Call Thou To Remembrance Thine Arrival In

Sources: Gleanings From The Writings Of Baha'u'llah

Call Thou to remembrance Thine arrival in the City (Constantinople), how

the Ministers of the Sultan thought Thee to be unacquainted with their

laws and regulations, and believed Thee to be one of the ignorant. Say:

Yes, by My Lord! I am ignorant of all things except what God hath, through

His bountiful favor, been pleased to teach Me. To this We assuredly

testify, and unhesitatingly confess it.



Say: If t e laws and regulations to which ye cleave be of your own making,

We will, in no wise, follow them. Thus have I been instructed by Him Who

is the All-Wise, the All-Informed. Such hath been My way in the past, and

such will it remain in the future, through the power of God and His might.

This, indeed, is the true and right way. If they be ordained by God, bring

forth, then, your proofs, if ye be of them that speak the truth. Say: We

have written down in a Book which leaveth not unrecorded the work of any

man, however insignificant, all that they have imputed to Thee, and all

that they have done unto Thee.



Say: It behoveth you, O Ministers of State, to keep the precepts of God,

and to forsake your own laws and regulations, and to be of them who are

guided aright. Better is this for you than all ye possess, did ye but know

it. If ye transgress the commandment of God, not one jot or one tittle of

all your works shall be acceptable in His sight. Ye shall, erelong,

discover the consequences of that which ye shall have done in this vain

life, and shall be repaid for them. This, verily, is the truth, the

undoubted truth.



How great the number of those who, in bygone ages, have committed the

things ye have committed, and who, though superior to you in rank, have,

in the end, returned unto dust, and been consigned to their inevitable

doom! Would that ye might ponder the Cause of God in your hearts! Ye shall

follow in their wake, and shall be made to enter a habitation wherein none

shall be found to befriend or help you. Ye shall, of a truth, be asked of

your doings, shall be called to account for your failure in duty with

regard to the Cause of God, and for having disdainfully rejected His loved

ones who, with manifest sincerity, have come unto you.



It is ye who have taken counsel together regarding them, ye that have

preferred to follow the promptings of your own desires, and forsaken the

commandment of God, the Help in Peril, the Almighty.



Say: What! Cleave ye to your own devices, and cast behind your backs the

precepts of God? Ye, indeed, have wronged your own selves and others.

Would that ye could perceive it! Say: If your rules and principles be

founded on justice, why is it, then, that ye follow those which accord

with your corrupt inclinations and reject such as conflict with your

desires? By what right claim ye, then, to judge fairly between men? Are

your rules and principles such as to justify your persecution of Him Who,

at your bidding, hath presented Himself before you, your rejection of Him,

and your infliction on Him every day of grievous injury? Hath He ever,

though it be for one short moment, disobeyed you? All the inhabitants of

'Iraq, and beyond them every discerning observer, will bear witness to the

truth of My words.



Be fair in your judgment, O ye Ministers of State! What is it that We have

committed that could justify Our banishment? What is the offense that hath

warranted Our expulsion? It is We Who have sought you, and yet, behold how

ye refused to receive Us! By God! This is a sore injustice that ye have

perpetrated--an injustice with which no earthly injustice can measure. To

this the Almighty is Himself a witness....



Know ye that the world and its vanities and its embellishments shall pass

away. Nothing will endure except God's Kingdom which pertaineth to none

but Him, the Sovereign Lord of all, the Help in Peril, the All-Glorious,

the Almighty. The days of your life shall roll away, and all the things

with which ye are occupied and of which ye boast yourselves shall perish,

and ye shall, most certainly, be summoned by a company of His angels to

appear at the spot where the limbs of the entire creation shall be made to

tremble, and the flesh of every oppressor to creep. Ye shall be asked of

the things your hands have wrought in this, your vain life, and shall be

repaid for your doings. This is the day that shall inevitably come upon

you, the hour that none can put back. To this the Tongue of Him that

speaketh the truth and is the Knower of all things hath testified.