Summons of the Lord of Hosts
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Bahá'u'lláh, Summons of the Lord of Hosts, Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 2002, bahai-library.com.
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Summons of the Lord of Hosts

Bahá'u'lláh

Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 2002

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Contents

Introduction
i

Suriy-i-Haykal/ Surih of the Temple
1
Pope Pius IX                             54
Napoleon III                             67
Czar Alexander II                        83
Queen Victoria                           88
Nasiri'd-Din Shah/ Lawh-i-Sultan         96

Suriy-i-Ra'is
139

Lawh-i-Ra'is
159

Lawh-i-Fu'ad
175

Suriy-i-Muluk/ Surih to the Kings
183

Endnotes
237

Note on the translation
241

Key to passages translated
by Shoghi Effendi
243
Index                                       253

Introduction

The years following Bahá'u'lláh's arrival in Adrianople witnessed His
Revelation's attainment, in the words of Shoghi Effendi, of ``its
meridian glory'' through the proclamation of its Founder's message to
the kings and rulers of the world. During this relatively brief but
turbulent period of the Faith's history, and in the early years of His
subsequent exile in 1868 to the fortress town of `Akká, He summoned
the monarchs of East and West collectively, and some among them
individually, to recognize the Day of God and to acknowledge the One
promised in the scriptures of the religions professed by the
recipients of His summons. ``Never since the beginning of the world'',
Bahá'u'lláh declares, ``hath the Message been so openly proclaimed.''

The present volume brings together the first full, authorized English
translation of these major writings. Among them is the complete
Súriy-i-Haykal, the Súrih of the Temple, one of Bahá'u'lláh's most
challenging works. It was originally revealed during His banishment to
Adrianople and later recast after His arrival in `Akká. In this
version He incorporated His messages addressed to individual
potentates -- Pope Pius IX, Napoleon III, Czar Alexander II, Queen
Victoria, and Násiri'd-Dín
Sh
áh.

It was this composite work which, shortly after its completion,
Bahá'u'lláh instructed be written in the form of a pentacle,
symbolizing the human temple. To it He added, as a conclusion, what
Shoghi Effendi has described as ``words which reveal the importance He
attached to those Messages, and indicate their direct association with
the prophecies of the Old Testament'':

Thus have We built the Temple with the hands of power and might,
could ye but know it. This is the Temple promised unto you in the
Book. Draw ye nigh unto it. This is that which profiteth you, could
ye but comprehend it. Be fair, O peoples of the earth! Which is
preferable, this, or a temple which is built of clay?  Set your
faces towards it. Thus have ye been commanded by God, the Help in
Peril, the Self-Subsisting.

During the last years of His ministry Bahá'u'lláh Himself arranged for
the publication for the first time of definitive versions of some of
His principal works, and the Súriy-i-Haykal was awarded a prominent
position among them.

Of the various writings that make up the Súriy-i-Haykal, one requires
particular mention. The Lawh-i-Sultán, the Tablet to
Násiri'd-Dín
Sh
áh, Bahá'u'lláh's lengthiest epistle to
any single sovereign, was revealed in the weeks immediately preceding
His final banishment to `Akká. It was eventually delivered to the
monarch by Badí`, a youth of seventeen, who had entreated Bahá'u'lláh
for the honour of rendering some service.  His efforts won him the
crown of martyrdom and immortalized his name. The Tablet contains the
celebrated passage describing the circumstances in which the divine
call was communicated to Bahá'u'lláh and the effect it produced.
Here, too, we find His unequivocal offer to meet with the Muslim
clergy, in the presence of the
Sh
áh, and to provide whatever
proofs of the new Revelation they might consider to be definitive, a
test of spiritual integrity significantly failed by those who claimed
to be the authoritative trustees of the message of the Qur'án.

Included in this collection, as well, is the first full translation of
the Súriy-i-Mulúk or Súrih of the Kings, which Shoghi Effendi
described as ``the most momentous Tablet revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in
which He, for the first time, directs His words collectively to the
entire company of the monarchs of East and West''.  It sets forth both
the character of His mission and the standard of justice that must
govern the exercise of their rule in this Day of God:

Lay not aside the fear of God, O kings of the earth, and beware
that ye transgress not the bounds which the Almighty hath
fixed. Observe the injunctions laid upon you in His Book, and take
good heed not to overstep their limits. Be vigilant, that ye may
not do injustice to anyone, be it to the extent of a grain of
mustard seed. Tread ye the path of justice, for this, verily, is
the straight path.

The Tablet introduces some of the great themes that were to figure
prominently in the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh over the next two and a
half decades: the obligation of those into whose hands God has
entrusted civil authority to institute the reign of justice, the
necessity for the reduction of armaments and the resolution of
conflicts among nations, and an end to the excessive expenditures that
were impoverishing these rulers' subjects.

