Hidden words

The Hidden Words ( Persian کلمات مکنونه Kalimat-e Maknuna , DMG KALiMAT-e Maknūna , Bahai transcription KALiMAT-i Maknúnih ) were in 1858 in Baghdad revealed and among the most important texts of Baha'u'llah , the founder of a religion of Bahaitums . There are 71 and 82 short, self-contained texts in Arabic and Persian . They are intended to motivate and guide people on the path of spiritual and personal perfection and are therefore considered to be the moral core ofBahá'u'lláh's revelation , the “quintessence of spiritual guidance from all revelations of the past”. Abdu'l-Bahá describes them as a “treasure trove of divine mysteries” repeatedly urges the Bahá'ís to memorize the Hidden Words, to reflect on their meaning and to act accordingly: “These sacred words have not been revealed to heard, but to be realized. "

Content and structure

The work consists of a short Arabic introduction, followed by 71 Arabic and then 82 Persian Hidden Words with a short concluding word in Persian. The length of each individual section varies from 12 to 152 words, with the Persian sections usually being longer. An example of a Hidden Word is: “O Son of Light! Forget everything but me and become familiar with my spirit. This is part of the essence of My commandments, so keep to them. "

Each Hidden Word begins with an invocation in the form "O son of ...", followed by a noun referring to the higher, spiritual world (as in the example) or to the lower, material world, e.g. B. "O son of dust" or "O son of worldliness". This expresses that people, depending on their spiritual development, align their spiritual abilities to the spiritual or material world. An example is: “O children of heedlessness! Do not attach your heart to ephemeral rule or rejoice in it. You are like the careless bird that chirps carelessly in the branches until the birdcatcher Death suddenly throws it into the dust. Song, shape and color are gone without leaving a trace. So be careful, o servants of desire! "

The hidden words close themselves to a thematic categorization, the collection is not based on an obvious order. Shoghi Effendi , the authoritative translator of the Hidden Words, notes that the Hidden Words are not subject to any sequence. "They are jewel-like thoughts, born from the awareness of the manifestation of God to admonish and guide people."

In terms of content, the Hidden Words deal with topics such as nature and human level; the properties of the spiritual and material world; the stage and function of the manifestations of God; the eternal covenant between God and humanity; man's disloyalty to this alliance and its consequences; how man can develop spiritually by detaching himself from worldly things and empty ideas, by acquiring positive spiritual qualities and purifying himself from negative qualities and deeds. Some Hidden Words address topics such as: B. Love (Arabic No. 3-10), evil gossip and troubleshooting (Arabic 26-29), death (Arabic 31-34), martyrdom (Arabic 45-57), trials and difficulties (Arabic 48-53).

As Bahá'u'lláh points out in the Introduction, the Hidden Words have already been "revealed to earlier divine messengers" . Therefore, some Hidden Words show amazing parallels to the Old Testament , Gospel and Qur'an :

Mental poverty
- O son of passion! Purify yourself from the dust of riches and enter the realms of poverty in perfect peace; there you will drink the wine of eternal life from the spring of detachment. (VW pers. 54)
- Blessed are those who are poor before God; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them (Mt 5: 3)
Man as the light of God on earth (cf. light verse )
- God is the light of heaven and earth. Its light is comparable to a niche in which there is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is like a twinkling star. ... (Sura 24 35 ff.)
- O son of being! You are my lamp, and my glow is in you. Take your light out of it and look for no one but Me, because I created you rich and poured out My favor on you (VW arab. 11)
Love as the cause of creation (hadith)
- “I was a hidden treasure and wanted to be recognized; therefore I created the world " ( Hadith qudsí : Holy Hadith)
- “O son of man! Wrapped in my inconceivable being and in the eternity of my being, I recognized my love for you. That is why I created you, imprinted my image on you and revealed my beauty to you ” (VW Arabic)
Criticism of the clergy opposing the new revealer:
- “O you fools who are considered wise! Why do you disguise yourselves as shepherds when you have become wolves inwardly who seek My flock? You are like the star that apparently rises brightly and radiantly before dawn and leads the pilgrims to My city astray and on the path of perdition. " (Pers. 24)
- “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like the graves that are painted white on the outside and look beautiful; but inside they are full of bones, filth, and rot. So you also appear righteous to men on the outside, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and disobedience to God's law. ” Mt 23: 27-28

Despite these close references to the Holy Scriptures of the predecessor religions of the Bahá'í Faith, according to scientific research by EG Browne, it is a separate category of religious literature and a genuine composition of Bahá'u'lláh.

