um with the
first intimations of Baha'u'llah's dawning Revelation amidst the darkness
of the Siyah-_Ch_al of Tihran. It was further accelerated by the
Declaration of His mission on the eve of His banishment from Ba_gh_dad. It
moved to a climax with the proclamation of that same mission during the
tempestuous years of His exile in Adrianople. Its full significance was
disclosed when the Author of that Mission issued His historic summonses,
appeals and warnings to the kings of the earth and the world's
ecclesiastical leaders. It was finally consummated by the laws and
ordinances which He formulated, by the principles which He enunciated and
by the institutions which He ordained during the concluding years of His
ministry in the prison-city of Akka.

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 Baha'u'llah 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 Kitab-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-Baha.

Written entirely in His own hand; unsealed, on the ninth day after His
ascension in the presence of nine witnesses chosen from amongst His
companions and members of His Family; read subsequently, on the afternoon
of that same day, before a large company assembled in His Most Holy Tomb,
including His sons, some of the Bab's kinsmen, pilgrims and resident
believers, this unique and epoch-making Document, designated by
Baha'u'llah 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 Bab 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 Babi Revelation, do we find any single document