Rashḥ-i-'Amá

The Rashḥ-i-'Amá is a Tablet revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in Persian. The English translation of its title is The Clouds of the Realms Above^[1]. It was revealed by Bahá'u'lláh while He was imprisoned in the Síyáh-Chál, meaning that it was revealed between October 1852 and October 1853.

Background[edit]

Stephen Lambden has described the Tablet as a poem consisting of 19 couplets,^[2] while Ramin Neshati describes it as consisting of 20 couplets,^[3] and Julio Savi appears to describe it as consisting of 18 couplets.^[4]

The perspective or 'voice' in which the Tablet is revealed is that of Bahá'u'lláh Himself and in the words of Adib Taherzadeh "In every line He extolls the glory of God...".^[5] Savi interprets the Tablet as pertaining to the divine Intimation of Bahá'u'lláh's mission as a Manifestation of God, with the first nine couplets relating directly to this event, describing and celebrating it, and the next nine relating indirectly to it, calling observers to recognize it.^[6] Lambden notes that while it is likely that the Tablet pertains to Bahá'u'lláhs station it is in cryptic and esoteric terms, with no explicit claim to be Him whom God would make manifest.^[7]

While it is likely the earliest extant Tablet of Bahá'u'lláh Shoghi Effendi has written that Bahá'u'lláh revealed twenty-two Tablets while in Badasht in 1848,^[8] so the Rashḥ-i-'Amá is not the earliest Tablet revealed by Bahá'u'lláh. Ismael Velasco notes that while 'Abdu'l-Bahá's writings show that the Manifestation is always aware of their latent capacity Shoghi Effendi has described the first intimation of Bahá'u'lláh's mission as having occurred during His imprisonment in the Síyáh-Chál, giving the Rashḥ-i-'Amá an important status regardless of its chronological position in Bahá'u'lláh's Writings.^[9]

It has been officially translated and published by the Bahá'í World Centre in the compilation The Call of the Divine Beloved: Selected Mystical Works of Bahá'u'lláh which is available on the Bahá'í Reference Library.^[10]

Official Translation[edit]

Rashḥ-i-'Amá in The Call of the Divine Beloved: Selected Mystical Works of Bahá'u'lláh

Provisional Translations[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

[1] ttps://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/call-divine-beloved/

[2] ttps://bahai-library.com/winters_wilmette_tablets_notesrashh-ama/outline.html

[3] ttp://bahai-library.com/bahaullah_rashh_ama_neshati

[4] ttps://bahai-library.com/winters_wilmette_tablets_notesrashh-ama/notes.html

[5] ttps://bahai-library.com/winters_wilmette_tablets_notesrashh-ama/outline.html

[6] ttps://bahai-library.com/winters_wilmette_tablets_notesrashh-ama/notes.html

[7] ttps://bahai-library.com/winters_wilmette_tablets_notesrashh-ama/outline.html

[8] God Passes By, p 32

[9] ttps://bahai-library.com/winters_wilmette_tablets_notesrashh-ama/notes.html

[10] ttps://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/call-divine-beloved/

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