THE SEVEN VALLEYS OF BAHĀ'-ALLĀH:
هفت وادی
AN
INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION WITH
OCCASIONAL NOTES,
INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION
PART
01
Last revised January 2006
Stephen N. Lambden
Study of and meditation upon The Seven Valleys (Haft Vádi ;
henceforth SV ) of Baha'-Allāh
has formed an important part of my spiritual life for over thirty years. The
classic translation of `Alī Kuli-Khān
and Marzieh Gail (= AKK) has always been very dear to me and remains so. My
purpose in sharing this provisional re-translation, with some doctrinal and
philological notes, is to register the tentative results of my own study of, and
musings upon, the SV. I have attempted to translate from a stance that takes
some account of modern academic trends in the English translation of Islamic
mystical (Sufi) texts as well as Bahā'ī
translation style established by Shoghi Effendi.
[1]
I obviously remain indebted to the translations of the SV by AKK and Marzieh
Gail as well as to that of the "Disciple of `Abdu'l-Baha'",
Hippolyte Dreyfus (1873-1928 CE). A selection of my gradually accumulated
notes will be gradually set forth below with a view to their being corrected, and /
or supplemented by others more qualified to translate and comment upon Baha'-Allah's
mystical masterpiece.
The SV is basically a Sufi-Bābī
revelation of Baha'-Allāh
which follows an important mystical literary genre; the "seven valleys" of the
spiritual journey towards God (see 01:7 commentary [forthcoming]). No
detailed introduction to Sufism (Islamic mysticism) can be set down here.
There exist numerous introductory overviews and general books devoted to this
subject. (2) It must suffice to note that
Annemarie Schimmel, prefacing a brief article Islamic
mysticism, Sufism, gives an excellent, succinct, though necessarily
limited, definition of Islamic mysticism: "Mysticism is that aspect of Islamic
belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and
knowledge through direct personal experience of God. It consists of a variety of
mystical paths that are designed to ascertain the nature of man and God and to
facilitate the experience of the presence of divine love and wisdom in the
world." [3]
In the SV Bahā'-Allāh
informs its recipient, Shaykh Muḥyī
al-Dīn
of Khāniqān
(Iraq), of new dimensions of the meaning of the path to God. The Sufi path is
set forth in the light of Bābī
[proto-Bahā'ī]
theological and ethical teachings. Sufi teachings which might detract from faith
in the supreme quṭb ("Axis"), maẓhar-i
ilāhī (the Manifestation of God), are subtly modified.
Many examples of
Bābī and Bahā'ī
scripture exhibit marked Sufi influence. Typically Sufic terminology and
hermeneutics permeate certain of the writings of the Bāb including, for
example, his Qayyūm al-asma' and Risala Dhahabiyya .
So too, many alwāḥ of
Bahā'-Allāh especially early, pre-1863 CE Tablets such as Az bagh-i ilāhī (From the Divine Garden)
and the Lawḥ-i ḥaqq ("Tablet of the Ultimately
Real"). Qur'ānic
exegesis in Bābī-Bahā'ī
scripture is often hermeneutically Sufi oriented. Bahā'ī ethics are likewise markedly Sufi
in tone as is evident in the Kalimāt-i maknūnih ("The Hidden Words").
In the 19th century Middle East a number of Sufis became Bahā'īs
and contributed to the spread of the Bahā'ī
Faith. During the Edirne (Adrianople) and West Galilean (`Akkā' = Acre)
periods of his ministry (after 1866 or so) Bahā'-Allāh
to some extent came to view mystical esotericism (bāṭinī
tendencies) -- over indulgence in such arcane interests as kimiya
(alchemy, ultimately forbidden), and jafr ([loosely] gematric
prognostigation with disfavour. [4] Sufism yet remains one of the most important Islamic doctrinal streams that have
informed the Babi-Bahā'ī
revelations.
