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"I affirm," is 'Abdu'l-Baha's own written comment on the Tablet of the Branch, "that the true meaning, the real significance, the innermost secret of these verses, of these very words, is my own servitude to the sacred Threshold of the Abha Beauty, my complete self-effacement, my utter nothingness before Him. This is my resplendent crown, my most precious adorning. On this I pride myself in the kingdom of earth and heaven. Therein I glory among the company of the well-favored!" "No one is permitted," He warns us in the passage which immediately follows, "to give these verses any other interpretation." "I am," He, in this same connection, affirms, "according to the explicit texts of the Kitab-i-Aqdas and the Kitab-i-'Ahd the manifest Interpreter of the Word of God ... Whoso deviates from my interpretation is a victim of his own fancy." (138:2) Furthermore, the inescapable inference from the belief in the identity of the Author of our Faith with Him Who is the Center of His Covenant would be to place 'Abdu'l-Baha in a position superior to that of the Bab, the reverse of which is the fundamental, though not as yet universally recognized, principle of this Revelation. It would also justify the charge with which, all throughout 'Abdu'l-Baha's ministry, the Covenant-Breakers have striven to poison the minds and pervert the understanding of Baha'u'llah's loyal followers. (138:3) It would be more correct, and in consonance with the established principles of Baha'u'llah and the Bab, if instead of maintaining this fictitious identity with reference to 'Abdu'l-Baha, we regard the Forerunner and the Founder of our Faith as identical in reality a truth which the text of the Suratu'l-Haykal unmistakably affirms. "Had the Primal Point (the Bab) been someone else beside Me as ye claim," is Baha'u'llah's explicit statement, "and had attained My presence, verily He would have never allowed Himself to be separated from Me, but rather We would have had mutual delights with each other in My Days." "He Who now voiceth the Word of God," Baha'u'llah again affirms, "is none other except the Primal Point Who hath once again been made manifest." "He is," He thus refers to Himself in a Tablet addressed to one of the Letters of the Living, "the same as the One Who appeared in the year sixty (1260 A.H.). This verily is one of His mighty signs." "Who," He pleads in the Suriy-i-Damm, "will arise to secure the triumph of the Primal Beauty (the Bab) revealed in the countenance of His succeeding Manifestations?" Referring to the Revelation proclaimed by the Bab He conversely characterizes it as "My own previous Manifestation."
(138:4)
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