Dear friends! The decline in the fortunes of the crowned wielders of
temporal power has been paralleled by a no less startling deterioration in
the influence exercised by the world's spiritual leaders. The colossal
events that have heralded the dissolution of so many kingdoms and empires
have almost synchronized with the crumbling of the seemingly inviolable
strongholds of religious orthodoxy. That same process which, swiftly and
tragically, sealed the doom of kings and emperors, and extinguished their
dynasties, has operated in the case of the ecclesiastical leaders of both
Christianity and Islam, damaging their prestige, and, in some cases,
overthrowing their highest institutions. "Power hath been seized" indeed
from both "kings and ecclesiastics." The glory of the former has been
eclipsed, the power of the latter irretrievably lost.
Those leaders who exercised guidance and control over the ecclesiastical
hierarchies of their respective religions have, likewise, been appealed
to, warned, and reproved by Baha'u'llah, in terms no less uncertain than
those in which the sovereigns who presided over the destinies of their
subjects have been addressed. They, too, and more particularly the heads
of Muslim ecclesiastical orders, have, in conjunction with despots and
potentates, launched their assaults and thundered their anathemas against
the Founders of the Faith of God, its followers, its principles, and its
institutions. Were not the divines of Persia the first who hoisted the
standard of revolt, who inflamed the ignorant and subservient masses
against it, and who instigated the civil authorities, through their
outcry, their threats, their lies, their calumnies, and denunciations, to
decree the banishments, to enact the laws, to launch the punitive
campaigns, and to carry out the executions and massacres that fill the
pages of its history? So abominable and savage was the butchery committed
in a single day, instigated by these divines, and so typical of the
"callousness of the brute and the ingenuity of the fiend" that Renan, in
his "Les Apotres," characterized that day as "perhaps unparalleled in the
history of the world."
It was these divines, who, by these very acts, sowed the seeds of the
disintegration of their own institutions, institutions that were so
potent, so famous, and appeared so invulnerable when the Faith was born.
It was they who, by assuming so lightly and foolishly, such awful
responsibilities were primarily answerable for the release of those
violent and disruptive influences that have unchained disasters as
catastrophic as those which overwhelmed kings, dynasties, and empires, and
which constitute the most noteworthy landmarks in the history of the first
century of the Baha'i era.
This process of deterioration, however startling in its initial
manifestations, is still operating with undiminished force, and will, as
the opposition to the Faith of God, from various sources and in distant
fields, gathers momentum, be further accelerated and reveal still more
remarkable evidences of its devastating power. I cannot, in view of the
proportions which this communication has already assumed, expatiate, as
fully as I would wish, on the aspects of this weighty theme which,
together with the reaction of the sovereigns of the earth to the Message
of Baha'u'llah, is one of the most fascinating and edifying episodes in
the dramatic story of His Faith. I will only consider the repercussions of
the violent assaults made by the ecclesiastical leaders of Islam and, to a
lesser degree, by certain exponents of Christian orthodoxy upon their
respective institutions. I will preface these observations with some
passages gleaned from the great mass of Baha'u'llah's Tablets which, both
directly and indirectly, bear reference to Muslim and Christian divines,
and which throw such a powerful light on the dismal disasters that have
overtaken, and are still overtaking, the ecclesiastical hierarchies of the
two religions with which the Faith has been immediately concerned.
It must not be inferred, however, that Baha'u'llah directed His historic
addresses exclusively to the leaders of Islam and Christianity, or that
the impact of an all-pervading Faith on the strongholds of religious
orthodoxy is to be confined to the institutions of these two religious
systems. "The time foreordained unto the peoples and kindreds of the
earth," affirms Baha'u'llah, "is now come. The promises of God, as
recorded in the Holy Scriptures, have all been fulfilled.... This is the
Day which the Pen of the Most High hath glorified in all the Holy
Scriptures. There is no verse in them that doth not declare the glory of
His holy Name, and no Book that doth not testify unto the loftiness of
this most exalted theme." "Were We," He adds, "to make mention of all that
hath been revealed in these heavenly Books and Holy Scriptures concerning
this Revelation, this Tablet would assume impossible dimensions." As the
promise of the Faith of Baha'u'llah is enshrined in all the Scriptures of
past religions, so does its Author address Himself to their followers, and
particularly to their responsible leaders who have intervened between Him
and their respective congregations. "At one time," writes Baha'u'llah, "We
address the people of the Torah and summon them unto Him Who is the
Revealer of verses, Who hath come from Him Who layeth low the necks of
men.... At another, We address the people of the Evangel and say: 'The
All-Glorious is come in this Name whereby the Breeze of God hath wafted
over all regions.'... At still another, We address the people of the
Qur'an saying: 'Fear the All-Merciful, and cavil not at Him through Whom
all religions were founded.'... Know thou, moreover, that We have
addressed to the Magians Our Tablets, and adorned them with Our Law.... We
have revealed in them the essence of all the hints and allusions contained
in their Books. The Lord, verily, is the Almighty, the All-Knowing."
