No overt reference is made to Bahá’u’lláh’s own as yet
unannounced mission; rather, The Book of Certitude is organized around a
vigorous exposition of the mission of the martyred Báb. Not the least of the
reasons for the book’s powerful influence on the Bábí community, which included
a number of scholars and former seminarians, was the mastery of Islamic thought
and teaching its author displays in demonstrating the Báb’s claim to have
fulfilled the prophecies of Islam. Calling on the Bábís to be worthy of the
trust which the Báb had placed in them and of the sacrifice of so many heroic
lives, Bahá’u’lláh held out before them the challenge not only of bringing
their personal lives into conformity with the Divine teachings, but of making
their community a model for the heterogeneous population of Baghdad, the Iraqi
provincial capital.
(From ‘Baha’u’llah’; A statement prepared by the Bahá'í
International Community Office of Public Information, at the request of the
Universal House of Justice and published in 1992)
