His Writings consist of
personal correspondence, general tablets, tablets on specific themes, books,
prayers, poems, public talks, and recorded conversations. Approximately
four-fifths of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Writings are in Persian; the rest -- with the
exception of a very small number of prayers and letters in Turkish -- are in
Arabic. ‘Abdu’l-Baha was both fluent and eloquent in these three languages.
Transcriptions of His extemporaneous speeches are often indistinguishable from
His Writings. In a culture that placed a high premium on rhetoric ‘Abdu’l-Baha
was recognized by friend and foe, Arab and Persian, as a paragon of distinctive
style and eloquence.
It is the intent of this
article to touch upon the character of that style and to present an overview of
‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Writings in various genres and categories. Discussion of the
language and style is inherently limited, as it must be attempted across twin
barriers of culture and tongue; the attempt at categorization is necessarily
arbitrary and is meant to serve only as a catalogue. Obviously any number of criteria,
such as chronological, thematic and linguistic, can provide different sets of
categories. Furthermore, some works cited as examples of certain categories
could easily be put under others.
‘Abdu’l-Baha was, of
course, not a prophet and at no time claimed to have received direct revelation
from God. But the Centre of the Covenant of Baha’u’llah, and the appointed
Interpreter of His Revelation, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’is believe, was divinely
inspired and guided. His Writings, therefore, constitute for the Baha’is at
once a part and an interpretation of their Scriptures.
The question of divinely inspired language has traditionally posed a dilemma and given rise to baseless dogma in the religions of the past. In their literal-minded zeal to aver the authenticity of their Holy Writ, devotees of traditional religions have often insisted on the divine authorship of the very lexical and syntactic form of that Writ. This view not only reduces God to the use of particular and different human tongues, but it also attempts to isolate religious writings from the body of the language in which they were written. It equates divine origin with absolute linguistic and literary originality. Those who uphold this view tend to be resentful of any comparison and precedence, and through their unwarranted notion of originality they completely miss the often striking literary originality of holy books that can only be perceived in the light of traditions in their languages. By ignoring the literary traditions, conceptual methods, and cultural associations -- in short by denying the life of the language -- they reduce rather than enhance comprehension and true appreciation of holy scriptures.
‘Abdu’l-Baha’s two primary
languages have vigorous and highly developed literary traditions with more than
a thousand years of life. Only the briefest mention of facets of these
traditions that are germane to the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha is possible here.
Since most of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Writings are in Persian, the main focus here is on
Persian literary traditions. But so many of these are shared with Arabic --
indeed in many cases they are reflections of Arabic norms in Persian -- that
the observations will generally be true of the Arabic literary traditions as
well.
For nearly a thousand
years since the formulation and the crystallization of classical criteria in
Arabic and Persian literature there has existed a preoccupation with and a
primacy of form. Needless to say, tightly metered and fully rhymed poetry, as
the most formal of literary arts, has been the master art form for the Arabs
and the Persians. Prose writers from their aesthetically inferior position have
attempted to ennoble their work with qualities of poetry, evolving a technique
known as saj. It introduces the basic poetic ingredients of rhyme and rhythm
into prose without actually transforming it into equal-footed lines. A symmetry
of expression is achieved by use of lexical devices such as synonyms, antonyms,
and homonyms giving prose an architectural plasticity and rendering it memorable.
This style of writing in Persian reached its apex during the thirteenth century
A.D. and declined rapidly thereafter. By the end of the eighteenth century it
had reached a nadir of artificial verbosity and lost its power to communicate.
The style of ‘Abdu’l-Baha
is the outward mode of His inspiration and expression. The animus is the
Revelation of Baha’u’llah. The clay is the Persian language with its
characteristics. The mystery of His person forms it into a unique style. It is
distinctive, unmistakably personal, and therefore original. Yet it is in the
purest mould of literary tradition. It is a new flowering of saj. ‘Abdu’l-Baha
has breathed new life into a familiar form; but by harmonizing form and content
He has banished contrived artifice.
In the Writings of
‘Abdu’l-Baha form is an approach to the content. He makes use of poetic imagery
and of a vast range of rhetorical and literary devices such as metaphors,
similes, symbols, allegories, alliterations, assonances, and dissonances, not
in order to draw a veil around the subject, but to expand the reader’s mind by
refraction of the same reality through different planes of perception,
cognition and intuition. This is the difference between sterile formality and
organic integrity of form in a truly creative sense.
Two brief examples may
illustrate this harmony of form and content in the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha.
