# Commentary on the Surah of the Sun

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Bahá'u'lláh, Commentary on the Surah of the Sun, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Commentary on the Surah of the Sun
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh
> 
> Juan Cole, translator
> 
> 1994/2000
> original title
> 
> Tafsír-i-Súriy-i-Va'sh-Shams
> 
> 1880s(?)
> 
> see translator's introduction
> 
> 1. 2000 version (see 1994 version below)
> 
> Download: bahaullah_surih_vash-shams_cole.pdf.
> 
> 2. 1994 version
> 
> Qur'an 91, The Surah of the Sun
> 
> By the sun and its noonday brightness!
> 
> By the moon when it followeth it!
> 
> By the day when it revealeth its glory!
> 
> By the night when it enshroudeth it!
> 
> By the heaven and that which built it!
> 
> By the earth and that which spread it forth!
> 
> By a soul and Him who fashioned it!
> 
> And informed it of its wickedness and its piety;
> 
> Blessed now is he who hath kept it pure,
> 
> and undone is he who hath corrupted it!
> 
> Thamud in their insolence rejected their prophet,
> 
> When the greatest wretch among them rushed up:
> 
> Said the Apostle of God to them, "The Camel of God! Let her drink."
> 
> But they treated him as an impostor and hamstrung her.
> 
> So their Lord destroyed them for their crime, and visited all alike:
> 
> Nor feared He the issue thereof.
> 
> [Translation based on Rodwell, but modified by Cole, with reference to Arberry.]
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh's Commentary on the Surah of the Sun
> 
> In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
> 
> Praise be to God, Who hath set the dove of eloquence, perched
> among the twigs of the tree of explanation, to weaving her divers
> melodies.
> 
> Her lyrics tell of how there is no God but God, Who hath brought new
> beings into existence, and created the contingent world by means of His
> Primal Will, whereby He hath caused to exist all that was and yet shall
> be.
> 
> May God be glorified, Who hath embellished the heavens of reality with the
> sun of metaphorical meanings and mystical insight, as inscribed by the Pen
> of the Most High. Sovereignty belongeth to God, the Omnipotent, the
> Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. He hath brought forth the Most Great
> Ocean, which uniteth in itself the waters flowing from the spring of the
> letter H, which flow into the Most Ancient Name (Baha), from which the
> Primal Point was separated off, and whereby the unifying Word hath
> become manifest and both spiritual truth and religious law were revealed.
> The upholders of the divine unity broke through its surface and soared up
> into the heavens of ecstasy and divine presence. The sincere ones thus
> attained the beatific vision of their Lord, the All-Glorious, the Devoted
> Friend.
> 
> Then peace and blessings be upon the Dawning-Place of the Most
> Beautiful Names and the Most Exalted Attributes, in every letter of Whose
> appellation the Divine Names are treasured up, and whereby existence
> itself, whether visible or invisible, hath been adorned. He was called
> Muhammad in the realm of names, and Ahmad in the Kingdom of eternity.
> And peace be upon His House and His Companions, from this day until
> that upon which the Tongue of Grandeur shall speak forth. Sovereignty
> belongs to God, the One, the All-Conquering.
> 
> Your letter reached Us, and We have perused it, with all its
> allusions. We beseech God to aid thee in doing that which He loves, that
> He might bring thee nigh unto the shores of that sea from which rise up the
> waves of the Name of thy Lord, the Most High. Every drop thereof saith,
> "There is no God but God, the Creator of all Names and of the Heavens
> above."
> 
> O questioner, if thou seekest the Sacred Fold and the Sinai of divine
> proximity, then cleanse thy heart of all else but Him. Remove the sandals
> of thy suppositions and idle fancies, that thou mightest see with the eye of
> thine heart the effulgences of God, the Lord of the Throne and of the
> Earth. For this is the day of unveiling and witnessing. Separation hath
> passed away, and union hath arrived. This is from the bounty of thy Lord,
> the Cherished, the Beloved. Leave posing questions and seeking answers
> to the people of this earth, and ascend by the wings of abnegation into
> those skies wherein thou shalt draw nigh to the clemency of thy Lord, the
> Merciful, the Compassionate.
