What Language was the Long Obligatory Prayer Revealed In?

[Allah Is The Truth]

Allah-u-Abha

I'm a new Baha'i and I come from a Muslim background so I am used to saying my obligatory prayers in Arabic. I like to say the Long Obligatory Prayer because ir reminds me of how I used to Pray, but reciting it in English doesn't have the same effect on me as does Arabic or Farsi. So I was wondering if anyone knew which language Baha'u'llah Revealed this in.

Peace

[brettz9]

Alláh'u'Abhá,

The obligatory prayers were revealed in Arabic.

I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong), this is it here:

http://reference.bahai.org/ar/t/b/PM/pm-206.html#pg211

best wishes,
Brett

[hihellowhatsup]

yeah, I would like to know the Arabic version too, but the thing is that I don't speak or read Arabic. Is there a transliteration of the Arabic into Latin letters?

[Guest]

If you don't care about learning Arabic, and you just want to learn to pronounce it... I can promise you that learning the letters of Arabic will be just as difficult as learning the various styles of transliteration. You are better off learning the letters of Arabic and the sounds they make with vowels (you will find Holy Writings have the vowels in them i believe).

For the same amount of effort you gain the benefit of actually being able to "read" the Arabic alphabet and will be that much closer to learning the language should you want to. And you will certainly earn more "cool points" if you can read the alphabet.

[brettz9]

I agree that it is worth learning the alphabet, and it is not too difficult...The hard part is then learning the meaning of what you're reading! (but some terms should be familiar to a person if they have some exposure to the Writings)...

However, I'll try to give my own transliteration for the short obligatory prayer to give some feel for at least one of the prayers. This is by no means a fully accurate transliteration, as I can only read the letters crudely, with less knowledge of the meaning, so hopefully someone could correct any errors. I am also attempting to use the system of transliteration used in our Writings (w is v for Persians pronouncing it):

Ashhadu yá ilahi bi annaka khalaqtaní li irfánika wa ibádatika.
Ashhadu fí hatha'l híni bi'ajzí wa quwwatika wa tha'fi wa aqtidárika wa faqrí wa ghanáika. La ilahi illa anta'l muhayminu'l qayyúm.

I'm sure there are at least a few errors, unfortunately, but hopefully it is something to start with...

Also, the English translation by Shoghi Effendi subsumes a couple of the adjectives together if you're wondering why there are more words separated by "and" ("wa") than in the English version...

For the reference of others, this short prayer is at http://reference.bahai.org/ar/t/b/PM/pm-204.html

[Allah Is The Truth]

Thank you bretzz. I am trying to memorize it in Arabic now. I think it such a blessing to be able to recite the prayers in Arabic, and have an offical translation in my first language in English, so I can understand the meaning without thinking "Is this an accurate translation?"