The Two Tablets to Napoleon III

*A retelling based on **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi, which recounts Bahá'u'lláh's two Tablets to Napoleon III. The Emperor's reported remark and the minister's letter are recorded in Shoghi Effendi's **The Promised Day Is Come**, and the words of the second Tablet are quoted as published in **The Summons of the Lord of Hosts**.*

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Shoghi Effendi calls Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, "the most prominent and influential monarch of his day in the West." Bahá'u'lláh wrote to him twice.

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The first Tablet was revealed in Adrianople, where the Ottoman government had banished Bahá'u'lláh, and was forwarded to the Emperor through one of the French ministers. In it Bahá'u'lláh described the sufferings He and His followers had endured and declared their innocence. Napoleon had made two public statements on behalf of the oppressed.

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One was his answer to the Russian government, when it asked why he had gone to war against it in the Crimea: "The cry of the oppressed who, without guilt or blame, were drowned in the Black Sea wakened me at dawn." The other was: "Ours is the responsibility to avenge the oppressed and succor the helpless." Bahá'u'lláh reminded him of these words and, wishing to test the sincerity of his motives, called on him to "inquire into the condition of such as have been wronged," to "extend his care to the weak," and to look upon Him and His fellow exiles "with the eye of loving-kindness."

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Bahá'u'lláh later wrote that the Emperor "did not reply." After His arrival in 'Akká a letter came from the French minister, who wrote that he had delivered the Tablet and had received no answer, and that recommendations had been sent to the French minister in Constantinople and the consuls in that region. From his words, Bahá'u'lláh observed, it was plain that he had taken the Tablet for a request for material help. It is also reported that the Emperor flung the Tablet down, saying: "If this man is God, I am two gods!"

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While He was a prisoner in the army barracks of 'Akká, Bahá'u'lláh addressed a second Tablet to Napoleon. According to *The Promised Day Is Come*, the man who carried it hid it in his hat to get it past the guards and gave it to the French agent in 'Akká, who translated it into French and sent it to the Emperor.

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In this Tablet Bahá'u'lláh exposed the Emperor's insincerity: "Hadst thou been sincere in thy words, thou wouldst have not cast behind thy back the Book of God, when it was sent unto thee by Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Wise." He went on: "Erelong the world and all that thou possessest will perish, and the kingdom will remain unto God, thy Lord and the Lord of thy fathers of old." He then foretold what would follow: "For what thou hast done, thy kingdom shall be thrown into confusion, and thine empire shall pass from thine hands, as a punishment for that which thou hast wrought." Commotions, He added, would seize all the people of that land, unless the Emperor arose to help His Cause.

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In 1870 France went to war with Prussia. At the Battle of Sedan the Emperor's whole army surrendered, a capitulation Shoghi Effendi describes as the greatest then recorded in modern history, and Napoleon himself was taken prisoner. The Empire collapsed and a republic was proclaimed. Paris was besieged, and a civil war followed. William I of Prussia was proclaimed German Emperor in the palace of Versailles. Napoleon lost his kingdom and spent the rest of his life in exile. His only son, the Prince Imperial, was killed some years later in the Zulu War.

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The French agent who had sent the second Tablet on to Paris, Shoghi Effendi records, himself became a believer when he later saw the prophecy fulfilled.

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **God Passes By** and **The Promised Day Is Come** by Shoghi Effendi.*

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