The Seven Valleys ~ Baha'u'llah (ritual, reject, Earth, mysticism, Kingdom)

[lunamoth]

Hi All,

I've long been thinking about doing a discussion/study of The Seven Valleys, a mystical work by Baha'u'llah and one of my very favorite Baha'i writings. I think this book transcends much of what we think of as religion and gets quite to the heart of spiritual experience and our seeking of God.

I put it here so everyone who wants can join in the discussion (hope I don't end up just talking to myself) but if the mods feel there is a better place for it I'm fine with moving it to wherever.

I'll start with just the intro. I'm C & Ping from the online version of The Seven Valleys which I access through Ocean.

THE SEVEN VALLEYS OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH
Translated by Marzieh Gail in consultation with Ali Quli Khan
=================================
This etext is based on:
"The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys" by Bahá'u'lláh
Translated by Marzieh Gail in consultation with Ali Quli Khan
Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois 60091
Copyright 1945, 1952, (c) 1973, 1975, 1978 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States
All Rights Reserved
Third edition reprinted 1986
ISBN 0-87743-113-2
ISBN 0-87743-114-0
Availability of this etext in no way modifies the copyright status of the above publication.
This etext is freely available through anonymous internet file-sharing.
=================================
1
In the Name of God, the Clement, the Merciful.
Praise be to God Who hath made being to come forth from nothingness; graven upon the tablet of man the secrets of preexistence; taught him from the mysteries of divine utterance that which he knew not; made him a Luminous Book unto those who believed and surrendered themselves; caused him to witness the creation of all things (Kullu Shay') in this black and ruinous age, and to speak forth from the apex of eternity with a wondrous voice in the Excellent Temple [1]: to the end that every man may testify, in himself, by himself, in the station of the Manifestation of his Lord, that verily there is no God save Him, and that every man may thereby win his way to the 2 summit of realities, until none shall contemplate anything whatsoever but that he shall see God therein.
[1 The Manifestation.]

And I praise and glorify the first sea which hath branched from the ocean of the Divine Essence, and the first morn which hath glowed from the Horizon of Oneness, and the first sun which hath risen in the Heaven of Eternity, and the first fire which was lit from the Lamp of Preexistence in the lantern of singleness: He who was Ahmad in the kingdom of the exalted ones, and Muhammad amongst the concourse of the near ones, and Mahmud [1] in the realm of the sincere ones. "...by whichsoever (name) ye will, invoke Him: He hath most excellent names" [2] in the hearts of those who know. And upon His household and companions be abundant and abiding and eternal peace!

[1 Muhammad, Ahmad and Mahmud are names and titles of the Prophet, derived from the verb "to praise," "to exalt.
[2 Qur'án 17:110.]

Further, we have harkened to what the nightingale of knowledge sang on the boughs of the tree of thy being, and learned what the dove of certitude cried on the branches of the bower of thy heart. Methinks I verily inhaled the pure fragrances of the garment of thy love, and " 3 attained thy very meeting from perusing thy letter. And since I noted thy mention of thy death in God, and thy life through Him, and thy love for the beloved of God and the Manifestations of His Names and the Dawning-Points of His Attributes -- I therefore reveal unto thee sacred and resplendent tokens from the planes of glory, to attract thee into the court of holiness and nearness and beauty, and draw thee to a station wherein thou shalt see nothing in creation save the Face of thy Beloved One, the Honored, and behold all created things only as in the day wherein none hath a mention.

Of this hath the nightingale of oneness sung in the garden of Ghawthiyyih.[1] He saith: "And there shall appear upon the tablet of thine heart a writing of the subtle mysteries of 'Fear God and God will give you knowledge'; [2] and the bird of thy soul shall recall the holy sanctuaries of preexistence and soar on the wings of longing in the heaven of 'walk the beaten paths of thy Lord', [3] and gather the fruits of communion in the gardens of 'Then feed on every kind of fruit.'" [3]

[1 Sermon by Ali.]
[2 Qur'án 2:282.]
[3 Qur'án 16:71.]
(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys)

[lunamoth]

I'm regretting that I no longer have a hard copy of this book...I thought that it had an intro or addendum that explained when and why this book was written. If I recall correctly it was written while Baha'u'llah had retreated into the mountains (before or after the public announcement of his mission?). I think is was written in response to some questions asked by Sufis he stayed with during that time, and that it is patterned upon another famous Sufi work.

I'll look into it more but maybe someone else here knows off-hand.

[lunamoth]

OK, into the main part of the book. I hate how small the text is in a quote box, so I'm just going to past it here in blue. Hope that's not too distracting.


