The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh
Introduction
Shoghi Effendi1 tells in
God Passes By how
Bahá’u’lláh2 in the year 1858 was inspired with the “gemlike utterances” which compose this book as he paced, wrapped in meditation, the banks of the Tigris. Shoghi Effendi indicates that the work is to be identified with the Hidden Book of
Fáṭimih, which was believed to have been revealed by the Angel
Gabriel through the
Imám ‘Alí for the consolation of
Muḥammad’s grief-stricken daughter after the Prophet’s death, but which remained hidden from the world’s knowledge till now made known. He describes it as “dynamic spiritual leaven cast into the life of the world for the reorientation of the minds of men, the edification of their souls and the rectification of their conduct,” and ranks it as pre-eminent among the Author’s ethical works.
It presents in sententious form the sum and inwardness of all the
Revelations of the past. As according to prophecy all the Messengers and Prophets, including the
Qá’im, are gathered together beneath the shadow of the sacred standard which the
Promised One has raised; so here beneath that standard is gathered their Teaching in its essence. The
Hidden Words is not a digest, nor an ordered statement. It is a new creation. It is a distillation of Sacred Fragrances. It is a focus in which all the Great Lights of the past are joined into one Light, and all God’s Yesterdays become Today.
It is given us as a single spiritual force, instinct with the presence of all the Spiritual Monarchs of the past,
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