Divine retribution on the Qájár dynasty

This hope, however, was to remain unfulfilled. It was indeed shattered by a reign which had been inaugurated by the execution of the Báb, and the imprisonment of Bahá’u’lláh in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán, by a sovereign who had repeatedly instigated Bahá’u’lláh’s successive banishments, and by a dynasty that had been sullied by the slaughter of no less than twenty thousand of His followers. The Sháh’s dramatic assassination, the ignoble rule of the last sovereigns of the House of Qájár, and the extinction of that dynasty, were signal instances of the Divine retribution which these horrid atrocities had provoked. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’) 

Bahá’u’lláh counselles Násiri’d-Dín Sháh

To this despotic sovereign Bahá’u’lláh, Who denounced him as the “Prince of Oppressors,” and as one who would soon be made “an object-lesson for the world,” had written: “Look upon this Youth, O king, with the eyes of justice; judge thou, then, with truth concerning what hath befallen Him. Of a verity, God hath made thee His shadow amongst men, and the sign of His power unto all that dwell on earth.” And again: “O king! Wert thou to incline thine ears unto the shrill of the Pen of Glory and the cooing of the Dove of Eternity ... thou wouldst attain unto a station from which thou wouldst behold in the world of being naught save the effulgence of the Adored One, and wouldst regard thy sovereignty as the most contemptible of thy possessions, abandoning it to whosoever might desire it, and setting thy face toward the horizon aglow with the light of His countenance.” And again: “We fain would hope, however, that His Majesty the Sháh will himself examine these matters, and bring hope to the hearts. That which We have submitted to thee is indeed for thine highest good.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’) 

How different monarchs responded to Tablets they received from Bahá’u’lláh - Násiri’d-Dín Sháh’s treatment of the messenger

The French Emperor had, it was reported, flung away Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablet, and directed his minister, as Bahá’u’lláh Himself asserts, to address to its Author an irreverent reply. The Grand Vizir of ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz, it is reliably stated, blanched while reading the communication addressed to his Imperial master and his ministers, and made the following comment: “It is as if the king of kings were issuing his behest to his humblest vassal king, and regulating his conduct!” Queen Victoria, it is said, upon reading the Tablet revealed for her remarked: “If this is of God, it will endure; if not, it can do no harm.” It was reserved for Násiri’d-Dín Sháh, however, to wreak, at the instigation of the divines, his vengeance on One Whom he could no longer personally chastise by arresting His messenger, a lad of about seventeen, by freighting him with chains, by torturing him on the rack, and finally slaying him. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’) 

Násiri’d-Dín Sháh and his interaction with “the budding Faith of God”

What of Násiri’d-Dín Sháh, the other partner in that imperial conspiracy which sought to extirpate, root and branch, the budding Faith of God? His reaction to the Divine Message borne to him by the fearless Badí, the “Pride of Martyrs,” who had spontaneously dedicated himself to this purpose, was characteristic of that implacable hatred which, throughout his reign, glowed so fiercely in his breast. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’) 

The process of the complete collapse of the Ottoman Empire

Risings in Crete and the Balkans marked the reign of this, the 32nd sultán of his dynasty, a despot whose mind was vacuous, whose recklessness was extreme, whose extravagance knew no bounds. The Eastern Question entered upon an acute phase. His gross misrule gave rise to movements which were to exercise far-reaching effects upon his realm, while his continual and enormous borrowings, leading to a state of semibankruptcy, introduced the principle of foreign control over the finances of his empire. A conspiracy, leading to a palace revolution, finally deposed him. A fatvá of the muftí denounced his incapacity and extravagance. Four days later he was assassinated, and was succeeded by his nephew, Murád V, whose mind had been reduced to a nullity by intemperance and by a long seclusion in the Cage. Declared to be imbecile, he, after a reign of three months, was deposed and was succeeded by the subtle, the resourceful, the suspicious, the tyrannical ‘Abdu’l-Hamíd II who “proved to be the most mean, cunning, untrustworthy and cruel intriguer of the long dynasty of Uthmán.” “No one knew,” it was written of him, “from day to day who was the person on whose advice the sultán overruled his ostensible ministers, whether a favorite lady of his harem, or a eunuch, or some fanatical dervish, or an astrologer, or a spy.” The Bulgarian atrocities heralded the black reign of this “Great Assassin,” which thrilled Europe with horror, and were characterized by Gladstone as “the basest and blackest outrages upon record in that [XIX] century.” The War of 1877–78 accelerated the process of the empire’s dismemberment. No less than eleven million people were emancipated from Turkish yoke. The Russian troops occupied Adrianople. Serbia, Montenegro and Rumania proclaimed their independence. Bulgaria became a self-governing state, tributary to the sultán. Cyprus and Egypt were occupied. The French assumed a protectorate over Tunis. Eastern Rumelia was ceded to Bulgaria. The wholesale massacres of Armenians, involving directly and indirectly a hundred thousand souls, were but a foretaste of the still more extensive bloodbaths to come in a later reign. Bosnia and Herzegovina were lost to Austria. Bulgaria obtained her independence. Universal contempt and hatred of an infamous sovereign, shared alike by his Christian and Muslim subjects, finally culminated in a revolution, swift and sweeping. The Committee of Young Turks secured from the Shaykhu’l-Islám the condemnation of the sulṭán. Deserted and friendless, execrated by his subjects, and despised by his fellow-rulers, he was forced to abdicate, and was made a prisoner of state, thus ending a reign “more disastrous in its immediate losses of territory and in the certainty of others to follow, and more conspicuous for the deterioration of the condition of his subjects, than that of any other of his twenty-three degenerate predecessors since the death of Soliman the Magnificent.”

