It is clear and evident that the object of all preceding
Dispensations hath been to pave the way for the advent of Muhammad, the Apostle
of God. These, including the Muhammadan Dispensation, have had, in their turn,
as their objective the Revelation proclaimed by the Qá’im. The purpose
underlying this Revelation, as well as those that preceded it, has, in like
manner, been to announce the advent of the Faith of Him Whom God will make
manifest. And this Faith— the Faith of Him Whom God will make manifest— in its
turn, together with all the Revelations gone before it, have as their object
the Manifestation destined to succeed it. And the latter, no less than all the
Revelations preceding it, prepare the way for the Revelation which is yet to
follow. The process of the rise and setting of the Sun of Truth will thus
indefinitely continue — a process that hath had no beginning and will have no
end.
(The Báb, excerpt from the Persian Bayán, quoted by Shoghi Effendi in a
letter dated February 8, 1934; ‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah’)
