The Súrih of the Temple

A retelling based on The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Volume 3, by Adib Taherzadeh, which gives a chapter to the Súriy-i-Haykal, with details from the introduction to The Summons of the Lord of Hosts and from God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.

Bahá'u'lláh's proclamation to the kings and rulers of the world, Taherzadeh explains, began in Constantinople with His first Tablet to Sulṭán 'Abdu'l-'Azíz. It reached its climax in Adrianople with the Súriy-i-Mulúk, addressed to the kings together. It continued with the Tablets that form part of the Súriy-i-Haykal, and it was completed by the Kitáb-i-Aqdas in the first years of His imprisonment in 'Akká.

The Súriy-i-Haykal, the Súrih of the Temple, was first revealed in Adrianople. After His arrival in 'Akká Bahá'u'lláh recast it, adding His messages to five sovereigns: Pope Pius IX, Napoleon III, Czar Alexander II, Queen Victoria and Náṣiri'd-Dín Sháh. The Tablet to the Sháh, the longest He addressed to any monarch, was carried to Ṭihrán by Badí', a youth of seventeen, who gave his life in delivering it. The Tablet to Napoleon III in the Súrih was the second He sent the Emperor; the first, sent from Adrianople, the Emperor is reported to have flung down. The second was sent in 1869, and in 1870 Napoleon III was defeated at Sedan and lost his throne.

Throughout the Súrih the Pen addresses the Haykal, the Temple. Asked about this, Bahá'u'lláh stated that the Temple addressed is His own Person, and that the voice addressing it is His also. He speaks to the eye, the ear, the tongue, the hands and the heart of the Temple, and to the four letters of the word Haykal. In it He also describes the Maiden who announced His mission: "While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above My head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden--the embodiment of the remembrance of the name of My Lord--suspended in the air before Me."

Bahá'u'lláh had the Súrih and the Tablets to the kings written in the shape of a pentacle, symbolizing the human temple, in this order: the Súriy-i-Haykal, then the Tablets to the Pope, to Napoleon III, to the Czar, to Queen Victoria and to the Sháh. He closed it with words that link it to the prophecy of Zechariah: "Thus have We built the Temple with the hands of power and might, could ye but know it. This is the Temple promised unto you in the Book. Draw ye nigh unto it. This is that which profiteth you, could ye but comprehend it. Be fair, O peoples of the earth! Which is preferable, this, or a temple which is built of clay?"

In the last years of His ministry Bahá'u'lláh arranged for definitive versions of some of His principal works to be published for the first time, and the Súriy-i-Haykal was given a prominent place among them.

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, Volume 3, by Adib Taherzadeh, and the full text in The Summons of the Lord of Hosts.

Taherzadeh, A.. (1983). *The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh (Vol. 3 — 'Akká, The Early Years 1868-77)*. George Ronald.