> 
> Say: O people, the Primal Point hath been revealed, the Universal
> Word hath been brought to fruition, and the kingdom of God, the Help in
> Peril, the Self-Subsisting, hath been made manifest. Say: O people, ye
> disport yourselves in a puddle, oblivious to the sweet sea that billoweth
> before your faces. What aileth ye, that ye comprehend not? Do ye speak
> forth with the knowledge ye possess when He hath appeared, Who knew
> the Point of Knowledge that generated all things, and to which they all
> returned? From this Point did issue God's own words of wisdom, and
> sciences that yet remain concealed in the treasuries of the purity of thy
> Lord, the Exalted, the Almighty. Leave allusions to those trapped in them,
> and set out toward that station wherein ye shall perceive the fragrances of
> knowledge from His heavens. Thus counseleth ye this Servant, every
> member, every artery, of whose body testifieth that there is no God save
> He. He ever subsisted in the zenith of His might and glory, and in the
> heights of His honor and radiance. The Ones He sent with truth and
> guidance are the Dawning-places of His revelation to all creation, and the
> Daysprings of His inspiration among His servants. Through them were the
> mysteries unveiled, and the divine Laws legislated, and by Them was
> realized the Cause of God, the All-Powerful, the Mighty, the
> Unconstrained. No God is there but He, the Omniscient, the All-Knowing.
> 
> O questioner, know thou that the people pride themselves upon
> knowledge, and praise it, whereas this Servant complaineth of it. For
> without it Baha would not have been imprisoned in Akka with extreme
> abasement, nor would He have drunk from the cup of woes proffered by
> His enemies. Eloquence hath banished Me, and the science of rhetoric
> brought Me low. My mention of conjunction [union with God] hath torn
> Me limb from limb. My succinctness hath provoked a long-winded
> affliction, grammar hath deprived Me of all comfort, and syntax hath
> disordered the pleasures of My heart. My knowledge of God's mysteries
> hath become a chain about my neck. Given all this, how can I respond to
> your question concerning the verses revealed from the heavens of majesty
> and grandeur, especially since the hearts of the discerning have failed to
> comprehend them, and the minds of the sagacious never soared into the
> heavens of their meanings?
> 
> My pinions have been clipped by the shears of envy and rancor.
> Should this broken bird find wings, He would fly into the sky of rhetoric
> and exposition and warble on the twigs of the tree of knowledge a song
> that would lift up the hearts of the sincere ones into the firmament of
> longing and attraction. They would then witness the effulgences of their
> Lord, the Mighty, the Bestower. At this time, however, I am forbidden to
> uncover what was hidden, release what was repressed or speak openly of
> what was concealed. We must withhold it rather than revealing it. Were
> We to speak of what God hath taught Us by His grace, the people would
> back away from Us and flee, save for those who have imbibed the elixir of
> life from the chalice of the words of their Lord, the All-Merciful.
> 
> For, every word sent down from the heavens of revelation upon the
> prophets and messengers hath been filled with the sacred waters of
> figurative meaning, explanation, wisdom and exposition. Blessed are they
> who drink thereof. Since We have perceived in thee the fragrance of love,
> We shall reply to thee briefly and with concision. Thus mightest thou sever
> thyself from those who interpret all scripture metaphorically, who have
> opposed the truth and its mystery and cling instead to their own
> conjectures and vain imaginings, even though aforetime it was revealed that
> "Conjecture availeth nothing against the truth" and in another place
> "Some conjecture is a sin."
> 
> Know that the sun mentioned in this blessed surah hath divers
> meanings. At the level of primacy and unity, and in the city of pre-existent
> divinity, it is one of God's mysteries, one of his sanctuaries, stored
> away in
> His treasure hold, concealed in His knowledge, and sealed by God's own
> seal. No one is informed thereof save the One, the Unique, the
> Omniscient.
