Bahá’u’lláh, maintaining through continual correspondence
close contact with the Báb, and Himself the directing force behind the manifold
activities of His struggling fellow-disciples, unobtrusively yet effectually
presided over that conference, [at the hamlet of Badasht] and guided and
controlled its proceedings. Quddús, regarded as the exponent of the
conservative element within it, affected, in pursuance of a pre-conceived plan
designed to mitigate the alarm and consternation which such a conference was
sure to arouse, to oppose the seemingly extremist views advocated by the
impetuous Táhirih. The primary purpose of that gathering was to implement the
revelation of the Bayán by a sudden, a complete and dramatic break with the
past—with its order, its ecclesiasticism, its traditions, and ceremonials. The
subsidiary purpose of the conference was to consider the means of emancipating
the Báb from His cruel confinement in Chihríq. The first was eminently
successful; the second was destined from the outset to fail.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