Addressing the Jewish people Baha'u'llah has written: "The Most Great Law
is come, and the Ancient Beauty ruleth upon the throne of David. Thus hath
My Pen spoken that which the histories of bygone ages have related. At
this time, however, David crieth aloud and saith: 'O my loving Lord! Do
Thou number me with such as have stood steadfast in Thy Cause, O Thou
through Whom the faces have been illumined, and the footsteps have
slipped!'" And again: "The Breath hath been wafted, and the Breeze hath
blown, and from Zion hath appeared that which was hidden, and from
Jerusalem is heard the Voice of God, the One, the Incomparable, the
Omniscient." Furthermore, in His "Epistle to the Son of the Wolf"
Baha'u'llah has revealed: "Lend an ear unto the song of David. He saith:
'Who will bring me into the Strong City?' The Strong City is Akka, which
hath been named the Most Great Prison, and which possesseth a fortress and
mighty ramparts. O _Sh_ay_kh_! Peruse that which Isaiah hath spoken in His
Book. He saith: 'Get thee up into the high mountain, O Zion, that bringest
good tidings; lift up thy voice with strength, O Jerusalem, that bringest
good tidings. Lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah:
"Behold your God! Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His
arm shall rule for Him."' This Day all the signs have appeared. A Great
City hath descended from heaven, and Zion trembleth and exulteth with joy
at the Revelation of God, for it hath heard the Voice of God on every
side."
To the priestly caste, holding sacerdotal supremacy over the followers of
the Faith of Zoroaster, that same Voice, identifying itself with the voice
of the promised _Sh_ah-Bahram, has declared: "O high priests! Ears have
been given you that they may hearken unto the mystery of Him Who is the
Self-Dependent, and eyes that they may behold Him. Wherefore flee ye? The
Incomparable Friend is manifest. He speaketh that wherein lieth salvation.
Were ye, O high priests, to discover the perfume of the rose garden of
understanding, ye would seek none other but Him, and would recognize, in
His new vesture, the All-Wise and Peerless One, and would turn your eyes
from the world and all who seek it, and would arise to help Him."
"Whatsoever hath been announced in the Books," Baha'u'llah, replying to a
Zoroastrian who had inquired regarding the promised _Sh_ah-Bahram, has
written, "hath been revealed and made clear. From every direction the
signs have been manifested. The Omnipotent One is calling, in this Day,
and announcing the appearance of the Supreme Heaven." "This is not the
day," He, in another Tablet declares, "whereon the high priests can
command and exercise their authority. In your Book it is stated that the
high priests will, on that Day, lead men far astray, and will prevent them
from drawing nigh unto Him. He indeed is a high priest who hath seen the
light and hastened unto the way leading to the Beloved." "Say, O high
priests!" He, again addresses them, "The Hand of Omnipotence is stretched
forth from behind the clouds; behold ye it with new eyes. The tokens of
His majesty and greatness are unveiled; gaze ye on them with pure eyes....
Say, O high priests! Ye are held in reverence because of My Name, and yet
ye flee Me! Ye are the high priests of the Temple. Had ye been the high
priests of the Omnipotent One, ye would have been united with Him, and
would have recognized Him.... Say, O high priests! No man's acts shall be
acceptable, in this Day, unless he forsaketh mankind and all that men
possess, and setteth his face towards the Omnipotent One."
It is not, however, with either of these two Faiths that we are primarily
concerned. It is to Islam and, to a lesser extent, to Christianity that my
theme is directly related. Islam, from which the Faith of Baha'u'llah 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 Baha'i 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 Baha'is 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 Muhammadan 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 Baha'i Faith have
addressed to, or written about, the recognized leaders of Islam and
Christianity. We have already considered the passages with reference to
the kings of Islam, whether as Caliphs reigning in Constantinople, or as
_Sh_ahs of Persia who ruled the kingdom as temporary trustees for the
expected Imam. We have also noted the Tablet which Baha'u'llah
specifically revealed for the Roman Pontiff, and the more general message
in the Suriy-i-Muluk directed to the kings of Christendom. No less
challenging and ominous is the Voice that has warned and called to account
the Muhammadan divines and the Christian clergy.
