About the Seven Valleys and copyright , Last Valley , Next Valley
This is the second valley in Baha'u'llahs epic spiritual work The Seven Valleys. It is considered to be a sacred text in the Baha'i Faith. Because of the structure of the writing there is a slight overlap with the last Valley in the first paragraph
And if, by the help of God, he findeth on
this journey a trace of the traceless Friend, and
inhaleth the fragrance of the long-lost Joseph from the heavenly messenger, he shall
straightway step into The Valley of Loveand be dissolved in the fire of love. In this
city the heaven of ecstasy is upraised and the
world-illuming sun of yearning shineth, and
the fire of love is ablaze; and when the fire of
love is ablaze, it burneth to ashes the harvest
of reason.
Now is the traveler unaware of himself, and
of aught besides himself. He seeth neither ignorance
nor knowledge, neither doubt nor certitude;
he knoweth not the morn of guidance
from the night of error. He fleeth both from
unbelief and faith, and deadly poison is a balm
to him. Wherefore Attar saith:
For the infidel, error--for the faithful, faith;
For Attar's heart, an atom of Thy pain.
The steed of this Valley is pain; and if there
be no pain this journey will never end. In this
station the lover hath no thought save the Beloved,
and seeketh no refuge save the Friend.
At every moment he offereth a hundred lives
in the path of the Loved One, at every step he
throweth a thousand heads at the feet of the
Beloved.
O My Brother! Until thou enter the Egypt
of love, thou shalt never come to the Joseph of
the Beauty of the Friend; and until, like Jacob,
thou forsake thine outward eyes, thou shalt
never open the eye of thine inward being; and
until thou burn with the fire of love, thou shalt
never commune with the Lover of Longing.
A lover feareth nothing and no harm can
come nigh him: Thou seest him chill in the fire
and dry in the sea.
A lover is he who is chill in hell fire;
A knower is he who is dry in the sea.
Love accepteth no existence and wisheth no
life: He seeth life in death, and in shame
seeketh glory. To merit the madness of love,
man must abound in sanity; to merit the bonds
of the Friend, he must be full of spirit. Blessed
the neck that is caught in His noose, happy
the head that falleth on the dust in the pathway
of His love. Wherefore, O friend, give up
thy self that thou mayest find the Peerless One,
pass by this mortal earth that thou mayest seek a home in the nest of heaven. Be as naught, if
thou wouldst kindle the fire of being and be
fit for the pathway of love.
Love seizeth not upon a living soul,
The falcon preyeth not on a dead mouse.
Love setteth a world aflame at every turn,
and he wasteth every land where he carrieth
his banner. Being hath no existence in his
kingdom; the wise wield no command within
his realm. The leviathan of love swalloweth the
master of reason and destroyeth the lord of
knowledge. He drinketh the seven seas, but his
heart's thirst is still unquenched, and he saith,
"Is there yet any more?"(Qur'an 50:29 He shunneth himself and draweth away from all on earth.
Love's a stranger to earth and heaven too;
In him are lunacies seventy-and-two. (Moulana Jalaluddin Rumi)
He hath bound a
myriad victims in his fetters,
wounded a myriad wise men with his arrow.
Know that every redness in the world is from his anger, and every paleness in men's cheeks is
from his poison. He yieldeth no remedy but
death, he walketh not save in
the valley of the
shadow; yet sweeter than honey is his
venom
on the lover's lips, and fairer his destruction in
the seeker's eyes than a hundred thousand lives.
Wherefore must the veils of the satanic self
be burned away at the fire of love, that the
spirit may be purified and cleansed and thus
may know the station of the Lord of the
Worlds.
Kindle the fire of love and burn away all
things,
Then set thy foot into the land of the
lovers.
And if, confirmed by the Creator, the lover
escapes from the claws of the eagle of love,
he will enter
The Valley of Knowledge