By My life, O friend, wert thou to taste of these fruits, from the green garden of these blossoms which grow in the lands of knowledge, beside the orient lights of the Essence in the mirrors of names and attributes -- yearning would seize the reins of patience and reserve from out thy hand, and make thy soul to shake with the flashing light, and draw thee from the earthly homeland to the first, heavenly abode in the Center of Realities, and lift thee to a plane wherein thou wouldst soar in the air even as thou walkest upon the earth, and move over the water as thou runnest on the land. Wherefore, may it rejoice Me, and thee, and whosoever mounteth into the heaven of knowledge, and whose heart is refreshed by this, that the wind of certitude hath blown over the garden of his being, from the Sheba of the All-Merciful.
Peace be upon him who followeth the Right Path!

And further: The stages that mark the wayfarer's journey from the abode of dust to the heavenly homeland are said to be seven. Some have called these Seven Valleys, and others, Seven Cities. And they say that until the wayfarer taketh leave of self, and traverseth these stages, he shall never reach to the ocean of nearness and union, nor drink of the peerless wine. The first is 5 THE VALLEY OF SEARCH.

The steed of this Valley is patience; without patience the wayfarer on this journey will reach nowhere and attain no goal. Nor should he ever be downhearted; if he strive for a hundred thousand years and yet fail to behold the beauty of the Friend, he should not falter. For those who seek the Ka'bih [1] of "for Us" rejoice in the tidings: "In Our ways will We guide them." [2] In their search, they have stoutly girded up the loins of service, and seek at every moment to journey from the plane of heedlessness into the realm of being. No bond shall hold them back, and no counsel shall deter them.

[1 The holy Sanctuary at Mecca. Here the word means"goal."]
[2 Qur'án 29:69: "And whoso maketh efforts for Us, in Our ways will We guide them."]

It is incumbent on these servants that they cleanse the heart -- which is the wellspring of divine treasures -- from every marking, and that they turn away from imitation, which is following the traces of their forefathers and sires, and shut the door of friendliness and enmity upon all the people of the earth.
(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 3)



To me this says that the first stage of our journey is to recognize that it is a journey, and that seeking is the first spiritual state. The sentence that strikes me today is: "and seek at every moment to journey from the plane of heedlessness into the realm of being." It speaks of how a deliberate awareness is part of 'being,' and also reminds me of 'pray ceaselessly.'

It's also interesting that we cleanse our heart not from 'evil' or sin, but from imitation.

What does it mean to shut the door of friendliness and enmity upon all the people of the earth?

[lunamoth]

In this journey the seeker reacheth a stage wherein he seeth all created things wandering 6 distracted in search of the Friend. How many a Jacob will he see, hunting after his Joseph; he will behold many a lover, hasting to seek the Beloved, he will witness a world of desiring ones searching after the One Desired. At every moment he findeth a weighty matter, in every hour he becometh aware of a mystery; for he hath taken his heart away from both worlds, and set out for the Ka'bih [1] of the Beloved. At every step, aid from the Invisible Realm will attend him and the heat of his search will grow.
[1 The holy Sanctuary at Mecca. Here the word means"goal."]
(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 4)

I love the way this paragraph expresses the longing we feel when we start out on the spiritual journey, it's a visceral feeling and it calls to my mind the idea of the God-shaped hole...that there is part of us that craves to be filled, and often we try to fill it with other things, belongings, even addictions. But once we catch the scent of our Beloved...we suddenly know what it is we seek, and it changes how we see everything.

I must admit, sometimes I feel a lot more like Jacob wrestling with God on the riverbank than Jacob seeking his Joseph.

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by SV

At every moment he findeth a weighty matter, in every hour he becometh aware of a mystery; for he hath taken his heart away from both worlds, and set out for the Ka'bih [1] of the Beloved.

What are the two worlds? Are they represented by 'weighty matter' and 'mystery?'

[Popeyesays]

Outline of a study guide for The Seven Valleys:

Seven Valleys
Tablet study outline

by Jonah Winters


Tablet of study: "Haft Vádí".

Name of Tablet in Arabic or Persian:
Haft-Vádí

Translation into English:
</B>Seven Valleys

This is one of the most widely-available and earliest-translated of the works of Bahá'u'lláh. It was first translated into English by Alí Kuli Khán in 1906 and reprinted frequently. A revised trans. published in 1945, done by Khán and his daughter Marzieh Gail, is to this day the standard trans. Hippolyte Dreyfus also trans. it into French directly from the Persian a year before Kuli Khán's English version, in 1905, with Julie Chanler then re-translating it from the French into English in 1936.

