The Báb's Summons to the Kings

On the night of His Declaration in May 1844, in His house in Shíráz, the Báb revealed in the presence of Mullá Ḥusayn the first chapter of the *Qayyúmu'l-Asmá'*, His commentary on the Súrih of Joseph. Mullá Ḥusayn recalled in *The Dawn-Breakers* that the Báb wrote "with incredible rapidity," and that "the overpowering effect of the manner in which He wrote was heightened by the gentle intonation of His voice which accompanied His writing."

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Bahá'u'lláh characterized the *Qayyúmu'l-Asmá'* as "the first, the greatest, and mightiest of all books" in the Bábí Dispensation. Shoghi Effendi writes in *God Passes By* that it opens with the Báb's "clarion-call and dire warnings addressed to the 'concourse of kings and of the sons of kings.'"

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One such passage from that first chapter is given in *Selections from the Writings of the Báb*:

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> O concourse of kings! Deliver with truth and in all haste the > verses sent down by Us to the peoples of Turkey and of India, > and beyond them, with power and with truth, to lands in both the > East and the West.... And know that if ye aid God, He will, on the > Day of Resurrection, graciously aid you, upon the Bridge, through > Him Who is His Most Great Remembrance...

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In the same chapter He warns the Sháh, and commands the Sháh's Minister to "lay aside thy dominion."

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Shoghi Effendi notes that Bahá'u'lláh, during His confinement in 'Akká, addressed passages of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas to the kings of the earth, who had been "so vehemently summoned by the Báb, in the opening chapter of the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá, on the very night of the Declaration of His Mission."

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*A retelling based on **Selections from the Writings of the Báb** (excerpts from the Qayyúmu'l-Asmá', chapter I), with background from **God Passes By** and **The Dawn-Breakers**. For the fuller account, see the original.*

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