In a more explicit language Baha'u'llah testifies to this truth in one of His Tablets revealed in Adrianople: "Know verily that the veil hiding Our countenance hath not been completely lifted. We have revealed Our Self to a degree corresponding to the capacity of the people of Our age. Should the Ancient Beauty be unveiled in the fullness of His glory mortal eyes would be blinded by the dazzling intensity of His revelation."

In the Suriy-i-Sabr, revealed as far back as the year 1863, on the very first day of His arrival in the garden of Ridvan, He thus affirms: "G.o.d hath sent down His Messengers to succeed to Moses and Jesus, and He will continue to do so till 'the end that hath no end'; so that His grace may, from the heaven of Divine bounty, be continually vouchsafed to mankind."

"I am not apprehensive for My own self," Baha'u'llah still more explicitly declares, "My fears are for Him Who will be sent down unto you after Me-Him Who will be invested with great sovereignty and mighty dominion."

And again He writes in the Suratu'l-Haykal: "By those words which I have revealed, Myself is not intended, but rather He Who will come after Me. To it is witness G.o.d, the All-Knowing." "Deal not with Him," He adds, "as ye have dealt with Me."

In a more circ.u.mstantial pa.s.sage the Bab upholds the same truth in His writings. "It is clear and evident," He writes in the Persian Bayan, "that the object of all preceding Dispensations hath been to pave the way for the advent of Mu?ammad, the Apostle of G.o.d. These, including the Mu?ammadan Dispensation, have had, in their turn, as their objective the Revelation proclaimed by the Qa'im. The purpose underlying this Revelation, as well as those that preceded it, has, in like manner, been to announce the advent of the Faith of Him Whom G.o.d will make manifest.

And this Faith-the Faith of Him Whom G.o.d will make manifest-in its turn, together with all the Revelations gone before it, have as their object the Manifestation destined to succeed it. And the latter, no less than all the Revelations preceding it, prepare the way for the Revelation which is yet to follow. The process of the rise and setting of the Sun of Truth will thus indefinitely continue-a process that hath had no beginning and will have no end."

"Know of a certainty," Baha'u'llah explains in this connection, "that in every Dispensation the light of Divine Revelation hath been vouchsafed to men in direct proportion to their spiritual capacity. Consider the sun.

How feeble its rays the moment it appeareth above the horizon. How gradually its warmth and potency increase as it approacheth its zenith, enabling meanwhile all created things to adapt themselves to the growing intensity of its light. How steadily it declineth until it reacheth its setting point. Were it all of a sudden to manifest the energies latent within it, it would no doubt cause injury to all created things... In like manner, if the Sun of Truth were suddenly to reveal, at the earliest stages of its manifestation, the full measure of the potencies which the providence of the Almighty hath bestowed upon it, the earth of human understanding would waste away and be consumed; for men's hearts would neither sustain the intensity of its revelation, nor be able to mirror forth the radiance of its light. Dismayed and overpowered, they would cease to exist."

In the light of these clear and conclusive statements it is our clear duty to make it indubitably evident to every seeker after truth that from "the beginning that hath no beginning" the Prophets of the one, the unknowable G.o.d, including Baha'u'llah Himself, have all, as the channels of G.o.d's grace, as the exponents of His unity, as the mirrors of His light and the revealers of His purpose, been commissioned to unfold to mankind an ever-increasing measure of His truth, of His inscrutable will and Divine guidance, and will continue to "the end that hath no end" to vouchsafe still fuller and mightier revelations of His limitless power and glory.

