June 12, 2022

To the Sultan of Ottoman Empire - by Bahá’u’lláh

-- provisional translation by Ahmad Sohrab

He is the Possessor in His Might and Power!

The Supreme Pen proclaims:

O thou personage, who considerers thyself the greatest of all men, while looking upon the Divine Youth, thinking Him to be the lowest of men, yet through Him the Eye of the Supreme Concourse is brightened and illumined. This Youth has never made nor will He ever make a request of thee.

For from the beginning every one of the Manifestations of Mercifulness and the Dawning-Places of the Glory of the Almighty, who have stepped forth from the Realm of Immortality upon the arena of existence and shone forth with great splendor for the quickening of the dead, men like thee have considered those Sanctified Souls and Temples of Oneness upon whom the reformation of the world depends, as the people of strife, and wrong-doers. Verily, their names (the deniers) are forgotten and ere long thy name will also be forgotten and thou shalt find thyself in great loss.

According to thy opinion this Quickener of the World and its Peace-Maker is culpable and seditious. What crime have the women, children and suffering babes committed, to merit thy wrath, oppression and hate? In every religion and community the children are considered innocent, nor does the Pen of Divine Command hold them responsible, yet the reign of thy tyranny and despotism has surrounded them. If thou art the follower of any religion or sect, read thou the Heavenly Books, the Inspired Epistles and the Divine Writings, so that thou mayest realize the irresponsibility of children. On the other hand, even those people who do not believe in God, have never committed such crimes.

In everything an effect is hidden, and no one has denied the effects of things except an ignorant one who is completely denied and deprived of intelligence. Therefore, undoubtedly the lamentation of these children and the cries of these wronged ones will produce a great effect.

You have persecuted a number of souls who have shown no opposition in your country and who have instigated no revolution against the government; nay, rather, days and nights they have been peacefully engaged in the mentioning of God. You have pillaged their properties and through your tyrannical acts, all they had was taken from them. When the order was issued for the banishment of this Youth, these souls began to lament, but the officers who constituted my guard mentioned that these souls had committed no wrong, nor has the government banished them, but if they desire they may follow You, for no one will oppose them. Consequently, they paid all their own expenses and leaving their property behind, they were contented with the Countenance of this Youth and trusting upon God they departed again with the True One, until the fortress of Akka became the place of the incarceration of Baha.