Bahai Faith; Kings and rulers; Shoghi, Effendi, 1897-1957 -- Correspondence
It should be borne in mind, however, that Bahá’u’lláh has not restricted
the delivery of His Message to a few individual sovereigns, however potent
the scepters they severally wielded, and however vast the dominions which
they ruled. All the kings of the earth have been collectively addressed by
His Pen, appealed to, and warned, at a time when the star of His
Revelation was mounting its zenith, and whilst He lay a prisoner in the
hands, and in the vicinity of the court, of His royal enemy. In a
memorable Tablet, designated as the Súriy-i-Mulúk (Súrih of Kings) in
which the Sulṭán himself and his ministers, and the kings of Christendom,
and the French and Persian Ambassadors accredited to the Sublime Porte,
and the Muslim ecclesiastical leaders in Constantinople, and its wise men
and its inhabitants, and the people of Persia, and the philosophers of the
world have been specifically addressed and admonished, He thus directs His
words to the entire company of the monarchs of East and West:
TABLETS TO THE KINGS
“O kings of the earth! Give ear unto the Voice of God, calling from this
sublime, this fruit-laden Tree, that hath sprung out of the Crimson Hill,
upon the holy Plain, intoning the words: ‘There is none other God but He,
the Mighty, the All-Powerful, the All-Wise.’... Fear God, O concourse of
kings, and suffer not yourselves to be deprived of this most sublime
grace. Fling away, then, the things ye possess, and take fast hold on the
Handle of God, the Exalted, the Great. Set your hearts towards the Face of
God, and abandon that which your desires have bidden you to follow, and be
not of those who perish. Relate unto them, O servant, the story of ‘Alí
[the Báb], when He came unto them with truth, bearing His glorious and
weighty Book, and holding in His hands a testimony and proof from God, and
holy and blessed tokens from Him. Ye, however, O kings, have failed to
heed the Remembrance of God in His days and to be guided by the lights
which arose and shone forth above the horizon of a resplendent Heaven. Ye
examined not His Cause when so to do would have been better for you than
all that the sun shineth upon, could ye but perceive it. Ye remained
careless until the divines of Persia—those cruel ones—pronounced judgment
against Him, and unjustly slew Him. His spirit ascended unto God, and the
eyes of the inmates of Paradise and the angels that are nigh unto Him wept
sore by reason of this cruelty. Beware that ye be not careless henceforth
as ye have been careless aforetime. Return, then, unto God, your Maker,
and be not of the heedless.... My face hath come forth from the veils, and
shed its radiance upon all that is in heaven and on earth; and yet, ye
turned not towards Him, notwithstanding that ye were created for Him, O
concourse of kings! Follow, therefore, that which I speak unto you, and
hearken unto it with your hearts, and be not of such as have turned aside.
For your glory consisteth not in your sovereignty, but rather in your
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