9.   Russ, Epistle of the Czar of Russ
“The epistle addressed to His Majesty, the Czar of Russia [Nicolaevitch (Alexander II)] - may God, exalted and glorified be He who assist him”, runs as follows:
“O Czar of Russia! Incline thine ear unto the voice of God, the King, the Holy, and turn thou unto Paradise, the Spot wherein abideth He Who, among the Concourse on high, beareth the most excellent titles, and Who, in the kingdom of creation, is called by the name of God, the Effulgent, the All-Glorious. Beware that nothing deter thee from setting thy face towards thy Lord, the Compassionate, the Most Merciful. We, verily, have heard the thing for which thou didst supplicate thy Lord, whilst secretly communing with Him. Wherefore, the breeze of My loving-kindness wafted forth, and the sea of My mercy surged, and We answered thee in truth. Thy Lord, verily, is the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. Whilst I lay, chained and fettered, in the prison of Tihrán, one of thy ministers extended Me his aid. Wherefore hath God ordained for thee a station which the knowledge of none can comprehend except His knowledge. Beware lest thou barter away this sublime station."
“ ‘He who is the Father is come, and the Son (Jesus Christ), in the Holy vale, crieth out: `Here am I, here am I, O Lord, my God!', whilst Sinai circleth round the House, and the Burning Bush calleth aloud: `The All-Bounteous is come mounted upon the clouds! Blessed is he that draweth nigh unto Him, and woe betide them that are far away.' “

Baha’s release from imprisonment was subject of his expulsion from Iran. “The Russian minister volunteered to take Baha under his protection, and Invited him to go to Russia. He refused the offer and chose to leave for Iraq.” The Dawn Breakers, Nabil’s Narrative, P.650.

Shoghi Effendi in god passes by, P.106, confirms Nabil’s account in the Dawn-Breakers: “The Russian minister expressed the desire to take Baha under the protection of his government, and offered every facility for his removal to Russia. This invitation, so spontaneously extended, Baha declined, preferring to pursuance of an unerring instinct, to establish his abode in Turkish territory in the city of Baghdad. “In the days,” is yet another illuminating testimony revealed by Baha’s pen, ‘when this wronged one was sore-afflicted in prison, the minister of the highly esteemed government (of Russia) may god glorified and exalted be He, assist him! Exerted his utmost endeavour to compass deliverance. Several times permission for my release was granted. Some of the Ulamas of the city, however would prevent it. Finally, my freedom was gained though the solicitude and the endeavour of His Excellence, the minister … His Imperial Majesty, the Most Great Emperor, may god exalted and glorified be He, assist him! Extended me for the sake of god his protection, a protection which has excited the envy and enmity of the foolish ones of the earth …”

In the epistle addressed to the Czar of Russia, Baha announces his manifestation; acknowledges his gratitude to him for the service rendered by his minister to bring about his release from imprisonment; bestows upon the Czar a “Sublime station” and address him to “arise in the name of the cause and summon the nation unto god.”
“This epistle, to quote Baha (See introduction), “alone failed to reach its destination.” A prominent American Bahai woman asked Sir Abbas Effendi why Bahais profess as regards the Czar of Russia had failed to come true? “The question caught him off his ground. In an apology which is worse than the fault, Sir Abbas Effendi stated that the Czar’s failure to respond to his S.O.S to rush to the succumb of the Bahais who were being murdered in Isfahan and Yazd brought about a change in the Divine intention [Bada] [i.e. Baha changed his mind].” The Kashf-al-Hiyal by Abd-al-Husayn Ayati surnamed Awara, Vol. I, 6th impression PP. 63-64.

In his apology, Shoghi Effendi in god passes by, PP. 226-227, states that the Czar’s disregard of the command to ‘summon the nations unto god,” and to recognize ‘the supreme sovereign” account for the extinction of the dynasty of the Romanoffs”. The epistle was addressed from Acre.

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