“the doom which the judgment of God had pronounced against” the “Imperial Turkey”

The “sick man” of Europe, whose condition had been unerringly diagnosed by the Divine Physician, and whose doom was pronounced inevitable, fell a prey, during the reign of five successive sultáns, all degenerate, all deposed, to a series of convulsions which, in the end, proved fatal to his life. Imperial Turkey that had, under ‘Abdu’l-Majíd, been admitted into the European Concert, and had emerged victorious from the Crimean War, entered, under his successor, ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz, upon a period of swift decline, culminating, soon after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing, in the doom which the judgment of God had pronounced against it. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

The effects of Bahá’u’lláh’s Lawh-i-Ra’ís on the Ottoman Empire

This process received fresh impetus after the Lawh-i-Ra’ís was revealed on the morrow of its Author’s final banishment from Adrianople to Akká. Relentless, devastating, and with ever-increasing momentum, it ominously unfolded,

• damaging the prestige of the Empire,
• dismembering its territory,
• dethroning its sultáns,
• sweeping away their dynasty,
• degrading and deposing its Caliph,
• disestablishing its religion, and
• extinguishing its glory.

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

‘Alí Páshá, the Grand Vizir of Ottoman Empire “paled while reading” the Tablet of Bahá’u’lláh addressed to Sultán ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz

A cataclysmic process, one of the most remarkable in modern history, was set in motion ever since Bahá’u’lláh, while a prisoner in Constantinople, delivered to a Turkish official His Tablet, addressed to Sultán ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz and his ministers, to be transmitted to ‘Alí Páshá, the Grand Vizir. It was this Tablet which, as attested by that officer and affirmed by Nabíl in his chronicle, affected the Vizir so profoundly that he paled while reading it. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

Sultán’s reaction to Bahá’u’lláh’s words concerning “his person, his empire, his throne, his capital, and his ministers”

The Sultán’s reaction to these words, bearing upon his person, his empire, his throne, his capital, and his ministers, can be gathered from the recital of the sufferings he inflicted on Bahá’u’lláh, and already referred to in the beginning of these pages. The extinction of the “outward splendor” surrounding that proud seat of Imperial power is the theme I now proceed to expose. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

Bahá’u’lláh’s reference to “the death of Fu’ád Páshá, the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, [and] the fall of the Sultán himself

Indeed, in a most remarkable passage in the Lawḥ-i-Fu’ád, wherein mention has been made of the death of Fu’ád Páshá, the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, the fall of the Sultán himself is unmistakably foretold: “Soon will We dismiss the one who was like unto him, and will lay hold on their Chief who ruleth the land, and I, verily, am the Almighty, the All-Compelling.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

Bahá’u’lláh’s forecast concerning the downfall of “the seat of Turkish imperial power”

And finally, in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, revealed soon after Bahá’u’lláh’s banishment to Akká, He thus apostrophizes the seat of Turkish imperial power: “O Spot that art situate on the shores of the two seas! The throne of tyranny hath, verily, been stablished upon thee, and the flame of hatred hath been kindled within thy bosom.... Thou art indeed filled with manifest pride. Hath thine outward splendor made thee vainglorious? By Him Who is the Lord of mankind! It shall soon perish, and thy daughters, and thy widows, and all the kindreds that dwell within thee shall lament. Thus informeth thee, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

Bahá’u’lláh “reproves the combined forces of Sunní and Shí’ih Islám”

“By your deeds,” He, [Bahá’u’lláh] in another Tablet, anticipating the fall of the Sultanate and the Caliphate, thus reproves the combined forces of Sunní and Shí’ih Islám, “the exalted station of the people hath been abased, the standard of Islám hath been reversed, and its mighty throne hath fallen.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

Bahá’u’lláh’s reference to certain “calamities” concerning the City of Constantinople

