Posted by Rob (165.121.32.181) on March 29, 2002 at 22:33:29:

In Reply to: Re: I can't find this verse cited by Shoghi Effendi posted by Eric Sloan on March 29, 2002 at 03:37:23:

Previously in this or another forum I had related that this question about translation was one I had asked while on pilgrimage over a decade ago. A couple individual members of the House, and Mr. Furutan, answered that it was essentially because of priorities determined by income and also a matter of justice in deciding in what language the translation should be made(i.e. in the languge of a few believers of the West who happen to speak English, or in the language of the larger population of believers, Hindi, for example). More to the point, the Baha'i International Fund was already tight with all the Arc projects and supporting fledgling National coummunities which virually had no income, etc. This lack of funding has not abated. During the last Plan, a goal of the UHJ was to persue publishing more Tablets, but this project has yet to be completed, so far as I know. Also, it was pointed out that the overwhelming majority of Tablets were personal replies to individuals and that the House would have to get permission from the surviving family members of the recipient to publish what essentially is private correspondance as dictated by courtesy and wisdom. This harkens back to a rule that 'Abdu'l-Baha had laid down when the Tablets of Abdul Baha (Vol. I,II, II) were edited many decades ago. I was also told (by Dr. Ruhe) that the Baha'is hardly read what they have published, and that what has been published covers the essentials anyway for the vast number of believers.

As a partial remedy to this, I've been scanning for H-Bahai the Iranian Baha'i National Archives (INBA)collection (over 100 volumes), a collection of Tablets which was compiled from their Archives in the 1970's and then circulated in a few sets of photocopies. Slowly, provisional translations into English of these are being made on H-Bahai by the all too few academically qualified to do so.

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