Let us now consider more particularly the specific
references, and the words directly addressed, to Muslim ecclesiastics by the
Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. The Báb, as attested by the Kitáb-i-Íqán, has “specifically
revealed an Epistle unto the divines of every city, wherein He hath fully set
forth the character of the denial and repudiation of each of them.” Whilst in
Isfáhán, that time-honored stronghold of Muslim ecclesiasticism, He, through
the medium of its governor, Manúchihr Khán, invited in writing the divines of
that city to engage in a contest with Him, in order, as He expressed it, to
“establish the truth and dissipate falsehood.” Not one of the multitude of
divines who thronged that great seat of learning had the courage to take up
that challenge.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)
