Sen McGlinn
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 20
- Points
- 8
A quote attributed to Abdu’l-Baha has been used often on blogs and micro-blogs. Perhaps it is popular today because the opening — “The darkness of this gloomy night shall pass away” — chimes with a need today. Consisting largely of bromides reminiscent of American self-help literature, the quote includes the words “Serve the cause of democracy and freedom.”
Lunt, in introducing these words for Star of the West, says that Sohrab said that Abdu’l-Baha had “expressed [these words] many times during the last months.” So in the 1918 letter, Sohrab was not claiming to have literally recorded the words of Abdu’l-Baha. But when he wrote Story of the Divine Plan almost 30 years later, he writes “in this letter [to Lunt], I described a quiet afternoon on Mount Carmel and finished with some informal Words of Abdu’l-Baha which I had taken down in my note-book. These words, so fortunately preserved [by Sohrab’s oh-so-humble self], are one of the jewels of the Master’s utterance and constitute an immortal page in Bahai literature.” In his dreams, he has now written an immortal page in Bahai literature.
He has also changed some parts of the text. In 1918, he wrote to Lunt “be joyous while the ugly face of despair grins at you.” In 1947 this becomes “ be hopeful while the ugly face of despair grins at you,” which is a better contrast. “The trees of hope will become verdant” is elaborated to “The trees of hope shall be clothed in verdant leaves,” which I consider too much of a good thing. “The clear heaven of human consciousness” becomes “the clear conscience of the children of men.” The punctuation and sentence breaks are changed, “will” becomes “shall” – Sohrab is busy making his words sound more like the style that American readers of the time knew as Abdu’l-Baha’s style.
Sohrab often attributed his ideas to Abdu’l-Baha: when he reports Abdu’l-Baha speaking like a modernist American of the day it is likely to be Sohrab speaking, for that is the audience he seeks to impress. “Do not yield to the overwhelming power of tyranny and despotism. Serve the cause of democracy and freedom” is an example. Does Abdu’l-Baha ever speak in such terms, in authenticated sources? I think it is very likely that Ahmad Sohrab simply made this part up. And it is quite possible he made it all up.
On my Bahai Studies blog, I have noted a number of other instances of the deceitfulness of Sohrab. Most are similar to this: attributing spoken words to Abdu’l-Baha that come from his own imagination. However in one case Sohrab was translating a tablet of Abdu’l-Baha, and inserted into it (!) “spiritual democracy and celestial freedom” and “the Golden Era of International Solidarity and World Confederation.” The Persian text of that tablet is available, and it contains nothing resembling this. “Spiritual democracy” is a characteristic Sohrab diction, reflecting his concept of a Bahai community without any authorities.
These words attributed to Abdu’l-Baha come from a 1918 letter from Ahmad Sohrab to Alfred Lunt, who sent them to Star of the West. They were republished in Sohrab’s 1919 “Tablets, Instructions and Words of Explanation.” In 1923, Horace Holley included them in his compilation Bahai Scriptures, a book that mixes authentic and unauthentic material without distinctions. They were published again in Sohrab’s 1947 book Story of the Divine Plan.
Lunt, in introducing these words for Star of the West, says that Sohrab said that Abdu’l-Baha had “expressed [these words] many times during the last months.” So in the 1918 letter, Sohrab was not claiming to have literally recorded the words of Abdu’l-Baha. But when he wrote Story of the Divine Plan almost 30 years later, he writes “in this letter [to Lunt], I described a quiet afternoon on Mount Carmel and finished with some informal Words of Abdu’l-Baha which I had taken down in my note-book. These words, so fortunately preserved [by Sohrab’s oh-so-humble self], are one of the jewels of the Master’s utterance and constitute an immortal page in Bahai literature.” In his dreams, he has now written an immortal page in Bahai literature.
He has also changed some parts of the text. In 1918, he wrote to Lunt “be joyous while the ugly face of despair grins at you.” In 1947 this becomes “ be hopeful while the ugly face of despair grins at you,” which is a better contrast. “The trees of hope will become verdant” is elaborated to “The trees of hope shall be clothed in verdant leaves,” which I consider too much of a good thing. “The clear heaven of human consciousness” becomes “the clear conscience of the children of men.” The punctuation and sentence breaks are changed, “will” becomes “shall” – Sohrab is busy making his words sound more like the style that American readers of the time knew as Abdu’l-Baha’s style.
Sohrab often attributed his ideas to Abdu’l-Baha: when he reports Abdu’l-Baha speaking like a modernist American of the day it is likely to be Sohrab speaking, for that is the audience he seeks to impress. “Do not yield to the overwhelming power of tyranny and despotism. Serve the cause of democracy and freedom” is an example. Does Abdu’l-Baha ever speak in such terms, in authenticated sources? I think it is very likely that Ahmad Sohrab simply made this part up. And it is quite possible he made it all up.
On my Bahai Studies blog, I have noted a number of other instances of the deceitfulness of Sohrab. Most are similar to this: attributing spoken words to Abdu’l-Baha that come from his own imagination. However in one case Sohrab was translating a tablet of Abdu’l-Baha, and inserted into it (!) “spiritual democracy and celestial freedom” and “the Golden Era of International Solidarity and World Confederation.” The Persian text of that tablet is available, and it contains nothing resembling this. “Spiritual democracy” is a characteristic Sohrab diction, reflecting his concept of a Bahai community without any authorities.
