Make Like A Messiah
Bahá'u'lláh is said by
Bahá'ís to have cast curses on various rulers of the
world. Shoghi Effendi's recollections of how these curses fell upon
various rulers and other powerful figures raise several important
questions about the impartiality of his analysis.
- Bahá'u'lláh's curse on the
powerful is usually depicted as unique to this "New Era", and it
certainly sounds new to any Non-Muslim, but the fact is that
Bahá'u'lláh, for placing a claim on Prophethood, was
required by Islamic tradition to address the kings. This, after
all, was what Muhammad did. Muhammad and his heirs, of course,
conquered much of the known world in the following years.
Bahá'u'lláh would have to do something similar to
pass for a Islamic Prophet.
- Bahá'u'lláh gives himself credit
for the general downfall of kings and ecclesiastics, but this
downfall began long before Bahá'u'lláh's time: the
English Civil War, the Protestant Reformation, the American
Revolution, and the French Revolution, among other such movements,
had concluded before Bahá'u'lláh was born. There
were kings remaining throughout the world, but the trend toward
constitutional government was clear and strong. A simple
observation of history would depict Bahá'u'lláh as
an Iranian religious leader who was influenced by events
throughout the world that had transpired before he was
born.
- It should not surprise anyone that many rulers
fell in the time that Bahá'u'lláh lived. Power is
historically fragile, no matter what the era. Power is usually
corrupt, no matter what the era. The Industrial Revolution, a
natural outcome of the Enlightenment, had made warfare more
vicious and far-reaching. Power was going to change hands, and
that doesn't happen bloodlessly when the power is absolute.
- Shoghi Effendi in some cases found fulmillment
in Bahá'u'lláh's curses in the demise of indivduals,
and in other cases found fulmillment in the demise of dynasties.
In the case of Násir'ud-Dín Sháh, who
outlived Bahá'u'lláh, a ruler who was eventually
assaninated after 50 lunar years of rule, a ruler who modernized
Írán and encouraged education, and a ruler who
certainly had his faults (far from unique in this respect), was
painted by Shoghi Effendi has a horrible tyrant who died
miserably. How did Násir'ud-Dín Sháh differ
from other Sháhs?
- How are we to distinguish the rulers whom
Bahá'u'lláh threatened from those he merely warned
about answering to God? How are we to distinguish the good from
the evil? How are we to distinguish those the enemies from the
friends and the disinterested?
- If Bahá'u'lláh was addressing
the rulers of the world, why was he so Eurocentric in his appeals?
China, though in decline, was still a great nation in
Bahá'u'lláh's time, and Japan was expanding.
Bahá'u'lláh only gave passing mention of the
Americas, which were almost entirely independent nations. The
United States had just ended slavery and would soon put and end to
the Spanish empire.
- What is the divine sense in the downfall of
rulers who are succeeded by rulers even more ruthless? What does
the death of Kaiser Wilhelm mean if Adolf Hitler is around the
bend? What does the death of Czar Alexander II mean if he is
followed by a less enlightened Czar, and then Joseph Stalin?
There was no extended pattern of divine retribution; only the
ancient cycle of the rise and fall of powers. True,
democritization was a force in the years following
Bahá'u'lláh's death, but Communism and Fascism were
stronger forces that outlasted Shoghi Effendi's history of the
downfall of rulers, which preceded World War II.
- Queen
Victoria was given a high place in
Shoghi's history because she was rumored to have given a polite
response to Bahá'u'lláh's letter (how typically
English of her). Nevermind, though, for it was the Prime Minister
and Parliament of the United Kingdom who held the reins of power.
The British monarchy had been constitutionally powerless since
1832. After the death of Prince Albert in 1861, Victoria went
into seclusion for 25 years. That is the less-than-influential
condition that Bahá'u'lláh's correspondence would
have found her -- if it ever did reach her.
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December 9, 1997.