July 4. On this date in 1930, Shoghi Effendi completed his translation of the "Kitáb-i-Íqán." Bahá'u'lláh wrote the work in 1861, and it contains many themes common to Sufi teaching which Bahá'u'lláh would have encountered from 1854 to 1856 when he, using the name Darvish Muhammad-i-Irani, studied with Sufi sheikhs in Kurdistan.

 

July 4.  On this date in 1930, Shoghi Effendi completed his translation of the "Kitáb-i-Íqán."  Bahá'u'lláh wrote the work in 1861, and it contains many themes common to Sufi teaching which Bahá'u'lláh would have encountered from 1854 to 1856 when he, using the name Darvish Muhammad-i-Irani, studied with Sufi sheikhs in Kurdistan.

 

Bahá'u'lláh had left Baghdad for the mountains of Kurdistan on April 10, 1954, and returned to Baghdad on March 19, 1856. He spent those two years using the name Darvish Muhammad-i-Irani studying with various Sufi sheikhs. His studies with the Sufis led to his writing the Four Valleys in 1857 and Seven Valleys in 1860. Both books are usually published together and their contents are largely based on the experiences he had as Darvish Muhammad-i-Irani. Similarly, the Kitáb-i-Íqán, written in 1861, contains many themes common to Sufi teaching. Finally, Bahá'í cosmology is largely a reflection of Sufi cosmology.

The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the central book of the Bahá'í Faith written by Bahá'u'lláh, was only officially translated into English in 1992, by which time other translations, such as one by the Royal Asiatic Society, were becoming increasingly available through dissemination via the internet. My personal opinion is that the material in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas is so objectionable that the Bahá'í authorities wished to shield Western believers from its contents, as they do from Bahá'u'lláh's other works by not providing translations.