Posted by Dawud on October 02, 2101 at 17:31:54:

In Reply to: Re: The Bayan posted by Misagh on October 02, 2101 at 13:37:27:

Can't remember the translator..was it A L M Nicholas? If you don't know French you have a choice between learning to read in that language in a couple of years, learning Persian (or Arabic) in four or five years, or waiting for further installments of the provisional English translation or an official Baha'i translation, either of which will probably take even more time. So how bad do you want to read this thing?

And why haven't the Baha'is themselves translated any of this, you may ask? Aside from the inherent difficulty of comissioning a big project like this, there's a certain...PR difficulty involved.

The Bayan is hard for non-Muslims to approach in any language. It's much like what would happen if Buddhists began their study of Christianity through the apocalyptic writings of David Koresh. Not only is it often difficult to read, but sometimes it takes on a militant air which is at odds with current Baha'i mores. Baha in the Aqdas specifically abrogates a number of Bayan provisions like book burning, xenophobia, and holy war.

Even though Baha'is may no longer acknowledge provisions of the Bayan as binding today, Baha'is should find Babi and Shaykhyi literature fascinating as the source of many of their own religion's concepts. Henry Corbin wrote an accessible book covering Ahmad-i-Ahsai (was that Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth?), too bad he never wrote on the Babis or Baha'is. Basically there's a whole field of Islamic mysticism which thrived in this early period, though it is not encouraged in contemporary Baha'i circles.

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