As the year “eighty” [1280 AH, 1863 AD] steadily and
inexorably approached, He Who had become the real leader of that community
increasingly experienced, and progressively communicated to His future
followers, the onrushing influences of its informing force. The festive, the
soul-entrancing odes which He revealed almost every day; the Tablets, replete
with hints, which streamed from His pen; the allusions which, in private
converse and public discourse, He made to the approaching hour; the exaltation
which in moments of joy and sadness alike flooded His soul; the ecstasy which
filled His lovers, already enraptured by the multiplying evidences of His
rising greatness and glory; the perceptible change noted in His demeanor; and
finally, His adoption of the táj (tall felt head-dress), on the day of His
departure from His Most Holy House—all proclaimed unmistakably His imminent
assumption of the prophetic office and of His open leadership of the community
of the Báb’s followers.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