"Leaders of religion," is Baha'u'llah's clear and universal censure
pronounced in the Kitab-i-Iqan, "in every age, have hindered their people
from attaining the shores of eternal salvation, inasmuch as they held the
reins of authority in their mighty grasp. Some for the lust of leadership,
others through want of knowledge and understanding, have been the cause of
the deprivation of the people. By their sanction and authority, every
Prophet of God hath drunk from the chalice of sacrifice, and winged His
flight unto the heights of glory. What unspeakable cruelties they that
have occupied the seats of authority and learning have inflicted upon the
true Monarchs of the world, those Gems of Divine virtue! Content with a
transitory dominion, they have deprived themselves of an everlasting
sovereignty." And again, in that same Book: "Among these 'veils of glory'
are the divines and doctors living in the days of the Manifestation of
God, who, because of their want of discernment and their love and
eagerness for leadership, have failed to submit to the Cause of God, nay,
have even refused to incline their ears unto the Divine Melody. 'They have
thrust their fingers into their ears.' And the people also, utterly
ignoring God and taking them for their masters, have placed themselves
unreservedly under the authority of these pompous and hypocritical
leaders, for they have no sight, no hearing, no heart, of their own to
distinguish truth from falsehood. Notwithstanding the divinely inspired
admonitions of all the Prophets, the Saints, and Chosen Ones of God,
enjoining the people to see with their own eyes and hear with their own
ears, they have disdainfully rejected their counsels and have blindly
followed, and will continue to follow, the leaders of their Faith. Should
a poor and obscure person, destitute of the attire of the men of learning,
address them saying: 'Follow ye, O people, the Messengers of God,' they
would, greatly surprised at such a statement, reply: 'What! Meanest thou
that all these divines, all these exponents of learning, with all their
authority, their pomp, and pageantry, have erred, and failed to
distinguish truth from falsehood? Dost thou, and people like thyself,
pretend to have comprehended that which they have not understood?' If
numbers and excellence of apparel be regarded as the criterions of
learning and truth, the peoples of a bygone age, whom those of today have
never surpassed in numbers, magnificence and power, should certainly be
accounted a superior and worthier people." Furthermore, "Not one Prophet
of God was made manifest Who did not fall a victim to the relentless hate,
to the denunciation, denial and execration of the clerics of His day! Woe
unto them for the iniquities their hands have formerly wrought! Woe unto
them for that which they are now doing! What veils of glory more grievous
than these embodiments of error! By the righteousness of God! To pierce
such veils is the mightiest of all acts, and to rend them asunder the most
meritorious of all deeds!" "On their tongue," He moreover has written,
"the mention of God hath become an empty name; in their midst His holy
Word a dead letter. Such is the sway of their desires, that the lamp of
conscience and reason hath been quenched in their hearts.... No two are
found to agree on one and the same law, for they seek no God but their own
desire, and tread no path but the path of error. In leadership they have
recognized the ultimate object of their endeavor, and account pride and
haughtiness as the highest attainments of their hearts' desire. They have
placed their sordid machinations above the Divine decree, have renounced
resignation unto the will of God, busied themselves with selfish
calculation, and walked in the way of the hypocrite. With all their power
and strength they strive to secure themselves in their petty pursuits,
fearful lest the least discredit undermine their authority or blemish the
display of their magnificence."
"The source and origin of tyranny," Baha'u'llah in another Tablet has
affirmed, "have been the divines. Through the sentences pronounced by
these haughty and wayward souls the rulers of the earth have wrought that
which ye have heard.... The reins of the heedless masses have been, and
are, in the hands of the exponents of idle fancies and vain imaginings.
These decree what they please. God, verily, is clear of them, and We, too,
are clear of them, as are such as have testified unto that which the Pen
of the Most High hath spoken in this glorious Station."
"The leaders of men," He has likewise asserted, "have, from time
immemorial, prevented the people from turning unto the Most Great Ocean.
