…[in 1844] the Author of the Bábí Revelation had declared
His mission to Mullá Ḥusayn in the privacy of His home in Shíráz. Three years
after that Declaration, within the walls of the prison-fortress of Máh-Kú, He
was dictating to His amanuensis the fundamental and distinguishing precepts of
His Dispensation. A year later, His followers, under the actual leadership of
Bahá’u’lláh, their fellow-disciple, were themselves, in the hamlet of Badasht,
abrogating the Qur’ánic Law, repudiating both the divinely-ordained and
man-made precepts of the Faith of Muḥammad, and shaking off the shackles of its
antiquated system. Almost immediately after, the Báb Himself, still a prisoner,
was vindicating the acts of His disciples by asserting, formally and
unreservedly, His claim to be the promised Qá’im, in the presence of the Heir
to the Throne, the leading exponents of the Shaykhí community, and the most
illustrious ecclesiastical dignitaries assembled in the capital of Ádhirbayján.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