> For in this station the sun signifieth the Primal Will and the
> illumination of
> divine oneness that by means of its Self sheddeth its effulgence upon the
> horizons. Whoever approached it was illumined thereby just as, when the
> sun riseth, its rays encompass the world, all save those surfaces that remain
> veiled from it by some obstacle. Consider the land unencumbered by trellis
> or wall: it is irradiated by the sun, whereas walls cast a shadow that
> prevents the earth from receiving this effulgence. In the same way, behold
> the sun of reality. It sheddeth the light of meanings and explanation upon
> beings. Whoso turneth toward it is rendered luminous by its rays, and such
> a one's heart gloweth with its light. Whoso turneth away will never have
> any portion therein, for the veil of self and passion hath intervened, and
> such a one remaineth far from the emanations of the sun of reality that
> flashed forth from the horizons of the heaven of heavens.
> 
> Then, in another station, it refereth to the prophets and pure
> ones of
> God, for they are the suns of His names and attributes amid his creation.
> Were it not for them, no one would have been illumined by the mystical
> knowledge of God. As you see, every nation on earth hath been
> enlightened by one of these brightly shining suns. Whoso denieth them
> remaineth deprived. For instance, those of God's servants who followed
> the Christ were irradiated by the sun of his knowledge, until the
> luminary of
> the horizons dawned over the Hijaz. Those who denied him [Muhammad]
> among the Christians and other communities were thereby deprived of that
> sun and its rays. Their very repudiation of him became a wall that locked
> out the light emanating from the horizon of the Cause of their Lord, the
> Omnipotent, the Succorer.
> 
> On yet another level of reality, it refereth to the friends and lovers
> of God, since they are the suns of authority among his creatures. Without
> them, gloom would have encompassed the entire earth, save those thy Lord
> willed to escape it. The word hath many other referents. Were ten scribes
> to come into Our presence and take down Our utterances for a year, or
> two years, they would in the end confess their inability to keep pace. Were
> it not for the denials of some ignoramuses, We would have discoursed at
> greater length, and the revered Pen of God would have gone beyond the
> mention of limitations.
> 
> Know assuredly that just as thou firmly believest that the Word of
> God, exalted be His glory, endureth for ever, thou must, likewise, believe
> with undoubting faith that its meaning can never be exhausted. They
> who are its appointed interpreters, they whose hearts are the
> repositories of
> its secrets are, however, the only ones who can comprehend its manifold
> wisdom. Whoso, while reading the Sacred Scriptures, is tempted to
> choose therefrom whatever may suit him with which to challenge the
> authority of the Representative of God among men, is, indeed, as one dead,
> though to outward seeming he may walk and converse with his neighbors,
> and share with them their food and drink.
> 
> Oh, would that the world could believe Me! Were all the things
> that lie enshrined within the heart of Baha, and which the Lord, His God,
> the Lord of all names, hath taught Him, to be unveiled to mankind, every
> man on earth would be dumbfounded.
> 
> How great the multitude of truths which the garment of words can
> never contain! How vast the number of such verities as no expression can
> adequately describe, whose significance can never be unfolded, and to
> which not even the remotest allusion can be made! How manifold are the
> truths which must remain unuttered until the appointed time is come! Even
> as it hath been said: "Not everything that a man knoweth can be disclosed,
> nor can everything that he can disclose be regarded as timely, nor can every
> timely utterance be considered as suited to the capacity of those who hear
> it."
> 
> Of these truths some can be disclosed only to the extent of the
> capacity of the repositories of the light of Our knowledge, and the
> recipients of Our hidden grace. We beseech God to strengthen thee with
> His power, and enable thee to recognize Him Who is the Source of all
> knowledge, that thou mayest detach thyself from all human learning, for
> "what would it profit any man to strive after learning when he hath already
> found and recognized Him Who is the object of all knowledge?" Cleave to
> the Root of knowledge, and to Him Who is the Fountain thereof, that thou
> mayest find thyself independent of all who claim to be well versed in human
> learning, and whose claim no clear proof, nor the testimony of any
> enlightening book, can support.
> 
> In another station, it refereth to the most beautiful names of God,
> insofar as every one of His names constituteth a sun shining above the
> horizon. Consider the name of God, "the knowing." It is a sun that
> dawneth above the horizon of the will of thy Lord, the All-Merciful, its
> rays bathing the bodies of all things in the known universe. Thou wilt find
> every correct science among those persons of learning who have not given
> in to their passions and base desires, who have acknowledged the path of
> the divine decree and held fast to the firm handle of faith. Know that such
> a one is in the right, and that his knowledge is a ray that emanated from the
> light of this sun. We have, verily, interpreted the names and elucidated
> their mysteries, effulgences, and coruscations, their externality and
> internality, the secrets of their letters and the wisdom of their composition
> in an epistle that We penned for one of Our friends who had inquired
> concerning the names and what they contained.
