The 

Kitāb al-fihrist 

(Book of the Index)

of the Bāb

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Introduction

        Composed on               / 21st June 1845 after his  Ḥajj or pilgrimage the  early Kitāb al-fihrist (Book of the Index) of the Bāb, among other things  lists his writings up to the time of composition,  detailing titles, subsections and to some extent contents. ...

 

 

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The  Kitāb al-fihrist  (Book of the Index) 

Provisional Translation

Stephen N. Lambden

This translation is made from the Arabic text contained in TBA Ms. 6006C: 339-348. Other mss. have also been consulted including...

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 (I)

[1]

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

 [2]

 المرا

Alif-Lām-Mīm-Rā’-Alif

“A”- “L”- “M”- “R”- “A”.

[3]

  ذلك الكتاب ذكر من الله في حكم عبد بديع

 “This Book is a [messianic] Remembrance from God (Dhikr min Allāh)

 containing a directive (ḥukm) of a wondrous servant

 [4]

 و انه لكتاب

 قد نزل من لدن بقية الله امام حق قديم و انه لهو الحق في السموات و الارض

لا يعزب من علمه شيیءِ و لا يحيط بذكره خلق

 

It is indeed a Book which hath come down from the [messianic] Remnant of God (Baqiyyat-Allāh),

an Imam, Ultimately Real, [and]  Ancient of Days (al-ḥaqq al-qadīm).

It [He] is indeed an expression of the Real Truth (al- ḥaqq) [for whomsoever] are in the heavens and on the earth.

No single thing escapes His knowledge and naught created can encompass [grasp] His [messianic] Remembrance (Dhikr).

و انه لكتاب قد نزل من لدن بقية الله امام حق قديم 

It assuredly is a Book which was sent down on the part of the (messianic) Baqiyyat-Allāh   (Remnant of God)

from [a true Imam] before the Real One, the Ancient of days  (ḥaqq qadīm). 

[3]

و انه لهو الحق في السموات و الارض  

It is most assuredly enshrines the Real Truth in [both] the heavens and upon the earth.

[4]

لا يعزب من علمه شيیءِ و لا يحيط بذكره خلق

و انه لامام حي عظيم

No single thing escapes His knowledge neither do the creatures befittingly encompass  His Dhikr  (Remembrance)

for He is assuredly  the Living, One Mighty.

[5]

 

ان اتبع حكم ما اوحی اليك الان من ربك

        Follow  the decree[s] (ḥukm) such as  have been  divinely inspired unto thee

since the same cometh from thy Lord.

[6]

 فان الامر قد قضی   

و كل في حشر البديع ليبعثون

The Cause  (amr)  hath indeed stipulated that all shall certainly be resurrected at the wondrous Assembling

(fī ḥashr al-badī`).

 

[II]

[1]

قل انني عبد من بقية الله قد امنت بالله

 و اياته و ما نزل في القران من عند الله

 و انه لا اله الا هو لشهيد عليم

 

Say: `I am a servant from the Baqiyyat-Allāh   (messianic Remnant of God).

[2]

I have believed in God and His verses [signs] and what hath been sent down in the Qur’ān

on the part of God.

He, verily, no God is there except Him,  assuredly a Witness, One Informed.

[3]

اشهد لله في ذلك الكتاب بما شهد لذاته بذاته

 انه لا اله الا هو العزيز القديم

I  bear witness before God regarding this Book since He doth testify before His Own

Essence and through His Own Essence that He is indeed One besides Whom there is

none other Deity except Him, the Mighty, the Ancient.

[4]

و اشهد لمحمد رسول الله ما قد شآءِ الله لنفسه

انه لا اله الا هو لقوي عزيز

 And I bear witness that Muhammad is assuredly

the Messenger of God whom God hath indeed willed

for his own Logos-Self, for He, verily, no deity is there except Him,

One Powerful and Mighty indeed.

[5]

 قل انه متفرد في علم الله عن المثل و كل لديه

من المعدومين في كتاب الله لمسطور

Say: ` He is supremely unique in the knowledge of God relative to any [inadequate] similitude for all before Him are naught but things

non-existent in the Book of God which is inscribed.

[6]

 و اشهد بعد رسول الله

في حكم الولاية في احرف الاحدية لا اله الا الله

 و كل له مسلمون

And I bear witness after the Messenger of God unto the decree of the wilāya 

(the locus of divine providence) relative to the [abjad value] of the (12)

[supreme] letters of the Divine Unity

 (= لا اله الا الله  aḥraf al-aḥadiyya = the twelver Imams)

before whom all are [merely] accounted Muslims.

 

[7]

 اشهد ان اسمآئهم في كتاب الله عليّ و الحسن و الحسين

 و عليّ و محمد و جعفر و موسی و عليّ و محمد

 و عليّ  و الحسن و محمد

 امام العدل لمسطور

[8]

I testify that their (12) names  in the Book of God are [Imams]:

[1] `Alī and [2] Ḥasan and [3] Ḥusayn

[4] `Alī (Zayn al-Abidin) [5] Muhammad (al-Baqir)

and [6] Ja`far (al-Muhammadādiq)

[7] Mūsā (al-Kāẓim) [8] `Alī (al-Riḍā'),

[9] Muhammad (al-Taqī)

[10] `Alī (al-Nāqī) [11] Ḥasan (al-`Askarī)

and [12] Muhammad (al-Mahdī)

the Imam of [who will establish] Divine Justice,

 assuredly one divinely inscribed [ in the Book].

 

 

و اشهد ان ما سواهم لدی ذكر قدرتهم لمعدوم بعد ذكر لموجود

و اشهد ان فاطمة بنت رسول الله ورقة من الشجرة البيضآءِ

 لا اله الا هو

[xx]

 

        Say: `My name is Muhammad after the word `Alī [= Muhammad `Alī]

and the name of my father, after the mention of the word Muhammad

is Riḍā' [= Muhammad Riḍā'].

He, assuredly, was written down in the Book of God.

 The name of my grandfather in the Book of God was Ibrāhīm (Abraham)

and the name of his father (the Bāb's great-grandfather)  was Naṣr-Allāh

such as is recorded in the Qur'ān. 2

 

        This Book is a Remembrance on My part in order that the people might be instructed. What follows is everything which was sent down on the part of the Remembrance (= the Bāb) in the days of His Lord -- written during a fifteen month period and sometime earlier. Persons should preserve it, just as they do their own selves, a recompense for the Day when all shall be belong to God. They should write down these sūras: