Announcement to the Kings
The writings which
have been quoted in the foregoing were revealed, for the most part, in conditions of
renewed persecution. Soon after the exiles’ arrival in Constantinople, it became
apparent that the honors showered upon Bahá’u’lláh during His journey from
Baghdad had represented only a brief interlude. The Ottoman authorities’
decision to move the “Bábí” leader and His companions to the capital of the
empire rather than to some remote province deepened the alarm among the representatives of
the Persian government.68 Fearing that the developments in Baghdad would be repeated, and might attract
this time not only the sympathy but perhaps even the allegiance of influential figures in
the Turkish government, the Persian ambassador pressed insistently for the dispatch of the
exiles to some more distant part of the empire. His argument was that the spread of a new
religious message in the capital could produce political as well as religious
repercussions.
Initially, the Ottoman government strongly
resisted. The chief minister, ‘Alí Páshá, had indicated to Western diplomats his
belief that Bahá’u’lláh was “a man of great distinction, exemplary
conduct, great moderation, and a most dignified figure.” His teachings
were, in the minister's opinion, “worthy of high esteem” because they
counteracted the religious animosities dividing the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim subjects
of the empire.69
Gradually, however, a degree of resentment and
suspicion developed. In the Ottoman capital, political and economic power was in the hands
of court functionaries who, with but few exceptions, were persons of little or no
competence. Venality was the oil on which the machinery of government operated, and the
capital was a magnet for a horde of people who flocked there from every part of the empire
and beyond, seeking favors and influence. It was expected that any prominent figure from
another country or from one of the tribute territories would, immediately upon arrival in
Constantinople, join the throngs of patronage-seekers in the reception rooms of the pashas
and ministers of the imperial court. No element had a worse reputation than the competing
groups of Persian political exiles who were known for both their sophistication and their
lack of scruple.
To the distress of friends who urged Him to
make use of the prevailing hostility toward the Persian government and of the sympathy
which His own sufferings had aroused, Bahá’u’lláh made it clear that He had no
requests to make. Although several government ministers made social calls at the residence
assigned to Him, he did not take advantage of these openings. He was in Constantinople, He
said, as the guest of the Sultan, at his invitation, and His interest lay in spiritual and
moral concerns.
Many years later, the
Persian ambassador, Mírzá Husayn Khán, reflecting on his tour of duty in the Ottoman
capital, and complaining about the damage which the greed and untrustworthiness of his
countrymen had done to Persia's reputation in Constantinople, paid a surprisingly candid
tribute to the example which Bahá’u’lláh's conduct had been able briefly to
set.70 At the time, however, he and his colleagues made use of the situation to
represent it as an astute way on the exile’s part of concealing secret conspiracies
against public security and the religion of the State. Under pressure of these influences,
the Ottoman authorities finally took the decision to transfer Bahá’u’lláh and
His family to the provincial city of Adrianople. The move was made hastily, in the depth
of an extremely severe winter. Housed there in inadequate buildings, lacking suitable
clothing and other provisions, the exiles endured a year of great suffering. It was clear
that, though charged with no crime and given no opportunity to defend themselves, they had
arbitrarily been made state prisoners.
From the point of view of religious history,
the successive banishments of Bahá’u’lláh to Constantinople and Adrianople
have a striking symbolism. For the first time, a Manifestation of God, Founder of an
independent religious system which was soon to spread throughout the planet, had crossed
the narrow neck of water separating Asia from Europe, and had set foot in “the
West.” All of the other great religions had arisen in Asia and the ministries of
their Founders had been confined to that continent. Referring to the fact that the
dispensations of the past, and particularly those of Abraham, Christ, and Muhammad, had
produced their most important effects on the development of civilization during the course
of their westward expansion, Bahá’u’lláh predicted that the same thing would
occur in this new age, but on a vastly larger scale: “In the East the Light of His Revelation hath broken; in the West the
signs of His dominion have appeared. Ponder this in your hearts, O people...”71
It is then perhaps not surprising that
Bahá’u’lláh chose this moment to make public the mission which had been slowly
enlisting the allegiance of the followers of the Báb throughout the Middle East. His
announcement took the form of a series of statements which are among the most remarkable
documents in religious history. In them, the Manifestation of God addresses the
“Kings and Rulers of the world,” announcing to them the dawning of the Day of
God, alluding to the as yet inconceivable changes which were gathering momentum throughout
the world, and calling on them as the trustees of God and of their fellow human beings to
arise and serve the process of the unification of the human race. Because of the
veneration in which they were held by the mass of their subjects, and because of the
absolute nature of the rule which most of them exercised, it lay in their power, He said,
to assist in bringing about what He called the “Most Great Peace,” a
world order characterized by unity and animated by Divine justice.
Only with the greatest difficulty can the
modern reader envision the moral and intellectual world in which these monarchs of a
century ago lived. From their biographies and private correspondence, it is apparent that,
with few exceptions, they were personally devout, taking a leading part in the spiritual
life of their respective nations, often as the heads of the state religions, and convinced
of the unerring truths of the Bible or the Qur’an. The power which most of them
wielded they attributed directly to the divine authority of passages in these same
Scriptures, an authority about which they were vigorously articulate. They were the
anointed of God. Prophecies of “the Latter Days” and “the Kingdom of
God” were not for them myth or allegory, but certainties upon which all moral order
rested and in which they would themselves be called on by God to give an account of their
stewardship.
The letters of Bahá’u’lláh address
themselves to this mental world:
O Kings of
the earth! He Who is the sovereign Lord of all is come. The Kingdom is God's, the
omnipotent Protector, the Self-Subsisting.... This is a Revelation to which whatever ye
possess can never be compared, could ye but know it....
Take heed lest pride deter you from recognizing the Source of Revelation, lest the things
of this world shut you out as by a veil from Him Who is the Creator of heaven....
By the righteousness of God! It is not Our wish to lay hands on your kingdoms. Our mission
is to seize and possess the hearts of men....72
Know ye
that the poor are the trust of God in your midst. Watch that ye betray not His trust, that
ye deal not unjustly with them and that ye walk not in the ways of the treacherous. Ye
will most certainly be called upon to answer for His trust on the day when the Balance of
Justice shall be set, the day when unto every one shall be rendered his due, when the
doings of all men, be they rich or poor, shall be weighed....
Examine Our Cause, inquire into the things that have befallen
Us, and decide justly between Us and Our enemies, and be ye of them that act equitably
towards their neighbor. If ye stay not the hand of the oppressor, if ye fail to safeguard
the rights of the downtrodden, what right have ye then to vaunt yourselves among men?73
If ye pay no
heed unto the counsels which ... We have revealed in this Tablet, Divine chastisement
shall assail you from every direction, and the sentence of His justice shall be pronounced
against you. On that day ye shall have no power to resist Him, and shall recognize your
own impotence....74
The vision of the “Most Great Peace”
evoked no response from the rulers of the nineteenth century. Nationalistic aggrandizement
and imperial expansion recruited not only kings but parliamentarians, academics, artists,
newspapers, and the major religious establishments as eager propagandists of Western
triumphalism. Proposals for social change, however disinterested and idealistic, quickly
fell captive to a swarm of new ideologies thrown up by the rising tide of dogmatic
materialism. In the Orient, mesmerized by its own claims to represent all that humanity
ever could or would know of God and truth, the Islamic world sank steadily deeper into
ignorance, lethargy, and a sullen hostility to a human race which failed to acknowledge
this spiritual preeminence.
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Bahá'u'lláh forbids:
Bahá'u'lláh
