Scripture 14 replies 2 hours ago

What does Bahá'u'lláh mean by "the heart" in Arabic mystical usage vs. later usage?

Original Poster 2 hours ago

The term "heart" (qalb/fu'ad) appears throughout Bahá'u'lláh's writings with seemingly different valences depending on the context. In the earlier Arabic writings — particularly the Hidden Words and some of the tablets composed during the Baghdad period — the "heart" seems to be understood in a strongly Sufi-inflected sense: the innermost seat of mystical perception, the locus of divine emanation, the mirror that must be polished. This resonates closely with Ibn 'Arabí's concept of the qalb as the faculty that "turns" (from the root qalaba) to receive divine self-disclosure.

But in some of the later Persian and Arabic tablets — particularly material from the Akká period — the usage seems to shift toward something more broadly devotional or moral: the heart as the seat of intention, sincerity, and ethical commitment. Is this a genuine doctrinal shift, or is it a difference in rhetorical register? I'm curious whether anyone has done systematic work tracking this across the corpus, or whether there's secondary literature in the Irfán papers addressing it.

14 Replies

Ahmad R. 90 minutes ago

This is a fascinating question. I'd suggest that the apparent shift you're noticing may not be a doctrinal change so much as a contextual one. The earlier tablets were often addressed to Sufi audiences already fluent in the technical vocabulary of Ibn 'Arabí and Rumi — so the register is more densely mystical by design. The Akká-period tablets, addressed more often to Bahá'í communities rather than Sufi seekers, naturalize much of that vocabulary into a more devotional idiom. The content may be consistent but the rhetorical surface differs significantly.

Farideh N. 1 hour ago

I've done some work on related questions in the Seven Valleys, where the station of the Heart (dil) is treated as distinct from both rational intellect ('aql) and the lower self (nafs). What I found is that Bahá'u'lláh is consciously working within — and gently revising — the Sufi station-framework rather than simply borrowing it wholesale. The 'heart' in the Valley of Knowledge, for instance, seems to represent a kind of integrated spiritual intelligence that is higher than reason alone. I'll try to dig up the specific passages.

Juan C. 45 minutes ago

Has anyone looked at how 'Abdu'l-Bahá uses the term in Some Answered Questions or the Paris Talks? I wonder whether his interpretations of the earlier tablets retroactively clarify some of Bahá'u'lláh's usage. There's also the question of Shoghi Effendi's translation choices — he tends to be fairly consistent in how he renders these terms in English, and the patterns in his translations might reveal his understanding of the semantic scope.