It had now to be supplemented by a Lesser Covenant which He
felt bound to make with the entire body of His followers concerning the One
Whose advent He characterized as the fruit and ultimate purpose of His
Dispensation. Such a Covenant had invariably been the feature of every previous
religion. It had existed, under various forms, with varying degrees of
emphasis, had always been couched in veiled language, and had been alluded to
in cryptic prophecies, in abstruse allegories, in unauthenticated traditions,
and in the fragmentary and obscure passages of the sacred Scriptures. In the
Bábí Dispensation, however, it was destined to be established in clear and
unequivocal language, though not embodied in a separate document. Unlike the
Prophets gone before Him, Whose Covenants were shrouded in mystery, unlike
Bahá’u’lláh, Whose clearly defined Covenant was incorporated in a specially
written Testament, and designated by Him as “the Book of My Covenant,” the Báb
chose to intersperse His Book of Laws, the Persian Bayán, with unnumbered
passages, some designedly obscure, mostly indubitably clear and conclusive, in
which He fixes the date of the promised Revelation, extols its virtues, asserts
its pre-eminent character, assigns to it unlimited powers and prerogatives, and
tears down every barrier that might be an obstacle to its recognition. “He,
verily,” Bahá’u’lláh, referring to the Báb in His Kitáb-i-Badí‘, has stated,
“hath not fallen short of His duty to exhort the people of the Bayán and to
deliver unto them His Message. In no age or dispensation hath any Manifestation
made mention, in such detail and in such explicit language, of the
Manifestation destined to succeed Him.”
- Shoghi Effendi (Chapter 2, ‘God Passes
By’)