Of the various writings that make up the Súriy-i-Haykal, one
requires particular mention. The Lawḥ-i-Sulṭán, the Tablet to Náṣiri’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.
- The Universal House of
Justice (Introduction to ‘The Summons of the Lord of Hosts’)
