Chapter 28
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Newer translation of the Tablet of the Branch omits key words.  Last updated: May 23rd, 2024.

Passage 1 is a newer translation of the Tablet of the Branch, which omits the words, "Verily, this most sacred temple of Abha", from the original tablet (passage 2). Keeping in mind the teaching not to deviate from what Baha'u'llah, the Most Great Infallibility, revealed, not "even to the extent of a hair's breadth". "Temple" is one of many terms used in the Holy Writings to refer to the two classes of Prophets, and is obviously an important term in the relevant contexts. Baha'u'llah applies it to himself in passage 3, he also applies it to Imam Ali (the first Dependent Prophet in the era of Muhammad) in passage 4. One of the most important tablets revealed by Baha'u'llah is called the "Surih of the Temple". Omitting the words, "Verily, this most sacred temple of Abha" from the new translation obscures the station of Abdu'l-Baha as a Temple, as a Dependent Prophet of Baha'u'llah; and is not a faithful translation.


1)
Say: Out of this Most Great Ocean there hath branched the Pre-existent Sea; blessed the one that hath attained and found repose upon its shores.
There hath branched from the Sadratu’l-Muntahá this sacred and glorious Being, this Branch of Holiness; well is it with him that hath sought His shelter and abideth beneath His shadow.
-- Baha'u'llah, The Tablet of the Branch - new translation from bahai . org

In the Suriy-i-Ghusn (Tablet of the Branch) the following verses have been recorded: "There hath branched from the Sadratu'l-Muntaha this sacred and glorious Being, this Branch of Holiness; well is it with him that hath sought His shelter and abideth beneath His shadow.
-- Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 134


2)
Say: Verily, the ocean of pre-existence [Abdu'l-Baha] hath branched forth from this most great Ocean [Baha'u'llah]. Blessed, therefore, is he who abides upon Its shores, and is of those who are established thereon. Verily, this most sacred temple of Abha [Glory] -- the Branch of Holiness hath branched forth from the Sadratu'l-Muntaha. Blessed is whosoever sought shelter beneath it and is of those who rest therein.
-- Baha'u'llah, The Tablet of the Branch - from Bahá'í World Faith, Pages: 204-207

Take heed lest ye alter or pervert the text of the Word of God. Walk ye in the fear of God, and be numbered with the righteous.
-- Baha'u'llah, Surih of the Temple, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 18

Whoso interpreteth what hath been sent down from the heaven of Revelation, and altereth its evident meaning, he, verily, is of them that have perverted the Sublime Word of God, and is of the lost ones in the Lucid Book.
-- Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 57


3)
Thus have We built the Temple [Baha'u'llah, the Independent Prophet] with the hands of power and might, could ye but know it. This is the Temple promised unto you in the Book. Draw ye nigh unto it. This is that which profiteth you, could ye but comprehend it. Be fair, O peoples of the earth! Which is preferable, this, or a temple which is built of clay? Set your faces towards it. Thus have ye been commanded by God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Follow ye His bidding, and praise ye God, your Lord, for that which He hath bestowed upon you. He, verily, is the Truth. No God is there but He. He revealeth what He pleaseth, through His words "Be and it is".
-- Baha'u'llah, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 136


4)
Say I swear by God! They to whom you attribute knowledge and have accepted them as your divines they are in the sight of God the worst of men nay the quintessence of evil flees from them. Thus has the matter been inscribed in the scrolls of God's knowledge. We testify that they have not drunk from the fountains of knowledge and they have not attained unto a word of Wisdom and have not become aware of the mysteries of Revelation and have been racing in the land of their selfish desires. Nothing of rejection and denial against a prophet or a successor of a prophet has come to pass except after their permission. Thus has always been their injunction carried out on the Countenances of holiness.

Say to them: O ignorant ones! Did We not reveal in the past: "A Day that God shall come in the canopies of clouds."[4] How is it that when He came down in the clouds of Revelation in the Temple of 'Ali [Imam Ali], you turned away and rejected Him and waxed haughty and brought about your own perdition?[5] Was it not also revealed in your Book: " the Day when Thy Lord comes or certain of the signs of Thy Lord."[6] And when He did come with evident signs wherefore did ye turn away from those signs and veiled yourselves with the veils of self?..
[4] Qur'án 2:210.
[5] Qur'án 25:18 and 48:12.
[6] Qur'an 6:158.
-- Baha'u'llah, Surih-i-Sabr (Lawh-i-Ayyúb), Surih of Patience or Tablet of Job -- (translation by K. Fananapazir)

2:208. O ye who believe! enter into Islam whole-heartedly; and follow not the footsteps of the Evil One; for he is to you an avowed enemy.
2:209. If ye backslide after the clear (signs) have come to you, then know that Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise.
2:210. Will they wait until Allah comes to them in canopies of clouds, with angels (in His train) and the question is (thus) settled? But to Allah do all questions go back (for decision).
2:211. Ask the Children of Israel how many Clear (Signs) We have sent them. But if anyone, after Allah's favor has come to him, substitutes (something else), Allah is strict in punishment.
2:212. The life of this world is alluring to those who reject faith, and they scoff at those who believe. But the righteous will be above them on the Day of Resurrection; for Allah bestows His abundance without measures on whom He will.
-- The Qur'an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah 2.


5)
For the prophets and messengers do serve as intermediaries for the divine emanation, and whatever reacheth the creatures from the Eternal Truth is by means of these temples of sanctity and essences of abstraction, these mines of knowledge and manifestations of the divine command.
-- Baha'u'llah, Tablet on Hinduism and Zoroastrianism - Provisional translation by Juan Cole.


6)
1.12
O Pen of the Most High! Hearken unto the Call of Thy Lord, raised from the Divine Lote-Tree in the holy and luminous Spot, that the sweet accents of Thy Lord, the All-Merciful, may fill Thy soul with joy and fervour, and that the breezes that waft from My name, the Ever-Forgiving, may dispel Thy cares and sorrows. Raise up, then, from this Temple [Baha'u'llah, the Independent Prophet], the temples [Dependent Prophets of Baha'u'llah] of the Oneness of God, that they may tell out, in the kingdom of creation, the tidings of their Lord, the Most Exalted, the All-Glorious, and be of them that are illumined by His light.
-- Baha'u'llah, Surih of the Temple, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 8.



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