Tablet on Understanding the Cause of Opposition

The translation of Tablet on Understanding the Cause of Opposition to the Manifestations of God (Lawḥ-i ʿirfān-i ʿillat-i iʿrāḍ) is now available. You can access it on the Windflower Translations Library. On this page, you can read the English translation and, in addition, open or download a pdf file that contains the original Persian/Arabic side by side with the English. The tablet has two distinct sections: the first section in Persian, which contains Baha'u'llah's explanations to his correspondent, and a second section in Arabic, which is a long prayer that Baha'u'llah wrote for his correspondent to say.

The Tablet on Understanding the Cause of Opposition is not known in the English-speaking world. It is on the Baha'i World Centre's 'best-known' list of tablets, but despite that, nothing is known about it. Taherzadeh does not mention it in any of his four volumes on Baha'u'llah's writings. The one thing that can be said for sure is that it was written in the Akka period, because in the tablet Baha'u'llah says that he is writing in the Most Great Prison. The recipient of the tablet is not known. It might be a Baha'i who has come to doubt Baha'u'llah's claims or perhaps a Muslim seeker who is 'hesitating'.

In responding to his correspondent, Baha'u'llah uses the opportunity to go over in summary his arguments for why people turn away from the manifestations when they come to the world. It would be fair to say that the Persian section of the tablet is like a very concise statement of what is argued at length in the Kitab-i Iqan. It contains a quick-fire hard-hitting line of reasoning, which is at bottom the same as in the Iqan, but with a different flavour.

In the Arabic section of the tablet, Baha'u'llah launches into a long prayer, where he has the recipient of the tablet go into a deep meditation on his failings. It contains many parallel constructions and is really quiet beautiful. For example:

"O my God! The more you showed compassion and patience toward me, the more my heedlessness and opposition increased. You remembered me when I failed to remember you, and you turned toward me with the Manifestation of yourself when I hesitated to turn toward the radiance of your face, and you called out to me when I was unable to hear your call issuing from the Dayspring of your Cause."

As you can see from the quoted passage above, the tablet has been translated into a simple, modern English.

Why do provisional translations?

Question: Why bother to work on provisional translations when the World Centre already has a plan for translating the writings of Baha'u'llah?

To answer this question, let's begin with an estimate of how many tablets Baha'u'llah wrote. "Bahá'u'lláh revealed over 15,000 tablets. Some are long (several hundred pages) but most are a page or two, written to a specific individual to answer a question or convey encouragement."[1] Of these, the World Centre has archived just under half: "Bahá'u'lláh, 7,160 tablets archived".[2]

Taking into account the number of translations done by the Guardian and by the World Centre, up to the point when the Kitab-i Aqdas was translated, the following is an estimate of authorised translations, including partial translations:

"It appears that less than 500 of the 15,000 tablets — a relatively small percentage of the total revelation — have been partially translated and published in English."[3]

And to give a little more context, "Taherzadeh's four-volume Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh provides historical information on and summaries of only about 86 tablets."[4]

Now, if we think about the sheer size of the revelation and the speed at which the World Centre is able to release authorised translations, we begin to see that, if we wait for the World Centre to translate the revelation, we will not see very much of it in our lifetimes. The task is simply enormous. As many believers have pointed out to me, the World Centre has to work very hard to ensure that the translations it produces are as accurate as possible and this involves much time, a lot of resources and the minds of many people. So while it may be true that the World Centre does a better job of translating the writings, this does not mean that it is pointless to do provisional translations. Provisional translations may not be quite as good, but they are still extremely valuable. The argument against doing provisional translations seems to take the position that a thing is not worth doing unless it is perfect. I think it is an excuse for inaction - an excuse never to take up a challenge and sail on the ark of faith. Surely, any worthy attempt to translate the revelation for the benefit of all will be blessed by Baha'u'llah? Why would he not wish to see his words spread throughout the English-speaking world? Isn't that why he came?

