (Baháí scripture), it was composed during the time of its Authors imprisonment in the Siyah-i-Chal (Black Pit) dungeon in Tihrán; that is, at some time during the latter half of the year 1852 CE (early 1269 AH). It was, Baháulláh in His later writings has stated, during the year nine (1269 AH, i.e., Oct. 15th 1852 to October 4th 1853) that He underwent profound mystical experiences and resolved to attempt to regenerate the demoralized Bábí community.
It seems likely, as most Baháí writers have maintained, that the Rashh-i-Ama is expressive of Baháulláhs Own assumption of a leading role within the Bábí community. To what extent, however, Baháulláh therein alludes to the theophanic status He later explicitly claimed (from the early 1860s of the Common Era) is not entirely clear, bearing in mind the extravagant claims made by many leading Bábís in the 1850s, the poetic nature of this work, and the possibility that He is representing Himself as a channel through which the celestial and eschatological Bábí spirit flows. He certainly, at this stage, makes no explicit claim to be Him whom God would make manifest (man yuzhiruhulláh, the expected Bábí messiah) and could be understood to be representing Himself as a leading Bábí rather than claiming to be the inaugurator of a new (though at this stage secret) religious dispensation. One would probably not be going too far if one supposed that in the Rashh-i-Ama the messianic secret of Baháulláh is all but divulged, though in cryptic, esoteric terms.
In the translation no attempt has been made to be anything but as literalistic as possible. I may well have completely misunderstood the sense of a number of the more abstruse parts of this beautiful poem and would be delighted to receive alternative renderings.
Thus, there follows my inadequate attempt to render the earliest extant work of Baháulláh, the Rashh-i Ama (Sprinkling of the Cloud of Unknowing, 1852/3 CE) in a slightly revised provisional translation which first appeared more than a decade ago with a commentary in the Baháí Studies Bulletin 3:2 (Newcastle upon Tyne, September 1984). I hope to revise it (and the commentary thereon) extensively and republish it over the next year or so. Forgive the inadequacies in my paltry attempt to translate a hauntingly beautiful poem. The Persian text translated is that printed in Maida-yi-Asmaní 4:184-6 -- not a critical edition; readings from another manuscripts (in INBAMC 36:460-1) are indicated by an asterisk (*) at the end of a hemistich; details cannot be gone into here. -S.L.