The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf

A retelling based on the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf by Bahá'u'lláh, with historical details from Shoghi Effendi's God Passes By and Adib Taherzadeh's The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, volume 4. The passages in quotation marks are Bahá'u'lláh's own words, as rendered in the authorized English translation, unless another source is named.

In the last year of His earthly life, while living at Bahjí, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf. Shoghi Effendi calls it "the last outstanding Tablet revealed by the pen of Bahá'u'lláh."

The name goes back to events in Iṣfahán. Years earlier two brothers of that city, Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥasan and Mírzá Muḥammad-Ḥusayn, known for their generosity, trustworthiness, kindliness and piety, were put to death for their faith. They are remembered by the titles King of Martyrs and Beloved of Martyrs. The cleric Shaykh Muḥammad-Báqir pronounced their death sentence, and Bahá'u'lláh denounced him as "the wolf." His son, Shaykh Muḥammad-Taqíy-i-Najafí, persecuted the believers in his turn. Shoghi Effendi records that when Mírzá Ashraf was slain in Iṣfahán, this son and his pupils trampled on the martyr's body. It is to him that the Epistle is addressed.

Shoghi Effendi summarizes the Tablet: in it Bahá'u'lláh "calls upon that rapacious priest to repent of his acts, quotes some of the most characteristic and celebrated passages of His own writings, and adduces proofs establishing the validity of His Cause."

It opens with praise of God: "In the name of God, the One, the Incomparable, the All-Powerful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise." Soon afterwards Bahá'u'lláh turns to the man He is addressing: "Give ear, O distinguished divine, unto the voice of this Wronged One. He verily, counselleth thee for the sake of God, and exhorteth thee unto that which will cause thee to draw nigh unto Him under all conditions."

A little further on He writes: "We beseech God to aid thee to be just and fair-minded, and to acquaint thee with the things that were hidden from the eyes of men."

Among the passages Bahá'u'lláh sets before him is His own account of the four months He spent in the underground dungeon of Ṭihrán, the Síyáh-Chál: "We were consigned for four months to a place foul beyond comparison."

The Epistle also mentions the "Crimson Book." Shoghi Effendi explains that this alludes to the Kitáb-i-'Ahd, the Book of the Covenant, which Bahá'u'lláh had already written and which was opened after His passing.

This is a retelling. For the full text, see the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf by Bahá'u'lláh.

Bahá'u'lláh. (1891). *Epistle to the Son of the Wolf*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/epistle-son-wolf/