RE: Celestial Spheres

[Khazeh Fananapazir]

 Hasan Elias
Sent: 26 December 2005 18:23

Bahá'u'lláh said:

 

Thou hast, moreover, asked Me concerning the nature of the celestial spheres. To comprehend their nature, it would be necessary to inquire into the meaning of the allusions that have been made in the Books of old to the celestial spheres and the heavens,  and to discover the character of their relationship to this physical world, and the influence which they exert upon it.

 (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'l! lah, p. 162)

 

Can someone explain what Bahá'u'lláh mean with this quote? Is this quote a philosophic one? or a literal one?

 

Can one comprehend how galaxies, stars, planets, and other spheres work if one decodes the meaning of their equivalents in the Religious and Philosophic books?

 

Hasan 

Dear Hasan

 

http://reference.bahai.org/fa/t/b/GWB/gwb-105.html

 

in the original the word for celestial spheres is [aflaak= the plural of falak]

 

there is a Tablet of the Master called AFLAAKIYYIH

this Tablet may help you

 

http://bahai-library.com/?file=abdulbaha_lawh_aflakiyyih

http://bahai-library.com/provisionals/universe.html

Per a couple of requests, a provisional translation of Abdu'l-Baha's Lawh-i-Aflakiyyih is hereby posted. Text is scanned, so there might be glitches. The original Tablet can be found in Makatib-i Abdu'l-Baha, vol. 1, pp 13-32.

(prov. trans. Anonymous) 

please forgive these brief words

you probably know these better

many of the references of past scriptures are symbolic

http://www.muslimhope.com/AstronomyAndTheQuran.htm

"The demand of the pagans to the Prophet to show them a miracle. The Prophet showed them the splitting of the moon. Narrated ‘Abdullah bin Massud: During the lifetime of the Prophet the moon was split into two parts and on that the Prophet said, ‘Bear witness (to this).’" Bukhari vol.4 book 56 ch.26 and vol.4 book 56 no.830 p.533.

"Narrated Anas that the Meccan people requested Allah’s Apostle to show them a miracle, and so he showed them the splitting of the moon." Bukhari vol.4 book 56 no.831 p.533.

"Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas: The moon was split into two parts during the lifetime of the Prophet." Bukhari vol.4 book 56 no.832 p.534.

Splitting the moon. Bukhari vol.6 book 60 no.290 and footnote 1 p.273; vol.6 book 60 no.387-391 p.365-366; vol.6 book 60 no.345,349,368-370 p.331,336

Splitting the moon Sahih Muslim vol.4 book 37 no.6721,6724-6730 p.1467-1468

Sura 54:1 says, "The Hour (of Judgment) is nigh, and the moon was cleft asunder. (Yusuf ‘Ali revised edition).

Note that cleft asunder means the mean was split in half, and the verb here is past tense. We have no records of any other people in the world, including close-by Egypt, Syria, or Persia that saw the moon split in two. The Qur’an and hadiths do not say how it got back together either.

Yusuf ‘Ali in footnote 5128 says, "Three explanations are given in the Mufradat, and perhaps all three apply here: (1) that the moon once appeared cleft asunder in the valley of Makkah within sight of the Prophet, his Companions, and some Unbelievers; (2) that the prophetic past tense indicates the future, the cleaving asunder of the moon being a Sign of the Judgment approaching; and (3) that the phrase is metaphorical, meaning that the matter has become clear as the moon. That the first was noticed by contemporaries, including Unbelievers, is clear from verse 2. The second is an incident of the disruption of the solar system at the New Creation: Cf. lxxv. 8-9."