The last three and most eventful years of the Báb’s ministry
had… witnessed not only the formal and public declaration of His mission, but
also an unprecedented effusion of His inspired writings, including both the
revelation of the fundamental laws of His Dispensation and also the
establishment of that Lesser Covenant which was to safeguard the unity of His
followers and pave the way for the advent of an incomparably mightier
Revelation. It was during this same period, in the early days of His
incarceration in the fortress of Chihríq, that the independence of the new-born
Faith was openly recognized and asserted by His disciples. The laws underlying
the new Dispensation had been revealed by its Author in a prison-fortress in
the mountains of Ádhirbayján, while the Dispensation itself was now to be
inaugurated in a plain on the border of Mázindarán, at a conference of His
assembled followers. [at the hamlet of Badasht]
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes
By’)
