Du`ā-yi Ṣaḥīfa  (The Scroll of the Supplication[s])

=  Ṣaḥīfa-yi Makhzuna = Ṣaḥīfa al-Ḥujjatiyya c. 1260/1844

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    The title and opening of a ms. of the  Ṣaḥīfa al-Ḥujjatiyya

"This is the  Ṣaḥīfa al-Ḥujjatiyya (Treatise of the Proof), may the peace of God be upon him. It is among his Du`as (Supplications) -- upon him be peace -- relating to devotional laudation (taḥmīd) before God, exalted be He.

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

        Praised be to God Whose Being existed before all things (kulli shay'ⁱⁿ) when there was nothing alongside Him. He existed (mawjūd ^an) at a moment when there was no existence (lā wujūd) for anything (li-shay') proximate to Him. He did indeed inform the inmost hearts of the mystic knowers (af'ida al-`arifin) of that gnosis (ma`rifat) which is especially apophatic [inadequate] (adnā) yet a cataphatic [positive] depiction (waṣf ⁱⁿ) of the tokens of His fragrant knowability (allāmat `urfihi)...

 

        The Du`a-yi Ṣaḥīfa (The Supplication[s] of the Scroll-Treatise) is also known as the  Ṣaḥīfa-yi Makhzūna ("The Treasured Scroll") and Ṣaḥīfa Ḥujjatiyya ("The Scroll of the Proof").  These titles all describe the same extended devotional compilation consisting of fourteen du`as, "supplications" or "prayers". This work is mentioned in both the the Kitab al-fihrist (1845) (The Book of the Index) and the Khuṭba Dhikriyya (1846) (Sermon of the Dhikr-Remembrance) within the Ṣaḥīfa al-Raḍawiyya which gives it the messianic and imamologically suggestive title Ṣaḥīfa al-Ḥujjatiyya, ("The Scroll of the Proof"; see ms. above); a titlle evidently related to the messianic Hujjat or "Proof" as the Promised Shi`i Messiah or twelfth Imam is known in numerous traditions and related sources.  This work thus has three different names (1) Du`ā-yi Ṣaḥīfa (The Supplication[s] of the Scroll)  (2) Ṣaḥīfa-yi makhzūna ("The Treasured Scroll") and (3) Ṣaḥīfa al-Du`ā-yi Ṣaḥīfa  (The Supplication[s] of the Scroll). According to the Khuṭba al-dhikriyya ("Sermon of the Dhikr [Remembrance]) it consists of "fourteen Du`ās" ("supplications", "prayers") which "were manifest at the commencement (bad') of the [Babi] Cause (al-amr)" (Arabic text cited Afnan, 2000: 473). It very like dates to the first year of the Babi  era 1260/1844 though it is not impossible that it dates slightly earlier than May 22nd 1844, the date of the messianic declaration of the Bāb.

        The fourteen Du`ās (supplications) making up this work of the Bāb each begin as follows: 

 

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