We might well ponder in our hearts the following pa.s.sages from a prayer revealed by Baha'u'llah which strikingly affirm, and are a further evidence of, the reality of the great and essential truth lying at the very core of His Message to mankind: "Praise be to Thee, O Lord my G.o.d, for the wondrous revelations of Thine inscrutable decree and the manifold woes and trials Thou hast destined for myself. At one time Thou didst deliver me into the hands of Nimrod; at another Thou hast allowed Pharaoh's rod to persecute me. Thou alone canst estimate, through Thine all-encompa.s.sing knowledge and the operation of Thy Will, the incalculable afflictions I have suffered at their hands. Again Thou didst cast me into the prison-cell of the unG.o.dly for no reason except that I was moved to whisper into the ears of the well-favored denizens of Thy kingdom an intimation of the vision with which Thou hadst, through Thy knowledge, inspired me and revealed to me its meaning through the potency of Thy might. And again Thou didst decree that I be beheaded by the sword of the infidel. Again I was crucified for having unveiled to men's eyes the hidden gems of Thy glorious unity, for having revealed to them the wondrous signs of Thy sovereign and everlasting power. How bitter the humiliations heaped upon me, in a subsequent age, on the plain of Karbila!

How lonely did I feel amidst Thy people; to what state of helplessness I was reduced in that land! Unsatisfied with such indignities, my persecutors decapitated me and carrying aloft my head from land to land paraded it before the gaze of the unbelieving mult.i.tude and deposited it on the seats of the perverse and faithless. In a later age I was suspended and my breast was made a target to the darts of the malicious cruelty of my foes. My limbs were riddled with bullets and my body was torn asunder.

Finally, behold how in this day my treacherous enemies have leagued themselves against me, and are continually plotting to instill the venom of hate and malice into the souls of Thy servants. With all their might they are scheming to accomplish their purpose... Grievous as is my plight, O G.o.d, my Well-beloved, I render thanks unto Thee, and my spirit is grateful for whatsoever hath befallen me in the path of Thy good-pleasure.

I am well pleased with that which Thou didst ordain for me, and welcome, however calamitous, the pains and sorrows I am made to suffer."

The Bab

Dearly-beloved friends! That the Bab, the inaugurator of the Babi Dispensation, is fully ent.i.tled to rank as one of the self-sufficient Manifestations of G.o.d, that He has been invested with sovereign power and authority, and exercises all the rights and prerogatives of independent Prophethood, is yet another fundamental verity which the Message of Baha'u'llah insistently proclaims and which its followers must uncompromisingly uphold. That He is not to be regarded merely as an inspired Precursor of the Baha'i Revelation, that in His person, as He Himself bears witness in the Persian Bayan, the object of all the Prophets gone before Him has been fulfilled, is a truth which I feel it my duty to demonstrate and emphasize. We would a.s.suredly be failing in our duty to the Faith we profess and would be violating one of its basic and sacred principles if in our words or by our conduct we hesitate to recognize the implications of this root principle of Baha'i belief, or refuse to uphold unreservedly its integrity and demonstrate its truth. Indeed the chief motive actuating me to undertake the task of editing and translating Nabil's immortal Narrative has been to enable every follower of the Faith in the West to better understand and more readily grasp the tremendous implications of His exalted station and to more ardently admire and love Him.

There can be no doubt that the claim to the twofold station ordained for the Bab by the Almighty, a claim which He Himself has so boldly advanced, which Baha'u'llah has repeatedly affirmed, and to which the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha has finally given the sanction of its testimony, const.i.tutes the most distinctive feature of the Baha'i Dispensation. It is a further evidence of its uniqueness, a tremendous accession to the strength, to the mysterious power and authority with which this holy cycle has been invested. Indeed the greatness of the Bab consists primarily, not in His being the divinely-appointed Forerunner of so transcendent a Revelation, but rather in His having been invested with the powers inherent in the inaugurator of a separate religious Dispensation, and in His wielding, to a degree unrivaled by the Messengers gone before Him, the scepter of independent Prophethood.

The short duration of His Dispensation, the restricted range within which His laws and ordinances have been made to operate, supply no criterion whatever wherewith to judge its Divine origin and to evaluate the potency of its message. "That so brief a span," Baha'u'llah Himself explains, "should have separated this most mighty and wondrous Revelation from Mine own previous Manifestation, is a secret that no man can unravel and a mystery such as no mind can fathom. Its duration had been foreordained, and no man shall ever discover its reason unless and until he be informed of the contents of My Hidden Book." "Behold," Baha'u'llah further explains in the Kitab-i-Badi', one of His works refuting the arguments of the people of the Bayan, "behold, how immediately upon the completion of the ninth year of this wondrous, this most holy and merciful Dispensation, the requisite number of pure, of wholly consecrated and sanctified souls had been most secretly consummated."

