e could this remarkable prophecy, enshrined in the
Lawh-i-Burhan, allude if not to the downfall of this crowned overlord of
Sunni Muslims? "O concourse of Muslim Divines! Because of you the people
were abased, and the banner of Islam was hauled down, and its mighty
throne subverted." What of the indubitably clear and amazing prophecy
recorded in the Qayyum-i-Asma? "Erelong We will, in very truth, torment
such as waged war against Husayn [Imam Husayn], in the Land of the
Euphrates, with the most afflictive torment, and the direst and most
exemplary punishment." What other interpretation can this Muhammadan
tradition be given? "In the latter days a grievous calamity shall befall
My people at the hands of their ruler, a calamity such as no man ever
heard to surpass it."

This was not all, however. The disappearance of the Caliph, the spiritual
head of above two hundred million Muhammadans, brought in its wake, in the
land that had dealt Islam such a heavy blow, the annulment of the
_sh_ari'ah canonical Law, the disendowment of Sunni institutions, the
promulgation of a civil Code, the suppression of religious orders, the
abrogation of ceremonials and traditions inculcated by the religion of
Muhammad. The _Sh_ay_kh_u'l-Islam and his satellites, including muftis,
qadis, hujahs, _sh_ay_kh_s, sufis, hajis, mawlavis, dervishes, and others,
vanished at a stroke more determined, more open, and drastic than the one
dealt the _Sh_i'ihs by the _Sh_ah and his government. The mosques of the
capital, the pride and glory of the Islamic world, were deserted, and the
fairest and most famous of them all, the peerless St. Sophia, "the Second
Firmament," "the Vehicle of the Cherubim," converted by the blatant
creators of a secular regime into a museum. The Arabic tongue, the
language of the Prophet of God, was banished from the land, its alphabet
was superseded by Latin characters, and the Qur'an itself translated into
Turkish for the few who still cared to read it. The constitution of the
new Turkey not only proclaimed formally the disestablishment and
disendowment of Islam, with all its attendant and, in the view of some,
atheistic enactments, but also heralded various measures that aimed at its
further humiliation and weakening. Even the city of Constantinople, "the
Dome of Islam," apostrophized in such condemnatory terms by Baha'u'llah,
which, after the fall of Byzantium, had been hailed by the great
Constantine as "the New Rome," and exal