Another argument for not bothering with provisional translations is the one that says that the translations we already have cover the most important tablets Baha'u'llah wrote. Therefore, we should be content with what we have, for it is the most important portion of the revelation anyway. In fact, I've even heard someone say something like, 'Well, how many read what we've already got!?' To which I say, 'Who cares what others do? I read what we've got and I want to read more! Do we simply adjust to the lowest common denominator? Why not cater to those who faithfully read the writings and can't get enough of them? Aren't they the people that matter?'

As to the argument that what we have constitutes the important portion of the revelation, in fact, there are still significant tablets - like Kitab-i Badi, which is longer than the Kitab-i Iqan - that have yet to be translated. There are many, many important tablets published in Persian and Arabic that have yet to be translated into English. We are in the ridiculous position where a sizeable proportion of the global Baha'i population - that is, the section who read Persian and Arabic - are familiar with writings that English speakers do not even know exist! If it is good enough for Persian and Arabic speakers to read those tablets - they have been published, after all - why not make them available to English speakers? Why should English speakers have to settle for less than what Persian and Arabic speakers read? Shall we take away the tablets published in Persian and Arabic and tell those who read them that, hey, it's all right because they already have the bit of the revelation that matters? It's patronising. There are books of daily readings published in Persian and Arabic that contain passages from tablets English speakers have never even heard of.



[1] Notes by Rob Stockman. http://bahai-library.com/number_tablets_bahaullah
[2] Ibid, Resource Guide for the Scholarly Study of the Bahá'í Faith
[3] Ibid
[4] Ibid

Modes of revelation

I have compiled a summary of the passage in the book "Gate of the Heart" by Nader Saiedi, in which he outlines the five modes of revelation, as explained by the Bab.

Click on this link: Modes of revelation

Depression is a hell

Last night I had a dream about hell. Never mind the details - they aren't nice. The point is that it got me thinking about hell again and about the fact that I spent a good part of my life depressed - right up until my late 40s.

I want to say here, in case it helps others, how I managed to get out of my recurring depressed states. Finally, I actually managed to talk myself out of depression. For me, depression was all about the fight between the darkness and the light. I don't know about others, but that's what it boiled down to for me. I was depressed because I kept believing, on the basis of, admittedly, very good evidence, that darkness had the upper hand. All around me I saw unhappiness and I could see no reason not to be unhappy too.

But one day, when I was sitting, thinking, in my depressed state, by the grace of God two ideas came into my mind. Firstly, I realised that depression was a bottomless pit. That, in fact, it was like a hole you were falling in and that it didn't have a bottom level. You just keep falling and falling and falling. I realise now that I used to assume that I'd reach the bottom and then start coming up. But I was wrong about that. I saw that I would just keep falling if I stayed depressed and would never, ever come up. Just keep going down.

This idea caused me to see my depression in a new light. I realised that feeling depressed was useless, because the state of depression was never going to lead to my feeling better. I needed some other response that would help me.

It was at that point that I realised I had a choice - I could choose to be depressed and go into free-fall, or I could choose to be happy. Given that depression was a no-win, I convinced myself that being happy was the most rational option, even if it was based on fantasy.

Since then, I have discovered that Baha'u'llah says repeatedly that the Light is the thing that is all-powerful. So I can see that Baha'u'llah backs up the conclusion that being happy is the most rational way to be.

So, in my view, depression is a hell because it is eternal darkness. And I believe we have a choice whether to dwell in eternal darkness or eternal light. But there is no point in being in eternal darkness, so why not choose the light?

The difference between holiness and conformity

I am reading the Iqan again and have just finished reading the part where Baha'u'llah discusses how Moses was a murderer and how Jesus was a fatherless child, whose mother appeared for all the world as unchaste. But God deliberately set these situations up this way, so that his manifestations would appear morally questionable. As a result, most people denounced these manifestations for being immoral, much less messengers of God. However, the hidden truth was that these 'immoral' manifestations were in fact the holy ones, and the people who denounced them were the unholy ones.

It got me thinking about how practised the Baha'is are at denouncing people for not being acceptable - ie, not firm in the covenant, unfit for community membership, not chaste, not this and not that. What will happen when the next manifestation comes and violates these very moral standards the Baha'is hold so dearly to? If these social standards are the measure the Baha'is cling to, how will they recognise the holy fragrance of the manifestation when s/he brings it down from heaven?