The marvelous happenings that have heralded the advent of the Founder of the Babi Dispensation, the dramatic circ.u.mstances of His own eventful life, the miraculous tragedy of His martyrdom, the magic of His influence exerted on the most eminent and powerful among His countrymen, to all of which every chapter of Nabil's stirring narrative testifies, should in themselves be regarded as sufficient evidence of the validity of His claim to so exalted a station among the Prophets.

However graphic the record which the eminent chronicler of His life has transmitted to posterity, so luminous a narrative must pale before the glowing tribute paid to the Bab by the pen of Baha'u'llah. This tribute the Bab Himself has, by the clear a.s.sertion of His claim, abundantly supported, while the written testimonies of 'Abdu'l-Baha have powerfully reinforced its character and elucidated its meaning.

Where else if not in the Kitab-i-iqan can the student of the Babi Dispensation seek to find those affirmations that unmistakably attest the power and spirit which no man, except he be a Manifestation of G.o.d, can manifest? "Could such a thing," exclaims Baha'u'llah, "be made manifest except through the power of a Divine Revelation and the potency of G.o.d's invincible Will? By the righteousness of G.o.d! Were any one to entertain so great a Revelation in his heart the thought of such a declaration would alone confound him! Were the hearts of all men to be crowded into his heart, he would still hesitate to venture upon so awful an enterprise."

"No eye," He in another pa.s.sage affirms, "hath beheld so great an outpouring of bounty, nor hath any ear heard of such a Revelation of loving-kindness... The Prophets 'endowed with constancy,' whose loftiness and glory shine as the sun, were each honored with a Book which all have seen, and the verses of which have been duly ascertained. Whereas the verses which have rained from this Cloud of divine mercy have been so abundant that none hath yet been able to estimate their number... How can they belittle this Revelation? Hath any age witnessed such momentous happenings?"

Commenting on the character and influence of those heroes and martyrs whom the spirit of the Bab had so magically transformed Baha'u'llah reveals the following: "If these companions be not the true strivers after G.o.d, who else could be called by this name?... If these companions, with all their marvelous testimonies and wondrous works, be false, who then is worthy to claim for himself the truth?... Has the world since the days of Adam witnessed such tumult, such violent commotion?... Methinks, patience was revealed only by virtue of their fort.i.tude, and faithfulness itself was begotten only by their deeds."

Wishing to stress the sublimity of the Bab's exalted station as compared with that of the Prophets of the past, Baha'u'llah in that same epistle a.s.serts: "No understanding can grasp the nature of His Revelation, nor can any knowledge comprehend the full measure of His Faith." He then quotes, in confirmation of His argument, these prophetic words: "Knowledge is twenty and seven letters. All that the Prophets have revealed are two letters thereof. No man thus far hath known more than these two letters.

But when the Qa'im shall arise, He will cause the remaining twenty and five letters to be made manifest." "Behold," He adds, "how great and lofty is His station! His rank excelleth that of all the Prophets and His Revelation transcendeth the comprehension and understanding of all their chosen ones." "Of His Revelation," He further adds, "the Prophets of G.o.d, His saints and chosen ones, have either not been informed, or, in pursuance of G.o.d's inscrutable decree, they have not disclosed."

Of all the tributes which Baha'u'llah's unerring pen has chosen to pay to the memory of the Bab, His "Best-Beloved," the most memorable and touching is this brief, yet eloquent pa.s.sage which so greatly enhances the value of the concluding pa.s.sages of that same epistle. "Amidst them all," He writes, referring to the afflictive trials and dangers besetting Him in the city of Ba_gh_dad, "We stand life in hand wholly resigned to His Will, that perchance through G.o.d's loving kindness and grace, this revealed and manifest Letter (Baha'u'llah) may lay down His life as a sacrifice in the path of the Primal Point, the most exalted Word (the Bab). By Him, at Whose bidding the Spirit hath spoken, but for this yearning of Our soul, We would not, for one moment, have tarried any longer in this city."