> 
> Know that the Word of God, in the primal reality and the first
> station, compriseth those meanings that most of the people have failed to
> perceive. We bear witness that His words are complete, and in every one
> of these words lie concealed meanings apprehended by no one but Himself,
> and from Him is knowledge of the Book. No God is there but Him, the
> Almighty, the Omnipotent, the Bestower.
> 
> Those who wrote commentaries on the Qur'an fell into two sorts.
> The first neglected the literal sense in favor of an esoteric exegesis. The
> other interpreted literally and ignored its metaphorical dimension. Were
> We to review all their sayings and statements, thou wouldst be overtaken
> with fatigue and unable to read what We have written for thee. Therefore,
> We have declined to mention them here. Blessed are they that cling both
> to the literal and to the esoteric, for those are His servants that have
> believed in the universal Word.
> 
> Know that whoso clingeth to the outward sense of the words,
> leaving aside their esoteric significance, is simply ignorant. And whoso
> concentrateth on the metaphorical sense to the exclusion of the prosaic
> meaning is heedless. Only the one who intepreteth the verses esoterically
> while harmonizing this reading with the literal meaning can be said to be a
> complete scholar. This maxim hath dawned from the horizon of
> knowledge, so know thou its value and cherish its excellence. Verily, we
> mention Our object allusively in our words and intimations. Blessed is the
> one who graspeth Our intent and arriveth at the goal.
> 
> Say: O people, the nightingale warbleth upon the twigs, the royal
> cockerel crieth out with wisdom and utterance, and the peacock spreadeth
> its feathers in paradise. How long will ye sleep upon the couch of
> heedlessness and transgression? Rise from the bed of selfish passion and
> advance toward the dawning-place of the compassion of thy Lord, the
> Sovereign of Eternity, the Revealer of Names. Beware lest ye oppose Him,
> who calleth you to God and to His precepts. Fear ye God and be not of
> the negligent.
> 
> Then know that God swore to His prophet by the sun of divinity,
> sovereignty, will, volition, and names; by the lights of these suns, their
> effulgences, emanations, and effects, and by the sun shining and apparent
> above the horizon of this exalted firmament.
> 
> "By the moon when it followeth it!" The moon signifieth the
> station of guardianship, which followeth the sun of prophethood, that is, it
> appeareth afterward, to vindicate the cause of the prophet among God's
> servants. Were We to elaborate on the stations of the moon, thou wouldst
> be presented with a hefty tome indeed.
> 
> "By the day when it revealeth its glory!" The intent of the word
> "day" on the level of primal reality is every Day whereon a prophet or
> messenger of God appeared, to establish His mention among His servants
> and to implement His laws among His creatures. Thereon, the
> Manifestation of His Cause emanateth forth upon phenomenal beings. On
> that Day, the lights of the sun are manifest, and He is the One who causeth
> their effulgence in the sense that in Him and by Him the sun of
> prophethood shineth and sheddeth its light.
> 
> "By the night when it enshroudeth it!" By the night is meant the
> veil of oneness behind which was hidden the Point of Reality. After this
> Point descended from its highest station, it settled into the realm of
> oneness, the plane of unity. From it the soft form of the letter alif became
> manifest, and beneath the veil of oneness there appeared the alif in motion,
> which is its upright form. It covereth the veil itself, and concealeth the
> Point of Reality that constituted the actuality of the sun of prophethood.
> 
> "By Heaven and that which built it!" Heaven possesseth, for the
> people of truth, divers referents: the heaven of meanings, the heaven of
> mystical insight, the heaven of the religions, the heaven of learning, the
> heaven of wisdom, the heaven of grandeur, the heaven of exaltation, the
> heaven of glory. The phrase "that which built it" signifieth the One Who
> created all the heavens just mentioned, and all that thou seest in the
> phenomenal world.
