The world is talking about AI, and a good deal of the talk is negative. Commentators warn that AI could threaten humanity itself, disrupt economic stability by replacing human labour, and diminish human creativity. These concerns have shaped a cultural atmosphere in which AI is often seen as a danger rather than a development. In…
Category: Baha’i Scripture Deep Dive
Baha’i Scripture Deep Dive gathers blog posts that discuss indepth a particular passage or tablet of Baha’u’llah. Also includes translations and commentaries. Posts that are a part of my ongoing series on Lawh-i-Sarraj are listed at Lawh-i-Sarraj Commentary Series and can be downloaded.
Lawh‑i‑Sarraj Commentary Series
This page gathers short commentaries on the paragraphs of Baha’u’llah’s Lawh‑i‑Sarraj, a tablet written in the mid‑1860s for Ali‑Muhammad Sarraj, a supporter of Mirza Yahya. The commentaries draw on the AI‑assisted translation prepared by Steven Phelps. The translation can be found at https://blog.loomofreality.org by selecting “Download volumes 1–194” and opening volume 34, pp. 93–174.
Why Independent Perception is Necessary in the Day of God
In an earlier post, The Real Enemy Isn’t Doctrine — It’s Outsourcing Perception, I explored Baha’u’llah’s response to Sarraj’s question about “how it is possible for the letter of the Most Exalted to be transformed into the most debased.” The striking feature of Baha’u’llah’s answer is that he does not turn to doctrine. Instead, he…
The Real Enemy Isn’t Doctrine — It’s Outsourcing Perception
There is a moment in Bahá’u’lláh’s Lawh‑i‑Sarráj that is easy to miss but impossible to forget once you see it. The tablet begins with Sarráj, a follower of Mírzá Yahyá, asking a doctrinal question: How can a soul move from spiritual exaltation to degradation? In the Bábí world of the 1860s, this was a theological…
Questions Are a Doorway to the One Who Answers
Questions Are a Doorway to the One Who Answers: Reflections on the Opening of Lawh‑i‑Sarráj In my previous post, The Year of the Answer in the Badíʿ Calendar (2026-2027), I explored the rhythm of questions and answers woven into the Badíʿ calendar. I looked at the monthly cycle and how it honors human questions through the…
A Guide to the Phelps Inventory of Baha’i Writings
Making a vast new resource less daunting Introduction Baha’i scholar Steven Phelps has in recent years undertaken a major cataloguing project that brings together publicly accessible works of the Bab, Baha’u’llah, and Abdu’l‑Baha. The work is titled A Partial Inventory of the Works of the Central Figures of the Baha’i Faith. It currently lists over…
New video of “Praised be my Lord, the Most High”
A new video of Praised be my Lord, the Most High has been uploaded to the Windflower Readings YouTube channel. Praised be my Lord, the Most High is one of a group of Baha’u’llah’s works that centres on the activities of the houri, a celestial woman who symbolises the Divine and is the source of…
The large number of Baha’u’llah’s writings yet to be studied
The large number of Baha’u’llah’s writings yet to be studied. In the following article, Dr Nader Saiedi describes a two-and-a-half month period in which he was engaged at the World Centre in indexing the writings of Baha’u’llah. The experience caused him to see that there is a large number of Baha’u’llah’s writings yet to be…
Six themes in the first verse of Baha’u’llah’s revelation
Six themes in the first verse of Baha’u’llah’s revelation. The following is a transcript of part of a 2014 talk by Nader Saiedi outlining the themes in the first verse of Baha’u’llah’s revelation: “Verily, we shall render thee victorious by thy self and by thy pen.” I prepared this transcript back in August 2016 and…
Commentary: Tablet of the Howdah
Tablet of the Howdah is a largely unknown work of Baha’u’llah. The translation by Stephen Lambden appears in volume 3 of Eric Michot’s four-volume pdf series of provisional translations of Baha’u’llah. Baha’u’llah wrote the tablet during his journey from Baghdad to Istanbul, which took him across Turkey and up to the northern coast, where he…