...The severe laws and injunctions revealed by the Bab can be properly
appreciated and understood only when interpreted in the light of His own
statements regarding the nature, purpose and character of His own
Dispensation. As these statements clearly reveal, the Babi Dispensation
was essentially in the nature of a religious and indeed social revolution,
and its duration had therefore to be short, but full of tragic events, of
sweeping and drastic reforms. These drastic measures enforced by the Bab
and His followers were taken with the view of undermining the very
foundations of Shi'ah orthodoxy, and thus paving the way for the coming of
Baha'u'llah. To assert the independence of the new Dispensation, and to
prepare also the ground for the approaching Revelation of Baha'u'llah the
Bab had therefore to reveal very severe laws, even though most of them,
were never enforced. But the mere fact that He revealed them was in itself
a proof of the independent character of His Dispensation and was
sufficient to create such widespread agitation, and excite such opposition
on the part of the clergy that led them to cause His eventual martyrdom.
The Bab specified that the "Bayan" is not completed and that "He Whom God
would manifest" (Baha'u'llah) would complete it, though not in its actual
form, but only spiritually in the form of another book. The "Iqan" is
believed to be its continuation.