ivines of
Persia, who, after thirteen hundred years' waiting, have perpetrated what
the Jews have not perpetrated during the Revelation of Him Who is the
Spirit [Jesus]." "Though they rejoice," is His warning, "at the
adversities that have touched Us, the day will come whereon they shall
wail and weep."

"O heedless one!" He thus addresses, in the Lawh-i-Burhan, a notorious
Persian mujtahid, whose hands were stained with the blood of Baha'i
martyrs, "rely not on thy glory and thy power. Thou art even as the last
trace of sunlight upon the mountaintop. Soon will it fade away, as decreed
by God, the All-Possessing, the Most High. Thy glory, and the glory of
such as are like thee, have been taken away, and this, verily, is what
hath been ordained by the One with Whom is the Mother Tablet. ...Because
of you the Apostle [Muhammad] lamented, and the Chaste One [Fatimih] cried
out, and the countries were laid waste, and darkness fell upon all
regions. O concourse of divines! Because of you the people were abased,
and the banner of Islam was hauled down, and its mighty throne subverted.
Every time a man of discernment hath sought to hold fast unto that which
would exalt Islam, you raised a clamor, and thereby was he deterred from
achieving his purpose, while the land remained fallen in clear ruin."

"Say: O concourse of Persian divines!" Baha'u'llah again prophesies, "In
My name ye have seized the reins of men, and occupy the seats of honor, by
reason of your relation to Me. When I revealed Myself, however, ye turned
aside, and committed what hath caused the tears of such as have recognized
Me to flow. Erelong will all that ye possess perish, and your glory be
turned into the most wretched abasement, and ye shall behold the
punishment for what ye have wrought, as decreed by God, the Ordainer, the
All-Wise."

In the Suriy-i-Muluk, addressing the entire company of the ecclesiastical
leaders of Sunni Islam in Constantinople, the capital of the Empire and
seat of the Caliphate, He has written: "O ye divines of the City! We came
to you with the truth, whilst ye were heedless of it. Methinks ye are as
dead, wrapt in the coverings of your own selves. Ye sought not Our
presence, when so to do would have been better for you than all your
doings.... Know ye, that had your leaders, to whom ye owe allegiance, and
on whom ye pride yourselves, and whom ye mention by day and by night, and
from whose traces ye seek guidance--had they lived i