Shoghi Effendi explained that the revelation by Bahá’u’lláh of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas “preserves for posterity the basic laws and ordinances on which the fabric of His future World Order must rest.” And he referred to “the triple impulse generated through the revelation of the Tablet of Carmel by Bahá’u’lláh and the Will and Testament as well as the Tablets of the Divine Plan bequeathed by the Centre of His Covenant—the three Charters which have set in motion three distinct processes, the first operating in the Holy Land for the development of the institutions of the Faith at its World Centre and the other two, throughout the rest of the Bahá’í world, for its propagation and the establishment of its Administrative Order.” These three processes, although distinct, are closely interrelated. Developments at the World Centre of the Faith, the heart and nerve-centre of the Administrative Order, must necessarily exert a pronounced influence on the organic body of the worldwide Bahá’í community, and be affected by its vitality. The Administrative Order may best be viewed as the chief instrument for the prosecution of the Divine Plan, while that Plan has become recognized as the most potent agency for the development of the administrative structure of the Faith. It follows that, for the sound and balanced growth of the Faith and the speedy attainment of world order, due attention must be paid to all three processes.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a message dated 4 January 1994 to all National Spiritual Assemblies; compilation: ‘The National Spiritual Assembly’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, revised October 2023; online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Centre)
