It would seem that the agitation shown by certain of the friends to the description of Bahá'u'lláh as "the most precious Being ever to have drawn breath on this planet", and their impression that this indicates some new doctrine, arises from their lack of familiarity with the range of expressions used in the Sacred Writings and by the beloved Guardian, and their inability to grasp that such expressions are used in the context of the illumination of the stations of the Manifestations of God as conveyed by Bahá'u'lláh in the Kitáb-i-Íqán and elucidated by the Guardian in "The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh".
This description, in fact, is not so different from the Guardian's words in his cablegram of 3 June 1957, which appears on page 122 of "Messages to the Bahá'í World". He refers to:
“… the adoption and execution of preliminary measures designed to herald the construction in future decades of the stately, befitting Mausoleum to enshrine the holiest dust the earth ever received into its bosom.”
In the letter written on behalf of the Guardian on 19 October 1947, which was quoted in our letter of 15 October 1992, the crucial point is made:
“No distinction can be made amongst the Prophets in the sense that They all proceed from one source, and are of one essence. But Their stations and functions in this world are different.”
In the phrase "the most precious Being ever to have drawn breath on this planet" the Universal House of Justice was obviously referring to the Person of Bahá'u'lláh as He appeared in this world — that Soul who was the channel of the Most Great Revelation of God. The Guardian's reference to "the holiest dust the earth ever received into its bosom" likewise refers to the physical remains of that Person. The preciousness and sanctity of both aspects being the consequence of their being the vehicle of a Revelation the splendour and magnitude of which eclipses all previous Revelations. There is nothing new or strange in such a concept, nor does it in any way contradict the essential unity of all the Manifestations of God.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 21 December 1992, written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer; Baha’i Library Online)
