I have in the preceding chapters endeavored to trace the rise and progress
of the Faith associated with the Bab and Baha'u'llah during the first
fifty years of its existence. If I have dwelt too long on the events
connected with the life and mission of these twin Luminaries of the Baha'i
Revelation, if I have at times indulged in too circumstantial a narrative
of certain episodes related to their ministries, it is solely because
these happenings proclaim the birth, and signalize the establishment, of
an epoch which future historians will acclaim as the most heroic, the most
tragic and the most momentous period in the Apostolic Age of the Baha'i
Dispensation. Indeed the tale which the subsequent decades of the century
under review unfold to our eyes is but the record of the manifold
evidences of the resistless operation of those creative forces which the
revolution of fifty years of almost uninterrupted Revelation had released.
A dynamic process, divinely propelled, possessed of undreamt-of
potentialities, world-embracing in scope, world-transforming in its
ultimate consequences, had been set in motion on that memorable night when
the Bab communicated the purpose of His mission to Mulla Husayn in an
obscure corner of _Sh_iraz. It acquired a tremendous momentum with the
first intimations of Baha'u'llah's dawning Revelation amidst the darkness
of the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran. It was further accelerated by the
Declaration of His mission on the eve of His banishment from Ba_gh_dad. It
moved to a climax with the proclamation of that same mission during the
tempestuous years of His exile in Adrianople. Its full significance was
disclosed when the Author of that Mission issued His historic summonses,
appeals and warnings to the kings of the earth and the world's
ecclesiastical leaders. It was finally consummated by the laws and
ordinances which He formulated, by the principles which He enunciated and
by the institutions which He ordained during the concluding years of His
ministry in the prison-city of Akka.
To direct and canalize these forces let loose by this Heaven-sent process,
and to insure their harmonious and continuous operation after His
ascension, an instrument divinely ordained, invested with indisputable
authority, organically linked with the Author of the Revelation Himself,
was clearly indispensable. That instrument Baha'u'llah had expressly
provided through the institution of the Covenant, an institution which He
had firmly established prior to His ascension. This same Covenant He had
anticipated in His Kitab-i-Aqdas, had alluded to it as He bade His last
farewell to the members of His family, who had been summoned to His
bed-side, in the days immediately preceding His ascension, and had
incorporated it in a special document which He designated as "the Book of
My Covenant," and which He entrusted, during His last illness, to His
eldest son 'Abdu'l-Baha.
Written entirely in His own hand; unsealed, on the ninth day after His
ascension in the presence of nine witnesses chosen from amongst His
companions and members of His Family; read subsequently, on the afternoon
of that same day, before a large company assembled in His Most Holy Tomb,
including His sons, some of the Bab's kinsmen, pilgrims and resident
believers, this unique and epoch-making Document, designated by
Baha'u'llah as His "Most Great Tablet," and alluded to by Him as the
"Crimson Book" in His "Epistle to the Son of the Wolf," can find no
parallel in the Scriptures of any previous Dispensation, not excluding
that of the Bab Himself. For nowhere in the books pertaining to any of the
world's religious systems, not even among the writings of the Author of
the Babi Revelation, do we find any single document establishing a
Covenant endowed with an authority comparable to the Covenant which
Baha'u'llah had Himself instituted.