> 
> "By the earth and Him who spread it forth!" By the earth is
> intended the hearts. They are, indeed, vaster than the earth and heaven, for
> the heart is the most great throne upon which descendeth the effulgence of
> thy Lord, Creator of the nations and Reviver of mouldering bones. This is
> an earth in which God hath sown the seeds of His knowledge and love, that
> the sprouts of learning and certitude might shoot forth. Say, O people:
> Today is the day of sowing. Plant in your hearts with the hands of
> certitude that which hath been bestowed upon you by your Lord, the All-
> Knowing, the All-Wise. "And Him who spread it forth" means the One
> who unfolded it with the hand of His might and the power of His Cause.
> 
> "By a soul and Him who fashioned it!" The soul or self hath
> numerous stations and subsists upon divers planes. Among them is the self
> of the kingdom, the self of sovereignty, the self of Godhead, the self of
> divinity, the self of holiness, the self of serenity, the self of
> contentment, the
> self of satisfaction, the self of inspiration, the blameworthy self, and
> the self
> that is at the command of evil. The soul intended in this verse is the one
> that God hath rendered capable of all works, including acceptance and
> opposition, error and guidance, belief and unbelief. "And Him who
> fashioned it" means the One who created it and ordered it.
> 
> "And informed it of its wickedness and its piety." This verse
> signifieth that God informed and instructed the soul concerning its
> wickedness, that is, the deeds that benefit it not and that take it far
> from its
> sovereign Creator. "Its piety" referreth to the inspiration that he
> giveth the
> soul concerning that which will sanctify it from what hath been forbidden
> it.
> That is, He created it and informed it of the path of guidance and error,
> truth and falsehood, light and darkness. The He commanded it to forsake
> what was prohibited to it and to perform that which was enjoined upon it.
> 
> "Blessed now is he who hath kept it pure." This verse constituteth
> an answer to His oath upon the soul. That is, whoso cleanseth the soul
> from shortcomings and passions, from all that hath been interdicted in the
> Book, hath attained the goal. Consider those who have purified their souls
> in these days. By My Life! They, verily, are blessed. They are persons
> undeterred by the world and all that is therein from setting out on the clear
> and straight path. Verily, they exemplify this blessed verse, clothing
> themselves in piety and clinging to the hem of the loving-kindness of their
> Lord in these days, wherein most have stumbled. We bear witness to
> whatever God hath attested, and confess the truth of that which He hath
> revealed. Verily, He is the Truth, and after the truth there is naught but
> falsehood.
> 
> "And undone is he who hath corrupted it!" That is, whoso causeth
> the soul to become lost hath gone astray, and hath neglected to forbid it
> that which was prohibited or to enjoin upon it that which it was
> commanded to perform.
> 
> "The Thamud tribe in their impiety rejected their prophet."
> Thamud, according to what is recorded in the books, was a community to
> whom God sent the Prophet Salih, but they rejected him after he enjoined
> them to good and forbade them from evil. They did not follow the
> commands and precepts of God. Finally, they hamstrung Salih camel.
> "So their Lord destroyed them for their crime." That is, God
> visited His wrath upon them and made of them an object lesson to all the
> peoples on earth. In reality, all those who oppose the truth belong to the
> tribe of Thamud, whatever their actual genealogy. They shall be tormented
> and destroyed, just as were their predecessors. Verily, God is Almighty
> and Omnipotent. Praise be to God, Lord of all the worlds.
> 
> We have forborne to mention what the commentators have said in
> interpreting this blessed chapter, for such commentaries are freely available
> among the people and whoso desireth may consult them. They have
> interpreted the sun as the outward sun, and likewise the moon, and so forth
> throughout the surah. They trod down the path of fundamentalism and
> satisfied themselves with what they possessed. We have, on the other
> hand, interpreted it in a way not mentioned in such books. We beseech
> God to render every letter of what was mentioned a chalice brimming with
> meanings and knowledge, and to give thee to drink therefrom what will
> enable thee to detach thyself from all that runneth contrary to His good-
> pleasure. May it bring thee nigh unto the station He hath preordained for
> His pure ones, for He is, verily, the Forgiving, the Merciful. Praise be to
> God, Lord of the Worlds.
