It is not my purpose—nor does the occasion demand it,—to
write a detailed history of the last hundred years of the Bahá’í Faith, nor do
I intend to trace the origins of so tremendous a Movement, or to portray the
conditions under which it was born, or to examine the character of the religion
from which it has sprung, or to arrive at an estimate of the effects which its
impact upon the fortunes of mankind has produced. I shall rather content myself
with a review of the salient features of its birth and rise, as well as of the
initial stages in the establishment of its administrative institutions…
- Shoghi
Effendi (Preface to ‘God Passes By’)