Joanna

Is there any book/s which specifically has Pilgrim Notes in them? Like a collection of them or something like that? If so, where can I find such a book?

arthra

There's a book called "Baha'i Lore" which is pretty comprehensive..

Amazon.com: Baha'i Lore (9780853984412): Piff: Books


These are sometimes entertaining anecdotes and passed from person to person..

Here's a compilation on how Baha'is regard "Pilgrim Notes"..

Compilation on Pilgrims' Notes

Here's an interesting collection of notes by Ali Kuli Khan an early Baha'i diplomat and scholar..

1906 Pilgrim Notes of Ali Kuli Khan

More on Ali Kuli Khan:

ALI-KULI KHAN (Nabílu'd-Dawlih) was born in Káshán Persia, about 1879. His father was Mírzá 'Abdu'r-Rahím Khán Darrábí. About the year 1898, Ali-Kuli Khan became a Bahá'í and from that time on served the Faith for almost seventy years, till his death in Washington, D.C. April 7, 1966. In 1901 he was sent by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to the United States as a Bahá'í translator and teacher. Later, marrying an American lady, he headed the Persian Legation at Washington. It was he who selected and dispatched W. Morgan Shuster to Persia to reorganize, as Treasurer-General, the country's fiscal structure; and who persuaded President Woodrow Wilson to make it possible for Persia to send a mission to the Peace Conference at Versailles. A member of that mission, Ali-Kuli Khan later served his country in various other capacities and became Head of the Court of the then Crown Prince Regent (Qájár). His life goal, the linking of Persia and America, can be summed up in these words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, from The Promulgation of Universal Peace:...
From:

'Abdu'l-Bahá: Portrayals from East and Westby Marzieh Gail
Published in World Order 6:1 (Fall 1971) 29-41.

Sen McGlinn

The Promulgation of Universal Peace and Paris Talks are largely pilgrim's notes, and Abdu'l-Baha in London is entirely pilgrim's notes. In PUP, second edition, there is one talk that has been translated from the Persian, and this is marked at the top of that talk, it's about relations between blacks and whites in the USA. The rest has not been authenticated, and more than half cannot be authenticated.

Most of Piff's Bahai Lore book is not pilgrim's notes, but rumours.

A Pilgrim's note consists of unauthenticated words attributed to Baha'u'llah, Abdu'l-Baha or Shoghi Effendi, written down by the hearer (in Persian or from the interpreter's words in English, French, etc..). The reason we distinguish between authenticated and unauthenticated words is that Abdu'l-Baha had the practice of checking the notes of his talks made in Persian, and authorising their publication. Some Answered Questions and Memorials of the Faithful were prepared in this way: while the source is oral, they are still authentic Bahai scripture. There are several volumes of his authenticated talks in Persian, most of which have not been translated (I have done one on my blog, under the title Eleven Essentials).

Shoghi Effendi and Baha'u'llah did not check and approve notes made of their words, so anything attributed to them must be pilgrim's notes. Some are more reliable than others, but none are scripture.

arthra

In the early years of the Faith in the West... Not many books were published translated into English and so people were hungry to read things..so Star in the West developed.. but I still have typed copies of Pilgrim notes around that were circulating among Baha'is years ago..

Tablets of Abdul-Baha of course was based on the Tablets sent to the believers so these were authentic..

So rumors were also abounding and still circulate too.. like the orange tree that bloomed where it was planted near the House of the Bab which was demolished. They are great stories and symbolize hope

Yeshua

I think that you have translated a very important teaching of Abdu'l-Baha here Sen from the 'Eleven Essentials':

Ninth, religion is separated from politics. Religion does not enter into political matters. In fact, it is linked with the hearts, not with the world of bodies. The leaders of religion should devote themselves to teaching and training the souls and propagating good morals, and they should not enter into political matters

Amen! The complete separation of Church and State was clearly upheld by Abdu'l-Baha and, as you have proven, seemingly from Shoghi Effendi as well.

Sen McGlinn

Not just Shoghi Effendi and Abdu'l-Baha, it was Baha'u'llah's teaching too, and the teaching of Islam and Christianity:

Some teachings are eternal, they are restated in different words in every dispensation

Sen

Joanna

Thanks everybody for your helpful comments and messages.

Am I to understand the Pilgrim Notes as something similar to hadiths and the apocrypha?

My understanding is that hadiths are saying by the Prophet and the apocrypha are biblical texts that were excluded but still have a symbolic/spiritual meaning.

I hope you get my meaning here

In any case, thanks for your help

arthra

Yes.. I think they hadiths.. are quite similar.. only for us pilgrim notes are interesting but are not as authoritative as Writings. Sometimes pilgrim notes and lore are also related. Pilgrim notes cannot be used as authority for say support for laws or ideological views, etc.