The Friend of God [Abraham] was cast into fire through the sentence
pronounced by the divines of the age, and lies and calumnies were imputed
to Him Who discoursed with God [Moses]. Reflect upon the One Who was the
Spirit of God [Jesus]. Though He showed forth the utmost compassion and
tenderness, yet they rose up against that Essence of Being and Lord of the
seen and unseen, in such a manner that He could find no refuge wherein to
rest. Each day He wandered unto a new place, and sought a new shelter.
Consider the Seal of the Prophets [Muhammad]--may the souls of all else
except Him be His sacrifice! How grievous the things which befell that
Lord of all being at the hands of the priests of idolatry, and of the
Jewish doctors, after He had uttered the blessed words proclaiming the
unity of God! By My life! My pen groaneth, and all created things cry out
by reason of the things that have touched Him, at the hands of such as
have broken the Covenant of God and His Testament, and denied His
Testimony, and gainsaid His signs."
"The foolish divines," another Tablet declares, "have laid aside the Book
of God, and are occupied with that which they themselves have fashioned.
The Ocean of Knowledge is revealed, and the shrill of the Pen of the Most
High is raised, and yet they, even as earthworms, are afflicted with the
clay of their fancies and imaginings. They are exalted by reason of their
relationship to the one true God, and yet they have turned aside from Him!
Because of Him have they become famous, and yet they are shut off as by a
veil from Him!"
"The pagan priests," in yet another Tablet is written, "and the Jewish and
Christian divines, have committed the very things which the divines of the
age, in this Dispensation, have committed, and are still committing. Nay,
these have displayed a more grievous cruelty and a fiercer malice. Every
atom beareth witness unto that which I say."
To these leaders who "esteem themselves the best of all creatures and have
been regarded as the vilest by Him Who is the Truth," who "occupy the
seats of knowledge and learning, and who have named ignorance knowledge,
and called oppression justice," and who, "worship no God but their own
desire, who bear allegiance to naught but gold, who are wrapt in the
densest veils of learning, and who, enmeshed by its obscurities, are lost
in the wilds of error"--to these Baha'u'llah has chosen to address these
words: "O concourse of divines! Ye shall not henceforward behold
yourselves possessed of any power, inasmuch as We have seized it from you,
and destined it for such as have believed in God, the One, the
All-Powerful, the Almighty, the Unconstrained."
In the Kitab-i-Aqdas we read the following: "Say: O leaders of religion!
Weigh not the Book of God with such standards and sciences as are current
amongst you, for the Book itself is the unerring Balance established
amongst men. In this most perfect Balance whatsoever the peoples and
kindreds of the earth possess must be weighed, while the measure of its
weight should be tested according to its own standard, did ye but know it.
The eye of My loving-kindness weepeth sore over you, inasmuch as ye have
failed to recognize the One upon Whom ye have been calling in the daytime
and in the night season, at even and at morn.... O ye leaders of religion!
Who is the man amongst you that can rival Me in vision or insight? Where
is he to be found that dareth to claim to be My equal in utterance or
wisdom? No, by My Lord, the All-Merciful! All on the earth shall pass
away; and this is the face of your Lord, the Almighty, the
Well-Beloved.... Say: This, verily, is the heaven in which the Mother Book
is treasured, could ye but comprehend it. He it is Who hath caused the
Rock to shout, and the Burning Bush to lift up its voice, upon the Mount
rising above the Holy Land, and proclaim: 'The Kingdom is God's, the
sovereign Lord of all, the All-Powerful, the Loving!' We have not entered
any school, nor read any of your dissertations. Incline your ears to the
words of this unlettered One, wherewith He summoneth you unto God, the
Ever-Abiding. Better is this for you than all the treasures of the earth,
could ye but comprehend it."
"O concourse of divines!" He moreover has written, "When My verses were
sent down, and My clear tokens were revealed, We found you behind the
veils. This, verily, is a strange thing.... We have rent the veils
asunder. Beware lest ye shut out the people by yet another veil. Pluck
asunder the chains of vain imaginings, in the name of the Lord of all men,
and be not of the deceitful. Should ye turn unto God, and embrace His
Cause, spread not disorder within it, and measure not the Book of God with
your selfish desires. This, verily, is the counsel of God aforetime and
hereafter.... Had ye believed in God, when He revealed Himself, the people
would not have turned aside from Him, nor would the things ye witness
today have befallen Us. Fear God, and be not of the heedless. ...This is
the Cause that hath caused all your superstitions and idols to tremble....
