Windflower Translations

Introductions

Original title: Sahifih-'i Shattiyyih

Written by Baha'u'llah in the Baghdad period

Book of the Tigris isn't a book but a letter. Its principal subject is Baha'u'llah's analogy between the effect of a new divine revelation and the flooding of the Tigris. Iraq is arid apart from the Mesopotamian river valley, which is given to violent floods. Baha'u'llah discusses how the annual floods are very destructive on the one hand, but irrigate otherwise barren land on the other. New religions also have this tendency to destroy old edifices but to make new spaces green. The letter also contains discussion on miracles and on the first Arabic Hidden Word.

Original title: Lawh-i huwwa munfikhu 'r-ruh

Written by Baha'u'llah: undated

In the tablet, Breath of Spirit, Baha'u'llah tells us about metaphysical wonders taking place in the spiritual worlds. He describes how his revelation was announced in the spiritual worlds and the process by which it came into being there.

Original title: Lawh-i Madinatu'r-Rida

Written by Baha'u'llah in the Baghdad period

City of Radiant Acquiescence is about a spiritual state of the soul - that of radiant acquiescence. The tablet discusses what radiant acquiescence means, why it is important and how believers can attain it.

Original title: Lawh-i Hadi (or Bayan-i Hadith-i Sharif `Man `arafa nafsahu fa qad `arafa rabbahu')

Written by Baha'u'llah: undated

In this tablet, Baha'u'llah answers several questions from a correspondent. The issues he discusses are: the transcendence of God; the sign of God deposited in every thing, which in humans is the rational faculty; the functioning of the rational faculty; the meaning of the concepts of detachment and return; and the meaning of the sayings: 'The believer is alive in both worlds' and 'He who knows his self knows his Lord'.

Original title: Lawh-i Salman I

Written by Baha'u'llah in the Edirne period

Commentary on a Verse of Rumi was written by Baha'u'llah for the Baha'i courier, Salman, who asked him to interpret a verse from Rumi's Mathnavi: "Because the colorless has fallen captive to color, Moses has gone to war with Moses." The main focus of the commentary is the debate over the unity of being (wahdat al-wujud) in Sufi thought.

Original title: Tafsir-i Bayti az Sa'di

Written by Baha'u'llah in the Akka period

As the title suggests, this work is a commentary on a verse of poetry written by the major Persian and Sufi poet, Mushrif-ud-Din Abdullah Sa'di (1184-1283/1291?). The verse is "The Friend is nearer to me than my self/But it is more strange that I am far from him."

Go to top