Bahai Faith; Kings and rulers; Shoghi, Effendi, 1897-1957 -- Correspondence
It is not, however, with either of these two Faiths that we are primarily
concerned. It is to Islám and, to a lesser extent, to Christianity that my
theme is directly related. Islám, from which the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh has
sprung, even as did Christianity from Judaism, is the religion within
whose pale that Faith first rose and developed, from whose ranks the great
mass of Bahá’í adherents have been recruited, and by whose leaders they
have been, and indeed are still being, persecuted. Christianity, on the
other hand, is the religion to which the vast majority of Bahá’ís of
non-Islamic extraction belong, within whose spiritual domain the
Administrative Order of the Faith of God is rapidly advancing, and by
whose ecclesiastical exponents that Order is being increasingly assailed.
Unlike Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and even Zoroastrianism which, in the
main, are still unaware of the potentialities of the Cause of God, and
whose response to its Message is as yet negligible, the Muḥammadan and
Christian Faiths may be regarded as the two religious systems which are
sustaining, at this formative stage in its evolution, the full impact of
so tremendous a Revelation.
Let us, then, consider what the Founders of the Bahá’í Faith have
addressed to, or written about, the recognized leaders of Islám and
Christianity. We have already considered the passages with reference to
the kings of Islám, whether as Caliphs reigning in Constantinople, or as
_Sh_áhs of Persia who ruled the kingdom as temporary trustees for the
expected Imám. We have also noted the Tablet which Bahá’u’lláh
specifically revealed for the Roman Pontiff, and the more general message
in the Súriy-i-Mulúk directed to the kings of Christendom. No less
challenging and ominous is the Voice that has warned and called to account
the Muḥammadan divines and the Christian clergy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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