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The Seven Valleys (Persian: هفت وادی Haft-Vádí) is a book written in Persian by Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith. The Seven Valleys follows the structure of the Persian poem The Conference of the Birds.

The Seven Valleys is usually published together with The Four Valleys (Persian: چهار وادی Chahár Vádí), which was also written by Baháʼu'lláh, under the title The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys. The two books are distinctly different and have no direct relation.[citation needed] In February 2019 an authorized translation of both titles and some others was published by the Baháʼí World Centre in the collection The Call of the Divine Beloved.

The Seven Valleys was written after March 1856, probably around 1857-1858[2] in Baghdad after Baháʼu'lláh had returned from the Sulaymaniyah region in Iraqi Kurdistan where he spent two years anonymously with various Sufi sheikhs using the pseudonym Darvish Muhammad-i-Irani.[3][4] The work was written in response to questions posed by Shaykh Muhyi'd-Din, a judge, who was a follower of the Qádiríyyih Order of Sufism. About the time of writing to Baháʼu'lláh, he quit his job, and spent the rest of his life wandering around Iraqi Kurdistan.

The style of The Seven Valleys is highly poetic, though not composed in verse. Nearly every line of the text contains rhymes and plays on words, which can be lost in translation. As the recipient was of Sufi origin, Baháʼu'lláh used historical and religious subtleties which sometimes used only one or a few words to refer to Qurʼanic verses, traditions, and well-known poems. In English, frequent footnotes are used to convey certain background information.

The book follows the path of the soul on a spiritual journey passing through different stages, from this world to other realms which are closer to God, as first described by the 12th Century Sufi poet Farid al-Din Attar in his Conference of the Birds. Baháʼu'lláh in the work explains the meanings and the significance of the seven stages. In the introduction, Baháʼu'lláh says "Some have called these Seven Valleys, and others, Seven Cities." The stages are accomplished in order, and the goal of the journey is to follow "the Right Path", "abandon the drop of life and come to the sea of the Life-Bestower", and "gaze on the Beloved". In the conclusion of the book, he mentions:

"These journeys have no visible ending in the world of time, but the severed wayfarer—if invisible confirmation descend upon him and the Guardian of the Cause assist him—may cross these seven stages in seven steps, nay rather in seven breaths, nay rather in a single breath, if God will and desire it."

ʻAbdu'l-Bahá explained in one of his talks that The Seven Valleys is a guide for human conduct, that one should search out one's "own imperfections and not think of the imperfections of anybody else", to "strive to be free from imperfections" and that "nothing is more fruitful for man than the knowledge of his own shortcomings". Shoghi Effendi called The Seven Valleys Baháʼu'lláh's "greatest mystical composition."

Courtesy-wikipedia
- baha u hah the seven valleys

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