> 
> Praise be to thee, O Lord, My God! I beseech thee by Thy name,
> whereby all things glorify Thee, to open the eyes of thy creatures, that they
> may see the evidences of Thy splendid unity, and the effulgences of the sun
> of thy loving-kindness. O Lord, leave them not to themselves, for they are
> thy servants and creatures. Attract them by the exalted Word unto the
> Dayspring of Thy most beautiful names and the treasury of Thy highest
> attributes. Thou art, verily, able to do whatsoever Thou desirest. No God
> is there but thee, the Almighty, the All-Wise.
> 
> References
> 
> Todd Lawson, "Interpretation as Revelation: The Qur'an Commentary
> of Sayyid `Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Bab (1819-1850), in Andrew
> Rippin, ed., Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Qur'an
> (Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1988), pp. 223-53.
> Bahá'u'lláh, Majmu`ih-yi alvah-i mubarakih-yi hadrat-i Bahá'u'lláh, ed.
> Muhy'd-Din Sabri (Cairo: Sa`dat Press, 1920; repr. Wilmette, Il.: Baha'!
> Publishing Trust, 1978), pp. 2-17.
> 
> "Tafsir Surat 'Wa'sh-Shams,'" in Bahá'u'lláh, Majmu`ih, Sabri ed., p. 11.
> 
> Nasiru'd-Din Abu Sa`id `Abdu'llah ash-Shirani al-Baydawi, Anwar at-
> tanzil wa asrar at-ta'wil (Beirut: Dar al-Jil, n.d.), pp. 800-801 for a
> literalist,
> or at least highly concrete, exegesis of the Surah of the Sun.
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh, al-Kitab al-aqdas (Bombay, n.d.), p. 107: "Inna'lladhi
> yu'awwilu ma nuzzila min sama'il-wahy wa yukhrijuhu `an az-zahiri, innahu
> harrafa kalimatu'llahi."
> 
> Ibid., pp. 38-39.
> 
> I was urged by Franklin Lewis of the University of Chicago to make
> clearer in this revision (1 April 1994) the distinction between a perhaps
> more Apollonian semiotic approach that would stress polyvalence, and the
> more Dionysian approach of Derrida's deconstruction, which would talk of
> semantic ambiguity and instability. I do not myself believe deconstruction
> is altogether incompatible with elements of Babi-Bahá'í epistemology, but
> in this paper I am simply opening the question. I do wish to suggest
> that in
> any case the alternative Western traditions of positivism and the Vienna
> circle approach to language analysis are unlikely to be as helpful in
> understanding Bahá'u'lláh's and the Bab's approaches to textual
> interpretation as are either semiotics or postmodernism (the latter itself
> diverse and not limited to deconstruction).
> 
> Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh (Wilmette, Il:
> Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1969), p. 150.
> 
> I am grateful to Franklin Lewis of the University of Chicago for his
> meticulous comments on the earlier draft of this translation. I am grateful
> to Stephen Lambden for publishing the earlier draft of this provisional
> translation, the circulation of which in Bahá'í Studies Bulletin made it
> possible for Mr. Lewis to comment on and improve it.
> 
> This passage is abstruse, but it appears to refer to the two-stage
> Neoplatonic and mystical doctrine of the appearance of the world. First
> there is the level of the unknowable God, subsisting in and by Himself.
> This level is variously referred to as that of God's essential "identity"
> (huwiyyah) or, in the Tablet of All Food, as hahut (probably formed on the
> Syriac pattern of words such as nasut or humanity from the "h" of
> huwiyyah). Huwiyyah or identity derives from the third-person masculine
> pronoun in Arabic, huwa or he. Huwa ("He," a typical Sufi way of
> referring to God), huwiyyah or (divine) identity, and hahut or the level of
> unknowable divinity, all begin with the Arabic letter "ha'" or the soft
> H.