There is a small but growing amount of material on the Seven Valleys. After Taherzadeh, the most complete treatment is Stephen Lambden's "The Seven Valleys of Bahá'u'lláh: A Provisional Translation with Occasional Notes, pt. 1," in Bahá'í Studies Bulletin 6:2-3 (Feb. 1992), pages 26-74, where the first paragraph is translated literalistically. As this article consists of only one paragraph of trans. and 48 pages of notes, it can be seen that a full annotated treatment of the Seven Valleys could be over 1,000 pages! The second most complete discussion is by John Walbridge in Sacred Acts, Sacred Space, Sacred Time, 150-157 and 287-288. Bahá'u'lláh: King of Glory treats it only briefly, on pages 161-163. Many other texts and essays are online at Bahái-library.org.

General readings on Bahá'í mysticism, with occasional reference to the Seven Valleys, include the following. The only full study of mysticism, though a basic one, is Glenn A. Shook's Mysticism, Science, and Revelation. Rúhi Afnán compared Christian and Islamic mysticism with the Bahá'í approach to the subject in Mysticism and the Bahá'í Revelation: A Contrast. These are both rather old works. More recently, Farnaz Ma'sumian wrote a short introduction to Bahá'í mysticism, "Mysticism and the Bahá'í Faith," in Deepen, 6.3 (1995), online at http://bahai-library.com/articles. Moojan Momen presents some findings of medicine and psychology on the mystic state and their relation to Bahá'u'lláh's mysticism in his "The Psychology of Mysticism and its Relationship to the Bahá'í Faith," in Bahá'í Studies Bulletin, 2.4 (1984). Jack McLean discusses the mystical aspects of spirituality in Dimensions of Spirituality, especially 82-88. A work of fiction which may be of interest is Bruce Wells' From Discontent: the Biography of a Mystic. William S. Hatcher presents some philosophical aspects of mysticism in "Myths, Models, and Mysticism," in Logic and Logos: Essays on Science, Religion, and Philosophy.

Significance of Name:
In the words of the preface by Robert Gulick, in `Attar's Mantiqu't-Tayr (Language/Conference of the birds), "the journey of the soul is traced through Seven Valleys: Search, Love, Knowledge, Detachment, Unification, Bewilderment, and Annihilation," and "Bahá'u'lláh employed a similar, although not identical, pattern in His Persian Seven Valleys which delineates the seven stages of progress of the soul toward the object of its being."

Tablet was revealed in:
Persian

Name of Recipient
Shaykh Muhyi'd-Din, a Sufi of the Qadiri order and religious judge (Qadi) of Khániqi, a town on the southern edge of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Reason for Revelation of the Tablet:
Walbridge writes that Shaykh Muhyi'd-Din had written to Bahá'u'lláh asking about the meaning of certain Persian mystical poems. From the context of the Seven Valleys, one can glean that Muhyi'd-Din had also given "his own views on the classical Sufi topics of the stages of mystical life and the hidden meanings of the letters of the Arabic alphabet," esp. in the word "sparrow." Since the Seven Valleys contains two postscripts, one on steadfastness and the other on "sparrow," it is possible that the Shaykh may have asked his questions of Bahá'u'lláh in two or three different letters.

Date of Revelation:
Since all we know is that the Tablet was revealed "after His return from Sulaymaniyyih," all we know for certain is that it was between 1856- 1863.

Place of Revelation:
Baghdad

Other Tablets revealed at about the same time:
In God Passes By, pages 140-141, Shoghi Effendi writes that the "Four Valleys... the Tablet of the Holy Mariner...the Tablet of the Maiden...the Súrih of Patience...a commentary on the Letters prefixed to the Súrihs of the Qur'an...His interpretation of the letter Vav...the Tablet of the City of Unity...the Sahífiy-i-Shattiyyih...Musibat-i-Hurúfát-i-'Aliyat...Tafsír-i- Hu...Javáhiru'l-Asrár...and a host of other writings, in the form of epistles, odes, homilies, specific Tablets, commentaries and prayers...poured forth from the 'Abode of Peace' [Baghdad]."

Style, subject, and genre of the Tablet: [?]
Style: This tablet seems to contain both tones, that of "command and authority" and also that of "servitude, meekness and supplication." While it is mostly in written in the former, there are places in which Bahá'u'lláh speaks with the tone of servitude, as in p. 26: "...this Servant regardeth Himself as utterly lost and as nothing..."
Subject: This tablet seems to contain many subjects, such as "Writings dealing with interpretation of the old Scriptures, religious beliefs and doctrines of the past"; Mystical Writings"; "Tablets dealing with subjects of learning and knowledge, divine philosophy, mysteries of creation, medicine, alchemy, etc."; and "Tablets exhorting men to education, goodly character and divine virtues."
Genre: "Essay or book revealed as a letter to an individual."