Dearly-beloved friends! So resounding a praise, so bold an a.s.sertion issued by the pen of Baha'u'llah in so weighty a work, are fully re-echoed in the language in which the Source of the Babi Revelation has chosen to clothe the claims He Himself has advanced. "I am the Mystic Fane," the Bab thus proclaims His station in the Qayyumu'l-Asma, "which the Hand of Omnipotence hath reared. I am the Lamp which the Finger of G.o.d hath lit within its niche and caused to shine with deathless splendor. I am the Flame of that supernal Light that glowed upon Sinai in the gladsome Spot, and lay concealed in the midst of the Burning Bush." "O Qurratu'l-'Ayn!"

He, addressing Himself in that same commentary, exclaims, "I recognize in Thee none other except the 'Great Announcement'-the Announcement voiced by the Concourse on high. By this name, I bear witness, they that circle the Throne of Glory have ever known Thee." "With each and every Prophet, Whom We have sent down in the past," He further adds, "We have established a separate Covenant concerning the 'Remembrance of G.o.d' and His Day.

Manifest, in the realm of glory and through the power of truth, are the 'Remembrance of G.o.d' and His Day before the eyes of the angels that circle His mercy-seat." "Should it be Our wish," He again affirms, "it is in Our power to compel, through the agency of but one letter of Our Revelation, the world and all that is therein to recognize, in less than the twinkling of an eye, the truth of Our Cause."

"I am the Primal Point," the Bab thus addresses Mu?ammad _Sh_ah from the prison-fortress of Mah-Ku, "from which have been generated all created things... I am the Countenance of G.o.d Whose splendor can never be obscured, the light of G.o.d whose radiance can never fade... All the keys of heaven G.o.d hath chosen to place on My right hand, and all the keys of h.e.l.l on My left... I am one of the sustaining pillars of the Primal Word of G.o.d. Whosoever hath recognized Me, hath known all that is true and right, and hath attained all that is good and seemly... The substance wherewith G.o.d hath created Me is not the clay out of which others have been formed. He hath conferred upon Me that which the worldly-wise can never comprehend, nor the faithful discover." "Should a tiny ant," the Bab, wishing to stress the limitless potentialities latent in His Dispensation, characteristically affirms, "desire in this day to be possessed of such power as to be able to unravel the abstrusest and most bewildering pa.s.sages of the Qur'an, its wish will no doubt be fulfilled, inasmuch as the mystery of eternal might vibrates within the innermost being of all created things." "If so helpless a creature," is 'Abdu'l-Baha's comment on so startling an affirmation, "can be endowed with so subtle a capacity, how much more efficacious must be the power released through the liberal effusions of the grace of Baha'u'llah!"

To these authoritative a.s.sertions and solemn declarations made by Baha'u'llah and the Bab must be added 'Abdu'l-Baha's own incontrovertible testimony. He, the appointed interpreter of the utterances of both Baha'u'llah and the Bab, corroborates, not by implication but in clear and categorical language, both in His Tablets and in His Testament, the truth of the statements to which I have already referred.

In a Tablet addressed to a Baha'i in Mazindaran, in which He unfolds the meaning of a misinterpreted statement attributed to Him regarding the rise of the Sun of Truth in this century, He sets forth, briefly but conclusively, what should remain for all time our true conception of the relationship between the two Manifestations a.s.sociated with the Baha'i Dispensation. "In making such a statement," He explains, "I had in mind no one else except the Bab and Baha'u'llah, the character of whose Revelations it had been my purpose to elucidate. The Revelation of the Bab may be likened to the sun, its station corresponding to the first sign of the Zodiac-the sign Aries-which the sun enters at the Vernal Equinox. The station of Baha'u'llah's Revelation, on the other hand, is represented by the sign Leo, the sun's mid-summer and highest station. By this is meant that this holy Dispensation is illumined with the light of the Sun of Truth shining from its most exalted station, and in the plenitude of its resplendency, its heat and glory."

