ON THE SOVEREIGNTY OF MUHAMMAD
from the Writings of Baha'u'llah

Behold how the sovereignty of Muhammad, the Messenger of God, is today 
apparent and manifest amongst the people.  You are well aware of what befell 
His Faith in the early days of His Dispensation. What woeful sufferings did the 
hand of the infidel and erring, the divines of that age and their associates, inflict 
upon that spiritual Essence, that most pure and holy Being!  How abundant the 
thorns and briars which they have strewn over His path!  It is evident that that 
wretched generation, in their wicked and satanic fancy, regarded every injury to 
that immortal Being as a means to the attainment of an abiding felicity; inasmuch 
as the recognized divines of that age, such as Abdu'llah-i-Ubayy, Abu'Amir, the 
hermit, Ka'b-ibn-i-Ashraf, and Nadr-ibn-i-Harith, all treated Him as an impostor, 
and pronounced Him a lunatic and a calumniator.  Such sore accusatons they 
brought against Him that in recounting them God forbiddeth the ink to flow, Our 
pen to move, or the page to bear them.  These malicious imputations provoked 
the people to arise and torment Him.  And how fierce that torment, if the divines 
of the age be its chief instigators, if they denounce Him to their followers, cast 
Him out from their midst, and declare Him a miscreant!  Hath not the same 
befallen this Servant, and been witnessed by all?

For this reason did Muhammad cry out:  "No Prophet of God hath suffered such 
harm as I have suffered."  And in the Qur'an are recorded all the calumnies and 
reproaches uttered against Him, as well as all the afflictions which He suffered.  
Refer ye thereunto, that haply ye may be informed of that which hath befallen His 
Revelation.  So grievous was His plight, that for a time all ceased to hold 
intercourse with Him and His companions.  Whoever associated with Him fell a 
victim to the relentless cruelty of His enemies....

Consider, how great is the change today!  Behold, how many are the Sovereigns 
who bow the knee before His name!  How numerous the nations and kingdoms 
who have sought the shelter of His shadow, who bear allegiance to His Faith, 
and pride themselves therein!  From the pulpit-top there ascendeth today the 
words of praise which, in utter lowliness, glorify His blessed name; and from the 
heights of minarets there resoundeth the call that summoneth the concourse of 
His people to adore Him.  Even those Kings of the earth who have refused to 
embrace His Faith and to put off the garment of unbelief, none-the-less confess 
and acknowledge the greatness and overpowering majesty of that Day Star of 
loving-kindness. Such is His earthly sovereignty, the evidences of which thou 
dost on every side behold.  This sovereignty must needs be revealed and 
established either in the lifetime of every Manifestation of God or after His 
ascension unto His true habitation in the realms above....

It is evident that the changes brought about in every Dispensation constitute the 
dark clouds that intervene between the eye of man's understanding and the 
Divine Luminary which shineth forth from the day spring of the Divine Essence. 
Consider how men for generations have been blindly imitating their fathers, and 
have been trained according to such ways and manners as have been laid down 
by the dictates of their Faith.  Were these men, therefore, to discover suddenly 
that a Man, Who hath been living in their midst, Who, with respect to every 
human limitation hath been their equal, had risen to abolish every established 
principle imposed by their Faith--principles by which for centuries they have been 
disciplined, and every opposer and denier of which they have come to regard as 
infidel, profligate and wicked,--they would of a certainty be veiled and hindered 
from acknowledging His truth.  Such things are as "clouds" that veil the eyes of 
those whose inner being hath not tasted the Salsabil of detachment, nor drunk 
from the Kawthar of the knowledge of God.  Such men, when acquainted with 
those circum-stances, become so veiled that, without the least question, they 
pronounce the Manifestation of God as infidel, and sentence Him to death.  You 
must have heard of such things taking place all down the ages, and are now 
observing them in these days.

It behoveth us, therefore, to make the utmost endeavor, that, by God's invisible 
assist-ance, these dark veils, these clouds of Heaven-sent trials, may not hinder 
us from beholding the beauty of His shining Countenance, and that we may 
recognize Him only by His own Self.

_Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah_, pages 24-27