THE QAYYŪM AL-ASMĀ'
OF THE BĀB
Part
LIV
[54]
سورة الغلام
Sūrat
al-Ghulām,
(The Surah of the Youth)
on
Qur'ān 12:53
IN PROGRESS 2007-8
There follows the
fifty-fourth part of my provisional translation of the Qayyūm al-asmā’
(= QA) of the Bāb (mid. 1844/1260) with selected notes, the Sūrat al-Ghulam
(The Surah of the Youth). I began these translations in the early 1980s
though I have not translated from a critical edition but consulted
several good mss. The versification of the surahs of the QA is often
uncertain. though in QA54 I tentatively count XX verses and retain
versification for the sake of reference and commentary.
The qur'anic Arabic word
غلام
is derived from the triliteral root gh-l-m which can have the
following basic verbal senses, ADD
As
a verbal noun ADD
From the beginning the qur'anic
Arabic word
غلام
ghulam has been an
important item within the extensive Arabic-Persian Babi-Baha'i
vocabulary. That this is so is evident within the text of the QA itself.
ADD
Baha'-Allah often
used the word ghulam of Himself. In for example, his early Edirne Lawḥ-i
[`Alī Muhammad] Sayyah he writes:
Say O people!
This is the Youth of
God (ghulām Allāh), His servant (`abd) and His attendant [assistant]
(khādim), His Proof (ḥujjat) and His Sovereign (sulṭān); His Beauty
(jamāl) and His Might (`izzat); His Grandeur (kibriyā') and His
Demonstration (burhān); His Evidence and His Bounty (faḍl) upon the
inhabitants of
the
heavens and of the earth.
ADD
THE QAYYŪM AL-ASMĀ' OF THE BĀB
Part LIV
سورة
الغلام
Sūrat
al-Ghulām
(The Surah of
the Youth)
on
Qur'ān 12:53
Prov.
trans. Stephen N. Lambden
[1-3]
بسم اللّه الرّحمن الرّحيم
In
the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
وَمَا اُبَرِّئُ نَفْسِي اِنَّ
النَّفْسَ لَامَّارَةٌ بِالسُّوءِ
اِلَّا مَا رَحِمَ رَبِّي اِنَّ رَبِّي غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ
"
Nor
do I reckon [absolve] myself [soul] (nafsī) in that
the soul (al-nafs) is prone to evil unless, that is
my Lord be forgiving, compassionate" (= Qur'ān 12:53)
المعص
Alif-Lām-Mīm-`Ayn-Ṣād [Abjad = 231]
[4]
قل انّ اللّه قد اوحی الی حجّته علی ذلك الكلمة الاكبر انّی انا اللّه لا
اله الّا انا
ما خلقت خلقا الّا و قد اخذت عهد الذّكر فی اعلی مشاعر و
قد عهدنا الی آدم وايّوب و يونس فنسوا كلمة الاكبر اقلّ من ذرّ الذّرّ
فقلنا
لهم لم نجد عليهم عزماً
Say:
`God did indeed divinely inspire
(w-ḥ-y) His [messianic] Proof (ḥujjat) in accordance with that Greatest
Word (al-kalimat al-akbar), [namely]
`I, verily, am God, no God is
there save I Myself [Me]. I did not create the creation save for [the
purpose of ] My taking a covenant [with
them] regarding the Dhikr
[messianic] ( "Remembrance") in the most elevated, sanctified
regions (fī a`lā al-mashā`ir).
[5]
We did indeed take a covenant
with [the progeny of] Adam, Job and Jonah, but down to the [level of
the] smallest existent particles (aqall min dharr al-dharr) they forgot
that Greatest Word (al-kalimat al-akbar). Wherefore did We inform them
that We never did find any constancy in them.
[6]
فاخذناهم حول
النّار حتّی قد اقرّوا سبحانك لا اله الّا انت قد رجعنا الی السّرّ
المستسرّ
هذ الغلام
بالحقّ فاغفر لنا انّك مولينا و انّك قد كنت بالعالمين رحيماً
So We seized them in the
precincts of hellfire until they were made to confess [supplicating]
`Praised be unto Thee! No God is there save Thee'. [Then] did We, in
very truth, return this Youth (al-ghulam) unto the secreted [realm] of
Occultation (sirr al-mustasirr). So be forgiving of us for Thou art
indeed our Master and Thou art One Compassionate unto all the worlds.
[7]
فقد
غفرنا لهم و لمن اتّبعهم من الاوّلين و الاخرين
و انّ كلمة اللّه الاكبر هذا بالحقّ علی
الحقّ
قد كان عند اللّه العلیّ عظيماً
Wherefore did We certainly
forgive them and such also as followed after them among those [both] of
primordial (al-awwalīn) and of eschatological times (al-ākhirīn). And
[know that] this is, in very truth, assuredly the Greatest Word of God
(al-kalimat Allāh al-akbar). He was indeed One Mighty nigh unto God, the
Exalted.
[8]
يا قرّة العين ابلغ النّاس عن اللّه فی
الطّور الاكبر اذ قال موسی لفتيه لا ابرح حتّی ابلغ الی عين المإ فی مجمع
البحرين
حول النّيّرين من مالك الاسمين هذ السّرّ
الّذی قد كان حول النّار مستوراً
O Solace of
Mine Eyes!
(Qurrat al-`ayn
= the Bāb).
Inform the people about God in
the Greatest Mount [Sinai] (al-ṭūr al-akbar) for
"when Moses said unto his youthful servant
[trad. = Joshua] (li-fatā-hu) `I shall not
give up until I reach the well-spring of Water (`ayn al-mā')
at the
confluence the two oceans (fī majma` al-baḥrayn)' [= Q. 18:60b] nigh
the twin [cosmic] Fires (al-nayyīrayn) [emanating] from the King of the
two Names [= the Bāb as [1]`Alī + [2]Muhammad?] for this [King] is
indeed the Mystery (al-sirr) which hath ever been concealed about the [theophanic
region of the Sinaitic] Fire (al-nār).