"The Bab, the Exalted One," 'Abdu'l-Baha more specifically affirms in another Tablet, "is the Morn of Truth, the splendor of Whose light shineth throughout all regions. He is also the Harbinger of the Most Great Light, the Abha Luminary. The Blessed Beauty is the One promised by the sacred books of the past, the revelation of the Source of light that shone upon Mount Sinai, Whose fire glowed in the midst of the Burning Bush. We are, one and all, servants of their threshold, and stand each as a lowly keeper at their door." "Every proof and prophecy," is His still more emphatic warning, "every manner of evidence, whether based on reason or on the text of the scriptures and traditions, are to be regarded as centered in the persons of Baha'u'llah and the Bab. In them is to be found their complete fulfillment."

And finally, in His Will and Testament, the repository of His last wishes and parting instructions, He in the following pa.s.sage, specifically designed to set forth the guiding principles of Baha'i belief, sets the seal of His testimony on the Bab's dual and exalted station: "The foundation of the belief of the people of Baha (may my life be offered up for them) is this: His holiness the exalted One (the Bab) is the Manifestation of the unity and oneness of G.o.d and the Forerunner of the Ancient Beauty (Baha'u'llah). His holiness, the Abha Beauty (Baha'u'llah) (may my life be offered up as a sacrifice for His steadfast friends) is the supreme Manifestation of G.o.d and the Day-Spring of His most divine Essence." "All others," He significantly adds, "are servants unto Him and do His bidding."

'Abdu'l-Baha

Dearly-beloved friends! I have in the foregoing pages ventured to attempt an exposition of such truths as I firmly believe are implicit in the claim of Him Who is the Fountain-Head of the Baha'i Revelation. I have moreover endeavored to dissipate such misapprehensions as may naturally arise in the mind of any one contemplating so superhuman a manifestation of the glory of G.o.d. I have striven to explain the meaning of the divinity with which He Who is the vehicle of so mysterious an energy must needs be invested. That the Message which so great a Being has, in this age, been commissioned by G.o.d to deliver to mankind recognizes the divine origin and upholds the first principles of every Dispensation inaugurated by the prophets of the past, and stands inextricably interwoven with each one of them, I have also to the best of my ability undertaken to demonstrate.

That the Author of such a Faith, Who repudiates the claim to finality which leaders of various denominations uphold has, despite the vastness of His Revelation, disclaimed it for Himself I have, likewise, felt it necessary to prove and emphasize. That the Bab, notwithstanding the duration of His Dispensation, should be regarded primarily, not as the chosen Precursor of the Baha'i Faith, but as One invested with the undivided authority a.s.sumed by each of the independent Prophets of the past, seemed to me yet another basic principle the elucidation of which would be extremely desirable at the present stage of the evolution of our Cause.

An attempt I strongly feel should now be made to clarify our minds regarding the station occupied by 'Abdu'l-Baha and the significance of His position in this holy Dispensation. It would be indeed difficult for us, who stand so close to such a tremendous figure and are drawn by the mysterious power of so magnetic a personality, to obtain a clear and exact understanding of the role and character of One Who, not only in the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah but in the entire field of religious history, fulfills a unique function. Though moving in a sphere of His own and holding a rank radically different from that of the Author and the Forerunner of the Baha'i Revelation, He, by virtue of the station ordained for Him through the Covenant of Baha'u'llah, forms together with them what may be termed the Three Central Figures of a Faith that stands unapproached in the world's spiritual history. He towers, in conjunction with them, above the destinies of this infant Faith of G.o.d from a level to which no individual or body ministering to its needs after Him, and for no less a period than a full thousand years, can ever hope to rise. To degrade His lofty rank by identifying His station with or by regarding it as roughly equivalent to, the position of those on whom the mantle of His authority has fallen would be an act of impiety as grave as the no less heretical belief that inclines to exalt Him to a state of absolute equality with either the central Figure or Forerunner of our Faith. For wide as is the gulf that separates 'Abdu'l-Baha from Him Who is the Source of an independent Revelation, it can never be regarded as commensurate with the greater distance that stands between Him Who is the Center of the Covenant and His ministers who are to carry on His work, whatever be their name, their rank, their functions or their future achievements. Let those who have known 'Abdu'l-Baha, who through their contact with His magnetic personality have come to cherish for Him so fervent an admiration, reflect, in the light of this statement, on the greatness of One Who is so far above Him in station.

