Ye Are but Vassals, O Kings

A retelling drawn from The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book of Bahá'u'lláh, in which He addresses the kings and rulers of the earth. The passages in quotation marks are Bahá'u'lláh's own words as published in that Book, with its notes; the setting is from God Passes By.

Shoghi Effendi writes that the Kitáb-i-Aqdas was revealed soon after Bahá'u'lláh had been moved to the house of Údí Khammár in 'Akká, around 1873, "at a time when He was still encompassed by the tribulations that had afflicted Him." In the years before, from Adrianople and from the barracks of 'Akká, He had written to the Sultán, the Sháh, Napoleon III, the Czar, Queen Victoria and the Pope. In the Aqdas He addressed the kings once more.

"O kings of the earth! He Who is the sovereign Lord of all is come. The Kingdom is God's, the omnipotent Protector, the Self-Subsisting."

A few verses later He wrote: "Ye are but vassals, O kings of the earth! He Who is the King of Kings hath appeared, arrayed in His most wondrous glory, and is summoning you unto Himself, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Take heed lest pride deter you from recognizing the Source of Revelation, lest the things of this world shut you out as by a veil from Him Who is the Creator of heaven. Arise, and serve Him Who is the Desire of all nations, Who hath created you through a word from Him, and ordained you to be, for all time, the emblems of His sovereignty."

He made clear what He was not seeking: "By the righteousness of God! It is not Our wish to lay hands on your kingdoms. Our mission is to seize and possess the hearts of men." And He told them: "We have asked nothing from you. For the sake of God We, verily, exhort you, and will be patient as We have been patient in that which hath befallen Us at your hands, O concourse of kings!"

The Aqdas also addresses particular rulers. To the King of Prussia, newly proclaimed Emperor of Germany, Bahá'u'lláh wrote of Napoleon III, "the one whose power transcended thy power," who had cast the Tablet of God behind him and "went down to dust in great loss." To the rulers of the New World He wrote: "Hearken ye, O Rulers of America and the Presidents of the Republics therein, unto that which the Dove is warbling on the Branch of Eternity." He bade them "Bind ye the broken with the hands of justice, and crush the oppressor who flourisheth with the rod of the commandments of your Lord, the Ordainer, the All-Wise."

He also addressed a place: "O banks of the Rhine! We have seen you covered with gore, inasmuch as the swords of retribution were drawn against you; and you shall have another turn. And We hear the lamentations of Berlin, though she be today in conspicuous glory." The notes to the Aqdas explain that 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in a Tablet written before the First World War, related the gore on the banks of the Rhine to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 and said that there was more suffering to come. Shoghi Effendi, in God Passes By, states that the severe treaty imposed on Germany after its defeat in the First World War provoked the "lamentations" of Berlin foretold half a century before.

This is a retelling. For the full text, see The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book of Bahá'u'lláh.

Bahá'u'lláh. (1873). *The Kitáb-i-Aqdas*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/bahaullah/kitab-i-aqdas/