"So firm and mighty is this Covenant," He Who is its appointed Center has
affirmed, "that from the beginning of time until the present day no
religious Dispensation hath produced its like." "It is indubitably clear,"
He, furthermore, has stated, "that the pivot of the oneness of mankind is
nothing else but the power of the Covenant." "Know thou," He has written,
"that the 'Sure Handle' mentioned from the foundation of the world in the
Books, the Tablets and the Scriptures of old is naught else but the
Covenant and the Testament." And again: "The lamp of the Covenant is the
light of the world, and the words traced by the Pen of the Most High a
limitless ocean." "The Lord, the All-Glorified," He has moreover declared,
"hath, beneath the shade of the Tree of Anisa (Tree of Life), made a new
Covenant and established a great Testament... Hath such a Covenant been
established in any previous Dispensation, age, period or century? Hath
such a Testament, set down by the Pen of the Most High, ever been
witnessed? No, by God!" And finally: "The power of the Covenant is as the
heat of the sun which quickeneth and promoteth the development of all
created things on earth. The light of the Covenant, in like manner, is the
educator of the minds, the spirits, the hearts and souls of men." To this
same Covenant He has in His writings referred as the "Conclusive
Testimony," the "Universal Balance," the "Magnet of God's grace," the
"Upraised Standard," the "Irrefutable Testament," "the all-mighty
Covenant, the like of which the sacred Dispensations of the past have
never witnessed" and "one of the distinctive features of this most mighty
cycle."
Extolled by the writer of the Apocalypse as "the Ark of His (God)
Testament"; associated with the gathering beneath the "Tree of Anisa"
(Tree of Life) mentioned by Baha'u'llah in the Hidden Words; glorified by
Him, in other passages of His writings, as the "Ark of Salvation" and as
"the Cord stretched betwixt the earth and the Abha Kingdom," this Covenant
has been bequeathed to posterity in a Will and Testament which, together
with the Kitab-i-Aqdas and several Tablets, in which the rank and station
of 'Abdu'l-Baha are unequivocally disclosed, constitute the chief
buttresses designed by the Lord of the Covenant Himself to shield and
support, after His ascension, the appointed Center of His Faith and the
Delineator of its future institutions.
In this weighty and incomparable Document its Author discloses the
character of that "excellent and priceless heritage" bequeathed by Him to
His "heirs"; proclaims afresh the fundamental purpose of His Revelation;
enjoins the "peoples of the world" to hold fast to that which will
"elevate" their "station"; announces to them that "God hath forgiven what
is past"; stresses the sublimity of man's station; discloses the primary
aim of the Faith of God; directs the faithful to pray for the welfare of
the kings of the earth, "the manifestations of the power, and the
daysprings of the might and riches, of God"; invests them with the
rulership of the earth; singles out as His special domain the hearts of
men; forbids categorically strife and contention; commands His followers
to aid those rulers who are "adorned with the ornament of equity and
justice"; and directs, in particular, the A_gh_san (His sons) to ponder
the "mighty force and the consummate power that lieth concealed in the
world of being." He bids them, moreover, together with the Afnan (the
Bab's kindred) and His own relatives, to "turn, one and all, unto the Most
Great Branch ('Abdu'l-Baha)"; identifies Him with "the One Whom God hath
purposed," "Who hath branched from this pre-existent Root," referred to in
the Kitab-i-Aqdas; ordains the station of the "Greater Branch" (Mirza
Muhammad-'Ali) to be beneath that of the "Most Great Branch"
('Abdu'l-Baha); exhorts the believers to treat the A_gh_san with
consideration and affection; counsels them to respect His family and
relatives, as well as the kindred of the Bab; denies His sons "any right
to the property of others"; enjoins on them, on His kindred and on that of
the Bab to "fear God, to do that which is meet and seemly" and to follow
the things that will "exalt" their station; warns all men not to allow
"the means of order to be made the cause of confusion, and the instrument
of union an occasion for discord"; and concludes with an exhortation
calling upon the faithful to "serve all nations," and to strive for the
"betterment of the world."
That such a unique and sublime station should have been conferred upon
'Abdu'l-Baha did not, and indeed could not, surprise those exiled
companions who had for so long been privileged to observe His life and
conduct, nor the pilgrims who had been brought, however fleetingly, into
personal contact with Him, nor indeed the vast concourse of the faithful
who, in distant lands, had grown to revere His name and to appreciate His
labors, nor even the wide circle of His friends and acquaintances who, in
the Holy Land and the adjoining countries, were already well familiar with
the position He had occupied during the lifetime of His Father.