In some "Hidden Words" there are references to Sufism terms that have had an enormous influence on Persian literature . For example, the Persian Hidden Word No. 4 refers to the familiar theme of the lover's search for his beloved. The union of the person, the lover, with the beloved is understood as (spiritual) “life” and the separation as (spiritual) “death”: “O son of righteousness! Where can a lover go but the land of his beloved? And which seeker would find rest far from the longing of his heart? For the sincere lover, union is life and separation is death. His chest knows no patience and his heart knows no peace. ” With this symbolism Bahá'u'lláh ties in with the Gospel , which also clearly distinguishes between spiritual life and death and thereby broadens the horizon of symbolism in the Persian and the mystical Islamic Literature. Another example is the interpretation of the mystical bird phoenix from the first Persian Hidden Word (Pers. Simurgh, arab 'anqá) as the immortal, free human spirit on the way to God, but also as a revelator of God.

In all religions, God makes a covenant with man through the revelators . People acknowledge the Revelator and keep the commandments of God. God gives people his spiritual blessings . The result is the spiritual and character perfection of people, in the words of Meister Eckhard the “nobility of the soul”. It is with this in mind that Bahá'u'lláh introduces the Hidden Words. They are endowed with “strength and power” and are given to the people so that they “may be faithful to the covenant of God” and “may attain the gem of divine virtue”. For this reason, the Hidden Words are kept short and in symbolic language so that people can easily absorb them and apply them to their lives. The main purpose of the Hidden Words is to motivate and guide people on the path of spiritual and character perfection . They thus represent the core of Bahá'u'lláh's teaching and, along with the Most Holy Book and the Book of Certainty, are among the most important writings of the Bahá'í religion.

Background and story

The "Hidden Words" were revealed in 1858 when Baha'u'llah was living in Baghdád . He received the revelation during his wanderings on the banks of the Tigris . The original manuscript is kept in Landhaus Bahji / Israel and shows that individual hidden words are arranged at random. His secretary, Zaynu'l-Muqarrabín , later arranged the Hidden Words on the direction of Baha'u'llah.

Baha'u'llah also initially called the verse the "Hidden Book of Fatima ". He identifies the work with the book of the same title, "that in the opinion of Shiite Islam to be in possession of the promised Qaim and contain words of comfort which the angel Gabriel spoke for Fatimih at God's command and dictated to Imam Ali." The Shiites believe that the Promised ones will return with various items and books belonging to the Prophet Mohammad's family . One is the "Book of Fatima". When Bahá'u'llah chose the term "Hidden Book of Fatima", the reference was made to the eschatological expectations in Shiite Islam that existed around the middle of the 19th century . The collection of Bahá'u'lláh was later called "The Hidden Words".

Publications and translations

The "Kalemāt-e maknuna" were widespread among the Persian Baha'i in the 19th century. EG Browne translated some of the Hidden Words in a compilation of the writings of Abdu'l-Bahá . It was first published at the beginning of the 20th century in a compilation on the Baha'i Faith. The Hidden Words was one of the first works by Bahaullah to be translated into English by Shoghi Effendi . The "Hidden Words" are one of the most translated scriptures of the Baha'i Faith. Shoghi Effendi published the first comprehensive official translation in 1929. The norms set by Shoghi Effendi were examined in 1997 by Diana Malouf. The earliest German translation of the Hidden Words can be found in Phelbs' biography of Abdu'l-Bahá, dated 1922 . The Arabic Hidden Words can be found under the heading "Jewels of Wisdom". The next revised translation from the Arabic and Persian original by Johanna von Werthern with the assistance of Adelbert Mühlschlegel , Manuchehr Zabih and Günther Heyd was published in 1948 by the National Spiritual Council of the Baha'i in Germany and Austria. The latest German translation is from 2001 (11th, revised edition).

