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From the text of this explicit and authoritative interpretation of so ancient a prophecy it is evident how necessary it is for every faithful follower of the Faith to accept the divine origin and uphold the independent status of the Muhammadan Dispensation. The validity of the Imamate is, moreover, implicitly recognized in these same passages - that divinely-appointed institution of whose most distinguished member the Bab Himself was a lineal descendant, and which continued for a period of no less than two hundred and sixty years to be the chosen recipient of the guidance of the Almighty and the repository of one of the two most precious legacies of Islam. (102:1) This same prophecy, we must furthermore recognize, attests the independent character of the Babi Dispensation and corroborates indirectly the truth that in accordance with the principle of progressive revelation every Manifestation of God must needs vouchsafe to the peoples of His day a measure of divine guidance ampler than any which a preceding and less receptive age could have received or appreciated. For this reason, and not for any superior merit which the Baha'i Faith may be said to inherently possess, does this prophecy bear witness to the unrivaled power and glory with which the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah has been invested - a Dispensation the potentialities of which we are but beginning to perceive and the full range of which we can never determine.
(102:2)
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