same Mirza Muhammad-'Ali who, regarding himself as the
exponent of fidelity, the standard-bearer of the "Unitarians," the "Finger
who points to his Master," the champion of the Holy Family, the spokesman
of the A_gh_san, the upholder of the Holy Writ, had, in the lifetime of
Baha'u'llah, so openly and shamelessly advanced in a written statement,
signed and sealed by him, the very claim now falsely imputed by him to
'Abdu'l-Baha, that his Father had, with His own hand, chastised him. He it
was who, when sent on a mission to India, had tampered with the text of
the holy writings entrusted to his care for publication. He it was who had
the impudence and temerity to tell 'Abdu'l-Baha to His face that just as
Umar had succeeded in usurping the successorship of the Prophet Muhammad,
he, too, felt himself able to do the same. He it was who, obsessed by the
fear that he might not survive 'Abdu'l-Baha, had, the moment he had been
assured by Him that all the honor he coveted would, in the course of time,
be his, swiftly rejoined that he had no guarantee that he would outlive
Him. He it was who, as testified by Mirza Badi'u'llah in his confession,
written and published on the occasion of his repentance and his
short-lived reconciliation with 'Abdu'l-Baha, had, while Baha'u'llah's
body was still awaiting interment, carried off, by a ruse, the two
satchels containing his Father's most precious documents, entrusted by
Him, prior to His ascension, to 'Abdu'l-Baha. He it was who, by an
exceedingly adroit and simple forgery of a word recurring in some of the
denunciatory passages addressed by the Supreme Pen to Mirza Yahya, and by
other devices such as mutilation and interpolation, had succeeded in
making them directly applicable to a Brother Whom he hated with such
consuming passion. And lastly, it was this same Mirza Muhammad-'Ali who,
as attested by 'Abdu'l-Baha in His Will, had, with circumspection and
guile, conspired to take His life, an intention indicated by the allusions
made in a letter written by _Sh_u'a'u'llah (Son of Mirza Muhammad-'Ali),
the original of which was enclosed in that same Document by 'Abdu'l-Baha.

The Covenant of Baha'u'llah had, by acts such as these, and others too
numerous to recount, been manifestly violated. Another blow, stunning in
its first effects, had been administered to the Faith and had caused its
structure momentarily to tremble. The storm foreshadowed by the writer of
the Apocalypse had broken.