I Blog Poetry and Prose

Soundtrack Challenge: Day 8 - One Hundred Thousand Veils

Jalál (Glory), 2 Mulk (Dominion) 176 B.E. - Saturday, February 8, 2020

Artist: Luke Slott
Title: One Hundred Thousand Veils

Lyrics1

Come down
and walk these roads around
the city of Tehran
where seven candles burn

Follow me
all you who claim to be
possessed of charity
down to the Crimson Sea

One hundred thousand veils have covered the sun
and darkest clouds have blocked and blackened the blue sky

Did you hear the fate
of those who educate
who even in the grave
find no respite from hate?

Have you seen the youth
who gave their lives for truth,
that girl who kissed the noose
and welcomed all abuse?

One hundred thousand suns have fallen to earth
with blasts that block the ears from hearing the new song.
One hundred thousand veils have covered the truth
How many mothers' cries are lost in the tumult?

There is no war to fight
you have no sacred right
no holy book to cite
to make these wrongs seem right

Does it so offend
to want this world to mend,
to walk in hope to the end
and see each man a friend?

Come down
and walk these roads around
the cities of Iran
which boast so much to man.

Mr. Slott wrote this song for International Human Rights Day, which is December 10. The song is about the treatment of the Baha'is in Iran. They are persecuted by being imprisoned, killed, denied an education, and a way to make a living because of their faith. The incidents mentioned in the song refer to Baha'i youth in Iran who were killed because they refused to recant their faith.

"Ask a Baha’i to deny any of the great Prophets, to deny his faith or to deny Moses, Muhammad or Christ, and he will say: I would rather die … A Baha’i denies no religion; he accepts the Truth in all, and would die to uphold it."

Abdu’l-Baha2

Baha'i in Iran, once called Persia, have been persecuted from the inception of the Baha'i Faith. The Babi's, the predecessors of the Baha'is, were persecuted from the moment the Bab declared His mission in 1844. Baha'u'llah was imprisoned because it accepted the Bab's declaration as authentic, and exiled from Iran. The persecution of the Baha'is continued after Baha'u'llah declared His mission in 1863, and it still occurs today.

Those of us who live outside of Iran, do our best to proclaim our faith. In addition, we do what we can to let the world know about the treatment of our spiritual brothers and sisters who are still living in Iran.

Footnotes
1  https://lukeslott.bandcamp.com/track/one-hundred-thousand-veils
2  Abdu’l-Baha in London, p. 56.