From such clear and formally laid down statements,
incompatible as they are with any assertion of a claim to Prophethood, we
should not by any means infer that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is merely one of the servants
of the Blessed Beauty, or at best one whose function is to be confined to that
of an authorized interpreter of His Father’s teachings. Far be it from me to
entertain such a notion or to wish to instill such sentiments. To regard Him in
such a light is a manifest betrayal of the priceless heritage bequeathed by
Bahá’u’lláh to mankind. Immeasurably exalted is the station conferred upon Him
by the Supreme Pen above and beyond the implications of these, His own written
statements. Whether in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the most weighty and sacred of all
the works of Bahá’u’lláh, or in the Kitáb-i-‘Ahd, the Book of His Covenant, or
in the Súriy-i-Ghusn (Tablet of the Branch), such references as have
been recorded by the pen of Bahá’u’lláh—references which the Tablets of His
Father addressed to Him mightily reinforce—invest ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with a power, and surround Him with a halo, which the present
generation can never adequately appreciate.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Dispensation
of Baha’u’llah’)