The modern Bahā'ī
Faith, however, is not merely neo-Sufi. It is only peripherally and in certain
doctrinal areas Sufi oriented. To some extent following early Shaykhī
and other Islamic
perspectives the Bab
and Bahā'-Allāh
sometimes explicitly rejected Sufi doctrines. Like Shaykh Amad al-Aḥsā'ī
(d.1826 CE.), for example, the Bab
so championed the transcendent unknowability of God, an apophatic theology that pantheistic
and monistic
understandings of waḥdat al-wujūd
("oneness of Being"), were explicitly rejected as can be seen in his Persian
Ṣāḥīfa-yi
`adliyya ("Equitable
Tract ") (late 1847-early 1847, 16), Risāla Dhahabiyya
(Treatise for the Dhahabiyya Sufi[s]) and numerous other major and minor
writings.
Traversing the seventh of the SV (faqr-i haqīqī va fanā') Bahā'-Allāh
similarly stated that "the mystic wayfarer leaveth behind him the stages of
the oneness of Being and of witnessing (waḥdat-i wujūd
va shuhūd)
and reacheth a [mystical] oneness (waḥdat) that is sanctified above these
two levels [of oneness] (dū
maqām)" (AQA. 3:133).
During his two year withdrawal in Iraqi Kurdistan (1854-1856) Bahā'-Allāh
came into contact with leading figures of various important and widespread Sufi
orders (cf. GPB:122); more specifically,
(1) the Naqshbandiyya
order founded by Bahā'
al-Dīn
Muhammad Naqshband (1317-1389 CE),
(2) the Qādiriyya
order, founded by `Abd al-Qādir
Jīlānī [Gīlānī] (c. 1077-1165 CE). and
(3) the Khālidī
order founded by Baha'
al-Dīn
Khālid
al-Shahrazūrī (1776-1827 CE.), a sub-brotherhood of the Naqshbandī order.
Bahā'-Allah commented orally on "abstruse passages" of the massive magnum
opus of the Great Shaykh, Shaykh Muḥyī
al-Dīn
ibn al-`Arabī
(1165-1240 C.E.), the al-Fuṭḥāt
al-makkiyya ("Meccan Illuminations") and composed several important
Arabic and Persian poetical Sufi-style writings, i.e. al-Qaṣīda
al-warqā'iyya
("The Ode of the Dove") and Saqī az ghayb-i baqā'
("The Cupbearer of the Unseen Eternity").
Whilst living in Baghdad between 1856 and 1863 Bahā'-Allāh continued to come into contact with and respond to
visiting Sufis belonging to the
abovementioned (and possibly other) Sufi orders. In one of his Tablets
concerning esoteric factions (ahl-i bāṭin)
he refers to Qādirī
Sufis and to an ascetic episode which he witnessed in Baghdad (Ma'idih 4:31). `Abd al-Qādir
Jīlānī [Gīlānī]'s
tomb is situated in Baghdad which was a major centre for a number of Sufi groups.
The SV of
Bahā'-Allāh
is a largely Persian epistle written in response to a letter received from a
certain Shaykh Muḥyī
al-Dīn,
a qaḍī
("judge") of Khāniqān
which is situated near the Iraqi-Persian border to the northeast of Baghdad.
This Shaykh was evidently a leading member of a Sufi order who, in his letter to
Bahā'-Allāh, alluded to his having attained an elevated spiritual
condition, that of fanā'
("passing away") from worldly reality, the mystical "death" of the lower self and
subsequent
baqā',
indicative of a permanent "subsistence" in mystical eternality (see note on 03:4). Exactly
which Sufi order he belonged to is not directly stated in the SV or in other Bahā'ī sources known to the present writer. Internal evidence could be taken to suggest
that he was, like the recipient of the Four Valleys, a prominent
member of the Qādīrī
Sufi order (the abovementioned order founded by `Abd al-Qādir Jīlānī [Gīlānī]).
[5]
Written in the classical form of the `Seven Valleys'
[6] this significant item of Bahā'ī scripture is
obviously responsive to such Sufi texts as the Manṭiq al-ṭayr
("The Conference [
Logic] of the Birds") which is also, according to
some manuscripts, entitled the "Seven Valleys" of Farīd
al-Dīn `Aṭṭār (1140-1221 CE.). Within it Bahā'-Allāh
sets forth, from the Sufi-Bābī
perspective, the various stages which mystic wayfarers might go through in their
quest for the ultimate passing away, the mystical nullification of the lower
self (fanā').
