Baha'is pride themselves on having an authentic religion unchanged by man. Not much point to that if you don't even let people read the original texts. After hiding their embarrassing scripture for 120 years, the Baha'i administration commenced to change it through agenda-driven mistranslation. They also turned a short work -- only 74 pages in the Elder-Miller translation even with all their notes -- into a 320 page behemoth of spin-doctoring and explanatory apologetic. But the Elder/Miller version shows what the simple text originally said.
The Elder & Miller translation was the first time the Baha'i Faith's mysterious "Most Holy Book" was presented in English. The Baha'i administration ignored it because it did not contain the necessary translation distortions to keep it from damaging the religion's reputation and keep membership growing. They successfully directed the attention of the Baha'is away from it until, a few years after it's publication in 1961, most enrollees believed the administration as they continued to say "It hasn't been translated yet."
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| An excerpt from Original Kitab-i-Aqdas |
This "revelation" by the Baha'i founder Baha'u'llah is believed to have been completed by 1873, thus 139 years have already passed and Baha'is are still not using rose water or wearing sable. (See below.) Baha'is believe their "Most Holy Book" was God's guidance to mankind for the next thousand years.The Elder-Miller translation is a more accurate and direct translation than the one belatedly offered by the Baha'i administration 120 years late. The latter, "The Kitab-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy Book," contains definite obfuscations, dressings, and distortions designed to protect the fortunes of the Baha'i Faith and preventing the book to cause a drastic falloff in membership as the text reveals a great disparity between the original message of the founder and what later came to be sold as "The Baha'i Faith." It is an important resource in the continuing saga of Baha'i efforts to both obscure and alter their own original foundations and texts.
Elder and Miller were two English orientalists and Arabic scholars, Elder an author of an Arabic grammar who had spent many years in Persia and interviewed early Baha'is and Babis. It is the first English translation, done by non-Baha'is, because the Baha'i administration refused to do it. I am fortunate to possess an original first edition hardcover copy of the rare 1961 book (shown here). It's old enough to be printed in hot lead type. Why is it rare? Because Baha'is sought to suppress it, as they have often done with other books including the writings of their very own ostensible prophet-founder, The Bab.
Elder and Miller's agenda was to make available an important religious work of the east for the Royal Asiatic Society that was, unaccountably, still unavailable in the west. Thus their translation became the first translation available in the west. Earl elder remarks on this oddity in his preface:
"Anyone who studies Baha'ism learns very soon of the volume sacred to those who profess this religion and known as "The Most Holy Book." Of this book Baha in his Will said, "...reflect upon that which is revealed in my book the Aqdas." And his son and successor 'Abdu'l Baha said in his Will, "unto the Aqdas everyone must turn." Yet, strange to say, although the teachings of the Baha'is have been widely proclaimed in Great Britain and America, only fragments of al-Kitab al Aqdas have been translated previously into English."
Read a detailed study here : http://bahaiface.com/Bahai_Faith_Kitab_i_Aqdas_Most_Holy_Book.html
I hate this Ban'a'na
ReplyDeleteHello Naser--
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting excerpts from BahaiFace.com. There have been corrections to that page since you found it. The first paragraphs are given below (also found at the link you gave.) In particular, the very FIRST paragraph below should be substituted for the 1st non-bold paragraph in your display. It turns out an Aqdas was translated into English already by 1901 by an Anton Haddad! (The Baha'i suppression was even more extreme than thought! I never heard of either translations when I was in the Baha'i Faith!) This is an important correction. Please make appropriate or desired updates to your page from the paragraphs below, or from any other material of interest at the current page.
http://bahai-faith-bahaullah.com/Bahai_Faith_Kitab_i_Aqdas_Most_Holy_Book.html
Thanks for spreading this.
J. Curtis Lee Mickunas
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The Elder & Miller translation was the second time the Baha'i Faith's mysterious "Most Holy Book" became available in English. But like the Haddad translation produced in 1901, The Baha'i administration ignored it and quietly let it die to the memory of their membership. They did not publish it to the Baha'is. Rather, to protect their nascent religious movement in the west, they deprived Baha'is of their own central scripture for the first 120 years of their projected "thousand year" dispensation.
It did not contain the necessary translation "treatment" to keep it from damaging the religion's reputation. Either the Baha'i-positive Haddad version or the scholarly Elder-Miller translations would have adversely affected membership if the Baha'i leadership had not successfully directed followers away from them. Right up until 1991, when the Baha'i administration belatedly came out with their version, most Baha'is believed the administration when they said "It hasn't been translated yet."
....
Baha'is believe their "Most Holy Book" was God's guidance to mankind for the next thousand years. Naturally, by lacking their own scriptural guidance, what developed as "the Baha'i Faith" ended up substantially at variance with the religion depicted in the "Most Holy Book." This "revelation" by the Baha'i founder Baha'u'llah is believed to have been completed by 1873, thus 139 years have already passed and Baha'is are still not wearing sable or marking thieves on the forehead.
Elder and Miller were two English orientalists and Arabic scholars, Elder an author of an Arabic grammar who had spent 50 years in the near east. Miller was living in Persia and exposed to Baha'is, was keenly interested in the them, and interviewed early Baha'is and Babis. I am fortunate to possess an original first edition hardcover copy of the rare 1961 book (shown here). It's old enough to be printed in hot lead type. Why is it rare? Because Baha'is sought to suppress it. Book suppression is common with Baha'is. They even extirpated the writings of their own ostensible prophet-founder, The Bab, so well that no copy of his central scripture, the Bayan, is known to exist. Baha'is even have the habit of confiscating books they deem to be adverse to their growth. I recall going through the estate of a famous early Baha'i Ruth Moffett and finding many "no no" books about the Baha'i Faith that she had removed from libraries over the years. Baha'i book purging is one reason that hardcover copies of Elder & Miller's Aqdas are so rare today.
As with the 1901 Haddad translation, after Elder-Miller's translation was published in 1961 western Baha'is were kept in the dark about its existence. I was an active Baha'i for nearly 15 years and never heard of it...
Delete this post if you like.
I think the lack of response to your inflammatory ignorance and hate pandering is evidence enough of the truth of Baha'u'llah's revelation. Those who truly follow His path cling not to enmity and selfish pride (your true motive), but to unity and forgiveness (a Christian characteristic). Blessings and peace!
ReplyDeleteThe fact that your comment was "anonymous" is enough to discredit it, you coward!
DeleteThe "truth" of the "Baha'i revelation" is that your admin. suppressed the Baha'i revelation (the Kitab-i-Aqdas) for 120 years, considering it embarrassing, and knowing that it would destroy membership enrollments if the revelation were revealed.
ReplyDelete"Pride"? Have you ever read any of the outlandish things your "Blessed Beauty" says about himself?
J. Curtis Lee Mickunas
lol J. Curtis its sad when i come upon people like you. go do something else with your life mate
ReplyDeleteAh, but I'm very contented with my life.
ReplyDeleteYou see, I used to say those Baha''i "prayers for contentment."
But somehow unlike most Baha'is, for me they actually worked.
Now, the race- and nation-killing Baha'i Faith is only one of a dozen side hobbies of mine. My main work is writing a better Yoga-Sutra commentary, and a few other things -- anonymous.
Talk about "get a life."
And where are these great translations? Show us the books , publish them right here, so we can have a long hard look at them.
ReplyDeleteKeep investigating, maybe you will find some more interesting things out there.
I didn't say "translation." I said "commentary."
DeleteHere, fool:
www.YogaSutras.com