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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