The “internal crisis”: - Mírzá Yahyá its “central figure”, “befooled and manipulated” by Siyyid Muhammad of Isfahán

Its central figure was no less a person than the nominee of the Báb Himself, the credulous and cowardly Mírzá Yahyá, to certain traits of whose character reference has already been made in the foregoing pages. The black-hearted scoundrel who befooled and manipulated this vain and flaccid man with consummate skill and unyielding persistence was a certain Siyyid Muhammad, a native of Isfahán, notorious for his inordinate ambition, his blind obstinacy and uncontrollable jealousy. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

The beginning of this “internal crisis” “days immediately following the execution of the Báb” and its “climax in Adrianople”

This crisis had already been brewing in the days immediately following the execution of the Báb, was intensified during the months when the controlling hand of Bahá’u’lláh was suddenly withdrawn as a result of His confinement in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán, was further aggravated by His precipitate banishment from Persia, and began to protrude its disturbing features during the first years of His sojourn in Baghdád. Its devastating force gathered momentum during His two year retirement to the mountains of Kurdistán, and though it was checked, for a time, after His return from Sulaymáníyyih, under the overmastering influences exerted preparatory to the Declaration of His Mission, it broke out later, with still greater violence, and reached its climax in Adrianople, only to receive finally its death-blow under the impact of the irresistible forces released through the proclamation of that Mission to all mankind. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

“the initial manifestations of the internal crisis…were beginning to reveal themselves”

A lull had, in consequence, momentarily ensued, which was destined to be broken, at a later stage, by a further wave of repressive measures in which the Sultán of Turkey and his ministers, as well as the Sunní sacerdotal order, were to join hands with the Sháh and the Shí‘ah clericals of Persia and ‘Iráq in an endeavor to stamp out, once and for all, the Faith and all it stood for. While this lull persisted the initial manifestations of the internal crisis, already mentioned, were beginning to reveal themselves—a crisis which, though less spectacular in the public eye, proved itself, as it moved to its climax, to be one of unprecedented gravity, reducing the numerical strength of the infant community, imperiling its unity, causing immense damage to its prestige, and tarnishing for a considerable period of time its glory. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

A “quiescent” period with respect to the “external enemies of the Faith”

The external enemies of the Faith, whether civil or ecclesiastical, who had thus far been chiefly responsible for the reverses and humiliations it had suffered, were by now relatively. The public appetite for revenge, which had seemed insatiable, had now, to some extent, in consequence of the torrents of blood that had flowed, abated. A feeling, bordering on exhaustion and despair, had, moreover, settled on some of its most inveterate enemies, who were astute enough to perceive that though the Faith had bent beneath the grievous blows their hands had dealt it, its structure had remained essentially unimpaired and its spirit unbroken. The orders issued to the governors of the provinces by the Grand Vizir had had, furthermore, a sobering effect on the local authorities, who were now dissuaded from venting their fury upon, and from indulging in their sadistic cruelties against, a hated adversary. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

An internal crisis “overshadowed the first years of His [Bahá’u’lláh’s] sojourn in ‘Iráq”

One such crisis which, as it deepened, threatened to jeopardize His newborn Faith and to subvert its earliest foundations, overshadowed the first years of His sojourn in ‘Iráq, the initial stage in His life-long exile, and imparted to them a special significance. Unlike those which preceded it, this crisis was purely internal in character, and was occasioned solely by the acts, the ambitions and follies of those who were numbered among His recognized fellow-disciples. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)

The “potentialities latent” within this “life-long exile“ were “painfully slow” in their manifestation, and “characterized…by a number of crises”

This life-long exile to which the Bearer of so precious a Message was now providentially condemned did not, and indeed could not, manifest, either suddenly or rapidly, the potentialities latent within it. The process whereby its unsuspected benefits were to be manifested to the eyes of men was slow, painfully slow, and was characterized, as indeed the history of His Faith from its inception to the present day demonstrates, by a number of crises which at times threatened to arrest its unfoldment and blast all the hopes which its progress had engendered. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’, chapter 7)