We are going to investigate William Miller [1]‘s view, the researcher, author, speaker, critic and Christian Protestant American priest concerning the book Aghdas.
Bahaullah wrote the Aghdas book (the heavenly book claimed by the Baha’is) in Arabic language. With the expansion of Bahaism in the world, it was necessary for the theological holy book of the Baha’is was to be translated in various languages particularly English language in order for the vast world to become familiar with its concepts; but surprisingly the Baha’i leaders have prevented translating and publishing it to other languages and have tried to keep the original copy of the book out of the researchers, scholars and independent investigators of truth and even the public (the Baha’is).
Of course, various copies of the book Aghdas have been published in English and Persian languages in Europe and Iran, but these copies have been published selectively along with Bahaullah’s tablets and writings including question and answer epistle which are not related to the main book; bearing explanations which are unnecessary and misleading.
It is interesting to be known that the original copy of the book Aghdas (without additional explanations) has been translated and distributed five times by non-Baha’is from Arabic to English, Russian and Persian languages, but each time these translations have been introduced as false and invalid by the universal house of justice (the leadership of the Baha’is in Haifa).
The Bahaism leadership just introduces the selective and grabled translation of Shoghi Effendi, the third leader of the Baha’is. On the other hand, a nearly 60-page book which is easily understandable and translatable is introduced as a 500-page book entitled the great book of Aghdas in order for its areas of weakness to be hidden out of pundits’ views. An action which hasn’t been repeated before.
It seems, the main reason for not publishing the book Aghdas is that the commandments of the book Aghdas isn’t in accordance with the exigencies of the day and translating it into English language and publishing its contents publicly will be opposed and Bahaism may lose most of its followers in the west.
Udo Schaefer, the Baha’i researcher and thinker considers the reason for not translating the Book Aghdas as its subject and content and writes in his book called “Making the crooked straight; a contribution to Baha’i apologetics:
“The reason for lack of publishing the book Aghdas into English is the problem of translating it from Arabic to English. The false translation can cause negative long-termed influence because the main language of Bahaism is Arabic-Islamic culture [2] and language and this language is alien to western culture. Particularly, Bab and Bahaullah’s works are special and uncommon which are difficult to be transferred to another literary language and culture. For this reason, just translations which were confirmed by Shoghi Effendi from Babs and Bahaullah’s books to English have been acceptable and been able to be presented to readers who were out of the Islamic culture.
Source: Hamid Farnan, Bahaism from the points of view of Christian critics and the open-minded, pp. 103-105.
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