wfn.org | Baha's News: Most Holy Book of Baha'i Faith published in Norwegian

["Sally Weeks" <sweeks@bwc.org>]

>Baha'i World News Service

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Most Holy Book of Baha'i Faith published in Norwegian

BEITOSTOLEN, Norway, 29 July 2008 (BWNS) - The Baha'i book known as the
Kitab-i-Aqdas, the "Most Holy Book," has been published in Norwegian for
the first time, bringing to nearly 30 the number of different language
editions of the work.

The book, originally written in Arabic, was presented this month at a
ceremony in Beitostolen attended by more than 300 Baha'is and their
guests.

"I am really looking forward to reading the book in Norwegian," said
19-year-old Dehlia Eide of Stavanger, who participated in the ceremony.
"This is an incredibly important book."

The volume is the pre-eminent work of Baha'u'llah, founder of the Baha'i
Faith, and contains teachings and laws for the development of human
society, said Douglas Moore, spokesman for the Baha'i International
Community.

Baha'is believe that Baha'u'llah is the most recent Messenger of God in
a line that includes Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, and others, and
that the main teaching of God for this age is the unity of the human
race. The Baha'i writings refer to the Kitab-i-Aqdas as the "charter of
the future world civilization."

In the book, Baha'u'llah reveals laws, ordinances and exhortations on a
number of subjects, among them prayer, marriage, divorce, burial, the
Baha'i calendar, the age of maturity, the nature of work, obedience to
government, and education.

A key feature of the Kitab-i-Aqdas is its reference to Baha'i
administration and the institutions that today govern the religion, Mr.
Moore said.

Parts of Baha'i scripture - the writings of Baha'u'llah total the
equivalent of some 100 volumes - have been translated into more than 800
languages, but the Kitab-i-Aqdas is challenging because of the eloquent
style of Arabic and the way the revelation of spiritual teachings is
interwoven with the giving of laws, he said.

In addition, certain supplementary materials as well as other Baha'i
scripture must be considered in concert with the Kitab-i-Aqdas to gain
an appropriate understanding of the intent, Mr. Moore said; the laws are
meant to be introduced gradually as a world civilization develops.

Baha'u'llah wrote the book in 1873 while a prisoner of the Ottoman
Empire in Acre in what is now Israel. It was first translated by the
Baha'i World Centre into English in 1992.

In addition to Norwegian, the original Arabic, and English, the
Kitab-i-Aqdas is available in Albanian, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese,
Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian,
Indonesian, Italian, Oriya, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish,
Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese.

The Norwegian edition was presented on 9 July during an annual summer
school held by the Baha'is of Norway.

>For more information and a photograph, go to:
>http://news.bahai.org/story/646