A successor or vicegerent the Báb never named, an
interpreter of His teachings He refrained from appointing. So transparently
clear were His references to the Promised One, so brief was to be the duration
of His own Dispensation, that neither the one nor the other was deemed
necessary. All He did was, according to the testimony of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá in “A Traveller’s Narrative,” to
nominate, on the advice of Bahá’u’lláh and of another disciple, Mírzá
Yahyá, who would act solely as a figurehead pending the manifestation of the
Promised One, thus enabling Bahá’u’lláh to promote, in relative security, the
Cause so dear to His heart. - Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
