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Work #290 · Late (the major late doctrinal-legal book)

Kitáb-i-Aqdas

Bahá'u'lláh (Mírzá Ḥusayn-ʻAlí Núrí)
1873 (in 'Akká, the prison-city where Bahá'u'lláh was exiled) · Arabic
Doctrinal-legal text · Bahá'í Faith

"The Most Holy Book" — Bahá'u'lláh's 1873 book of laws, the principal legal-doctrinal text of the Bahá'í Faith

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Kitáb-i-Aqdas (Late (the major late doctrinal-legal book))
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Personal
Observer · Moral Authority Scripture
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Kitáb-i-Aqdas

The temporal life of the Bahá'í community organised by the new Bahá'í calendar.

Space

Kitáb-i-Aqdas

The global space of the Bahá'í community; the local space of community institutions.

Matter

Kitáb-i-Aqdas

Embodied Bahá'í community life — prayer, fasting, marriage, work.

Observer

Kitáb-i-Aqdas

The Bahá'í believer in community — embodied, plural, subject to divine law. Personal-providential God as ultimate.

Energy

Kitáb-i-Aqdas

The energies of religious-community life under the laws of the Aqdas.

Information

Kitáb-i-Aqdas

The legal-constitutional information of the Aqdas preserved through the Bahá'í institutional framework.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Kitáb-i-Aqdas

The Kitáb-i-Aqdas remained largely untranslated until 1992 — Shoghi Effendi (the Guardian of the Faith) had selected portions translated but withheld the full text. The relation between the legal-particular content of the Aqdas (composed in the nineteenth century with particular cultural assumptions) and its application in contemporary Bahá'í community life has been the central interpretive question. The Universal House of Justice continues to provide authoritative guidance.