Yasna Haptanghaiti, the Yasna of Seven Chapters (Yasna 35-41), also in the Gathic dialect, was perhaps composed by one or more of Zarathushtra’s close companions. They are short subtle songs of prayers.The Haptañhâiti constitutes one seventh of the Gathas, the Gathas one third of the Yasna, and the Yasna one third of the Avesta. Therefore, in quantity, it is but 1/63 of the text. But in quality, the Zoroastrian Lore has given it the second highest position in the Avesta. It is next to the Five Songs of Zarathushtra, inside which it has been allotted a placid place.
However, in our modern scholastic age, it appears that so far it has been its quantity which has mattered more. It has been too thin to receive any serious attention—just a part of the monotonously animistic liturgy. And if at all, someone has paid some attention, it has not been for expounding its high position, but to describe its present characteristics, or on the contrary, to pin point it as the point of deviation from the course set by Zarathushtra.
My interest in it, casual first, curious later, and consecrated at present, has been rewarding—a sweet song translated into English and Persian. And my ‘Introduction’ fully justifies the position it enjoys. So slim, yet so serene!
Ali A. Jafarey Rawalpindi,
Pakistan 30th September, 1974
Song 1 (Yasna 35)
What is nothing? This is a question that has bothered philosophers as far back as the ancient Greeks, where they debated the nature of the void. They had long discussions trying to determine whether nothing is something. 
