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This crisis, misconceived as a schism, which political as well as ecclesiastical adversaries, no less than the fast dwindling remnant of the followers of Mirza Yahya hailed as a signal for the immediate disruption and final dissolution of the system established by Baha'u'llah, was precipitated at the very heart and center of His Faith, and was provoked by no one less than a member of His own family, a half- brother of Abdu'l- Baha, specifically named in the book of the Covenant, and holding a rank second to none except Him Who had been appointed as the Center of that Covenant. For no less than four years that emergency fiercely agitated the minds and hearts of a vast proportion of the faithful throughout the East, eclipsed, for a time, the Orb of the Covenant, created an irreparable breach within the ranks of Baha'u'llah's own kindred, sealed ultimately the fate of the great majority of the members of His family, and gravely damaged the prestige, though it never succeeded in causing a permanent cleavage in the structure, of the Faith itself. The true ground of this crisis was the burning, the uncontrollable, the soul- festering jealousy which the admitted preeminence of Abdu'l- Baha in rank, power, ability, knowledge and virtue, above all the other members of His Father's family, had aroused not only in Mirza Muhammad- 'Ali, the archbreaker of the Covenant, but in some of his closest relatives as well. An envy as blind as that which had possessed the soul of Mirza Yahya, as deadly as that which the superior excellence of Joseph had kindled in the hearts of his brothers, as deep- seated as that which had blazed in the bosom of Cain and prompted him to slay his brother Abel, had, for several years, prior to Baha'u'llah's ascension, been smouldering in the recesses of Mirza Muhammad- 'Ali's heart and had been secretly inflamed by those unnumbered marks of distinction, of admiration and favor accorded to Abdu'l- Baha not only by Baha'u'llah Himself, His companions and His followers, but by the vast number of unbelievers who had come to recognize that innate greatness which Abdu'l- Baha had manifested from childhood. (246:1) Far from being allayed by the provisions of a Will which had elevated him to the second- highest position within the ranks of the faithful, the fire of unquenchable animosity that glowed in the breast of Mirza Muhammad- 'Ali burned even more fiercely as soon as he came to realize the full implications of that Document. All that Abdu'l- Baha could do, during a period of four distressful years, His incessant exhortations, His earnest pleadings, the favors and kindnesses He showered upon him, the admonitions and warnings He uttered, even His voluntary withdrawal in the hope of averting the threatening storm, proved to be of no avail. Gradually and with unyielding persistence, through lies, half- truths, calumnies and gross exaggerations, this "Prime Mover of sedition" succeeded in ranging on his side almost the entire family of Baha'u'llah, as well as a considerable number of those who had formed his immediate entourage. Baha'u'llah's two surviving wives, His two sons, the vacillating Mirza Diya'u'llah and the treacherous Mirza Badi'u'llah, with their sister and half- sister and their husbands, one of them the infamous Siyyid Ali, a kinsman of the Bab, the other the crafty Mirza Majdi'd- Din, together with his sister and half- brothers-- the children of the noble, the faithful and now deceased Aqay- i- Kalim-- all united in a determined effort to subvert the foundations of the Covenant which the newly proclaimed Will had laid. Even Mirza Aqa Jan, who for forty years had labored as Baha'u'llah's amanuensis, as well as Muhammad- Javad- i- Qasvini, who ever since the days of Adrianople, had been engaged in transcribing the innumerable Tablets revealed by the Supreme Pen, together with his entire family, threw in their lot with the Covenant- breakers, and allowed themselves to be ensnared by their machinations.
(246:2)
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