First is the phrase “the Sun of Reality” which occurs frequently in His
Writings both as a metaphor and a symbol for the Revelation of Baha’u’llah.
There is mutual illumination of the concrete and the abstract here -- at once
self-evident, life-giving, and pervasive. But it also can remind us of
creatures that avoid the sun. How often ‘Abdu’l-Baha referred to the Sun of
Reality dawning over gatherings of bats! The other example is the imagery
evoked in His own Tablet of Visitation: “... Give me to drink from the chalice
of selflessness; with its robe clothe me. ...” The paragraph is made of a
series of related cultural images of admittance to court, proffering of the cup
of favour, and granting of the ceremonial bejewelled robe: all evoke the
ceremony of a royal audience and the bestowal of high rank -- traditionally an
occasion of pomp, pride and vanity. By this dramatic inversion of images,
‘Abdu’l-Baha has underlined the nobility of servitude and humility.
This use of artistic form
for the expression of meanings and purpose is a hallmark of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s
Writings. To cultivate an appreciation of the poetic qualities of His Writings
is to enhance one’s understanding of His meaning. It must be admitted that the
same qualities place an enormous burden on the translator; and much can be lost
in inadequate hands. Fortunately, Shoghi Effendi, particularly in his
translations of some of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s prayers, has left us a true standard.
The foregoing should not
lead the reader to infer that the style of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, although at all times
recognizable and personal, is unvarying. His subjects, ranging from
philosophical treatises to meditative poems, are expressed in language
appropriate to them. Before proceeding to the differentiation of the various
categories of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Writings it might be helpful to clarify the
traditional term Tablet (lawh) which is applied to the majority of His Works.
It designates all His Writings that are addressed to specific individuals or
groups. As such it is applied to everything from His personal correspondence to
such fundamental documents as the Tablets of the Divine Plan and the Will and
Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha.
I. For purposes of
analysis ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Writings can be divided into twelve groups of which
personal correspondence (Tablets to individuals) constitutes by far the largest
segment, despite the undoubted fact that a portion of this precious heritage
has been irretrievably lost, and a portion remains in non-Baha’i hands.
‘Abdu’l-Baha’s letters are masterpieces of Persian epistolary genre. They are
marked by directness, intimacy, warmth, love, humour, forbearance, and a myriad
other qualities that reveal the exemplary perfection of His personality.
‘Abdu’l-Baha addresses everyone as an equal in the service of Baha’u’llah. His
letters often open with an invocation of the quality of faith of the recipient
rather than his name or identity -- epithets such as “O the Firm One in the
Covenant”, “O Lover of the Blessed Beauty”. (Later when the Persians were
required by law to adopt family names, many Baha’is chose as surnames words of
address from the Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Baha to themselves or to their fathers.) In
subject matter, ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s letters range from responses to the personal and
ephemeral requests of His correspondents to profound elaborations, elucidations
and interpretations of the Baha’i Revelation. But mostly they are concerned
with direction and exhortation of the friends to spread the Teachings.
II. Tablets of specific
topical or thematic significance addressed to individuals are perhaps best
exemplified by the Tablet to Professor Auguste Forel, which is in fact a
philosophical treatise written by ‘Abdu’l-Baha in September, 1921, in answer to
questions put to Him by the noted Swiss psychologist.
III. Tablets addressed to
Baha’i communities in various parts of the world chronicle ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s
loving and vigorous leadership of the Cause of Baha’u’llah and its propagation
from a handful of countries in the Near and the Middle East to some thirty-five
countries in every continent on the globe. The most important in this group are
undoubtedly the series of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, written at the close
of the First World War.
IV. Among the Tablets
written to world groups or congresses, the best known is the Tablet sent in
1919 to the Central Organization for a Durable Peace at The Hague.
V. The Will and Testament
of ‘Abdul’-Baha is a unique document, written in three parts, that constitutes
the charter of the Baha’i Administrative Order. Although undated, it is clear
from its contents that the first part was written in 1906/7 during the most
perilous and yet most prolific period of His life.
VI. The next category is
that of prayers. The Arabic and Persian languages distinguish between what is
translated in English as prayer (munajat) and obligatory prayer (salat). The
prayers of ‘Abdu’l-Baha are munajat. Approximately one half of these are in
Persian and the other in Arabic, with a very few in Turkish.
