The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys
The Seven Valleys : the Valley of Unity
All-Beauteous One, and banished from the Ka’bih35 of splendor. Such is the worth of the people of this age!
And if a nightingale36 soar upward from the clay of self and dwell in the rose bower of the heart, and in Arabian melodies and sweet Íránian songs recount the mysteries of God—a single word of which quickeneth to fresh, new life the bodies of the dead, and bestoweth the Holy Spirit upon the moldering bones of this existence—thou wilt behold a thousand claws of envy, a myriad beaks of rancor hunting after Him and with all their power intent upon His death.
Yea, to the beetle a sweet fragrance seemeth foul, and to the man sick of a rheum a pleasant perfume is as naught. Wherefore, it hath been said for the guidance of the ignorant:
Cleanse thou the rheum from out thine head
And breathe the breath of God instead.37
In sum, the differences in objects have now been made plain. Thus when the wayfarer gazeth only upon the place of appearance—that is, when he seeth only the many-colored globes—he beholdeth yellow and red and white; hence it is that conflict hath prevailed among the
35 The holy Sanctuary at Mecca. Here the word means “goal.”
36 This refers to Bahá’u’lláh’s own Manifestation.
37 The Mathnaví.
20