Even if this Lifegiver and World Reformer be in thine [1]
estimation guilty of sedition and strife, what crime could have been committed
by a group of women, children, and suckling mothers that they should be thus
afflicted with the scourge of thine anger and wrath? No faith or religion hath
ever held children responsible. The Pen of divine Command hath exempted them,
yet the fire of thy tyranny and oppression encompasseth all. If thou bearest
allegiance to any faith or religion, then thou shouldst know that, according to
all the heavenly Books and all the divinely inspired and weighty Scriptures,
children are not to be held accountable. Aside from this, not even those who
disbelieve in God have perpetrated such unseemly acts. Since from every thing
an effect becometh manifest, a fact that none can deny save those who are
bereft of reason and understanding, it is certain that the sighs of these
children and the cries of these wronged ones will have their due consequence.
- Baha’u’llah (Lawḥ-i-Ra’ís (From a Tablet addressed to ‘Álí Páshá, the Ottoman Prime
Minister, referred to here as Ra’ís (Chief or Ruler); ‘The Summons of the Lord
of Hosts’)
[1] Ali Pasha, the Ottoman Prime Minister)