He it was Whose auspicious birth occurred on that never-to-be-forgotten
night when the Bab laid bare the transcendental character of His Mission
to His first disciple Mulla Husayn. He it was Who, as a mere child, seated
on the lap of Tahirih, had registered the thrilling significance of the
stirring challenge which that indomitable heroine had addressed to her
fellow-disciple, the erudite and far-famed Vahid. He it was Whose tender
soul had been seared with the ineffaceable vision of a Father, haggard,
dishevelled, freighted with chains, on the occasion of a visit, as a boy
of nine, to the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran. Against Him, in His early
childhood, whilst His Father lay a prisoner in that dungeon, had been
directed the malice of a mob of street urchins who pelted Him with stones,
vilified Him and overwhelmed Him with ridicule. His had been the lot to
share with His Father, soon after His release from imprisonment, the
rigors and miseries of a cruel banishment from His native land, and the
trials which culminated in His enforced withdrawal to the mountains of
Kurdistan. He it was Who, in His inconsolable grief at His separation from
an adored Father, had confided to Nabil, as attested by him in his
narrative, that He felt Himself to have grown old though still but a child
of tender years. His had been the unique distinction of recognizing, while
still in His childhood, the full glory of His Father's as yet unrevealed
station, a recognition which had impelled Him to throw Himself at His feet
and to spontaneously implore the privilege of laying down His life for His
sake. From His pen, while still in His adolescence in Ba_gh_dad, had
issued that superb commentary on a well-known Muhammadan tradition,
written at the suggestion of Baha'u'llah, in answer to a request made by
'Ali-_Sh_awkat Pa_sh_a, which was so illuminating as to excite the
unbounded admiration of its recipient. It was His discussions and
discourses with the learned doctors with whom He came in contact in
Ba_gh_dad that first aroused that general admiration for Him and for His
knowledge which was steadily to increase as the circle of His
acquaintances was widened, at a later date, first in Adrianople and then
in Akka. It was to Him that the highly accomplished _Kh_ur_sh_id Pa_sh_a,
the governor of Adrianople, had been moved to pay a public and glowing
tribute when, in the presence of a number of distinguished divines of that
city, his youthful Guest had, briefly and amazingly, resolved the
intricacies of a problem that had baffled the minds of the assembled
company--an achievement that affected so deeply the Pa_sh_a that from that
time onwards he could hardly reconcile himself to that Youth's absence
from such gatherings.
On Him Baha'u'llah, as the scope and influence of His Mission extended,
had been led to place an ever greater degree of reliance, by appointing
Him, on numerous occasions, as His deputy, by enabling Him to plead His
Cause before the public, by assigning Him the task of transcribing His
Tablets, by allowing Him to assume the responsibility of shielding Him
from His enemies, and by investing Him with the function of watching over
and promoting the interests of His fellow-exiles and companions. He it was
Who had been commissioned to undertake, as soon as circumstances might
permit, the delicate and all-important task of purchasing the site that
was to serve as the permanent resting-place of the Bab, of insuring the
safe transfer of His remains to the Holy Land, and of erecting for Him a
befitting sepulcher on Mt. Carmel. He it was Who had been chiefly
instrumental in providing the necessary means for Baha'u'llah's release
from His nine-year confinement within the city walls of Akka, and in
enabling Him to enjoy, in the evening of His life, a measure of that peace
and security from which He had so long been debarred. It was through His
unremitting efforts that the illustrious Badi had been granted his
memorable interviews with Baha'u'llah, that the hostility evinced by
several governors of Akka towards the exiled community had been transmuted
into esteem and admiration, that the purchase of properties adjoining the
Sea of Galilee and the River Jordan had been effected, and that the ablest
and most valuable presentation of the early history of the Faith and of
its tenets had been transmitted to posterity. It was through the
extraordinarily warm reception accorded Him during His visit to Beirut,
through His contact with Mi_dh_at Pa_sh_a, a former Grand Vizir of Turkey,
through His friendship with Aziz Pa_sh_a, whom He had previously known in
Adrianople, and who had subsequently been promoted to the rank of Vali,
and through His constant association with officials, notables and leading
ecclesiastics who, in increasing number had besought His presence, during
the final years of His Father's ministry, that He had succeeded in raising
the prestige of the Cause He had championed to a level it had never
previously attained.
