The fourth period
(1921–1944) is motivated by the forces radiating from the Will and Testament of
‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, that Charter of Bahá’u’lláh’s New World Order, the
offspring resulting from the mystic intercourse between Him Who is the Source
of the Law of God and the mind of the One Who is the vehicle and interpreter of
that Law. The inception of this fourth, this last period of the first Bahá’í
century synchronizes with the birth of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Era,
with the founding of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh—a
system which is at once the harbinger, the nucleus and pattern of His World
Order. This period, covering the first twenty-three years of this Formative
Age, has already been distinguished by an outburst of further hostility, of a
different character, accelerating on the one hand the diffusion of the Faith
over a still wider area in each of the five continents of the globe, and
resulting on the other in the emancipation and the recognition of the
independent status of several communities within its pale.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘Preface to ‘God Passes
By’)