Surveying the principal contents of Bahá'u'lláh's majestic call to the
kings and rulers of the world, Shoghi Effendi has written:

The magnitude and diversity of the theme, the cogency of the
argument, the sublimity and audacity of the language, arrest our
attention and astound our minds.  Emperors, kings and princes,
chancellors and ministers, the Pope himself, priests, monks and
philosophers, the exponents of learning, parliamentarians and
deputies, the rich ones of the earth, the followers of all
religions, and the people of Bahá -- all are brought within the
purview of the Author of these Messages, and receive, each
according to their merits, the counsels and admonitions they
deserve. No less amazing is the diversity of the subjects touched
upon in these Tablets. The transcendent majesty and unity of an
unknowable and unapproachable God is extolled, and the oneness of
His Messengers proclaimed and emphasized.  The uniqueness, the
universality and potentialities of the Bahá'í Faith are stressed,
and the purpose and character of the Bábí Revelation unfolded.

The summary draws attention to Bahá'u'lláh's uncompromising indictment
of the conditions of human society for which its leadership is held
primarily responsible:

Episodes, at once moving and marvellous, at various stages of His
ministry, are recounted, and the transitoriness of worldly pomp,
fame, riches, and sovereignty, repeatedly and categorically
asserted. Appeals for the application of the highest principles in
human and international relations are forcibly and insistently
made, and the abandonment of discreditable practices and
conventions, detrimental to the happiness, the growth, the
prosperity and the unity of the human race, enjoined.  Kings are
censured, ecclesiastical dignitaries arraigned, ministers and
plenipotentiaries condemned, and the identification of His advent
with the coming of the Father Himself unequivocally admitted and
repeatedly announced. The violent downfall of a few of these kings
and emperors is prophesied, two of them are definitely challenged,
most are warned, all are appealed to and exhorted.

In a Tablet, the original of which has been lost, Bahá'u'lláh had
already condemned, in the severest terms, the misrule of the Ottoman
Sultán `Abdu'l-`Azíz. The present volume includes, however,
three other Tablets which address two ministers of the Sultán,
whose selfish and unprincipled influence played an important role in
Bahá'u'lláh's successive banishments. The Súriy-i-Ra'ís, which
addresses `Alí Pá
sh
á, the Ottoman Prime Minister, was revealed
in August 1868 as the exiles were being moved from Adrianople to
Gallipoli, and exposes unsparingly the abuse of civil power the
minister had perpetrated. The Lawh-i-Ra'ís, which also contains
passages directed to `Alí Pá
sh
á, was revealed shortly after
Bahá'u'lláh's incarceration in the citadel of `Akká and includes a
chilling denunciation of the character of the Minister.  The third
Tablet, the Lawh-i-Fu'ád, revealed in 1869 shortly after the
death of Fu'ád Pá
sh
á, the Ottoman Minister to whose
machinations it refers, describes the spiritual consequences of the
abuse of power, and foretells the imminent downfall of his colleague,
`Alí Pá
sh
á, and the overthrow of the Sultán himself --
prophecies that were widely circulated and whose dramatic fulfilment
added greatly to the prestige of their Author.

It seems especially appropriate, as Bahá'u'lláh's influence penetrates
ever more deeply the life of the larger society throughout the world,
that the full texts of these great Tablets should now be available for
a broad readership.  We express to the committees who were
commissioned to undertake and review these translations the deep
gratitude we feel for the care and sensitivity they have brought to
the task.  Bahá'ís will recognize key passages from several of the
Tablets that were introduced to the West by Shoghi Effendi.  His
translations into English of the Bahá'í Holy Texts provide an enduring
standard for the efforts of those who rise to the challenge of
preparing appropriate renderings into English of these treasures of
the Faith.

The Universal House of Justice

Click on any of the numbers below to go to a page of
Summons of the Lord of Hosts
(or visit this
Contents
page for finding a listing of paragraph numbers):

Title

Contents

Introduction

i

ii

iii

iv

v

vi

vii

Súriy-i-Haykal

1

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

Pope Pius IX

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

Napoleon

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

Czar Alexander II

83

84

85

86

87

Queen Victoria

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

Násiri'd-Dín
Sh
áh

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

Súriy-i-Ra'ís

139

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

Lawh-i-Ra'ís

159

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

168

169

170

171

172

173

Lawh-i-Fu'ád

175

177

178

179

180

181

Súriy-i-Mulúk

183

185

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

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206

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215

216

217

218

219

220

221

222

223

224

225

226

227

228

229

230

231

232

233

234

235

Endnotes

237

238

239

240

Note on the Translation

241

Key to Passages Translated by Shoghi Effendi

243

244

245

246

247

248

249

250

251

252

Click on any of the numbers below to go to a paragraph of
Summons of the Lord of Hosts
:

Title

Contents

Introduction (by page only)

i

ii

iii

iv

v

vi

vii

Súriy-i-Haykal

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

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63

64

65

66

67

68

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71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

Pope Pius IX

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

Napoleon

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

Czar Alexander II

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

168

169

170

Queen Victoria

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

178

179

180

181

182

183

184

185

Násiri'd-Dín
Sh
áh

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

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256

257

258

259

260

261

262

263

264

265

266

267

268

269

270

271

272

273

274

275

276

Súriy-i-Ra'ís

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

Lawh-i-Ra'ís

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

Lawh-i-Fu'ád

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

Súriy-i-Mulúk

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

Endnotes (by page only)

237

238

239

240

Note on the Translation (by page only)

241

Key to Passages Translated by Shoghi Effendi (by page only)

243

244

245

246

247

248

249

250

251

252

-->

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-- Summons of the Lord of Hosts (Used by permission of the curator)