Sequential excerpts from the book ‘God Passes By’, written in 1944 by Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith

11/18/24

References from the Báb about Bahá’u’lláh

The Báb had no less significantly extolled Him [Bahá’u’lláh] 

  • as the “Essence of Being,” 
  • as the “Remnant of God,” 
  • as the “Omnipotent Master,” 
  • as the “Crimson, all-encompassing Light,” 
  • as “Lord of the visible and invisible,” 
  • as the “sole Object of all previous Revelations, including The Revelation of the Qá’im Himself.” 
  • He had formally designated Him 
    • as “He Whom God shall make manifest,” had alluded to Him 
    • as the “Abhá Horizon” wherein He Himself lived and dwelt, 
    • had specifically recorded His title, and eulogized His “Order” in His best-known work, the Persian Bayán, 
    • had disclosed His name through His allusion to the “Son of ‘Alí, a true and undoubted Leader of men,” 
    • had, repeatedly, orally and in writing, fixed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the time of His Revelation, and warned His followers lest “the Bayán and all that hath been revealed therein” should “shut them out as by a veil” from Him. 
  • He had, moreover, declared that 
    • He was the “first servant to believe in Him,” 
    • that He bore Him allegiance “before all things were created,” 
    • that “no allusion” of His “could allude unto Him,” 
    • that “the year-old germ that holdeth within itself the potentialities of the Revelation that is to come is endowed with a potency superior to the combined forces of the whole of the Bayán.” 
  • He had, moreover, clearly asserted that He had “covenanted with all created things” concerning Him Whom God shall make manifest ere the covenant concerning His own mission had been established. 
  • He had readily acknowledged that 
    • He was but “a letter” of that “Most Mighty Book,” 
    • “a dew-drop” from that “Limitless Ocean,” 
    • that His Revelation was “only a leaf amongst the leaves of His Paradise,” 
    • that “all that hath been exalted in the Bayán” was but “a ring” upon His own hand, and He Himself “a ring upon the hand of Him Whom God shall make manifest,” Who, “turneth it as He pleaseth, for whatsoever He pleaseth, and through whatsoever He pleaseth.” 
  • He had unmistakably declared that He had “sacrificed” Himself “wholly” for Him, that He had “consented to be cursed” for His sake, and to have “yearned for naught but martyrdom” in the path of His love. 
  • Finally, He had unequivocally prophesied: 
    • “Today the Bayán is in the stage of seed; at the beginning of the manifestation of Him Whom God shall make manifest its ultimate perfection will become apparent.” 
    • “Ere nine will have elapsed from the inception of this Cause the realities of the created things will not be made manifest. All that thou hast as yet seen is but the stage from the moist-germ until We clothed it with flesh. Be patient until thou beholdest a new creation. Say: Blessed, therefore, be God, the Most Excellent of Makers!”

- Shoghi Effendi  ('God Passes By', chapter 6)