Contemplate with thine inward eye the chain of successive
Revelations that hath linked the Manifestation of Adam with that of the Báb. I
testify before God that each one of these Manifestations hath been sent down
through the operation of the Divine Will and Purpose, that each hath been the
bearer of a specific Message, that each hath been entrusted with a
divinely-revealed Book and been commissioned to unravel the mysteries of a
mighty Tablet. The measure of the Revelation with which every one of them hath
been identified had been definitely fore-ordained. This, verily, is a token of
Our favor unto them, if ye be of those that comprehend this truth.... And when
this process of progressive Revelation culminated in the stage at which His
peerless, His most sacred, and exalted Countenance was to be unveiled to men’s
eyes, He chose to hide His own Self behind a thousand veils, lest profane and
mortal eyes discover His glory. This He did at a time when the signs and tokens
of a divinely-appointed Revelation were being showered upon Him—signs and
tokens which none can reckon except the Lord, your God, the Lord of all worlds.
And when the set time of concealment was fulfilled, We sent forth, whilst still
wrapt within a myriad veils, an infinitesimal glimmer of the effulgent Glory
enveloping the Face of the Youth, and lo, the entire company of the dwellers of
the Realms above were seized with violent commotion and the favored of God fell
down in adoration before Him. He hath, verily, manifested a glory such as none
in the whole creation hath witnessed, inasmuch as He hath arisen to proclaim in
person His Cause unto all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth.
- Baha’u’llah (‘Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah’)