Voice of Tablet: [?]
Bahá'u'lláh

Outline Contents of Tablet:
Invocation: Praise of God and Muhammad, allusions to the Báb
Introduction: Acknowledgment of the Shaykh's letter and discussion of the Sufi notion of multiple stages through which one must pass to reach God.
Valley 1: One must search and purify the heart from distracting desires.
Valley 2: Love (here, "`ishq," or "passionate, maddening love") focusses desire on God and burns away the self.
Valley 3: Knowledge, or understanding, teaches one to see God's guiding hand — providence — everywhere.
Valley 4: The correct perception of God's unity (Tawhíd) teaches one to see God's being everywhere, but reject monism and pantheism.
Valley 5: In the station of contentment one needs nothing but God.
Valley 6: Here the mystic is rendered "insane" (majnun) by the awareness of God: this relates to the state of bewilderment and amazement experienced by many mystics, what New Age thought terms "crazy wisdom."
Valley 7: This is the state of annihilation of self (fana') in God, but not an existential union: the essences of God's self and the mystic's self remain distinct, in contrast to what appears to be a complete union at the end of `Attar's book.
Conclusion: One must obey the law: this relates to the split in Sufism between the Sufis who believe that, having "experienced" God directly, one did not need the outward trappings of divine law (shari`ah), vs. the Sufis who taught that no one, not even the mystic, can disregard the law.
Postscript 1: Bahá'u'lláh alludes to the dangers He is in and exhorts the Shaykh to remain steadfast.
Postscript 2: Bahá'u'lláh gives an acronymic reading of "gunjishk," "sparrow."

Comment on relation of Tablet to other Tablets:
While this bears many similarities to the Four Valleys, the two works are distinct and do not bear any direct relation.

Biography or bio note of the recipient of the Tablet:
A one-paragraph bio of Shaykh Muhyi'd-Din can be found in John Waldbridge, Sacred Acts, Sacred Space, Sacred Time, 150:

The Seven Valleys was written in Baghdad in response to the questions of Shaykh Muhyi'd-Din, a Sufi of the Qadiri order. He was the son of Shaykh Hasan of Gilzarda and became Qadi (religious judge) of Khániqin, a town on the southern edge of Iraqi Kurdistan. Later, Shaykh Muhyi'd-Din succeeded to his father's position as a religious leader in Gilzarda. Shaykh Muhyi'd-Din had written books on Sufism and, at about the time that he wrote to Bahá'u'lláh, he gave up his position and set out wandering from place to place until his death in Kirkuk in 1877. He may have been one of the Kurdish Sufis whom Bahá'u'lláh had met in Sulaymaniyyih.

http://bahai-library.com/index.php5?...i_outline.html

An interesting note is that "Vadi" has more meanings than "the comparatively level terrain between mountins usually containing a central watercourse".

It also means "A school of thought" or a "way of looking at a thing or phenomenon"

Regards,
Scott

[lunamoth]

One must judge of search by the standard of the Majnun of Love. [1] It is related that one day they came upon Majnun sifting the dust, and his tears flowing down. They said, "What doest thou?" He said, "I seek for Layli." They cried, "Alas for thee! Layli is of pure spirit, and thou seekest her in the dust!" He said, "I seek her everywhere; haply somewhere I shall find her." [1 Literally, Majnun means "insane." This is the title of the celebrated lover of ancient Persian and Arabian lore, whose beloved was Layli, daughter of an Arabian prince. Symbolizing true human love bordering on the divine, the story has been made the theme of many a Persian romantic poem, particularly that of Nizami, written in 1188-1189 A.D.

Yea, although to the wise it be shameful to seek the Lord of Lords in the dust, yet this betokeneth intense ardor in searching. "Whoso seeketh out a thing with zeal shall find it." [1]
[1 Arabian proverb.]

The true seeker hunteth naught but the object of his quest, and the lover hath no desire save union with his beloved. Nor shall the seeker reach his goal unless he sacrifice all things. That is, whatever he hath seen, and heard, and understood, all must he set at naught, that he may enter the realm of the spirit, which is the City of God. Labor is needed, if we are to seek Him; ardor is needed, if we are to drink of the honey of reunion with Him; and if we taste of this cup, we shall cast away the world.

On this journey the traveler abideth in every land and dwelleth in every region. In every face, he seeketh the beauty of the Friend; in every country he looketh for the Beloved. He joineth every company, and seeketh fellowship with every soul, that haply in some mind he may uncover the secret of the Friend, or in some face he may behold the beauty of the Loved One.

(Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 5)

[Popeyesays]

Add this link as well:
http://bahai-library.com/file.php5?f...s&language=All

Regards,
Scott