He alone had been accorded the privilege of being called "the Master," an
honor from which His Father had strictly excluded all His other sons. Upon
Him that loving and unerring Father had chosen to confer the unique title
of "Sirru'llah" (the Mystery of God), a designation so appropriate to One
Who, though essentially human and holding a station radically and
fundamentally different from that occupied by Baha'u'llah and His
Forerunner, could still claim to be the perfect Exemplar of His Faith, to
be endowed with super-human knowledge, and to be regarded as the stainless
mirror reflecting His light. To Him, whilst in Adrianople, that same
Father had, in the Suriy-i-_Gh_usn (Tablet of the Branch), referred as
"this sacred and glorious Being, this Branch of Holiness," as "the Limb of
the Law of God," as His "most great favor" unto men, as His "most perfect
bounty" conferred upon them, as One through Whom "every mouldering bone is
quickened," declaring that "whoso turneth towards Him hath turned towards
God," and that "they who deprive themselves of the shadow of the Branch
are lost in the wilderness of error." To Him He, whilst still in that
city, had alluded (in a Tablet addressed to Haji Muhammad
Ibrahim-i-_Kh_alil) as the one amongst His sons "from Whose tongue God
will cause the signs of His power to stream forth," and as the one Whom
"God hath specially chosen for His Cause." On Him, at a later period, the
Author of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, in a celebrated passage, subsequently
elucidated in the "Book of My Covenant," had bestowed the function of
interpreting His Holy Writ, proclaiming Him, at the same time, to be the
One "Whom God hath purposed, Who hath branched from this Ancient Root." To
Him in a Tablet, revealed during that same period and addressed to Mirza
Muhammad Quliy-i-Sabzivari, He had referred as "the Gulf that hath
branched out of this Ocean that hath encompassed all created things," and
bidden His followers to turn their faces towards it. To Him, on the
occasion of His visit to Beirut, His Father had, furthermore, in a
communication which He dictated to His amanuensis, paid a glowing tribute,
glorifying Him as the One "round Whom all names revolve," as "the Most
Mighty Branch of God," and as "His ancient and immutable Mystery." He it
was Who, in several Tablets which Baha'u'llah Himself had penned, had been
personally addressed as "the Apple of Mine eye," and been referred to as
"a shield unto all who are in heaven and on earth," as "a shelter for all
mankind" and "a stronghold for whosoever hath believed in God." It was on
His behalf that His Father, in a prayer revealed in His honor, had
supplicated God to "render Him victorious," and to "ordain ... for Him, as
well as for them that love Him," the things destined by the Almighty for
His "Messengers" and the "Trustees" of His Revelation. And finally in yet
another Tablet these weighty words had been recorded: "The glory of God
rest upon Thee, and upon whosoever serveth Thee and circleth around Thee.
Woe, great woe, betide him that opposeth and injureth Thee. Well is it
with him that sweareth fealty to Thee; the fire of hell torment him who is
Thy enemy."
And now to crown the inestimable honors, privileges and benefits showered
upon Him, in ever increasing abundance, throughout the forty years of His
Father's ministry in Ba_gh_dad, in Adrianople and in Akka, He had been
elevated to the high office of Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, and been
made the successor of the Manifestation of God Himself--a position that was
to empower Him to impart an extraordinary impetus to the international
expansion of His Father's Faith, to amplify its doctrine, to beat down
every barrier that would obstruct its march, and to call into being, and
delineate the features of, its Administrative Order, the Child of the
Covenant, and the Harbinger of that World Order whose establishment must
needs signalize the advent of the Golden Age of the Baha'i Dispensation.