Hidden Words

A page from the Hidden Words by calligrapher Mishkín-Qalam

The Hidden Words (Kalimát-i-Maknúnih, Arabic: کلمات مكنونة, Persian: کلمات مکنونه) is a book written by Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, around 1858. He composed it while walking along the banks of the Tigris river during his exile in Baghdad. The book is written partly in Arabic and partly in Persian.

The Hidden Words is written in the form of a collection of 153 short aphorisms, 71 in Arabic and 82 in Persian, in which Baháʼu'lláh says he has taken the basic essence of certain spiritual truths and written them in brief form. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, Baháʼu'lláh's son and the authorized interpreter of his teachings, advised Baháʼís to read them every day and every night and to implement their latent wisdom into their daily lives. He also said that The Hidden Words is "a treasury of divine mysteries" and that when one ponders its contents, "the doors of the mysteries will open".[1]

  1. ^ "Hidden Words: References of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi". Baháʼí Library Online. Research Department of the Universal House of Justice. Retrieved 23 May 2017.