From Ṣubḥ-i-Azal’s Book of the Talismanic-Temples (kitāb al-hayākil)
The following below is our translation of the first
sūrah of Ṣubḥ-i-Azal’s The Book of the Talismanic-Temples
(kitab al-hayākil). Three complete MSS of this work exist in the
public domain. The first is CUL (Cambridge University Library) Browne
Collection F.46:
The second is BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de
France) Arabe 6171 which is online in full, here: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10031509v.
The third is the British Museum Library MS Or.5324. All three were
transcribed by Ṣubḥ-i-Azal’s son Riḍvān-ʿAlī. Our MS is a scanned copy
of the original codex in the hand of the author himself and originated in Cyprus (with
565 folio pages usually of fourteen lines per page). The colophon at the
end of the codex MS shows it to have been completed by the author on the
25th of May 1891 (or kawr/aeon 13, 2nd of the dawr
al-malāʿika/cycle of the Angels).
It
is a work in the Bābī ‘First Grade’, that is, āyāt or Arabic verses in
imitation of the Qurʿān. The kitab al-hayākil is divided into 101
untitled sūrahs consisting of 1001 verses in total which are grouped as haykals
(talismanic-temples). Here we offer a translation of its first chapter or sūrah
because it succinctly summarizes the entire Bayānī doctrine. At the conclusion
the author also appears to obliquely refer to the Bahāʾīs, i.e. the followers
of his rival and step-brother.
6th day of the cycle of the Chosen Ones in the aeon 142
كور 142 دورة
المصطفين
18
June 2020 CE
Translation
In the Name of God the Most
Impregnable, the Supreme Guide!
Praise be unto God Who is not praised by other than
Itself - and none beareth witness to that [other than Itself]! It fashioned people
in the degrees of variety and manifested the Cause-Command from infinity and
completed it unto infinity! And to It belongs the creation in every state and
unto It is the conclusion! It sent the Messengers with guidance and concluded
the Cause-Command with Muḥammad - Its Prophet, the Chosen, the Messenger, the
Just, the Unlettered - Who was manifested in Truth, for He was bestowed the
guidance! And with Him were the Imāms guiding unto God and summoning unto It
in the kingdom of the High! They were the Witnesses after Him over creation,
and They were the illuminated landmarks of guidance and reverence! And indeed
God manifested after that the Point of Its Logos-Self summoning the people unto
the path of contentment! And It fashioned the pathways in that Cause-Command
and established the Point in the station of Its Logos-Self and manifested Its
Supreme Names! And that servant spoke by the laudation of Its Logos-Self and
illuminated Its Light for all to see, for thither are the clear versical-signs
and the traces from thy Lord for whosoever follows the path of pious reverence
and acts by reverent piety! Verily indeed is the return of all to God and the
destiny of the people, for It is the Watcher, the Ultimate Subsistent! It
knoweth what is ordained between them and bears witness over all things! In Its
Hand is the dominion, for It is the Ultimate Encompasser! The [soteriological]
hours are by Its Cause-Command and the [eschatological] resurrections
belong to It! Glorified be It, to It is the return! All the messengers have
beckoned to It and have summoned to It, for what other than God is the
conclusion? The Cause-Command is from It and the creation belongs to It, for It
is the Subsistent after all things!
Hear what God preaches and
attain!
Verily those who summon to
other than It are not possessed of Truth nor are they upon [the road] of Truth,
for they are the folk of wretchedness! Nor will God aid them on the Day of the
Cause-Command! For certain they have followed the fanciful supposition and the
deception, for they have followed the path of those who have turned away and of
infidelity and oppression! They have no knowledge, for indeed they are
repulsively blind! And they are the deaf, the blind, the dumb, the stupid
beasts in the kingdom of the Hidden Cloud of Unknowing and the Empyrean, for
they are the folk of idle fancy!
It is It, God, the
Permanently Subsistent, the Existentiator, the Victorious, the Everlasting, the
All-High!
