tablish 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. Baha'u'llah,
on His part, while in Adrianople, and as witnessed by His own Tablet to
the _Sh_ah of Persia, signified His wish to be "brought face to face with
the divines of the age, and produce proofs and testimonies in the presence
of His Majesty, the _Sh_ah." This offer was denounced as a "great
presumption and amazing audacity" by the divines of Tihran, who, in their
fear, advised their sovereign to instantly punish the bearer of that
Tablet. Previously, while Baha'u'llah was in Ba_gh_dad, He expressed His
willingness that, provided the divines of Najaf and Karbila--the twin
holiest cities next to Mecca and Medina, in the eyes of the
_Sh_i'ihs--assembled and agreed regarding any miracle they wished to be
performed, and signed and sealed a statement affirming that on performance
of this miracle they would acknowledge the truth of His Mission, He would
unhesitatingly produce it. To this challenge they, as recorded by
'Abdu'l-Baha in His "Some Answered Questions," could offer no better reply
than this: "This man is an enchanter; perhaps he will perform an
enchantment, and then we shall have nothing more to say." "For twelve
years," Baha'u'llah Himself has testified, "We tarried in Ba_gh_dad. Much
as We desired that a large gathering of divines and fair-minded men be
convened, so that truth might be distinguished from falsehood, and be
fully demonstrated, no action was taken." And again: "And likewise, while
in 'Iraq, We wished to come together with the divines of Persia. No sooner
did they hear of this, than they fled and said: 'He indeed is a manifest
sorcerer!' This is the word that proceeded aforetime out of the mouths of
such as were like them. These [divines] objected to what they said, and
yet, they themselves repeat, in this day, what was said before them, and
understand not. By My life! They are even as ashes in the sight of thy
Lord. If He be willing, tempestuous gales will blow over them, and make
them as dust. Thy Lord, verily, doth what He pleaseth."

These false, these cruel and cowardly _Sh_i'ih clericals, who, as
Baha'u'llah declared, had they not intervened, Persia would have been
subdued by the power of God in hardly more than two years, have been thus
addressed in the Qayyum-i-Asma: "O concourse of divines! Fear God from
this day onwards in