Surely every unprejudiced observer, reviewing on one hand the turbulent
history of the Cause in Turkey and recalling on the other the series of
internal convulsions that have seized that country, cannot but marvel at
the contrast between the swift decline of an all-powerful theocracy and
the gradual consolidation of a persecuted Faith. He will appreciate the
significance of the circumstances that have caused on one hand the
dismemberment of what was the most powerful institution of Islam, and
contributed on the other to the emergence upon its ruins of the very Faith
it has vainly labored to suppress. Should he look further into the past
and consult the annals of Christendom during the first century of the
Christian era, he cannot fail to observe the striking parallel between the
cataclysmic visitation of Providence that has afflicted the most sacred
institutions of the Jews in the Holy Land and the utter collapse in this,
the first century of the Baha'i era, of the Sultanate and the Caliphate,
the highest institutions of orthodox Islam. He will recall the severities
which the hand of Titus inflicted upon the Jews, the harassing siege of
Jerusalem, the destruction of the Holy City, the profanation of the
Temple, the desecration of the Holy of Holies, the transfer of its
priceless treasures to the imperial city of Rome, the erection on the site
of Zion of the pagan colony of Oelia Capitolina, the massacre of the Jews,
and the exile and dispersion of most of the survivors. In like manner, he
will observe that almost in the corresponding decade of the first century
of the era of Baha'u'llah, not at the hand of the infidel, but by a
recognized ruler professing the faith of Islam, a blow, unprecedented in
its magnitude, has been dealt to the highest seats of authority in the
Islamic world. He will call to mind the recent disestablishment of the
state religion of Turkey, the overthrow of the dynasty of the House of
U_th_man, the loss of the unity of the vast majority of the adherents of
the Muhammadan Faith, the humiliation inflicted upon the whole hierarchy
of its ecclesiastical exponents in that land, the abolition of religious
courts, the annulment of the provisions of the Qur'an, the promulgation of
a universal western code of civil law, the suppression of its Orders and
the closing of most of its seminaries and establishments.
Such a close correspondence between these historic retributions which the
Almighty's avenging arm has chosen to inflict upon the persecutors of
Christ and Baha'u'llah cannot but fortify the confidence of every Baha'i
believer in the future glories of this Divine Dispensation. Particularly
will he feel strengthened when he recalls the triumphs that have
signalized the advance of Christianity after the humiliation of its
enemies. And as he ponders upon the circumstances that have given such
startling publicity to the Cause, not only throughout Turkey but in the
adjoining countries as well, he cannot fail to recognize, in this strange
episode, following so closely upon the fall of the mighty stronghold of
Baha'i opposition, a prelude to a higher recognition and fuller unfoldment
of the Faith of Baha'u'llah.