That 'Abdu'l-Baha is not a Manifestation of G.o.d, that, though the successor of His Father, He does not occupy a cognate station, that no one else except the Bab and Baha'u'llah can ever lay claim to such a station before the expiration of a full thousand years-are verities which lie embedded in the specific utterances of both the Founder of our Faith and the Interpreter of His teachings.

"Whoso layeth claim to a Revelation direct from G.o.d," is the express warning uttered in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, "ere the expiration of a full thousand years, such a man is a.s.suredly a lying imposter. We pray G.o.d that He may graciously a.s.sist him to retract and repudiate such claim. Should he repent, G.o.d will no doubt forgive him. If, however, he persists in his error, G.o.d will a.s.suredly send down one who will deal mercilessly with him. Terrible indeed is G.o.d in punishing!" "Whosoever," He adds as a further emphasis, "interpreteth this verse otherwise than its obvious meaning is deprived of the Spirit of G.o.d and of His mercy which encompa.s.seth all created things." "Should a man appear," is yet another conclusive statement, "ere the lapse of a full thousand years-each year consisting of twelve months according to the Qur'an, and of nineteen months of nineteen days each, according to the Bayan-and if such a man reveal to your eyes all the signs of G.o.d, unhesitatingly reject him!"

'Abdu'l-Baha's own statements, in confirmation of this warning, are no less emphatic and binding: "This is," He declares, "my firm, my unshakable conviction, the essence of my unconcealed and explicit belief-a conviction and belief which the denizens of the Abha Kingdom fully share: The Blessed Beauty is the Sun of Truth, and His light the light of truth. The Bab is likewise the Sun of Truth, and His light the light of truth... My station is the station of servitude-a servitude which is complete, pure and real, firmly established, enduring, obvious, explicitly revealed and subject to no interpretation whatever... I am the Interpreter of the Word of G.o.d; such is my interpretation."

Does not 'Abdu'l-Baha in His own Will-in a tone and language that might well confound the most inveterate among the breakers of His Father's Covenant-rob of their chief weapon those who so long and so persistently had striven to impute to Him the charge of having tacitly claimed a station equal, if not superior, to that of Baha'u'llah? "The foundation of the belief of the people of Baha is this," thus proclaims one of the weightiest pa.s.sages of that last doc.u.ment left to voice in perpetuity the directions and wishes of a departed Master, "His Holiness the Exalted One (the Bab) is the Manifestation of the unity and oneness of G.o.d and the Forerunner of the Ancient Beauty. His Holiness the Abha Beauty (Baha'u'llah) (may my life be a sacrifice for His steadfast friends) is the supreme Manifestation of G.o.d and the Day-Spring of His most divine Essence. All others are servants unto Him and do His bidding."

From such clear and formally laid down statements, incompatible as they are with any a.s.sertion of a claim to Prophethood, we should not by any means infer that 'Abdu'l-Baha is merely one of the servants of the Blessed Beauty, or at best one whose function is to be confined to that of an authorized interpreter of His Father's teachings. Far be it from me to entertain such a notion or to wish to instill such sentiments. To regard Him in such a light is a manifest betrayal of the priceless heritage bequeathed by Baha'u'llah to mankind. Immeasurably exalted is the station conferred upon Him by the Supreme Pen above and beyond the implications of these, His own written statements. Whether in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, the most weighty and sacred of all the works of Baha'u'llah, or in the Kitab-i-'Ahd, the Book of His Covenant, or in the Suriy-i-_Gh_usn (Tablet of the Branch), such references as have been recorded by the pen of Baha'u'llah-references which the Tablets of His Father addressed to Him mightily reinforce-invest 'Abdu'l-Baha with a power, and surround Him with a halo, which the present generation can never adequately appreciate.