Remarks

↑ Not to be confused with the book of the same name by Mulláh Mohsen Fayz, in which the author explains his creed of Shiite esotericism and mysticism and is based on several hadites of the Shiite imams and is to be seen in the context of intra-Shiite dogmatic discussions (Lawson: “Globalization and the Hidden Words ”in Warburg:“ Bahá'í and Globalization ”, Aarhus, 2005, page 42). For an in-depth comparison, see Lawson, “The Hidden Words and the Hidden Words,” Paper presented at the Newcastle Bahai Studies Conference, December, 1999
^ Bahá'u'lláh: An Introduction / International Bahá'í Congregation, Public Relations Office, New York, p. 17. Hofheim-Langenhain: Bahá'í-Verlag, 1997
↑ Abdu'l-Bahá: Deepening the Faith. Section 40. Persian: kanz-i-asrár (کنز اسرار), which is also the title of D. Maani's standard work on the Hidden Words. German Translation: A Treasure of Mysteries, Hofheim, 2009
↑ ^a ^b Abdu'l-Bahá: Deepen the faith. No. 37
↑ The term "son" is used in the sense of a collective term and means being human in itself. It has no meaning whatsoever in terms of gender differentiation between men and women. See Shoghi Effendi in Lights of Guidance No. 1634. For a detailed analysis of the invocations see p. Maani pp. 45-55.
↑ “Also know that the soul has vibrations: If it soars into the sphere of love and contentment, it will be connected with the All-Merciful. However, if it takes its flight into the realm of self and desire, it will belong to Satan. God keep us and you from that, O you who understand. If the soul is kindled by the fire of God's love, it is called the soul that has come to rest and is pleasing to God. But if it is consumed by the fire of passion, it is called the soul that commands evil ” (Bahá'u'lláh,“ Claim and Annunciation ”, 34). Cf. analogously the analysis by Annemarie Schimmel of the different stages of the soul in Islamic mysticism in “Mystical Dimensions of Islam”, 48, 166, 167.
↑ Malouf s. 39
↑ Shoghi Effendi in LOG No. 1633. Nevertheless, there have been attempts at categorization. George Townshend , one of the eminent British Baha'i, wrote in his introduction to the Hidden Words that the Arabic part consists of short, direct and ethical sections and the Persian part consists more of personal appeals and mystical and poetic allusions. The author's tone can be characterized as a “loving teacher” in the Arabic part and as a “teaching lover” in the Persian part. The introduction can be found in Shoghi Effendi, The Hidden Words , Wilmette, IL, 1954, Intro. by George Townshend, pp. i-ix. See also the work of Maani.
↑ Maani p. 124
↑ According to Abdu'l-Bahá, this verse can also be interpreted at the level of revelation as the light of God on earth among men . For an Islamic interpretation in this direction see al-Ghazálí: Die Niche der Lichter, Hamburg, 1987.
↑ Abdu'l-Bahá: A traveller's Narrative pp. 122–126
↑ Maani, p. 79
↑ It is about the eternal covenant of God with man (English Eternal Covenant). See Towfigh, "Creation and Revelation in the Bahá'í Religion," p. 36
↑ "As a sign of grace for the righteous, We have taken the essence from it and clad it in the garment of brevity"
↑ ^a ^b Shoghi Effendi: God Goes Over. 8:27
↑ 1274 AHL

literature

expenditure

Bahá'u'lláh: Hidden words . Bahá'í-Verlag, Hofheim 2004, ISBN 3-87037-418-7 ( online in an older and different edition on the website of the Society for Bahá'í Studies ).
Baha'u'llah: The Hidden Words . Oneworld Publications, Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-1-85168-349-9 ( online ).