With the ascension of Bahá’u’lláh draws to a close a period
which, in many ways, is unparalleled in the world’s religious history… God’s
newborn Faith, the cynosure of all past Dispensations, had been fully and
unreservedly proclaimed. The prophecies announcing its advent had been
remarkably fulfilled. Its fundamental laws and cardinal principles, the warp
and woof of the fabric of its future World Order, had been clearly enunciated.
Its organic relation to, and its attitude towards, the religious systems which
preceded it had been unmistakably defined. The primary institutions, within
which an embryonic World Order was destined to mature, had been unassailably
established. The Covenant designed to safeguard the unity and integrity of its
world-embracing system had been irrevocably bequeathed to posterity. The
promise of the unification of the whole human race, of the inauguration of the
Most Great Peace, of the unfoldment of a world civilization, had been
incontestably given.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
