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The plenitude of His glory the Apostle of God had, moreover, as attested by Baha'u'llah Himself, compared to the "full moon on its fourteenth night." His station the Imam Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, had, according to the same testimony, identified with "Him Who conversed with Moses from the Burning Bush on Sinai." To the transcendent character of His mission the Imam Husayn had, again according to Baha'u'llah, borne witness as a "Revelation whose Revealer will be He Who revealed" the Apostle of God Himself. (97:1) About Him Shaykh Ahmad- i- Ahsa'i, the herald of the Babi Dispensation, who had foreshadowed the "strange happenings" that would transpire "between the years sixty and sixty- seven," and had categorically affirmed the inevitability of His Revelation had, as previously mentioned, written the following: "The Mystery of this Cause must needs be made manifest, and the Secret of this Message must needs be divulged. I can say no more, I can appoint no time. His Cause will be made known after Hin (68)" (i.e., after a while). (97:2) Siyyid Kazim- i- Rashti, Shaykh Ahmad's disciple and successor, had likewise written: "The Qa'im must needs be put to death. After He has been slain the world will have attained the age of eighteen." In his Sharh- i- Qasidiy- i- Lamiyyih he had even alluded to the name "Baha." Furthermore, to his disciples, as his days drew to a close, he had significantly declared: "Verily, I say, after the Qa'im the Qayyum will be made manifest. For when the star of the former has set the sun of the beauty of Husayn will rise and illuminate the whole world. Then will be unfolded in all its glory the `Mystery' and the `Secret' spoken of by Shaykh Ahmad.... To have attained unto that Day of Days is to have attained unto the crowning glory of past generations, and one goodly deed performed in that age is equal to the pious worship of countless centuries." (97:3) The Bab had no less significantly extolled Him as the "Essence of Being," as the "Remnant of God," as the "Omnipotent Master," as the "Crimson, all- encompassing Light," as "Lord of the visible and invisible," as the "sole Object of all previous Revelations, including The Revelation of the Qa'im Himself." He had formally designated Him as "He Whom God shall make manifest," had alluded to Him as the "Abha Horizon" wherein He Himself lived and dwelt, had specifically recorded His title, and eulogized His "Order" in His best- known work, the Persian Bayan, had disclosed His name through His allusion to the "Son of Ali, a true and undoubted Leader of men," had, repeatedly, orally and in writing, fixed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the time of His Revelation, and warned His followers lest "the Bayan and all that hath been revealed therein" should "shut them out as by a veil" from Him. He had, moreover, declared that He was the "first servant to believe in Him," that He bore Him allegiance "before all things were created," that "no allusion" of His "could allude unto Him," that "the year- old germ that holdeth within itself the potentialities of the Revelation that is to come is endowed with a potency superior to the combined forces of the whole of the Bayan." He had, moreover, clearly asserted that He had "covenanted with all created things" concerning Him Whom God shall make manifest ere the covenant concerning His own mission had been established. He had readily acknowledged that He was but "a letter" of that "Most Mighty Book," "a dew- drop" from that "Limitless Ocean," that His Revelation was "only a leaf amongst the leaves of His Paradise," that "all that hath been exalted in the Bayan" was but "a ring" upon His own hand, and He Himself "a ring upon the hand of Him Whom God shall make manifest," Who, "turneth it as He pleaseth, for whatsoever He pleaseth, and through whatsoever He pleaseth." He had unmistakably declared that He had "sacrificed" Himself "wholly" for Him, that He had "consented to be cursed" for His sake, and to have "yearned for naught but martyrdom" in the path of His love. Finally, He had unequivocally prophesied: "Today the Bayan is in the stage of seed; at the beginning of the manifestation of Him Whom God shall make manifest its ultimate perfection will become apparent." "Ere nine will have elapsed from the inception of this Cause the realities of the created things will not be made manifest. All that thou hast as yet seen is but the stage from the moist- germ until We clothed it with flesh. Be patient until thou beholdest a new creation. Say: Blessed, therefore, be God, the Most Excellent of Makers!"
(97:4)
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