As will be demonstrated, the SV is significantly influenced
by both Shī`ī and Sufi theological perspectives as well as by Bābī
doctrine. Many lines within it could be understood in varying ways depending
upon whether it is primarily viewed from a Shī`ī,
Sufi, Bābī or modern Bahā'ī
perspective, not that it is always possible to distinguish these vantage
points.
The provisional retranslation below is influenced by developed Bahā'ī
doctrine though not, I hope, so as to obscure its probable original Sufi-Bābī
meaning. The notes and commentary below only touch the surface of the
many possible senses within the SV. Established Sufi terminology is
identified and commented upon as is recognizably central Bābī
language.
On one occasion `Abdu'l-Bahā'
summed up the ethical significance of the SV when he stated :
"It is my hope..that you may search out your own
imperfections and not think of the imperfections of anybody else. Strive
with all your power to be free from imperfections. Heedless souls are always
seeking faults in others. What can the hypocrite know of others' faults when
he is blind to his own? This is the meaning of the Seven Valleys. It is a
guide for human conduct". [7]
In his
God Passes By (1944) Shoghi Effendi
refers to the Seven Valleys as Baha'-Allah's "greatest mystical
composition", a composition "in which
He describes the seven stages which the soul of the seeker must needs traverse
ere it can attain the object of its existence" (GPB:140). Without at
this point going into details, the Seven valleys (haft vadi
), whic be viewed as religious, "spiritual" or ethico-mystical states of being,
commence with the "Valley of Search" (ṭalab) and culminate in the
seventh "Valley of [mystical] Poverty (faqr-i ḥaqīqī
) and the Spiritual Death of the limited
self (va fanā)"
(see on 01:7 [forthcoming]).
The exact date of the SV is unknown. It was apparently some time after Baha'-Allah's
return from Iraqi Kurdistan (Sulaymaniyya) to Baghdad i.e. after 19 March 1856,
thus
most probably around1857-1858 (1274-1275. A.H.). [8]
MANUSCRIPT TEXTS OF THE SV
Unpublished manuscript copies of the Persian text of the SV
can be found in a variety of locations. Manuscript versions include:
(1) Iran National Bahā'i Manuscript Collection [= INBMC],
Majmu`a-yi
āthār-i
qalam-i a`lā, Qudrat 133 Badī`, Vol. 33:101-133 .
(2) INBAMC Vol. 35 Majmu`a-yi āthār-i
qalam-i a`lā, Qudrat 133 Badī`/ Jamāl
133 Badi`,
293ff.
(3) British [Museum] Library MS. Or. 3116
= Kremer, no. 126, fol. 67-77 ( see Rieu 1895:7).
PRINTED TEXTS OF THE
SEVEN VALLEYS
The Persian text of the SV has several times been printed. It
is to be found, for example, in
(1) Haft vadi, Chahar vadi, Cairo 1332/ 1913-14,
(2) Āthār-i
qalam-i a`lā vol.3. MMMA [BPT]:
Iran 121 Badi`/ 1965-6 CE. (Reprinted, New Delhi : nd.) pp.92-137 -- It is this text which has
been translated below. [9]
(3) The Persian Text of
the SV and the Four Valleys , along with a German and an English
translation, is published in, [Bahá'u'lláh] Haft-Vádí. Chihár-Vádí
[ sic] The Seven Valleys. The Four Valleys Die sieben Täler.
Die vier Täler.
(Hofheim-Langenhain: Bahá'í
Verlag 1988 = 145 Badi`
(ISBN 3-87037-941-3).The Persian text occupies Pt.3 pp.1-66 [end of vol. Persian
pagination], the German Pt.1 pp. 1-54, and the English Pt.2 pp. 1-55. The
translation is that of AKK + Gail and the German a translation of the English.
Although the SV is often found in the original Persian or in
English translation along with the Four Valleys ( Chahar
vadi) of Bahā'-Allāh
they are two entirely distinct works. In a communication of Shoghi Effendi
printed at the beginning of the later editions of the AKK + Marzieh Gail
translation of the SV we read:
" Seven Valleys and Four Valleys should be
regarded as independent Tablets, as they were revealed to different persons."
While the SV was addressed to a Shaykh Muhyi
al-Din
the Four Valleys was written sometime later for the Qadiri Sufi
leader Shaykh `Abd al-Rahman
(GPB:122; also of Karkuk
in Iraqi
Kurdistan?).
