…behold this Revelation. The essences
of the people have, through divinely-conceived designs, been set in motion and
until the present day three hundred and thirteen disciples have been chosen. In
the land of Sád [Isfáhán],
which to outward seeming is a great city, in every corner of whose seminaries
are vast numbers of people regarded as divines and doctors, yet when the time
came for inmost essences to be drawn forth, only its sifter of wheat donned the
robe of discipleship. This is the mystery of what was uttered by the kindred of
the Prophet Muhammad—upon them be the
peace of God—concerning this
Revelation, saying that the abased shall be exalted and the exalted shall be
abased.
(The Báb, excerpt from the Persian Bayán; ‘Selections from the
Writings of the Báb)
