O Kings Of The Earth! Give Ear Unto The Voice Of God,

Categories: SUMMONS TO THE KINGS AND RULERS OF THE WORLD COLLECTIVELY

O KINGS of the earth! Give ear unto the Voice of God, calling from this

sublime, this fruit-laden Tree, that hath sprung out of the Crimson Hill,

upon the holy Plain, intoning the words: 'There is none other God but He,

the Mighty, the All-Powerful, the All-Wise.'... Fear God, O concourse of

kings, and suffer not yourselves to be deprived of this most sublime

grace. Fling away, then, the things ye possess, and take fast hold on the br />
Handle of God, the Exalted, the Great. Set your hearts towards the Face of

God, and abandon that which your desires have bidden you to follow, and be

not of those who perish. Relate unto them, O Servant, the story of 'Ali

(the Bab), when He came unto them with truth, bearing His glorious and

weighty Book, and holding in His hands a testimony and proof from God, and

holy and blessed tokens from Him. Ye, however, O Kings, have failed to

heed the Remembrance of God in His days and to be guided by the lights

which arose and shone forth above the horizon of a resplendent Heaven. Ye

examined not His Cause when so to do would have been better for you than

all that the sun shineth upon, could ye but perceive it. Ye remained

careless until the divines of Persia--those cruel ones--pronounced judgment

against Him, and unjustly slew Him. His spirit ascended unto God, and the

eyes of the inmates of Paradise and the angels that are nigh unto Him wept

sore by reason of this cruelty. Beware that ye be not careless henceforth

as ye have been careless aforetime. Return, then, unto God, your Maker,

and be not of the heedless.... My face hath come forth from the veils, and

shed its radiance upon all that is in heaven and on earth; and yet, ye



turned not towards Him, notwithstanding that ye were created for Him, O

concourse of kings! Follow, therefore, that which I speak unto you, and

hearken unto it with your hearts, and be not of such as have turned aside.

For your glory consisteth not in your sovereignty, but rather in your

nearness unto God and your observance of His command as sent down in His

holy and preserved Tablets. Should any one of you rule over the whole

earth, and over all that lieth within it and upon it, its seas, its lands,

its mountains, and its plains, and yet be not remembered by God, all these

would profit him not, could ye but know it.... Arise, then, and make

steadfast your feet, and make ye amends for that which hath escaped you,

and set then yourselves towards His holy Court, on the shore of His mighty

Ocean, so that the pearls of knowledge and wisdom, which God hath stored

up within the shell of His radiant heart, may be revealed unto you....

Beware lest ye hinder the breeze of God from blowing over your hearts, the

breeze through which the hearts of such as have turned unto Him can be

quickened....



Beware not to deal unjustly with any one that appealeth to you, and

entereth beneath your shadow. Walk ye in the fear of God, and be ye of

them that lead a godly life. Rest not on your power, your armies, and

treasures. Put your whole trust and confidence in God, Who hath created

you, and seek ye His help in all your affairs. Succour cometh from Him

alone. He succoureth whom He willeth with the hosts of the heavens and of

the earth.



Know ye that the poor are the trust of God in your midst. Watch that ye

betray not His trust, that ye deal not unjustly with them and that ye walk

not in the ways of the treacherous. Ye will most certainly be called upon

to answer for His trust on the day when the Balance of Justice shall be

set, the day when unto every one shall be rendered his due, when the

doings of all men, be they rich or poor, shall be weighed.



If ye pay no heed unto the counsels which, in peerless and unequivocal

language, We have revealed in this Tablet, Divine chastisement shall

assail you from every direction, and the sentence of His justice shall be

pronounced against you. On that day ye shall have no power to resist Him,

and shall recognize your own impotence. Have mercy on yourselves and on

those beneath you, and judge ye between them according to the precepts

prescribed by God in His most holy and exalted Tablet, a Tablet wherein He

hath assigned to each and every thing its settled measure, in which He

hath given, with distinctness, an explanation of all things, and which is

in itself a monition unto them that believe in Him.



Examine Our Cause, inquire into the things that have befallen Us, and

decide justly between Us and Our enemies, and be ye of them that act

equitably towards their neighbours. If ye stay not the hand of the

oppressor, if ye fail to safeguard the rights of the down-trodden, what

right have ye then to vaunt yourselves among men? What is it of which ye

can rightly boast? Is it on your food and your drink that ye pride

yourselves, on the riches ye lay up in your treasuries, on the diversity

and the cost of the ornaments with which ye deck yourselves? If true glory

were to consist in the possession of such perishable things, then the

earth on which ye walk must needs vaunt itself over you, because it

supplieth you, and bestoweth upon you, these very things, by the decree of

the Almighty. In its bowels are contained, according to what God hath

ordained, all that ye possess. From it, as a sign of His mercy, ye derive

your riches. Behold then your state, the thing in which ye glory! Would

that ye could perceive it! Nay, By Him Who holdeth in His grasp the

kingdom of the entire creation! Nowhere doth your true and abiding glory

reside except in your firm adherence unto the precepts of God, your

wholehearted observance of His laws, your resolution to see that they do

not remain unenforced, and to pursue steadfastly the right course....



Twenty years have passed, O Kings, during which We have, each day, tasted

the agony of a fresh tribulation. No one of them that were before Us hath

endured the things We have endured. Would that ye could perceive it! They

that rose up against Us, have put Us to death, have shed Our blood, have

plundered Our property, and violated Our honour. Though aware of most of

Our afflictions, ye, nevertheless, have failed to stay the hand of the

aggressor. For is it not your clear duty to restrain the tyranny of the

oppressor, and to deal equitably with your subjects, that your high sense

of justice may be fully demonstrated to all mankind?



God hath committed into your hands the reins of the government of the

people, that ye may rule with justice over them, safeguard the rights of

the down-trodden, and punish the wrong-doers. If ye neglect the duty

prescribed unto you by God in His Book, your names shall be numbered with

those of the unjust in His sight. Grievous, indeed, will be your error.

Cleave ye to that which your imaginations have devised, and cast behind

your backs the commandments of God, the Most Exalted, the Inaccessible,

the All-Compelling, the Almighty? Cast away the things ye possess, and

cling to that which God hath bidden you observe. Seek ye His grace, for he

that seeketh it treadeth His straight Path....



The day is approaching when God will have exalted His Cause and magnified

His testimony in the eyes of all who are in the heavens and all who are on

the earth. Place, in all circumstances, Thy whole trust in Thy Lord, and

fix Thy gaze upon Him, and turn away from all them that repudiate His

truth. Let God, Thy Lord, be Thy sufficing Succourer and Helper. We have

pledged Ourself to secure Thy triumph upon earth and to exalt Our Cause

above all men, though no king be found who would turn his face towards

Thee.