The circumstances surrounding the
revelation of this Book, designated by its Author the Kitab-i-Aqdas (The Most
Holy Book), are recounted by Shoghi Effendi in God Passes By, his history of
the first hundred years of the Baha'i era. Having dwelt upon the world- shaking
significance of Baha'u'llah's proclamation of His Faith, which had opened in
1867 with the revelation of the Suriy-i-Muluk (Tablet to the Kings), he
continues,
"Unique and stupendous as was this
Proclamation, it proved to be but a prelude to a still mightier revelation of
the creative power of its Author, and to what may well rank as the most signal
act of His ministry -- the promulgation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas. Alluded to in the
Kitab-i-Iqan; the principal repository of that Law which the Prophet Isaiah had
anticipated, and which the writer of the Apocalypse had described as the 'new
heaven' and the 'new earth,' as 'the Tabernacle of God,' as the 'Holy City,' as
the 'Bride,' the 'New Jerusalem coming down from God,' this 'Most Holy Book,'
whose provisions must remain inviolate for no less than a thousand years, and
whose system will embrace the entire planet, may well be regarded as the
brightest emanation of the mind of Baha'u'llah, as the Mother Book of His
Dispensation, and the Charter of His New World Order.”
(The Universal House of
Justice, from a message dated April 1973)