The term munajat has a
history in Persian literature beginning with Khwajih ‘Abdu’llah-i-Ansari, a
Sufi mystic of the eleventh century A.D. The munajat of Ansari are highly
stylized epigrammatic forms of communion with God. From a literary point of
view these brief evocative compositions bear only the slightest generic
resemblance to the munajat of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Baha, which, although
called by the same name, are clearly a literary innovation and original
creations in the Persian and Arabic languages. Their chief distinguishing
quality is the sustained and expanding expression of man’s experience of the
Holy by means of poetic language.
The prayers of
‘Abdu’l-Baha, particularly, partake in the fullest measure of poetic qualities.
Some actually include fragments or lines of metrical verse which are
indistinguishable from the texture of the whole prayer. The purity and sanctity
of natural imagery reveal a state of cosmic harmony. The musicality of some of
them transcends limitations of language. Poetry is made to serve the ultimate
goal of rising above “the murmur of syllables and sounds”. The emotional
intensity of some of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s prayers, especially those that recall the
sufferings of and separation from Baha’u’llah is unrivalled.
VII. Prayers written for
special occasions such as meetings of Spiritual Assemblies, or embarking on
teaching trips, focus upon overcoming of self and reliance upon confirmations
from God.
VIII. Tablets of
Visitation, virtually all written in Arabic, are primarily for commemoration of
individual heroes and martyrs of the Faith, and are to be chanted when visiting
their graves. The majority were written in the final years of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s
life and are another testimony of His abiding love and faithfulness to the
memory of those who sacrificed themselves for the Cause of God.
IX. ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s poems
are few in number, and mostly in mathnavi (rhymed couplet) form. His love for
this form -- universally associated with the great spiritual masterpiece of the
thirteenth century poet Rumi -- and His love for Rumi’s poetry are further
evinced by frequent quotations of lines from the latter’s works in His
Writings.
X. Books and treatises, of
which ‘Abdu’l-Baha left three, are The Secret of Divine Civilization, written
in 1875 (also known as A Treatise on Civilization); A Traveller’s Narrative,
written about 1886; and a short volume entitled A Treatise on Politics, written
in 1893. The first two have been translated into English. The latter, available
only in Persian, may be considered a sequel in subject and purpose to The
Secret of Divine Civilization. The fundamental theme is the generative force of
religion and the degenerative role of priestly power in human affairs. The
first book is addressed to the Persian nation as a whole; the second is
directed to the Baha’i community in that land. Their import obviously
transcends the historical aims and the immediate occasion of their writing, but
they also constitute significant documents within that context.
The Secret of Divine
Civilization, particularly, occupies a pre-eminent historical position among
the literature of modernization in Persia. Seen in the light of the unfolding
Baha’i Revelation, it is, of course, ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s elaboration of the
principles enunciated by Baha’u’llah in His Tablets to the rulers of the earth.
But read in the light of modern analytical literature on the nature and
problems of modernization, it is a unique document of equally profound
implications. In it ‘Abdu’l-Baha presents a coherent programme for the
regeneration of Persian society. The programme is predicated on universal
education and eradication of ignorance and fanaticism. It calls for responsibility
and participation of the people in government through a representative
assembly. It seeks to safeguard their rights and liberties through codification
of laws and institutionalization of justice. It argues for the humane benefits
of modern science and technology. It condemns militarism and underscores the
immorality of heavy expenditures for armaments. It promulgates a more equitable
sharing of the wealth of the nation.
Of the long list of
indictments that could be brought against the one hundred and twenty-five years
of Qajar misrule of Persia, few could be as damaging as their neglect of this
blueprint in 1875. Not until nearly twenty years later do some of these ideas
appear piecemeal and unrelated in the writings of other so-called reformers and
modernists in Persia. But the significance of The Secret of Divine Civilization
is not merely that it represents the earliest and the only coherent scheme for
the modernization of Persia. We have come to recognize as the fatal flaw of
nearly all reformist ideas and modernizing efforts of the last hundred years
(not only in Persia but in many parts of the world), a naive imitation of
effects without grasping the causes -- superficial borrowing of forms unrelated
to their underlying values. Everything in ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s proposals is firmly
based upon the validity and potency of divine guidance. It is not
westernization of the East that He advocates. He has as much to say to the
spiritually impoverished societies of the West as to the people of Persia.
Through a revivification of the spiritual and moral potentialities of man
‘Abdu’l-Baha seeks to create new institutions and viable political forms -- to
lay the foundation of a truly divine civilization.
