Lamentations of Yahya’s pen

I recently came across a story about the pen of Mírzá Yahyá, who was complaining to Bahá’u’lláh of its treatment at the hands of its owner. The story is from the Kitáb-i-Badí (The Wondrous New Book), which is not yet translated into English, but I found a description of this story in Nader Saiedi’s book Logos and Civilization. It is a very moving tale, as you can see, and I would love to one day be able to read the Kitáb-i-Badí myself and to appreciate it more fully.

“Another moving stylistic element in the Kitáb-i-Badí is Bahá’u’lláh’s narrative of the lamentations and supplications of Mírzá Yahyá’s pen, which has been used to write against the Promised One of the Bayán. Bahá’u’lláh explains that the pen of Mihdí is but a shadow of the pen of Yahyá and that the latter’s pen has secretly escaped from him and attained the presence of Bahá’u’lláh, where it has wept and wailed, confessing its shame, sorrow, bewilderment, and anger at Yahyá and its abuse and suffering in the hand of its owner, the arch covenant-breaker. The pen entreats Bahá’u’lláh to command it to act as a fatal weapon against Yahyá, and if He does not grant that wish, at least to liberate it from the fingers of Bahá’u’lláh’s enemy. It expresses its shame before the community of pens and avows that even if Bahá’u’lláh forgave its sins, it would continue to be mortified because of its role. It admits its confusion and distress at its fate, a fate that could not be deserved because it knows that it is nonexistent before the divine will, and yet could not be said to be undeserved because it is unable to understand the logic of mysterious divine wisdom. It complains of the fact that other pens have been used to reveal the words of God in the hand of Bahá’u’lláh, while it has been imprisoned in the grip of the enemy of the Cause of God. The pen declares that its gravest concern is that because of its sins the Pen of Glory may cease to reveal divine words, and it implores Bahá’u’lláh to settle its fate and emancipate it from its sorrow, or else make it cease to exist.

The pen continues to recount its life story to Bahá’u’lláh. From the very first days of its existence as a reed, it longed to attain the presence of Bahá’u’lláh and spent its days and nights in a state of yearning. It endured all hardships for the sake of that wish. Then it was cut off and moved from hand to hand and from place to place until it was bought in the market by one of His servants. But when it was placed in that man’s hand it sensed the odor of his heedlessness and became saddened but remained silent. The servant carried the pen from land to land until he arrived at the land of Bahá’u’lláh’s residence. Joy and delight overtook the pen and it felt itself the king of all kings. It remained in that state of ecstasy till its bearer arrived at a crossroads – one path led to the right and another path to the left. The man chose the left-hand path and the pen found itself trembling and wailing until at last the servant reached a house exuding the stench of hell and placed the pen in the hand of the tyrant who rose against Bahá’u’lláh.

The pen continues to express its unending sense of shame and implores Bahá’u’lláh to take its life and then to recreate it so that it might expunge the memory of its unhappy past.”