Claim: Bahais purged translation of their holy book for Westerners

[Sirona]

I spent my afternoon studying claims of how the Bahai leadership allegedly purged the 1992 English translation of their most holy book Kitab al-Aqdas from elements which might be considered weird or offensive by their most-targeted audience, tolerant, open-minded people with mostly Western backgrounds. It is also stated that together with other books on Bahai faith, two already existing English translations which are claimed to be more accurate than the 1992 version were suppressed. As I lack the background knowledge and time to evaluate this, I'll put the link here for interested audiences.

Baha'i Faith's Kitab-i-Aqdas: The Real 'Hidden Words'

 

[George-ananda]

I spent my afternoon studying claims of how the Bahai leadership allegedly purged the 1992 English translation of their most holy book Kitab al-Aqdas from elements which might be considered weird or offensive by their most-targeted audience, tolerant, open-minded people with mostly Western backgrounds. It is also stated that together with other books on Bahai faith, two already existing English translations which are claimed to be more accurate than the 1992 version were suppressed. As I lack the background knowledge and time to evaluate this, I'll put the link here for interested audiences.

Baha'i Faith's Kitab-i-Aqdas: The Real 'Hidden Words'

I think there is truth to this claim. The Baha'i Faith has never been forthcoming with a full translation when I was a member in the 1980's. Why? Many excuses that really came across as them knowing this would not fit with modern liberal western thinking. From unofficial translations the Aqdas book includes thing like marriage dowries and the taking of multiple wives and many other antiquated things per the way things were in the 19th Century Islamic world of which Baha'u'llah would have only been familiar with. And we were told all the rules of the Aqdas will one day be put in place.

It's all part of what I have argued before on this forum. Probably the majority of Bahai's of western culture do not understand their Faith as they have been given what I call the western palatable presentation.

 

[Dawnofhope]

I spent my afternoon studying claims of how the Bahai leadership allegedly purged the 1992 English translation of their most holy book Kitab al-Aqdas from elements which might be considered weird or offensive by their most-targeted audience, tolerant, open-minded people with mostly Western backgrounds. It is also stated that together with other books on Bahai faith, two already existing English translations which are claimed to be more accurate than the 1992 version were suppressed. As I lack the background knowledge and time to evaluate this, I'll put the link here for interested audiences.

Baha'i Faith's Kitab-i-Aqdas: The Real 'Hidden Words'

A full English translation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas has been available for nearly 30 years. Prior to that, much of Baha'ú'llah's work was readily available. As the English translations are the basis of translation into other languages, particular care is taken to ensure English translations of any Baha'i writings are of high quality. Julian Mickunus is a well known Hindu critic of the Baha'i Faith whose jaundiced narrative omits some key facts. Wikipedia provides a more succinct and less biased account.

The Kitáb-i-Aqdas was completed by Baháʼu'lláh in 1873. It was published in the Arabic for circulation among Baháʼís speaking the language circa 1890. A Russian translation was undertaken by Alexander Tumansky in 1899 and was his most important contribution to Baháʼí studies.Around 1900 an informal English translation was made by Baháʼí Anton Haddad, which circulated among the early American Baháʼí community in a typewritten form. In 1961, an English scholar of Arabic, Dr. Earl E. Elder, and William McElwee Miller, who (according to Laurence Elwell-Sutton) is an openly hostile Christian minister, published an English translation, "Al-Kitab Al-Aqdas",through the Royal Asiatic Society, however its translation of the notes section was problematic and overall lacked "poetic sensibility, and skill in Arabic translation". Indeed, Miller only ever used it to further his polemical agenda. In 1973 a "Synopsis and Codification" of the book was published in English by the Universal House of Justice, with 21 passages of the Aqdas that had already been translated into English by Shoghi Effendi with additional terse lists of laws and ordinances contained in the book outside of any contextual prose. Finally, in 1992, a full and authorized Baháʼí translation in English was published. This version is used as the basis of translation into many other languages highlighting the practice of an indirect translation and how the purpose of the translation affects the act of translation. The Baháʼí Library Online provides a side-by-side comparison of the authorized translation with earlier translations of Anton Haddad and Earl Elder.

Kitáb-i-Aqdas - Wikipedia

 

[Sirona]

I noticed that the author of the website is a Hindu, but I didn‘t find anything particularly Hindu about most of his argumentation, apart from the very end, where he sees a description of Hindu meditation practices in Baha‘ullahs command of repeating a verse while sitting cross-legged. Religiousforums and the aforementioned website are hardly a cross-section of the population, but still I find it noteworthy that the Bahai faith draws criticism from Hindus (@Aupmanyav , my humble self) or former Bahais who have become Hindus (the author of the website, @George-ananda) , taking into consideration that Hindus normally tend to stay away from religious quarrels. There must be some fundamental issue in Bahai faith motivating Hindus to break this rule.

 

[sammyh]

I spent my afternoon studying claims of how the Bahai leadership allegedly purged the 1992 English translation of their most holy book Kitab al-Aqdas from elements which might be considered weird or offensive by their most-targeted audience, tolerant, open-minded people with mostly Western backgrounds. It is also stated that together with other books on Bahai faith, two already existing English translations which are claimed to be more accurate than the 1992 version were suppressed. As I lack the background knowledge and time to evaluate this, I'll put the link here for interested audiences.

Baha'i Faith's Kitab-i-Aqdas: The Real 'Hidden Words'

The Baha’i view is that some of the laws are meant for a time when the religion is firmly and widely established around the world. My view is that day will never come. There is no indication right now of it happening. I prefer to live in the present. Who knows what will happen next year or 200 years from now? There is too much emphasis in the Faith about the possible future. Death and taxes are all we can be sure of. The great problem of Baha’i is that so much rests on fulfillment of prophecies. And that is always a murky issue. Open to subjectivity and opinion. There is much good in Baha’i, as there is in most religions. You have to accept the wheat from the chaff.