O concourse of divines! Beware lest ye be the cause of strife in the land,
even as ye were the cause of the repudiation of the Faith in its early
days. Gather the people around this Word that hath made the pebbles to cry
out: 'The Kingdom is God's, the Dawning-Place of all signs!'... Tear the
veils asunder in such wise that the inmates of the Kingdom will hear them
being rent. This is the command of God, in days gone by, and for those to
come. Blessed the man that observeth that whereunto he was bidden, and woe
betide the negligent."
And again: "How long will ye, O concourse of divines, level the spears of
hatred at the face of Baha? Rein in your pens. Lo, the Most Sublime Pen
speaketh betwixt earth and heaven. Fear God, and follow not your desires
which have altered the face of creation. Purify your ears that they may
hearken unto the Voice of God. By God! It is even as fire that consumeth
the veils, and as water that washeth the souls of all who are in the
universe."
"Say: O concourse of divines!" He furthermore addresses them, "Can any one
of you race with the Divine Youth in the arena of wisdom and utterance, or
soar with Him into the heaven of inner meaning and explanation? Nay, by My
Lord, the God of mercy! All have swooned away in this Day from the Word of
thy Lord. They are even as dead and lifeless, except him whom thy Lord,
the Almighty, the Unconstrained, hath willed to exempt. Such a one is
indeed of those endued with knowledge in the sight of Him Who is the
All-Knowing. The inmates of Paradise, and the dwellers of the sacred
Folds, bless him at eventide and at dawn. Can the one possessed of wooden
legs resist him whose feet God hath made of steel? Nay, by Him Who
illumineth the whole of creation!"
"When We observed carefully," He significantly remarks, "We discovered
that Our enemies are, for the most part, the divines." "Among the people
are those who said: 'He hath repudiated the divines.' Say: 'Yea, by My
Lord! I, in very truth, was the One Who abolished the idols!'" "We,
verily, have sounded the Trumpet, which is Our Most Sublime Pen, and lo,
the divines and the learned, and the doctors and the rulers, swooned away
except such as God preserved, as a token of His grace, and He, verily, is
the All-Bounteous, the Ancient of Days."
"O concourse of divines! Fling away idle fancies and imaginings, and turn,
then, towards the Horizon of Certitude. I swear by God! All that ye
possess will profit you not, neither all the treasures of the earth, nor
the leadership ye have usurped. Fear God, and be not of the lost ones."
"Say: O concourse of divines! Lay aside all your veils and coverings. Give
ear unto that whereunto calleth you the Most Sublime Pen, in this wondrous
Day.... The world is laden with dust, by reason of your vain imaginings,
and the hearts of such as enjoy near access to God are troubled because of
your cruelty. Fear God, and be of them that judge equitably."
"O ye the dawning-places of knowledge!" He thus exhorts them, "Beware that
ye suffer not yourselves to become changed, for as ye change, most men
will, likewise, change. This, verily, is an injustice unto yourselves and
unto others.... Ye are even as a spring. If it be changed, so will the
streams that branch out from it be changed. Fear God, and be numbered with
the godly. In like manner, if the heart of man be corrupted, his limbs
will also be corrupted. And similarly, if the root of a tree be corrupted,
its branches, and its offshoots, and its leaves, and its fruits, will be
corrupted."
"Say: O concourse of divines!" He thus appeals to them, "Be fair, I adjure
you by God, and nullify not the Truth with the things ye possess. Peruse
that which We have sent down with truth. It will, verily, aid you, and
will draw you nigh unto God, the Mighty, the Great. Consider and call to
mind how when Muhammad, the Apostle of God, appeared, the people denied
Him. They ascribed unto Him what caused the Spirit [Jesus] to lament in
His Most Sublime Station, and the Faithful Spirit to cry out. Consider,
moreover, the things which befell the Apostles and Messengers of God
before Him, by reason of what the hands of the unjust have wrought. We
make mention of you for the sake of God, and remind you of His signs, and
announce unto you the things ordained for such as are nigh unto Him in the
most sublime Paradise and the all-highest Heaven, and I, verily, am the
Announcer, the Omniscient. He hath come for your salvation, and hath borne
tribulations that ye may ascend, by the ladder of utterance, unto the
summit of understanding.... Peruse, with fairness and justice, that which
hath been sent down. It will, verily, exalt you through the truth, and
will cause you to behold the things from which ye have been withheld, and
will enable you to quaff His sparkling Wine."