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Nor should the momentous character of the unique event, that may be regarded as the climax and consummation of this tragic period, be overlooked or underestimated, inasmuch as its centenary synchronizes with the termination of the sixteen-month interval separating the American Baha'i Community from the conclusion of its present Plan. This unique event, the centenary of which is to be befittingly celebrated, not only in the American continent but throughout the Baha'i world, and is destined to be regarded as the culmination of the Second Seven Year Plan, is none other than the "Year Nine," anticipated 2,000 years ago as the "third woe" by St. John the Divine, alluded to by both Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim - the twin luminaries that heralded the advent of the Faith of the Bab - specifically mentioned and extolled by the Herald of the Baha'i Dispensation in His Writings, and eulogized by both the Founder of our Faith and the Center of His Covenant. In that year, the year "after Hin" (68), mentioned by Shaykh Ahmad, the year that witnessed the birth of the Mission of the Promised "Qayyum," specifically referred to by Siyyid Kazim, the "requisite number" in the words of Baha'u'llah, "of pure, of wholly consecrated and sanctified souls" had been "most secretly consummated." In that year, as testified by the pen of the Bab, the "realities of the created things" were "made manifest," "a new creation was born" and the seed of His Faith revealed its "ultimate perfection." In that year, as borne witness by 'Abdu'l-Baha, a hitherto "embryonic Faith" was born. In that year, while the Blessed Beauty lay in chains and fetters, in that dark and Pestilential pit, "the breezes of the All-Glorious," as He Himself described it, "were wafted" over Him. There, whilst His neck was weighted down by the Qara-Guhar, His feet in stocks, breathing the fetid air of the Siyah-Chal, He dreamed His dream and heard, "on every side," "exalted words," and His "tongue recited" words that "no man could bear to hear."
(100:2)
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