Can't find the original quote: "Seventy and two meanings"

All research or scholarship questions
BritishBahai
Posts: 251
Joined: Sat May 17, 2008 1:21 pm
Location: UK

Can't find the original quote: "Seventy and two meanings"

Postby BritishBahai » Mon Dec 06, 2010 7:18 pm

Hello gang :computer:

Does anyone know where I can find the original quote, which talks about holy scriptures having "seventy and two" meanings.

I wanted to post a question on the Discussion forums, but in order for my question to make sense, I would have to add the quote online aswell (except I can't find it).

Thanks
"I have desired only what Thou didst desire, and love only what Thou dost love"

BruceDLimber
Posts: 189
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2006 5:34 pm
Location: Rockville, Maryland, USA

Re: Can't find the original quote: "Seventy and two meanings

Postby BruceDLimber » Tue Dec 07, 2010 7:51 pm

I can't help you on "seventy and two," but page 255 of The Book of Certitude says "each verse has seventy meanings."

Regards, :-)

Bruce

Sen McGlinn
Posts: 123
Joined: Tue May 03, 2005 7:11 am
Location: Leiden, the Netherlands
Contact:

Re: Can't find the original quote: "Seventy and two meanings

Postby Sen McGlinn » Wed Dec 08, 2010 3:05 pm

Thus it is recorded: "Every knowledge hath seventy meanings, of which one only is known amongst the people. And when the Qá'im shall arise, He shall reveal unto men all that which remaineth." He also saith: "We speak one word, and by it we intend one and seventy meanings; each one of these meanings we can explain."  256 
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 254)

Love's a stranger to earth and heaven too;
In him are lunacies seventy-and-two. [Rumi]
(cited in Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 10)


And lunacy wins over meaning, by one point!

BritishBahai
Posts: 251
Joined: Sat May 17, 2008 1:21 pm
Location: UK

Re: Can't find the original quote: "Seventy and two meanings

Postby BritishBahai » Wed Dec 08, 2010 7:08 pm

Thanks :thumbs:
"I have desired only what Thou didst desire, and love only what Thou dost love"

pilgrimbrent
Posts: 45
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 4:16 pm

Re: Can't find the original quote: "Seventy and two meanings

Postby pilgrimbrent » Sat Dec 11, 2010 11:41 am

On page 71 of my version of the Iqan, Baha'u'llah explains that the meanings He is giving to the verses from previous Revelations, are themselves the huris no mind has previously understood, i.e. "untouched by any man."

The 70 virgins and the 70 meanings of scripture mean the same thing: Inner meanings of Scripture no mind has previously understood.

There is a joke about a terrorist who blows himself up, in anticipation of the pleasures of Paradise. He wakes up outside the Pearly Gates. All of a sudden, Thomas Jefferson comes out of the gate with a baseball bat, and starts pounding on the guy. After a while, he goes back inside, and James Madison comes out, and HE has a club in his hand, and He starts wailing on him. Madison finishes, and when he walks back inside, the guy sees a long line of guys with bats and clubs, waiting for their turn.

"Who ARE those guys?" he asks Madison.

"Those are your seventy-two Virginians."

iranpour
Posts: 74
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2013 2:52 pm

Re: Can't find the original quote: "Seventy and two meanings

Postby iranpour » Thu Apr 25, 2013 4:37 pm

In Islam there are a lot about seventy two, some of them are as follows:

1). The Companions of Imam Husain who were Martyred in Karbala is stated to be SEVENTY-TWO.

2). Gardens of Eden, whose portals shall stand open to the companions of the Right Hand namely pious believers, has mentioned in the Qur’an that are many fruits and drinks plus virgins of their own age, with large dark eyes. The number of these virgins recorded to be SEVENTY TWO.

3).There are supposed to be SEVENTY-TWO SECTS in Islam.
regarding the subject Rumi has a poem in Mathnavi as follows:

By illusions that plunder the road of faith
The faithful have been split into seventy-two sects.

MontanaDon
Posts: 96
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:33 pm

Re: Can't find the original quote: "Seventy and two meanings

Postby MontanaDon » Thu Apr 25, 2013 7:22 pm

The number 72 is a mystic number of major importance in some systems of numerology, perhaps dating back to the Sumerians. It's exact meaning varies, but in general it indicates the harmonious functioning of the whole. According to some commentators, it is a number that can not be fully realized in this life, only in the next world. in other systems, it is the number representing the highest expression of the human in this world because it implies the creative part of man (5) as part of the zodiac (360). [360 / 5 = 72]
There is a tradition in Zoroastrianism that a true blvr should wear a girdle made of 72 threads of fine wool.
There is a tradition that Moses had 12 apostles and 72 disciples.
There is a tradition that the time of the end will see wars btwn 72 Muslim sects.
Similarly, Rumi says that there are 72 lunacies.
The Imam Husayn was killed at Karbila w/ 72 companions.
It shows up periodically in the Faith, often in Pilgrim's notes and reminiscences. For instance it was considered a significant sign that 72 people accompanied Baha'u'llah to Istanbul and later to Akka.
During the Nayriz upheavals, Vahid was martyred accompanied by 72 companions.
The Battle of Fort Tabarsi involved Mulla Husayn and 72 companions.
i have met Persians who blv it is significant that the House of Justice was formed 72 years after the revelation of the Tablet of Carmel.

If you happen to know somebody who is into esoteric astrology, they can probably expound at length on it's significance.

Don C
----------
Understood properly, all man's problems are essentially spiritual in nature.


Return to “Discussion”