EUROPEAN
TRANSLATIONS OF THE SEVERN VALLEYS
[10]
As far as I am aware the earliest western language
translation of the SV was that of the first French Baha'i
Hippolyte Dreyfus (1873-1928 C.E.), [11]
Les
Sept Vallées,
Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1905. It is his translation which is included in H.
Dreyfus and M. Habib-Ullah Chirazi [= Mirza Habīb
Allāh Shirazi]
trans. ...Haft Vadi ( Les Sept Vallées).. [Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1905 (116 pp.). The same translation is likewise published
in the first volume of Dreyfus' three volume compilation of his French
translations of Tablets of Baha'-Allah, L'Oeuvre de Baha'u'llah (Paris: Ernest Leroux,
1923) vol. 1 pp. 25-60
The Dreyfus translation has been many times republished; including one edition
brought out by the American Bahá'í
Publishing Committee : Wilmette, Illinois, 1944 [3+1;5-44 pp.]. In 1933 the
ex-Baha'i (covenant breaker) Julie Chanler translated with the advice of Mirza
Aḥmad Sohrab, Dreyfus' French translation of the SV into English: Julie Chanler
(trans.), Seven Valleys ( New York: New History Foundation) 1933
[37 pp.]. The second European translation of the SV was the 1906 English
translation of Ali Kuli-Khan (c. 1879 -- 1966), [12] The seven valleys revealed by Baha'U'llah at Bagdad, in answer to
questions asked by Sheikh Abdur Rahman, [sic] a great Mohammedan mystic Sufi
leader, Bahai Publishing Society, Chicago 1906, [55+1 pp.]. Another edition
of this translation was published by the Chicago Bahai Publishing
Society between 1906 and 1914 [n.d.] and yet again in 1914 [1, 55, 1
pp.]. It was also published by the New York Baha'i
Publishing Committee in 1936 & 1937 [60 pp.]. There were doubtless other
printings as well. It is, furthermore, partially or fully published in, among
Baha'i
publications:
(1) Eric Hammond (Ed),The Splendour
of God, Being Extracts from the Sacred Writings of the Bahais (Wisdom of
the East Series, London, John Murray, 1909 (1st. Ed.), pp. 53-84 -- including
extracts from `Alī Kuli Khan's 1906 translation, a brief introduction, and some
notes.
(2) Horace Holley (Ed), Bahá'í
Scriptures.. Brentano's New York 1923,
2nd Ed., Baha'i Publishing Committee New York 1928 pp. 159-171.
(3) An early `unpublished' attempt at commenting on this English
translation, it may be noted here, is mentioned in the American National
Union Catalogue: Pre-1956 Imprints , Vol I. p. 503; namely,
`H.B.
Hasting, Seven Valleys. An attempt at an interpretatio[n] for western
readers of some of the oriental imagery of seven valleys, by Abdel Baha Based on a translation by Ali Kuli Khan, 1905 Washington, printed
as MSS [not published] by H.B.H. [Autograph note on cover title = " H.B.H.
Hasting '91 (Harv.)] 1934. [Has autograph annotations and corrections]. Pamphlet
16 pp. Colophon: Printed by Sidney H. Hastings, Saugus, Mass. (Label pasted
over: Abdel Baha, in cover title, reads: Baha'U'llah.)' [sic].
(4) Yet another, even earlier work, very loosely oriented around
Baha'u'llah's
SV in English translation, and expressive of the American cultic milieu from
which certain American Baha's
of the early period entered the Baha'i movement, is W.W. Harmon's, The Seven Principles of the Microcosm and the
Macrocosm applied to the disclosures of Baha'o'llah in the Book of the Seven
Valleys, arranged for students by W.W. Published by the author 1915 (59
pp.). `Abdu'l-Baha'
had apparently encouraged Harmon to write a book on `Divine Illumination' (in
America in August 1912) and subsequently approved of his book which bore this
title in a letter to him dated April 20th 1914 (refer, Harmon, 1915a p.8). His Seven Principles.. was written shortly after his Divine
Illumination and contains a fair amount of occult and metaphysical
speculation the like of which led certain prominent American Baha'is
to accuse him of heterodoxy or of violating the Baha'i
covenant.
