The Seven Valleys (idea)

CST Approved copyright details at end of writeup

The Seven Valleys is a mystical poem charting the progress of the searching soul towards spiritual enlightenment and onenes with God. The poem was written by Baha'u'llah, founder of the Baha'i faith and Translated by his Great-Granson and authorised interpreter Shogi Effendi. It is viewed by Baha'i as divinely inspired and is therefore considered to be a sacred text.

The Seven Valleys was written in Bagdad sometime 1856 and 1863 while during Baha'u'llah's period there as an exile from his native Persia. It appears that during his time there Shaykh Muhyi'd-Din a Sufi religious Judge had written to Baha'u'llah seeking advice on a number of issues, specifically the symbolisim of a number of words (notably 'sparrow') but also as to the general meaning of certain Persian mystical poems.

The main bulk of the responce takes the form of a description in sequence of the eponymous metaphorical seven valleys. Each successive valley represents a stage in seekers progression towards enlightenment and oneness with God. As such each valley exhibits features that represent the state of mind and experiences of a religious seeker. In this overarching theme the Seven Valleys shows clear parralels with many southern central Eurasian poetic tales, most clearly the famous "Conference of the Birds" by Mantiqu't-Tayr. It is widely accepted that Mantiqu't-Tayr's poem was amoung those that prompted Shaykh Muhyi'd-Din to write to Baha'u'llah. With this in mind The Seven Valleys provide a useful counterpoint to The Conference of the Birds providing additional insight and textual refferences for those who are seeking spiritual opening.

The full text of The Seven Valleys is available through the following links:

COLLECTIVE COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
BAHA'I ETEXT SERVER
February 1997 (revised)
(30 September 1999: REVIEWED - no changes)

The entire contents of the Baha'i World Centre Etext Server are copyrighted by the Baha'i International Community, Copyright (c) 1994, All Rights Reserved, as a collective work (compilation copyright). They may be freely redistributed in their entirety provided that this copyright notice is not removed. These documents may not be sold for profit or incorporated in commercial documents without the written permission of the Baha'i International Community.

The Baha'i International Community asserts that it owns the copyrights to the texts of the four Central figures of the Baha'i Faith (The Bab, Baha'u'llah, Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi) and the texts of letters of the Universal House of Justice, which are available for distribution by the Baha'i World Centre Etext Server, as part of its compilation copyright.

Some material in the Baha'i World Centre Etext Server may be copyrighted by others. The owner of an individual work added to the compilation ALSO retains his copyright and the right to control further distribution of his work. The copyrights asserted by the Baha'i International Community do not supercede an author's copyrights.

Permission is expressly granted for these documents to be made available for file transfer from installations offering unrestricted anonymous file transfer on the Internet. These documents are provided as is without any express or implied warranty. Permission for re-use of these documents in "value-added" or "for profit" re-publications (in print or electronic formats), may be requested from:

The Secretariat
Baha'i International Community
P.O. Box 155
31001, Haifa
Israel
email: secretariat@bwc.org