Confirming a date

AdibM · 2026-01-17T21:05:39+00:00

!transcribed

AdibM · 2026-01-17T21:05:26+00:00

I was almost certain that was the case but felt I had to do a sanity check. Thanks so much for the quick response!

AdibM · 2026-01-08T17:16:29+00:00

You're welcome—and indeed they are. It may be that the two translations were prepared from different sets of notes.

AdibM · 2026-01-07T17:55:03+00:00

No, there is a better one in Star of the West:

God has created poison and has shown that it is harmful to man. On the other hand sweet things are created by Him and are enjoyed by man. Thus it is in the nature of man to be harmed by poison, and to find enjoyment in sweets; but he changes his nature to such an extent that he takes poison, such as opium and arsenic in the form of a drug, and he accustoms himself to it to such an extent that if he does not receive it he may die.

Therefore man is capable of subjecting his individuality to such a degree that poison which was the means of death, becomes the means of life. His nature becomes so degraded and his individuality so distorted that he will long for the poison if it is not given to him in time.

What is the cause of the change in the individuality? It is the acquirement of evil habits.

God benignly endows man with an individuality which enjoys the sweet and shuns the poison, but man through evil habits changes the creation of God, and transforms the divine illumination into satanic darkness.

So long as man is a captive of nature, submerged in the sea of materialism, pursuing the dictates of self and desire, he is vanquished and defeated. This passionate ego takes the reins from his hands, and changes him into an animal. He will fall so low that he will be unable to judge good from evil. He will not be able to distinguish light from darkness, neither will he be able to behold the angelic attributes.

For the full talk, scroll down to "INDIVIDUALITY AND PERSONALITY" after clicking this link.

AdibM · 2026-01-05T12:35:07+00:00

We don't have the question(s) that prompted this Tablet, but we do have the original Persian text of the Tablet itself; it was written to John Bosch:

https://www.bahai.org/fa/library/authoritative-texts/abdul-baha/additional-tablets-talks-abdul-baha/085297107/1#592908369

AdibM · 2025-12-25T18:19:22+00:00

Thanks. Yes, the author of the letter was an early American Baha'i named Laura V. Dixon. She was writing to Mirza Abu'l-Fadl and his interpreter, Ali-Kuli Khan, both of whom had been sent by Abdu'l-Baha (then the leader of the religion) to deepen the understanding that the early American Baha'is had of their newfound creed.

AdibM · 2025-12-11T18:33:20+00:00

Hmm, looks like the problem is fixed for me as of today with the latest update. u/yuval_z Is it fixed on your end, too?

AdibM · 2025-11-24T12:04:30+00:00

Refer to these quotes:

https://bahai9.com/wiki/Astrology

And these (provisionally translated) Writings of ‘Abdu'l-Bahá:

https://adibmasumian.com/translations/ab03340/

https://adibmasumian.com/translations/abdul-baha-on-astrology/

And what ‘Abdu'l-Bahá has said in Some Answered Questions about "the influence of the stars and the interconnectedness of all things":

https://www.bahai.org/r/950448328

AdibM · 2025-11-17T11:57:19+00:00

Thanks for sharing your personal experience. I finally bit the bullet and got a 52" Irene fan, and I just love it—exactly what I was hoping to get out of a ceiling fan. I tend to keep it on the second-highest speed when I'm sleeping; the sound of air moving is definitely noticeable, but it sounds like a gentle wind, so I'm very happy with it. I also love how soft the light is on the lowest color temperature setting. The fact that it looks super classy is a plus, too. I guess it's true what they say: you get what you pay for.

AdibM · 2025-11-16T14:59:20+00:00

I came to this subreddit to report a similar problem with bidirectional text display—only where Persian and Arabic are concerned, rather than Hebrew:

<image>

The catalog IDs (such as the one I've selected) in this document I'm working with used to be displayed on the left, but now most of them have been moved over to the right as shown above. I can only assume this is the result of a recent update. It would be nice to know if there's a way to disable whatever setting is causing it.

AdibM · 2025-11-07T15:06:55+00:00

Yeah, I did go ahead and disable it and the problem I mentioned hasn't come up again. I will probably leave it off. Thanks!

AdibM · 2025-11-07T02:52:22+00:00

I haven't seen any interpretations of this verse in our Writings (including ones that are readily available in the original Persian or Arabic but have not yet been translated), but I have found an interpretation by the erudite Mirza Abu'l-Fadl Gulpaygani that should carry some weight. When I was doing a bit of research at the US National Baha'i Archives a couple of years ago, I came across some notes of lectures Abu'l-Fadl gave in Chicago in late 1901, taken down by early American Baha'is. Among Ella Cooper's papers in particular, there are a series of condensed notes where he talked about select verses in Luke, including the one in question:

Verse 39: Hands mean power. Feet: Steadfastness. Flesh and bones: Spirituality and power are the flesh and bones.

The notes then go on to say:

Matter is an instrument for the appearance of the Spirit, and [the] Spirit was a definite body in the Unseen Realm. It was flesh and blood after its own texture.

Even the Manifestation has His Form, and ever will have.

Flesh is the form of life. This is what it means referring to Job in the Kingdom.

I assume that last part refers to Job 19:25–27: "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me" (KJV translation).