> 
> That the "waters" of this letter H (unknowable divinity) run into the Most
> Great Ocean would appear to refer to the process whereby the Universal
> Intellect is emanated from the primal One. The Universal Intellect is coded
> here as the Most Ancient name, or Baha, an Arabic word meaning "glory"
> that is made up of the letter H (referring to huwiyyah or the unknowable
> divinity), the letter B, and the letter alif. Alif, a straight line, is
> often used
> by Muslim mystical thinkers to symbolize the Universal Intellect. The
> Arabic letter B in turn is made up of a horizontal line curved up at each end
> (and therefore replicating the alif), with a point underneath it. The
> letter B
> is therefore a symbol of the further emanation of the world from the
> Universal Intellect, since it is made up of a basic shape that is lent
> meaning
> only by being differentiated. Unlike the divine, which is essentially One,
> the world, like the Arabic letter B, is essentially dual in character. By
> analogy, the "Primal Point" is the manifestation of God in this world that
> gives differentiation to human society. The word Baha therefore encodes
> the entire Neoplatonic process of emanation, containing the H of the primal
> huwiyyah or divine identity, the alif of the Universal Intellect, the B
> of the
> emanated cosmos, and the Primal Point or manifestation in the world of the
> Universal Intellect, which gives it meaning or rationality (Arabic `aql, Gr.
> nous). For hahut in the Tablet of All Food, see "Lawh Kull at-Ta'am" in
> lshraq-Khavari, Ma'idih-'i Asmani, IV, pp. 260-70 and Stephen Lambden,
> "A Tablet of Mirza Husayn `Ali Bahá'u'lláh of the Early Iraq Period: The
> Tablet of All Food," Bahá'í Studies Bulletin, vol. 3, no. 1 (June
> 1984):4-67.
> 
> The transformation of the alif into the B (symbolizing the emanation of the
> superlunary spheres from the Universal Intellect) is made explicit by the
> Shi`ite mystic Rajab al-Bursi, Mashariq Anwar al-Yaqin fi Asrar Amir al-
> Mu'minin (Beirut: n.p., 1979), pp. 20-21. On this figure see B.Todd
> Lawson, "The Dawning of the Lights of Certainty in the Divine Secrets
> Connected with the Commander of the Faithful by Rajab Bursi (d. 1411),"
> in Leonard Lewisohn, ed., The Legacy of Medieval Persian Sufism
> (London: Khaniqahi Nimatullahi Publications, 1992), pp. 261-276. The
> procession from H to alif to B is not necessarily always stated in so
> straightforward a manner. Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i appears to see the
> broken alif as an intermediate stage between the upright alif and the supine
> ba'. The intermediate level of Universal Spirit has, in turn, the shape
> of the
> lam, the Arabic "L." Ahmad al-Ahsa'i/Abu'l-Hasan al-Jilani, 1 Safar
> 1224/18 March 1809, in Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i, Jawami` al-kalim, 2 vols.
> (Tabriz: Muhammad Taqi Nakhjavani, 1273-1276), I, i, 11:143-144.
> 
> Qur'an 53:28 (53:29, Flugel).
> 
> Qur'an 49:12.
> 
> This and the following three paragraphs were translated by Shoghi
> Effendi Rabbani in Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh (Wilmette,
> Il.: Baha'! Publishing Trust, 2nd edn 1976), LXXXIX.
> 
> Here ends the section translated by Shoghi Effendi.
> 
> In Surah 91 of the Qur'an, entitled "The Sun," verse 1: "By the sun and
> its morning brightness!"
> 
> Qur'an, 91:2. Subsequent verses quoted are all from the same surah,
> and are quoted in order, so further identification of them would seem
> pedantic.
> 
> Again, this passage refers to the letter mysticism of Muslim
> Neoplatonism. The upright alif, equivalent to the English long A when not
> associated with the hamzah glottal stop, often symbolizes the Universal
> Intellect. Alif also has a "soft" or "broken" form, with the shape of the
> Arabic ya' or Y but without any pointing. This "soft" form of the alif was
> often seen by mystics to symbolize an intermediate stage of emanation, in
> the transformation from alif to ba' (the Arabic B consists of a horizontal,
> slightly curved line, with one point beneath it). The sequence upright alif-
> broken alif-B thus symbolizes the emanation of Universal Spirit and
> Universal Nature from Universal Intellect. For further details, see note 10
> above.
> 
> METADATA
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> — *Commentary on the Surah of the Sun (Used by permission of the curator)*