He is, and should for all time be regarded, first and foremost, as the Center and Pivot of Baha'u'llah's peerless and all-enfolding Covenant, His most exalted handiwork, the stainless Mirror of His light, the perfect Exemplar of His teachings, the unerring Interpreter of His Word, the embodiment of every Baha'i ideal, the incarnation of every Baha'i virtue, the Most Mighty Branch sprung from the Ancient Root, the Limb of the Law of G.o.d, the Being "round Whom all names revolve," the Mainspring of the Oneness of Humanity, the Ensign of the Most Great Peace, the Moon of the Central Orb of this most holy Dispensation-styles and t.i.tles that are implicit and find their truest, their highest and fairest expression in the magic name 'Abdu'l-Baha. He is, above and beyond these appellations, the "Mystery of G.o.d"-an expression by which Baha'u'llah Himself has chosen to designate Him, and which, while it does not by any means justify us to a.s.sign to Him the station of Prophethood, indicates how in the person of 'Abdu'l-Baha the incompatible characteristics of a human nature and superhuman knowledge and perfection have been blended and are completely harmonized.

"When the ocean of My presence hath ebbed and the Book of My Revelation is ended," proclaims the Kitab-i-Aqdas, "turn your faces towards Him Whom G.o.d hath purposed, Who hath branched from this Ancient Root." And again, "When the Mystic Dove will have winged its flight from its Sanctuary of Praise and sought its far-off goal, its hidden habitation, refer ye whatsoever ye understand not in the Book to Him Who hath branched from this mighty Stock."

In the Kitab-i-'Ahd, moreover, Baha'u'llah solemnly and explicitly declares: "It is inc.u.mbent upon the A_gh_san, the Afnan and My kindred to turn, one and all, their faces towards the Most Mighty Branch. Consider that which We have revealed in Our Most Holy Book: 'When the ocean of My presence hath ebbed and the Book of My Revelation is ended, turn your faces toward Him Whom G.o.d hath purposed, Who hath branched from this Ancient Root.' The object of this sacred verse is none other except the Most Mighty Branch ('Abdu'l-Baha). Thus have We graciously revealed unto you our potent Will, and I am verily the Gracious, the All-Powerful."

In the Suriy-i-_Gh_usn (Tablet of the Branch) the following verses have been recorded: "There hath branched from the Sadratu'l-Muntaha this sacred and glorious Being, this Branch of Holiness; well is it with him that hath sought His shelter and abideth beneath His shadow. Verily the Limb of the Law of G.o.d hath sprung forth from this Root which G.o.d hath firmly implanted in the Ground of His Will, and Whose Branch hath been so uplifted as to encompa.s.s the whole of creation. Magnified be He, therefore, for this sublime, this blessed, this mighty, this exalted Handiwork!... A Word hath, as a token of Our grace, gone forth from the Most Great Tablet-a Word which G.o.d hath adorned with the ornament of His own Self, and made it sovereign over the earth and all that is therein, and a sign of His greatness and power among its people ...Render thanks unto G.o.d, O people, for His appearance; for verily He is the most great Favor unto you, the most perfect bounty upon you; and through Him every mouldering bone is quickened. Whoso turneth towards Him hath turned towards G.o.d, and whoso turneth away from Him hath turned away from My beauty, hath repudiated My Proof, and transgressed against Me. He is the Trust of G.o.d amongst you, His charge within you, His manifestation unto you and His appearance among His favored servants... We have sent Him down in the form of a human temple. Blest and sanctified be G.o.d Who createth whatsoever He willeth through His inviolable, His infallible decree. They who deprive themselves of the shadow of the Branch, are lost in the wilderness of error, are consumed by the heat of worldly desires, and are of those who will a.s.suredly perish."

"O Thou Who art the apple of Mine eye!" Baha'u'llah, in His own handwriting, thus addresses 'Abdu'l-Baha, "My glory, the ocean of My loving-kindness, the sun of My bounty, the heaven of My mercy rest upon Thee. We pray G.o.d to illumine the world through Thy knowledge and wisdom, to ordain for Thee that which will gladden Thine heart and impart consolation to Thine eyes." "The glory of G.o.d rest upon Thee," He writes in another Tablet, "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 h.e.l.l torment him who is Thine enemy." "We have made Thee a shelter for all mankind," He, in yet another Tablet, affirms, "a shield unto all who are in heaven and on earth, a stronghold for whosoever hath believed in G.o.d, the Incomparable, the All-Knowing. G.o.d grant that through Thee He may protect them, may enrich and sustain them, that He may inspire Thee with that which shall be a wellspring of wealth unto all created things, an ocean of bounty unto all men, and the dayspring of mercy unto all peoples."

