NOTE: This is a collection of older translations, many of which have been superseded by newer translations
.
Approved by Baháí Committee on
Publications, 1923.
Second Edition
NEW YORK
BRENTANOS Publishers
COPYRIGHT, 1923,
BY BRENTANOS, INC.
COPYRIGHT, 1928
BAHÁÍ
PUBLISHING COMMITTEE
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
J.J. LITTLE AND IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK
CONTENTS
Click here to jump to a specific page or to go to a specific selection number.
INTRODUCTION ....................................................... iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND SOURCES ........................................ vii
PART ONE THE GLORY OF GOD
(Words of Baháulláh)
CHAPTER ONE--
INTERPRETATION OF HOLY BOOKS ............................ 1
CHAPTER TWO--
THE GREAT MESSAGE ...................................... 67
Tablet to the Sháh of Persia, Tablet to the Sultán of Turkey, Tablet to Raís, Tablet to the Czar of Russia, Tablet to the Pope, Tablet to Emperor Napoleon the Third, Tablet to the Emperor of Austria, Tablet to the King of Prussia, Tablet to Queen Victoria, Tablet to America, Tablet to the Jews, Tablet to an Oriental Jew, Tablet to the Christians, Tablet to the Persian Zoroastrian Baháís, Tablet to M. Alí, Tablet to a Believer.
CHAPTER THREE--
THE NEW AGE ......................................... 137
CHAPTER FOUR--
THE DEGREES OF DEVOTION .............................. 156
CHAPTER FIVE--
THE INNER SIGNIFICANCES .............................. 189
Tablet of Wisdom, Tablet of Joseph, Tablet of the Manifestation, From Discourse of the Temple, Tablet of Ahmad, Soul and Spirit, The Sun of the Soul, To the People of Bahá, The Most Great Infallibility, The Law of Love, Tablet of the Virgin, Holy Mariner.
CHAPTER SIX--
THE COVENANT AND TESTAMENT OF BAHAULLAH ............. 255
PART TWO THE COVENANT OF GOD
(Words of Abdul-Bahá)
CHAPTER SEVEN--
THE CAUSE OF GOD .................................... 265
Prayer of the Covenant, The Day of God, Baháulláh, The Light of Truth, The Principles of Baháulláh, The Covenant, Abdul-Bahá, History of the Baháí Cause, Scientific Proof of the Existence of God, The Need of the Perfect Master, The Great Master, God and the Universe, Tablet to India, General Tablet, The Station of Woman, The Most Great Peace, The New Age, The Orb of the Covenant, The Illuminati, Evolution, The Temple, The Spirit of Prophecy, Universal Language, Solution of the Economic Problem, Lamentation, The Oneness of Humanity, Love, The Essential Unity, Spirit, The Second Birth, Baháí Centers, Summons to Activity, Christianity, Immortality, Address to the Jews, Microcosm and Macrocosm, The After Life, Commune for Persia, Tablet to The Hague, The House of Justice, Salutation to the Friends of God, Prayers, The Victory of the Covenant.
CHAPTER EIGHT--
THE LOOM OF REALITY ................................. 434
CHAPTER NINE--
THE DIVINE CIVILIZATION .............................. 505
GLOSSARY ........................................................... 557
[not included]
INDEX .............................................................. 559
[not included]
Editorial note: Transliteration of words in Baháí Scriptures
For this digital version, the following terms were changed from an outdated form to
one reflecting typical transliterations found in modern
Baháí works:
- Akdas = Aqdas
- Beha = Bahá
- Bahá-El-Abhá! = Bahául-Abhá
- Beyan = Bayán
- El-Beyan = the Bayán
- El-Masjid-El-Aska = the Masjíd
- al-Aqsá = the Further Mosque in Jerusalem
- Hosein = Husayn
- Irak = Iráq
- Ishrakat = Ishraqát
- KitáblAkdas or Kitáb El Akdas or KITAB-EL-Aqdas = Kitáb-i-Aqdas
- Kitáb-el-Ahd = Kitáb-i-´Ahd
- Kitáb-el-Ighan = Kitáb-i-Íqán
- Koran = Qurán
- Kurrat-el-Ayn = Qurratul-Ayn
- Muhammad = Muhammad
- Rais = Súriy-i-Raís
- Rizwan = Ridván
- Sadrat-El-Muntaha = Sadratul-Muntahá
- Tajalliat = Tajallíyát
- Teheran = Tihrán
INTRODUCTION
Since the occasion when mention of the Baháí
Cause was first made in this country - at the Congress of Religions held in the
Columbian Exposition in 1893 - interest in the Baháí
principles and teachings has steadily increased. Sufficient foundation had been
laid by 1912, when Abdul-Bahá came to America, to
prepare for His message a cordial, sympathetic and reverent reception in the
liberal synagogues, churches, new thought centers, universities and societies
organized for scientific, ethical, economic and political progress in numerous
cities.
The succeeding years - so fateful for the destiny of civilization, so
disturbing to every social institution and so challenging to the noblest and
most disinterested faculties of soul, mind and heart - have served to deepen and
extend that preliminary interest and build upon that foundation a permanent
spiritual structure in many lives. The years since 1912, in fact, have thrown
an ever-clearer light upon the need, in the worlds consciousness, for
precisely those principles and teachings so perfectly embodied in
Abdul-Bahá and so definitely associated with His
life and work.
To one who has acquainted himself with the Baháí writings, evidences of the penetration of their fundamental influence are
revealed in increasing measure from day to day and throughout the world. The
leaders of religion, science and practical affairs are beginning to manifest an
attitude of universality and a spirit of unity which seems a direct reflection
of the light Abdul-Bahá cast upon the manifold
problems of living and the fundamental problem of life. Day by day, the
realization deepens in all conscious men and women that, in this age, new forces
are seeking expression - forces so mighty that the difference between
understanding and misunderstanding is the immediate crisis between the
alternatives of a new, worldwide and spiritualized civilization and a further,
even more disastrous undoing of the things that are.