A Traveller’s Narrative,
which is a history of the episode of the Bab, was written for the seeker and
the curious. It presents a brief and dispassionate account of that portentous
dispensation in a simple and moving narrative style. Like The Secret of Divine
Civilization, this book was published anonymously. It may be another indication
of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s humility before Baha’u’llah that He did not place His name on
the two books He wrote for the public beyond the Baha’i community during the
lifetime of His Father. He also wished to emphasize, as He points out in The Secret
of Divine Civilization, that He had no expectation of personal gain from His
efforts.
XI. ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s
discourses are extensive transcriptions of His utterances on various topics.
The two major examples of the genre are Some Answered Questions and Memorials
of the Faithful. The generic affinity of these two works is, however, strictly
formal; for in subject matter they are widely different. The final written
versions of both were examined by ‘Abdu’l-Baha and approved for publication.
Some Answered Questions is
a compilation of the table talks of ‘Abdu’l-Baha in response to questions put
to Him by Laura Clifford Barney on spiritual tenets of the Baha’i Faith and on
the Baha’i understanding of some Christian beliefs. The conversations, their
recording, editing, and authentication occurred in the difficult years
immediately preceding ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s relative freedom in 1908. The compilation
was first published in 1907.
Memorials of the Faithful,
which has only lately (1971) been translated into English, is a compendium of
‘Abdu’l-Baha’s remembrances of some seventy early believers, spoken to
gatherings of Baha’is in Haifa during the early years of World War I. These
were compiled, and ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s permission for their publication was granted
in 1915 but due to the strictures of wartime the book was not published until
1924 when it was again authorized by Shoghi Effendi.
The outward form of
Memorials of the Faithful is a collection of brief biographical sketches. Its
title in the original, Tadhkiratu’l-Vafa, places it in a Persian literary
tradition some nine centuries old. It brings to mind the Tadhkiratu’l-Awliya
(Remembrance of Saints) of the twelfth century mystic poet ‘Attar. The
spiritual and cultural impulses that have given rise to the literary form of
tadhkirib have little to do with the particular, the personal and the ephemeral
aspects of human life. It is the quality of soul, the attributes of spirit, the
quintessential humanity and the reflection of the divine in man that is the
focus here.
The root word dhikr in the
title means prayerful mention -- reverent remembrance. It implies that it is
not the biographer nor the reader who memorializes a human life, but rather the
quality of that life which has earned immemorial lustre and sheds light on all
who remember that quality. Quite literally this book is a remembrance of vafri
-- faithfulness -- not just memories of individual lives, but remembrance of
that essential quality which was the animating force of all those lives.
The people whose “lives”
are depicted here all share one thing in common. They are propelled by their
love for Baha’u’llah. So great is this magnetic force in their lives that they
literally travel vast distances and overcome every barrier to be with Him. Some
of them arrive virtually with their dying breath, to expire happily after
having seen the face of their Beloved; some die on the arduous path. Despite
the peculiarities of time and place, it should not take the reader long to
recognize a gallery of timeless and universal human types in this book.
The spoken language of
‘Abdu’l-Baha is figurative and almost indistinguishable from His written style.
He makes use of a rich fund of literary devices -- rhymed phrases, symmetrical
forms, alliterations, assonances, metaphors, similes, and allusions-that, far
from sounding contrived and artificial, are naturally matched to the subject
matter: the essence of faithfulness. With concrete images He describes
spiritual states and psychic levels of consciousness, as if to assert the
primacy and reality of the realm of spirit. Should the reader experience
difficulty with the style, let him savour it slowly, allowing the unfamiliar
language to create its own spirit and breathe life into its allusions. Let the
words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha trace in his mind the shape of the valley of love and
faithfulness.
In His usual self-effacing
way ‘Abdu’l-Baha says almost nothing about Himself in this book. But occasional
events in the lives of these companions are interwoven with His own. In these
passages we have some thrilling glimpses of that essence of humanity and
humility that was ‘Abdu’l-Baha.
XII. Next to His personal
correspondence, talks comprise the largest segment of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s recorded
words. One may distinguish between talks given to Baha’is and addresses to the
general public, such as societies, groups, universities and congregations.
Generally they have the same literary marks and rhetorical patterns that are
characteristic of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Writings.
This vast body of Writing,
boundless in its wisdom, consummate in form, generous and loving in spirit and
rich in significance, is ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s literary legacy, a legacy that, like
His own prayer, rises “above words and letters” and transcends “the murmur of
syllables and sounds”. It is the reality of ‘Abdu’l-Baha so far as we, the
grateful readers, are capable of perceiving.
(The Baha’i World 1968-1973)