"Thou knowest, O my G.o.d," Baha'u'llah, in a prayer revealed in 'Abdu'l-Baha's honor, supplicates, "that I desire for Him naught except that which Thou didst desire, and have chosen Him for no purpose save that which Thou hadst intended for Him. Render Him victorious, therefore, through Thy hosts of earth and heaven... Ordain, I beseech Thee, by the ardor of My love for Thee and My yearning to manifest Thy Cause, for Him, as well as for them that love Him, that which Thou hast destined for Thy Messengers and the Trustees of Thy Revelation. Verily, Thou art the Almighty, the All-Powerful."

In a letter dictated by Baha'u'llah and addressed by Mirza aqa Jan, His amanuensis, to 'Abdu'l-Baha while the latter was on a visit to Beirut, we read the following: "Praise be to Him Who hath honored the Land of Ba (Beirut) through the presence of Him round Whom all names revolve. All the atoms of the earth have announced unto all created things that from behind the gate of the Prison-city there hath appeared and above its horizon there hath shone forth the Orb of the beauty of the great, the Most Mighty Branch of G.o.d-His ancient and immutable Mystery-proceeding on its way to another land. Sorrow, thereby, hath enveloped this Prison-city, whilst another land rejoiceth... Blessed, doubly blessed, is the ground which His footsteps have trodden, the eye that hath been cheered by the beauty of His countenance, the ear that hath been honored by hearkening to His call, the heart that hath tasted the sweetness of His love, the breast that hath dilated through His remembrance, the pen that hath voiced His praise, the scroll that hath borne the testimony of His writings."

'Abdu'l-Baha, writing in confirmation of the authority conferred upon Him by Baha'u'llah, makes the following statement: "In accordance with the explicit text of the Kitab-i-Aqdas Baha'u'llah hath made the Center of the Covenant the Interpreter of His Word-a Covenant so firm and mighty that from the beginning of time until the present day no religious Dispensation hath produced its like."

Exalted as is the rank of 'Abdu'l-Baha, and however profuse the praises with which in these sacred Books and Tablets Baha'u'llah has glorified His son, so unique a distinction must never be construed as conferring upon its recipient a station identical with, or equivalent to, that of His Father, the Manifestation Himself. To give such an interpretation to any of these quoted pa.s.sages would at once, and for obvious reasons, bring it into conflict with the no less clear and authentic a.s.sertions and warnings to which I have already referred. Indeed, as I have already stated, those who overestimate 'Abdu'l-Baha's station are just as reprehensible and have done just as much harm as those who underestimate it. And this for no other reason except that by insisting upon an altogether unwarranted inference from Baha'u'llah's writings they are inadvertently justifying and continuously furnishing the enemy with proofs for his false accusations and misleading statements.

I feel it necessary, therefore, to state without any equivocation or hesitation that neither in the Kitab-i-Aqdas nor in the Book of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, nor even in the Tablet of the Branch, nor in any other Tablet, whether revealed by Baha'u'llah or 'Abdu'l-Baha, is there any authority whatever for the opinion that inclines to uphold the so-called "mystic unity" of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, or to establish the ident.i.ty of the latter with His Father or with any preceding Manifestation. This erroneous conception may, in part, be ascribed to an altogether extravagant interpretation of certain terms and pa.s.sages in the Tablet of the Branch, to the introduction into its English translation of certain words that are either non-existent, misleading, or ambiguous in their connotation. It is, no doubt, chiefly based upon an altogether unjustified inference from the opening pa.s.sages of a Tablet of Baha'u'llah, extracts of which, as reproduced in the Baha'i Scriptures, immediately precede, but form no part of, the said Tablet of the Branch.