[9]
فلمّا بلغا مجمع البحرين فی باب الفؤادين
انساهما اللّه حوت الذّكر
فقد
جعلنا*
[
جعلا]
عليه سبيل البحر فی البحرين سرباً عجباً
So when We attained the
"the
confluence the two oceans" (majma` al-baḥrayn)' [cf. Q. 18:60b]
[situated]
at the
Gate of the twin
inmost hearts (bāb al-fū`ādayn), God caused these two ["Moses"+his
"youthful page"] to forget the "fish" of the [messianic] Dhikr
("Remembrance") (ḥawt al-dhikr). Thus indeed did We set forth for it
[the "Fish of the Dhikr"] a swift, marvelous pathway to the Ocean (sabīl
al-baḥr) [which is] at the [confluence of ] the two Oceans (baḥrayn)
[10]
حتّی
اذا قد بلغا الی الذّكر عبد من عباد اللّه قد اتيناه علماً من لدنّا
علی الحرف من السّرّ المستسرّ خبراً
This until they attained unto the
Dhikr [messianic "Remembrance"] [who is naught] but one of His servants.
We assuredly followed him knowingly, as One announced before Us
according to that "letter" allotted to the secreted [realm of the]
Occulted One [the 12th Imam?] (ḥarf min al-sirr al-mustasirr).
[11]
[X]
و قد انّی انا النّورين فی السّرّين
و انّی انا الشّكلين فی الهيكلين
و انّی انا السرّاجين
فی الزّجاجين
I, verily,
I am indeed the dual Lights (al-nūrayn) in the twofold
mysteries (al-sirrayn)!
I, verily,
I am the dual Forms (al-shaklayn) in the twin Temples
[Bodies] (al-haykalayn)!
I, verily,
I am indeed the two "Lamps" (al-sirājayn) in the dual
"Glasses" (al-zujjājayn)!
[x]
و لقد نطقت بالحرفين و لا انطق حرفا من النّفسين
الاوّليين و لا يوجد
حرفا من سرّ الطتنجين
الّا بنفسی الحقّ حامل الاسمين
We did speak forth through two
letters although I did not speak forth a [single] letter through the two
foremost souls [= Shaykh Aḥmad Aḥsā'ī and Sayyid Kazim Rashti ?]. No
single letter will be discovered of the mystery of the two Gulfs (al-ṭutunjayn)
save, that is, through My Logos-Self (bi-nafsī), which is the Ultimately
Real [True One] (al-ḥaqq) and the bearer of the twin Names (ḥāmil al-ismayn)
[= [1] `Alī [2] Muhammad= the `AlīMuhammad, the Bāb).
[x]
قد
اسبّح مولائی فی اجمة اللّاهوت باذن ربّی
فسبّحت المتسبّحون للّه الحقّ
و احمدت اللّه فی ارض العمإ
فحمدت المتحمّدون فی ارض ذلك الباب بالحقّ الاكبر
I do glorify my Lord, with the
permission of my Master, in the thicket of the Divine Sphere (lujjat
al-lāhūt). So do I glorify the ones possessed of glory before God, the
True One and I do laud God Himself in the sphere of the Cloud of
Unknowing (arḍ al-`amā') And likewise have I lauded the ones possessed
of qualities laudatory in the domain [earth, land] of that Bāb who is,
in very truth, the Greatest.
[x]
و
هلّلت الرّحمن فی ذروة العرش فهلّلت المتهلّلون علی سطح ؟ العرش حول الحقّ
و كبّرت بالحقّ علی نفسی باذن اللّه فكبّرت المتكبّرون لله
فی الحقّ من ذلك الباب الباب الاكبر
هذ الغلام العربیّ الفصيح الّذی تجدونه فی التّورية و
الانجيل و الزّبور و الفرقان
هذا لهو الحقّ صراط اللّه العلیّ قد كان فی امّ الكتاب
مكتوباً
قل انّا نحن نشإ لنحكم علی اهل السّموات و الارض بحكم دار
الاخرة فی الدّنيا
و انّ اللّه ربّی قد كان بالحقّ علی كلّ شیء قديراً ه
And I do
hallow the All-Merfiful in the [sphere of the] [atomic] constituents
of the Divine Throne (dharrwat al-`arsh)
[1]
SWB:
“Verily, I am the Twin Lights
in the Twin secrets. Verily, I am the Twin forms in the Twin
temples. Verily, I am the Twin Lamps in the Twin Glasses. I have
spoken with two letters and I speak not a letter from the first two
souls [Ahmad and Kazim]. Not one letter will be found of the secret
of the Twin Gulfs, save by Me, the Truth and bearer of the Twin
Names.
I give praise to my Master in
the thickets of Lahut by leave of my Lord. They who render praise
to God, the Truth, hath given praise, and glorified God in the Land
of the Impenetrable Cloud. They who glorify of praise in the Land
of that Gate by the sovereign Truth and joyously praised the
All-Merciful in the apex of the Truth. The praisers have given
praise unto unto the surface of the Throne in the midst of Truth.
They, in truth, hath glorified me by the leave of God. They who
offer praise to God hath, in truth, glorified that God.
The Most Exalted Gate is this eloquent, Arabian youth
whom you find in the Torah, the Gospels, the Psalms and the Qur'an.
Verily, He is the sovereign Truth, the Path of God, the Most
exalted, as decreed in the Mother Book