“Soon,” He, moreover has written, “will He seize you in His wrathful anger, and sedition will be stirred up in your midst, and your dominions will be disrupted. Then will ye bewail and lament, and will find none to help or succor you.... Several times calamities have overtaken you, and yet ye failed utterly to take heed. One of them was the conflagration which devoured most of the City [Constantinople] with the flames of justice, and concerning which many poems were written, stating that no such fire had ever been witnessed. And yet, ye waxed more heedless.... Plague, likewise, broke out, and ye still failed to give heed! Be expectant, however, for the wrath of God is ready to overtake you. Erelong will ye behold that which hath been sent down from the Pen of My command.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

Bahá’u’lláh’s prophecy concerning “the Land of Mystery [Adrianople], and what is beside it”

“The day is approaching,” Bahá’u’lláh thus prophesies in the Lawh-i-Ra’ís, “when the Land of Mystery [Adrianople], and what is beside it shall be changed, and shall pass out of the hands of the king, and commotions shall appear, and the voice of lamentation shall be raised, and the evidences of mischief shall be revealed on all sides, and confusion shall spread by reason of that which hath befallen these captives at the hands of the hosts of oppression. The course of things shall be altered, and conditions shall wax so grievous, that the very sands on the desolate hills will moan, and the trees on the mountain will weep, and blood will flow out of all things. Then wilt thou behold the people in sore distress.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

Bahá’u’lláh counsels Sultan ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz

“Hearken, O king!” is the summons issued to Sulṭán ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz by Bahá’u’lláh, “to the speech of Him that speaketh the truth, Him that doth not ask thee to recompense Him with the things God hath chosen to bestow upon thee, Him Who unerringly treadeth the Straight Path.... Observe, O king, with thine inmost heart and with thy whole being, the precepts of God, and walk not in the paths of the oppressor.... Place not thy reliance on thy treasures. Put thy whole confidence in the grace of God, thy Lord.... Overstep not the bounds of moderation, and deal justly with them that serve thee.... Set before thine eyes God’s unerring Balance, and, as one standing in His presence, weigh in that Balance thine actions, every day, every moment of thy life. Bring thyself to account ere thou art summoned to a reckoning, on the Day when no man shall have strength to stand for fear of God, the Day when the hearts of the heedless ones shall be made to tremble.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

Sultan ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz: “had thrice banished Bahá’u’lláh, and in whose dominions the Manifestation of God spent almost the whole of His forty years’ captivity”

Of the two despots ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz was the more powerful, the more exalted in rank, the more preeminent in guilt, and the more concerned with the tribulations and fortunes of the Founder of our Faith. He it was who, through his farmáns, had thrice banished Bahá’u’lláh, and in whose dominions the Manifestation of God spent almost the whole of His forty years’ captivity. It was during his reign and that of his nephew and successor, ‘Abdu’l-Ḥamíd II, that the Center of the Covenant of God had to endure, for no less than forty years, in the fortress-town of Akká, an incarceration fraught with so many perils, affronts and privations. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

“retribution…upon the rulers of the Turkish House of Uthmán and of the Qájár dynasty in Persia”

Already in the lifetime of Bahá’u’lláh, and later during the ministry of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the first blows of a slow yet steady and relentless retribution were falling alike upon the rulers of the Turkish House of Uthmán and of the Qájár dynasty in Persia—the archenemies of God’s infant Faith. Sulṭán ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz fell from power, and was murdered soon after Bahá’u’lláh’s banishment from Adrianople, while Násiri’d-Dín Sháh succumbed to an assassin’s pistol, during ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s incarceration in the fortress-town of Akká. It was reserved, however, for the Formative Period of the Faith of God—the Age of the birth and rise of its Administrative Order—which, as stated in a previous communication, is through its unfoldment casting such a turmoil in the world, to witness not only the extinction of both of these dynasties, but also the abolition of the twin institutions of the Sultanate and the Caliphate. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

The “fate of the Napoleonic, the Romanov, the Hohenzollern, and the Hapsburg empires”

Such was the fate of the Napoleonic, the Romanov, the Hohenzollern, and the Hapsburg empires, whose rulers, together with the sovereign occupant of the Papal throne, were individually addressed by the Pen of the Most High, and who were respectively chastised, forewarned, condemned, rebuked and admonished. What of the fate of those sovereigns who, exercising direct political jurisdiction over the Faith, its Founders, and followers, and within the radius of whose domains that Faith was born and first spread, were at liberty to crucify its Herald, banish its Founder, and mow down its adherents? 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)

End of the Holy Roman Empire

Belated efforts had been made to steady his tottering throne. The “ramshackle empire,” a medley of states, races, and languages, was, however, relentlessly and rapidly disintegrating. The political and economic situation was desperate. The defeat of Austria and Hungary, in that same war, sounded its death knell and brought its dismemberment. Hungary sundered its connection. The conglomerate realm was carved up, and all that was left of the once formidable Holy Roman Empire was a shrunken republic that led a miserable existence until, in more recent times, it was, unlike its sister nation, completely extinguished and wiped off the political map of Europe. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Promised Day Is Come’)