During nine years, as foretold by the Báb Himself, swiftly,
mysteriously and irresistibly the embryonic Faith conceived by Him had been
developing until, at the fixed hour, the burden of the promised Cause of God
was cast amidst the gloom and agony of the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán. “Behold,”
Bahá’u’lláh Himself, years later, testified…“how immediately upon the
completion of the ninth year of this wondrous, this most holy and merciful
Dispensation, the requisite number of pure, of wholly consecrated and
sanctified souls has been most secretly consummated.” “That so brief an
interval,” He, moreover has asserted, “should have separated this most mighty
and wondrous Revelation from Mine own previous Manifestation is a secret that
no man can unravel, and a mystery such as no mind can fathom. Its duration had
been foreordained.”
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
