...The severe laws and injunctions revealed by the Báb can
be properly appreciated and understood only when interpreted in the light of
His own statements regarding the nature, purpose and character of His own
Dispensation. As these statements clearly reveal, the Bábi Dispensation was
essentially in the nature of a religious and indeed social revolution, and its
duration had therefore to be short, but full of tragic events, of sweeping and
drastic reforms. These drastic measures enforced by the Bab and His followers
were taken with the view of undermining the very foundations of Shi’ah
orthodoxy, and thus paving the way for the coming of Baha’u’llah. To assert the
independence of the new Dispensation, and to prepare also the ground for the
approaching Revelation of Baha’u’llah the Báb had therefore to reveal very
severe laws, even though most of them, were never enforced. But the mere fact
that He revealed them was in itself a proof of the independent character of His
Dispensation and was sufficient to create such widespread agitation, and excite
such opposition on the part of the clergy that led them to cause His eventual
martyrdom.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a message dated February 17, 1939 written on behalf of Shoghi
Effendi; ‘Dawn of a New Day’)
