e crown of martyrdom and immortalized his name. The
Tablet contains the celebrated passage describing the circumstances in
which the divine call was communicated to Baha'u'llah and the effect it
produced. Here, too, we find His unequivocal offer to meet with the Muslim
clergy, in the presence of the Shah, and to provide whatever proofs of the
new Revelation they might consider to be definitive, a test of spiritual
integrity significantly failed by those who claimed to be the
authoritative trustees of the message of the Qur'an.

Included in this collection, as well, is the first full translation of the
Suriy-i-Muluk or Surih of the Kings, which Shoghi Effendi described as
"the most momentous Tablet revealed by Baha'u'llah in which He, for the
first time, directs His words collectively to the entire company of the
monarchs of East and West". It sets forth both the character of His
mission and the standard of justice that must govern the exercise of their
rule in this Day of God:

Lay not aside the fear of God, O kings of the earth, and beware
that ye transgress not the bounds which the Almighty hath fixed.
Observe the injunctions laid upon you in His Book, and take good
heed not to overstep their limits. Be vigilant, that ye may not do
injustice to anyone, be it to the extent of a grain of mustard
seed. Tread ye the path of justice, for this, verily, is the
straight path.

The Tablet introduces some of the great themes that were to figure
prominently in the Writings of Baha'u'llah over the next two and a half
decades: the obligation of those into whose hands God has entrusted civil
authority to institute the reign of justice, the necessity for the
reduction of armaments and the resolution of conflicts among nations, and
an end to the excessive expenditures that were impoverishing these rulers'
subjects.

Surveying the principal contents of Baha'u'llah's majestic call to the
kings and rulers of the world, Shoghi Effendi has written:

The magnitude and diversity of the theme, the cogency of the
argument, the sublimity and audacity of the language, arrest our
attention and astound our minds. Emperors, kings and princes,
chancellors and ministers, the Pope himself, priests, monks and
philosophers, the exponents of learning, parliamentarians and
deputies, the rich ones of the earth, the followers of all
religions, and the people of Baha--all are brought within