Answered questions

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The book Answered Questions ( English : Some Answered Questions ) is a collection of 84 doctrinal conversations and emerged from the Persian transcripts that were made during the interviews of the American Baha'i Laura Clifford Barney (1879–1974) with Abdul-Baha between 1904 and 1906 in Acre were made. These transcripts were corrected by Abdul-Baha and published in English in London in 1908 with his permission. Also in 1908 a Persian edition was published in London. Mrs. Barney herself worked with her future husband, the scholar Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney , on the French translation, which appeared under the title "Les Leçons de Saint Jean d'Acre". The book is now available in numerous other translations. For example in German. The German National Library states that the Answered Questions appeared in Stuttgart as early as 1929 . The editor bequeathed the original Persian manuscript with the corrections by Abdul-Baha to the international Baha'i Archives in Haifa. In 2014 the Bahá'í World Center in Haifa published a revised version of the English text based on the Persian-language text edited by Abdul-Baha.

content

The doctrinal conversations were not originally given in a specific order, but were only sorted into 5 topics to make it easier for the reader.

The first part deals with the influence of the manifestations of God on the development of mankind. In it, Abdul-Baha explains, among other things, the divine mission of Abraham , Moses , Jesus Christ , Mohammed , the Bab and Baha'u'llah and interprets prophecies from the 11th and 12th chapters of the Revelation of John and the 11th chapter of the book of Isaiah .

In the second part, some Christian topics are explained, such as baptism , the symbols of bread and wine, Adam and Eve , the Trinity , the second coming of Christ and the Last Judgment , etc.

The third part deals with the powers and modes of being of the revealers of God. It includes doctrinal discussions on the five degrees of the spirit, the knowledge of the revelators, the two types of prophets, etc.

In the fourth part doctrinal conversations are summarized that deal with the origin, powers and ways of being of humans. This part contains doctrinal conversations about the difference between humans and animals, the stage and progress of humans after death, the influence of the stars, healing by spiritual and material means, etc.

The fifth part covers various topics such as the non-existence of evil, reincarnation , pantheism , etc.

literature

  • Abdu'l-Bahá: Questions Answered . Hofheim 1988, ISBN 3-87037-093-9 ( online ).
  • Abdu'l-Bahá: Some Answered Questions . Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, USA, ISBN 0-87743-162-0 ( online ).
  • Abdul-Baha: An-Nur al-abh¯af¯i muf¯awa.d¯at: guftug¯u bar sar-i Nahar . Ed .: Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co. London 1908.
  • Abdul-Baha, Les Leçons de Saint-Jean-d'Acre, E. Leroux, Paris 1908
  • Behrooz Bahrami: Contributions to the Irfán Colloquium 2007/8 . Bahai-Verlag, Hofheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-87037-482-2 , p. 239-268 .