It is upon the plane of understanding that the power of the
Page vi
Baháí writings operates, in that are of being
which lies beyond the personal desire, the personal thought, the personal will.
Their operation is to restore in the individual, whatever his race, class,
creed, profession or temperament, that eternal vision of the oneness of God
whose evolving expression is directly the development of the soul, and
indirectly the harmonious organization of mankind. Compared to other writings
of this age, the Baháí Scriptures are as light compared to
the reflection of light from surfaces more or less luminous or opaque. This
essential quality of illumination, as distinct from the subject illuminated, and
of vision, as distinct from the subject visioned, reveals anew the very sources
of mans spiritual being, and discloses, also, the predominant forces
working to mold the character of the new day.
The purpose of the book is to bring together, in convenient form and
helpful arrangement, that portion of the Baháí writings
already available in various books, magazines and also manuscript translation,
selecting from them sufficient material to supply the reader and student a
larger perspective upon these principles and teachings than any single work has
yet accomplished in the English language. While it is inevitable that most, if
not all the Baháí writings will one day undergo
re-translation, and be presented in a worthier and more permanent form than is
possible at the present time, nevertheless the need of a suitable compilation
now urgently exists, and it is hoped that the present work will at least serve
as one link in the chain of effort whereby the Baháí
writings are carried from their source in the most great prison of
Akká to the mind and heart of the self-imprisoned
race.
In this country at least, the Baháí message of
the unity of religions, the reconciliation of science and religion, and the
promulgation of Universal Peace, is established upon a recognition of the fact
that in Abdul-Bahá, a new spirit of universality had
manifested its vital, penetrative essence. Not so well understood is the fact
that the root and source of Abdul-Bahás utterances,
the foundation of His being, attested on every possible occasion by Him, was
entire devotion to the utterances and the being of His father,
Baháulláh. This inner and spiritual relationship,
likened by Baháulláh to that of the root and the
greatest branch or trunk of a tree, is brought out in the present
volume through the method adopted to organize its contents, not only by chapters
Page vii
but also by parts or books; the first book containing the
words of Baháulláh - the Baháí
Scriptures in essence - the second book containing the words of
Abdul-Bahá - the authoritative interpretation of the
Baháí Scriptures and their direct application to the
fundamental problems of the age. By this method the utterances of
Abdul-Bahá are established in clearest relationship
to their source, and consequently their purpose; moreover the utterances of
Baháulláh are established in relationship to all the
Scriptures which have gone before: whose unfoldment, whose reinforcement they
are.
While for the purpose of the student acquainting himself with the
Baháí writings for the first time, an outline at least of
the historical conditions under which they were successively revealed would seem
highly desirable, even essential, to the fullest understanding of their
significance and most intimate sympathy for their application, nevertheless it
will be found that this need is met in the process of reading the
Baháí message itself. Chapter Seven contains an address by
Abdul-Bahá which had for its theme the history of
the Baháí Cause; and numerous references to that history
will also be found in other passages. Moreover, inspiring as the actual record
of those events are, the principal matter is not to realize the
Baháí Scriptures as a detail in history so much as a source
of light whereby history itself is illumined.
How wonderful that the Well Beloved is manifest as the sun,
while strangers are in search of vanities and wealth! Yea, He is concealed by
the intensity of manifestation, and He is hidden by the ardor of
emanation!
HORACE HOLLEY
New York City
February 12, 1923
Page viii
[this page is intentionally blank]
Page ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND SOURCES
The present compilation has not been made with any thought of
establishing a text, nor of even securing a polished and adequate English
translation. From the literary point of view, the text embodied in this volume
must be considered as a king in rags, since the Arabic and Persian originals are
declared by all who have had access to them to be of the most exalted beauty and
the most moving force.
On that sea, the editor has no power to sail. His effort has been
entirely confined to the intention of re-creating, as fully as possible through
the use of available texts, some sense of that organic unity from which all the
Baháí writings came, and to place in the students
hands a more fully organized Baháí work than has yet been
published. In its sequence alone does the present volume contain the results of
any particular study and accumulated labor.
For the most part, the contents have been taken from the publications
of the Baháí Publishing Society, to the efforts of which we
are indebted to the spread of these writings in America. As yet, few original
Baháí writings have reached the public through any other
channel, notable exceptions to which are Abbas Effendi, His Life and
Teachings by Myron Phelps, published by G. P. Putnams Sons, and A
Travellers Narrative, Written to Illustrate the Episode of the
Báb translated by Edward G. Browne, and published with the Persian
original by the University Press, Cambridge, England. It is in this
incomparable translation, in fact, that the English reader draws most closely to
the spirit and power of the original utterance. The Tablet to the
Sháh, contained in Chapter Two of the present compilation, shows
on comparison with Professor Brownes translation to have been based in
part at least upon his exquisite rendering.
Tablets contained in Baháí Scriptures
hitherto unpublished (so far at least as the editor is aware) are found in
Chapters Two, Five and Eight, and for this material acknowledgment is made
Page x
to the kindness of many friends who contributed manuscripts, especially
Mrs. I.D. Brittingham, Mary Hanford Ford, A.W. Randall, Miss Martha Root and
Miss Juliet Thompson.
For the omission of many fundamental teachings (or rather
interpretations) given by Abdul-Bahá to American
audiences during 1912, explanation might well be called for were it not for the
fact that the complete text of those addresses has been published since this
compilation came into being.