I think Baha'u'llah is pointing out that there is a difference between holiness, and conformity to socially accepted standards. Holiness is to do with the heart, not perfection of outer actions. We may not be perfect in character and we may be sinners, but what matters is that we are sincere and try to attach ourselves to Baha'u'llah and try to improve ourselves each day. I think this is the measure. It is love and all the other spiritual susceptibilities.

I think the Baha'is have made the Baha'i faith too hard for people. They have generated enormous complexity out of something that is very simple. They leave people feeling like they will never meet with Baha'u'llah's good pleasure. In my view, the pressing concern of our age now is to give people the good news that Baha'u'llah has come for everyone, and wiped their past clean and forgiven their sins. That he invites us all to everlasting life. We can all arise with joy at this momentous act of grace, which is brought to all people without exception. The Baha'is have turned the faith into a quagmire. I think the pressing need of this age is to free Baha'u'llah's message from that bog and set it free so that the message of supreme felicity can get out and renew people's lives.

Flying with Baha'u'llah

When I do briefly look at what the Bahai's get up to, I always think that they miss the point of why Baha'u'llah came. I know that the Baha'is like to emphasise the uniting of humanity - and that is certainly one goal - but it is a social goal and it misses the very personal nature of the revelation, which is addressed to each one of us in a very intimate fashion.

As I read the writings, Baha'u'llah had another purpose - one that is central to his revelation - and that is to offer each one of us the opportunity to make the spiritual journey to join him in his spiritual realm of eternal glory. In other words, he came to invite each one of us to come home with him, to be eternally reunited with him in his celestial sanctuary. In a sense, if we choose to, we can climb in our celestial rocket (or, to use Baha'u'llah's image, take the cup of wine offered by the hand of the cupbearer) and just blast on up to our everlasting nest. Baha'u'llah seeks to be with us, individually. Being a manifestation, he can multitask and give a private audience to an infinite number of people at any one time. So each one of us is invited and is important.

Here is a quote from the Hidden Words in which he tries to inspire us to make the journey to be with him: "O son of spirit! Burst thy cage asunder, and even as the phoenix of love soar into the firmament of holiness. Renounce thyself and, filled with the spirit of mercy, abide in the realm of celestial sanctity." The Hidden Words are filled with invitations for us to fly away to be with him - the same message worded differently over and over again.

It seems to me that, if the Baha'is want to be effective at promulgating the message, they need to 'renounce themselves', as the quote above says - in other words, get over themselves and see beyond the worldly reality of the community and its activities and administration, and even its development - and look to the celestial realm of Baha'u'llah. What's important is for people to know that Baha'u'llah is asking them to fly up on spiritual wings, through the experience of wonderment, delight and the joy of reunion, to live forever in their heavenly home, with the One who created them for that very purpose.

Each of us, right now, can climb into our rocket and just leave all the nightmares behind. Baha'u'llah tells us that this is the most important thing we can ever do. Never mind all the stuff about us being unworthy. Who is worthy? The very act of lifting ourselves off the earth to fly into the realm of sanctity is the very act of freeing ourselves from sin and the past. God is all-forgiving. We can take Baha'u'llah at his word on this.

Happy flying
Alison

Many thanks, Baha'u'llah

Many thanks, Baha'u'llah, for coming to earth and suffering your whole life so that you could 'download' from the Houri a message saying that God, who I can never know directly, has come to call me home. For decades, I thought I was listening. But I wasn't. I was listening to people around me and Baha'i administration types and such like, and getting caught up in human affairs at all levels. And for years, I got caught up in my own dramas, which I thought had substance, but didn't.

Finally, I actually began to listen to you. And I began to hear you say that you wanted me to forget the world and tune in to you, your word and melody. Then I started to hear the mysteries. Now I'm not very good at keeping focused on you, but I know where I need to keep my attention. And, dear Baha'u'llah, I am grateful beyond all that you took the pains, which have lead me to eternal joy and freedom from the heartaches all around. To think that God created it all just so humans might know. I say 'wow' to what you have willed me to know.