The severe laws and injunctions revealed by the Báb can be
properly appreciated and understood only when interpreted in the light of His
own statements regarding the nature, purpose and character of His own
Dispensation. As these statements clearly reveal, the Bábí Dispensation was
essentially in the nature of a religious and indeed social revolution, and its
duration had therefore to be short, but full of tragic events, of sweeping and
drastic reforms. Those drastic measures enforced by the Báb and His followers
were taken with the view of undermining the very foundations of Shí’ih
orthodoxy, and thus paving the way for the coming of Bahá’u’lláh. To assert the
independence of the new Dispensation, and to prepare also the ground for the
approaching Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb had therefore to reveal very
severe laws, even though most of them were never enforced. But the mere fact
that He revealed them was in itself a proof of the independent character of His
Dispensation and was sufficient to create such widespread agitation, and excite
such opposition on the part of the clergy that led them to cause His eventual
martyrdom. (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi quoted in the
‘Notes’ section of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, prepared by the Research Department of
the Universal House of Justice)
