Re: The Narrative


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Posted by Rob (67.75.200.88) on October 19, 2003 at 16:19:18:

In Reply to: The Dajjal and Anti-Christ manifested in the Bahai age posted by Omid on October 16, 2003 at 14:00:24:

Comment on the "2nd volume" of Nabil's Narrative:

More properly, Nabil only wrote one volume or Narrative of which Shoghi Effendi translated the first half. Shoghi Effendi's translation was actually more a complete re-write. According to Prof. Amin Banani with whom I spoke to about this matter a few weeks ago (Prof. Emeritus, UCLA), the hand-written Narrative which Shoghi Effendi had access to, and which still remains at the Baha'i World Center, was actually the first draft which Nabil wrote at the behest of Baha'u'llah. That draft was riddled with mistakes, especially miraculous accounts and exaggerations, all of which Shoghi Effendi in his wisdom, left out in his translation/ re-write.

Baha'u'llah asked Nabil to re-write the Narrative, informing him what was wrong with the first draft, what to leave in and what to leave out. The second draft was accepted by Baha'u'llah as the "approved history". However, according to Prof. Banani, this approved volume was stolen in the early part of the 20th century and has not been recovered since.

I had heard that a committee has been working on a translation /re-write of the second half of the Narrative that Shoghi Effendi used, and even though it may be a few years more, yes, we all look forward to it.





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