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I feel it necessary, therefore, to state without any equivocation or hesitation that neither in the Kitab-i-Aqdas nor in the Book of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, nor even in the Tablet of the Branch, nor in any other Tablet, whether revealed by Baha'u'llah or 'Abdu'l-Baha, is there any authority whatever for the opinion that inclines to uphold the so-called "mystic unity" of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, or to establish the identity of the latter with His Father or with any preceding Manifestation. This erroneous conception may, in part, be ascribed to an altogether extravagant interpretation of certain terms and passages in the Tablet of the Branch, to the introduction into its English translation of certain words that are either non-existent, misleading, or ambiguous in their connotation. It is, no doubt, chiefly based upon an altogether unjustified inference from the opening passages of a Tablet of Baha'u'llah, extracts of which, as reproduced in the "Baha'i Scriptures," immediately precede, but form no part of, the said Tablet of the Branch. It should be made clear to every one reading those extracts that by the phrase "the Tongue of the Ancient" no one else is meant but God, and that the term "the Greatest Name" is an obvious reference to Baha'u'llah, and that "the Covenant" referred to is not the specific Covenant of which Baha'u'llah is the immediate Author and 'Abdu'l-Baha the Center but that general Covenant which, as inculcated by the Baha'i teaching, God Himself invariably establishes with mankind when He inaugurates a new Dispensation. "The Tongue" that "gives," as stated in those extracts, the "glad-tidings" is none other than the Voice of God referring to Baha'u'llah, and not Baha'u'llah referring to 'Abdu'l-Baha. (137:1) Moreover, to maintain that the assertion "He is Myself," instead of denoting the mystic unity of God and His Manifestations, as explained in the Kitab-i-Iqan, establishes the identity of Baha'u'llah with 'Abdu'l-Baha, would constitute a direct violation of the oft-repeated principle of the oneness of God's Manifestations - a principle which the Author of these same extracts is seeking by implication to emphasize.
(137:2)
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