The return of Bahá’u’lláh from Sulaymáníyyih to Baghdád
marks a turning point of the utmost significance in the history of the first
Bahá’í century. The tide of the fortunes of the Faith, having reached its
lowest ebb, was now beginning to surge back, and was destined to roll on,
steadily and mightily, to a new high water-mark, associated this time with the
Declaration of His Mission, on the eve of His banishment to Constantinople.
With His return to Baghdád a firm anchorage was now being established, an
anchorage such as the Faith had never known in its history. Never before,
except during the first three years of its life, could that Faith claim to have
possessed a fixed and accessible center to which its adherents could turn for
guidance, and from which they could derive continuous and unobstructed
inspiration.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