A revised edition of Ali Kuli-Khan's 1906 translation of the
SV, accomplished with the aid of his daughter Marzieh Gail, was published in
1945 along with Bahā'-Allāh's Four Valleys (Chahār
vādī). It has gone
through numerous printings, e.g.
Ali-Kuli-Khan & Marzieh Gail (tr.), The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys, Wilmette, Illinois, Bahā'ī
Publishing Committee 1945, 1948, 1952, 1954... [ 62 pp.]
Certain printings of this revised edition contain a 28 page
introduction by Robert L. Gulick, Jr. This introduction to the revised
translation was itself revised and printed in editions published subsequent to
1975. Once again this revised translation has again been printed in a large
number of compilations of Baha'i
sacred writings.[13]
A 3rd revised edition of the AKK-Gail translation appeared in
1978 and 1984..1986, etc published by the Baha'i
Publishing Trust (Wilmette, Illinois, xiii [again with a shorter revised
introduction by R. Gulick Jr] 65 pp. A largely identical 4th revised edition was
published in 198?/91 by the same publishers.
The Oxford (England) based OneWorld Publications Ltd. has
recently published The Seven Valleys of Bahá'u'lláh (Oxford: OneWorld Publications Ltd. 1992). This is basically another edition
of the AKK+Gail translation (4th ed. pp.13-35) with slight `revisions', a new
six page introduction (pp.5-11) and appended notes (92 Notes [pp.59-81] largely
as in the AKK+Gail American editions with a `Preface to Notes' [pp.59-60]).
The
U.K. Bahá'í
Publishing Trust has likewise included the AKK + Gail 4th edition of the SV of
Bahá'u'lláh
in its commemorative centenary publication series "Nightingale Books" (=
The Seven Valleys [London:] Nightingale Books, 1992) with a new very
brief introduction and seventy five, occasionally revised, footnotes (cf. on
these recent printings the review section below).
Endnotes to be added
هفت وادی
THE SEVEN VALLEYS
OF
BAHA'-ALLAH
A
NEW
TRANSLATION WITH OCCASIONAL NOTES
Trans. from the Arabic [Persian]
Stephen Lambden.
01
: PROLEGOMENON 01
[14]
بسم
اللّه الرّحمن الرّحيم
[1]
الحمد للّه الّذی اظهر الوجود من العدم
Praise be to God who hath caused Being (al-wujud) to be made manifest from non-being
(al-`adm);
[2]
و رقم علی لوح الانسان
من اسرار القدم
inscribed upon the tablet of humankind (lawh
al-insan) something of the ancient mysteries (asrar al-qidam)
و علّمه من البيان ما لا يعلم ً
[3]
and taught him that which he knew not of the Exposition
(al-bayan).
[4]
[As an archetypal Perfect Man or Manifestation of God]
و
جعله كتابا مبينا
لمن آمن و استسلم
He made Him a Perspicuous Book (kitab an mubin an) unto
such as believed and surrendered themselves;
[5]
و
اشهد خلق كلّ شئٍ فی هذا الزّمان المظلم الصّيلم
caused Him to
witness the creation of all things in this black and ruinous age
[6]
و انطقه فی قطب البقاءِ
علی اللّحن البديع فی الهيكل المكرّم
and to speak forth from the Apex of Eternal Subsistence
(qutb al-baqa') with a Wondrous Voice in the Illustrious Temple.
[7]
ليشهد
الكل
فی نفسه بنفسه فی مقام تجلّی ربّه بانّه لا اله الا هو
This to the end that all may testify
within themselves,
through soulful experience at the level of the theophany of their Lord
(tajalli rabbuka), that there is none other God save Him.
[8]
و
ليصل الكل بذلك
الی ذروة الحقائق حتّی لا يشاهد احد شيئاً الا و قد يری اللّه فيه
All souls may assuredly accomplish this and thus win their way to the Summit of Spiritual Realities
such that none shall witness a single thing but that they shall see God therein.
-------------------------------------------------
For a full translation of the Arabic
prolegomenon of the Seven Valleys see this Website
ADD HERE
BAHA'U'LLAH baha'u'llah Bahá'u'lláh
Baha'-Allah Bahá
