To direct and canalize these forces let loose by this
Heaven-sent process, and to insure their harmonious and continuous operation after
His ascension, an instrument divinely ordained, invested with indisputable
authority, organically linked with the Author of the Revelation Himself, was
clearly indispensable. That instrument Bahá'u'lláh had expressly provided
through the institution of the Covenant, an institution which he had firmly
established prior to His ascension. This same Covenant He had anticipated in
His Kitáb-i-Aqdas, had alluded to it as He bade His last farewell to the
members of His family, who had been summoned to His bed-side, in the days
immediately preceding His ascension, and had incorporated it in a special
document which He designated as "the Book of My Covenant," and which
He entrusted, during His last illness, to His eldest son 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Written
entirely in His own hand ... this unique and epoch- making Document, designated
by Bahá'u'lláh as His "Most Great Tablet," and alluded to by Him as
the "Crimson Book" in His "Epistle to the Son of the Wolf,"
can find no parallel in the Scriptures of any previous Dispensation, not
excluding that of the Báb Himself. For nowhere in the books pertaining to any
of the world's religious systems, not even among the writings of the Author of
the Báb' Revelation, do we find any single document establishing a Covenant
endowed with an authority comparable to the Covenant which Bahá'u'lláh had
Himself instituted.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’; The Compilation of
Compilations, vol. I, The Covenant)
