the
purview of the Author of these Messages, and receive, each
according to their merits, the counsels and admonitions they
deserve. No less amazing is the diversity of the subjects touched
upon in these Tablets. The transcendent majesty and unity of an
unknowable and unapproachable God is extolled, and the oneness of
His Messengers proclaimed and emphasized. The uniqueness, the
universality and potentialities of the Baha'i Faith are stressed,
and the purpose and character of the Babi Revelation unfolded.

The summary draws attention to Baha'u'llah's uncompromising indictment of
the conditions of human society for which its leadership is held primarily
responsible:

Episodes, at once moving and marvellous, at various stages of His
ministry, are recounted, and the transitoriness of worldly pomp,
fame, riches, and sovereignty, repeatedly and categorically
asserted. Appeals for the application of the highest principles in
human and international relations are forcibly and insistently
made, and the abandonment of discreditable practices and
conventions, detrimental to the happiness, the growth, the
prosperity and the unity of the human race, enjoined. Kings are
censured, ecclesiastical dignitaries arraigned, ministers and
plenipotentiaries condemned, and the identification of His advent
with the coming of the Father Himself unequivocally admitted and
repeatedly announced. The violent downfall of a few of these kings
and emperors is prophesied, two of them are definitely challenged,
most are warned, all are appealed to and exhorted.

In a Tablet, the original of which has been lost, Baha'u'llah had already
condemned, in the severest terms, the misrule of the Ottoman Sultan
'Abdu'l-'Aziz. The present volume includes, however, three other Tablets
which address two ministers of the Sultan, whose selfish and unprincipled
influence played an important role in Baha'u'llah's successive
banishments. The Suriy-i-Ra'is, which addresses 'Ali Pasha, the Ottoman
Prime Minister, was revealed in August 1868 as the exiles were being moved
from Adrianople to Gallipoli, and exposes unsparingly the abuse of civil
power the minister had perpetrated. The Lawh-i-Ra'is, which also contains
passages directed to 'Ali Pasha, was revealed shortly after Baha'u'llah's
incarceration in the citadel of 'Akka and includes a chilling denunciation
of the character