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 Sháh.

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 Sháh, 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 Sháh, 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 Páshá, 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 Páshá, 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 Páshá, 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 Páshá, 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 Sháh
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
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
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
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

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 Sháh

186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198

199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216

217
218
219
220
221
222

223
224
225
226
227
228
229

230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239

240
241
242

243
244
245
246
247
248
249

250
251
252
253
254
255
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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Views27320 views since posted 2002-05-15; last edit 2025-12-18 15:58 UTC;

previous at archive.org.../bahaullah_summons_lord_hosts;
URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
Inventory #
BH00007, BH00347, BH00259, BH01042, BH00662, BH00038, BH00260, BH00269, BH01494, BH00021
Language
English
Permission
&copy; BIC, public sharing permitted. See sources 1, 2, and 3.
History
Formatted 2002 by John Wiegley.
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-- Summons of the Lord of Hosts (Used by permission of the curator)