Four valleys

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The Four Valleys ( Persian چهار وادی Chahar Vadi ) are a short Sufi - mystical work by Baha'u'llah , the founder of Baha'i , which he wrote in Baghdad shortly after his return from Kurdistan in 1856. It is addressed to Sheikh Abu'r-Rahman Talabani from Kirkuk , the head of the Kurdish Qadiriyya Sufis with whom he was in contact in Sulaimaniyya . It describes four valleys that a mystic can reach in his relationship with God . Each corresponds to a certain aspect of the divine:

1. Striving for what is “desired” (maqsud) by observing the revealed law .
2. Wandering to the room of the “ worthy of praise ” (Mahmud), through the application of primal reason .
3. Want to live in the area of ​​the “attractive” (Majdhub), through the beauty of love for God .
4. Successfully traversing the three previous valleys and thus arriving at the beauty of the “Beloved” (Mahbub).

The fourth valley, the destination of the journey, is the “summit of awareness” and the “ mystery of divine guidance”. Furthermore, many other topics are briefly dealt with in the work, the focus is on interpretations of verses from the Koran , hadiths and classics of Sufism and the exhortation to people to acquire education and virtues .

Baha'u'llah's style in this work radiates an authority that exceeds that of a Sufi master, which Baha'i see as a portent of the divine mission of Baha'u'llah, even if he only proclaimed it publicly in 1863. The book is characterized by typical Sufi vocabulary, which can make it difficult to understand for someone without prior knowledge in this area.

Often the four valleys are published together with the seven valleys in an anthology. In terms of content, however, the works have no direct connection - apart from the fact that they are by the same author, were created in the same era and deal with Sufi topics.

literature

• Baha'u'llah: The Seven Valleys, The Four Valleys . Bahai Verlag, Hofheim-Langenhain 1997, ISBN 3-87037-045-9 ( online ).
• Baha'u'llah: The Seven Valleys, The Four Valleys (Magnificent Edition) . Bahai Verlag, Hofheim-Langenhain 1997, ISBN 3-87037-941-3 .
• Baháʼuʼlláh, 1817-1892 ,: The call of the divine beloved: selected mystical works of Bahá ʼ u ʼ lláh. Haifa, ISBN 978-0-87743-390-3 ( online ).
• Peter Smith: Art. Four Valleys . In: Peter Smith (Ed.): A Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith . Oneworld Publications, Oxford 2008, ISBN 978-1-85168-184-6 , pp. 159 .
• Adib Taherzadeh: The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. Baghdád 1853-1863 (volume 1) . Bahá'í-Verlag, Hofheim 1981, ISBN 3-87037-123-4 , pp. 136 .