This online version was first scanned partly by Duane Troxel in 1996 and partly by Jonah Winters in 1997. It was then proofread by Lynn Jaluvka in 1998, Nicholas Sanders in 2006, and Bobbi Lyons in 2012. It was formatted by Winters in 1997 and by Christopher Buck in 2012. It was further edited by Lyons and Buck in 2012. More updates and corrections 2021 and 2024 (see details in Acknowledgements, p. xiii of the PDF below).
The opening page of the original manuscript of the Kitáb-i Íqán in the handwriting of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, produced in 1278 A.H. (1861-62 C.E.). Minor marginal additions were made by Bahá'u'lláh himself. The manuscript was given to Hájí Mírzá Sayyid Muhammad in Baghdad, in reply to his questions, and remained in his family until 1948, when it was donated to the Bahá'í World Centre. (Courtesy of the Bahá'í World Centre)
CONTENTS
Foreword by Juan R. I. Cole..............................................xi
Acknowledgements.........................................................xv
Introduction............................................................xix
Chapter One
Bahá'u'lláh and the Book of Certitude...................................1
Chapter Two
Exegesis and Ideology: The Doctrinal Content of the Book of Certitude..51
Chapter Three
Beyond Islam: Hermeneutical Terminology in the Book of Certitude.......81
Chapter Four
Exegetical Techniques in the Book of Certitude........................109
Chapter Five
Conclusion: The Other Side of the Bridge..............................233
Bibliography............................................................305
Appendix: Quran verses cited in the Íqán................................325
STUDIES IN THE BÁBÍ AND BAHÁ'Í RELIGIONS
VOLUME SEVEN
Contents: v. 1 [no title]-v. 2 From Iran east and west / edited by Juan R.
Cole and Moojan Momen-[etc.]-v. 7. Symbol and Secret: Qur'an commentary in
Bahá'u'lláh's Kitáb-i Íqan / by Christopher Buck.
1. Bahá'í Faith-History. 2. Babism-History. I. Momen, Moojan. II. Cole, Juan
Ricardo. III. Smith, Peter, 1947, Nov. 27- . IV. R. Jackson
Armstrong-Ingram. V. Title: Studies in the Bábí and Bahá'i
religions.
BP330.S78 1982 297.89 83-227
ISBN 0-933770-16-2 (v. 1)
ISBN 0-933770-78-2 (v. 7, casebound)
ISBN 0-933770-80-4 (v. 7, paperbound)
My thanks also to: Jonah Winters, for posting Symbol and Secret on Bahá’í Library Online; to Anthony Lee, editor, Kalimát Press, for granting permission to do so; Ms. Bobbi Lyons, of Ontario, Canada, for her superb and highly professional proofreading of the online version and of the printed book as well; Shahrokh Monjazeb for his valuable comments and corrections; Khosrow Dehghani for Persian translation; and Youli Ioannesyan, Ph.D., Senior Researcher of the Department of the Middle East Studies of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, for further information regarding the colophon of the 1893 Bombay lithograph of the Kitáb-i Íqán, archived in the “Library of the Leningrad Branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences” (now the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences), catalog no. PsII 164. -C. Buck, March 12, 2012