With ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ascension, and more particularly with
the passing of His well-beloved and illustrious sister the Most Exalted
Leaf—the last survivor of a glorious and heroic age—there draws to a close the
first and most moving chapter of Bahá’í history, marking the conclusion of the
Primitive, the Apostolic Age of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. It was ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Who, through the provisions of His weighty Will and Testament, has forged the
vital link which must for ever connect the age that has just expired with the
one we now live in—the Transitional and Formative period of the Faith—a stage
that must in the fullness of time reach its blossom and yield its fruit in the
exploits and triumphs that are to herald the Golden Age of the Revelation of
Bahá’u’lláh. (Shoghi Effendi, from a letter dated February 8, 1934; ‘The
Dispensation of Baha’u’llah’ in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)
