e are all one.
Therefore, associate in friendship; love one another; abandon prejudices
of race; dispel forever this gloomy darkness of human ignorance, for the
century of light, the Sun of Reality hath appeared. Now is the time for
affiliation, and now is the period of unity and concord. For thousands of
years ye have been contending in warfare and strife. It is enough. Now is
the time for unity. Lay aside all self-purposes, and know for a certainty
that all men are the servants of one God Who will bind them together in
love and agreement."

Inasmuch as great differences and divergences of denominational belief had
arisen throughout the past, every man with a new idea attributing it to
God, Baha'u'llah desired that there should not be any ground or reason for
disagreement among the Baha'is. Therefore, with His own pen He wrote the
Book of His Covenant, addressing His relations and all people of the
world, saying, "Verily, I have appointed One Who is the Center of My
Covenant. All must obey Him; all must turn to Him; He is the Expounder of
My Book, and He is informed of My purpose. All must turn to Him.
Whatsoever He says is correct, for, verily, He knoweth the texts of My
Book. Other than He, no one doth know My Book." The purpose of this
statement is that there should never be discord and divergence among the
Baha'is but that they should always be unified and agreed. In His prayers
Baha'u'llah also said, "O God! Whosoever violates My Covenant, O God,
humiliate him. Verily, whosoever violates My Covenant, O God, erase and
efface him." In all His Tablets, among which is the Tablet of the Branch,
He has mentioned and explained the attributes and qualities of the
Personage to Whom He referred in the Book of His Covenant. He has fully
expounded the function and potency of that Personage, so that no one shall
say, "I understand this from the writings of Baha'u'llah," for He has
appointed the Center, or Expounder, of the Book. He said, "Verily, He is
the appointed one; other than He, there is none," intending that no sects
or prejudices should be formed, and preventing every man here and there
with a new thought from creating dissension and variance. It is as though
a king should appoint a governor-general. Whosoever obeys him, obeys the
king. Whosoever violates and disobeys him, violates the king. Therefore,
whosoever obeys the Center of the Covenant appointed by Baha'u'llah has
obeyed Baha'u'llah, and whosoever disobeys Him