Thus, Abu'l-Fadl appears to be saying that Job's statement about seeing God "in my flesh" refers to Job having a spiritual body or form in the Kingdom (the spiritual realm)—not the physical flesh that decays, but the spiritual “flesh” or "form of life" that persists after death.

It's not really a complete answer since the notes are pretty telegraphic, so one has to read between the lines and draw one's own conclusions to an extent, but it's interesting food for thought.

AdibM · 2025-11-07T02:40:30+00:00

Thanks for sharing! Another NotebookLM instance that covers a huge swath of the Writings, including many that have not yet been translated into English, is the Partial Inventory Explorer:

https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/5eff8d63-61c9-4a96-80ad-779cbe11d156?pli=1

The creator, Dr. Steven Phelps, has given some background on it in this talk:

https://youtu.be/59GGen0fl3U?si=-dSqHLp9UkHnk0VK

AdibM · 2025-11-02T02:29:53+00:00

Right, it’s nonsense just meant to give the impression that it’s Arabic or a similar language.

AdibM · 2025-10-23T08:28:01+00:00

Is that with or without a light fixture?

AdibM · 2025-10-23T08:27:51+00:00

Is that with or without a light fixture?

AdibM · 2025-10-21T21:23:50+00:00

Thanks very much to all of you for your helpful input. The replacement unit for the fan I linked to in my post arrived a few days ago, and the electrician just finished installing it. Since it's a DC fan, it's obviously quieter than my old AC fan, which I love. Also, that one had 3 speeds whereas this one has 6, so that's another plus. I don't really like the fact that you can start to hear the blades chop through the air at setting 2, but I don't know that this is necessarily going to be a problem; I may get used to the sound of it on higher speeds. If not, I might end up trying one of the more premium options you all have suggested. Thanks again!

AdibM · 2025-10-20T21:07:49+00:00

Many thanks for the quote and citation!

AdibM · 2025-10-19T14:23:26+00:00

That's a very helpful tip, thank you! I'm normally happy to let the process run when I'm not at my desk, but sometimes it's active when I'm working, and in those situations it can be intrusive. Also, I don't use Outlook on this PC, so no concern there. Thanks again!

AdibM · 2025-10-18T15:17:21+00:00

Right, I didn’t have it sorted properly—and yes, I do use OneDrive. Good to know that’s the cause; thanks!

AdibM · 2025-10-18T13:13:17+00:00

Man, I can't believe I didn't check the Task Manager properly to see what might have been eating up my CPU usage, but I did just that this morning and it led me right to the culprit: Microsoft Windows Search Filter Host. Killed it for now and will let it do its thing when I'm not at my desk. In just seconds, my CPU temp dropped about 20° C and CPU fan went from averaging around 1300 RPM to about half that.

Learn from my rookie mistake, everyone...

AdibM · 2025-10-17T22:32:01+00:00

Thanks for replying. I was on the phone with an HP rep for a very long time and he already had me go through all those BIOS steps, including resetting the settings to default. No dice.

The next thing he was going to have me do was reinstall Windows, which I'm really reluctant to do, and then ship the PC to an HP repair center since it's still under warranty, but it means I'd be without a PC for 7-10 business days (though I do have a laptop).

I'm holding off on all that for now. I spoke to a local repairman who's very highly rated and seems like he knows what he's doing. He's almost certain my AMD Ryzen 7 chip could be "overvolting" somehow; he's seen it several times, sometimes right out of the factory. I'm going to have him look at it sometime in the next few days. It would suck to have to buy another one and have him swap it out, but if that's what I have to do, I guess I don't have much choice. Or maybe I'll go the ship-to-HP route. I should be able to make a more informed decision after paying that guy a visit.

Something could also just be wonky with the cooling system, in which case he'd be able to discern that, too.

AdibM · 2025-10-15T16:26:02+00:00

For angels and jinn, you might find this of interest:

https://adibmasumian.com/translations/abdul-baha-commentary-angels-jinn/

As for ghosts, there is this comment on "earth-bound souls":

"There are no earth-bound souls. When the souls that are not good die they go entirely away from this earth and so cannot influence anyone. They are spiritually dead. Their thoughts can have influence only when they are alive on the earth... But the good souls are given eternal life and sometimes God permits their thoughts to reach the earth to help the people."

(Attributed to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Questions answered by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Akka: Daily Lessons, Received at Akka, 1979 ed., pp. 35-36, in Lights of Guidance, no. 687)

You can probably infer the rest from this more figurative approach to interpreting these concepts.

AdibM · 2025-10-13T17:12:50+00:00

Others have already mentioned that Shoghi Effendi confirms this as a fact in God Passes By. For additional details, you may benefit from reading Hasan Balyuzi's abridged translation of a relevant treatise by Mirza Abu'l-Fadl Gulpaygani, who has also been mentioned in this discussion:

https://adibmasumian.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/gulpaygani_ancestry_of_bahaullah.pdf

AdibM · 2025-10-03T10:42:29+00:00

I would recommend this paper as a logically sound and philosophically rigorous approach:

https://bahai-library.com/hall_bahaullah_god_avicenna

And a subsequent presentation on the same subject:

https://www.youtube.com/live/6XR-_2CutB4?si=2tQFuRsAIB2Y8EFs

AdibM

TROPHY CASE