Covenant of Baha’u’llah

The Concrete Form

The Baha’i Faith began with the mission entrusted by God to two Divine Messengers—the Bab and Baha’u’llah. Today, the distinctive unity of the Faith They founded stems from explicit instructions given by Baha’u’llah that have assured the continuity of guidance following His passing. This line of succession, referred to as the Covenant, went from Baha’u’llah to His Son, ‘Abdu’l-Baha—the Centre of the Covenant.

Source: ‘Abdu’l-Baha – The Centre of the Covenant of Baha’u’llah by H.M. Balyuzi

Baha’u’llah had raised His peerless Son to be the Centre of His Covenant. In a document which He designated Kitab-i-‘Ahdi — The Book of My Covenant — a document the like of which cannot be found in the whole range of the Scriptures of mankind, He made His purpose indubitably clear that ‘Abdu’l-Baha was to be the Head of His Faith, the Expounder of His Word, the Unerring Balance by Whom falsehood was distinguished and separated from truth. This Covenant which Baha’u’llah established with His people, and not only with them but with the entire human race, has no parallel in the records of religion.

In the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf the final book revealed by the pen of Baha’u’llah, He spoke of His Testament as the ‘Crimson Book’. ‘The Ark of His Testament’ — God’s Testament — which we find mentioned in the Revelation of St John, is this Testament of Baha’u’llah.

The world had never seen the like of Baha’u’llah’s Testament. Neither had it seen the like of His Covenant. In the words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha,’ . . . the pivot of the oneness of mankind is nothing else but the power of the Covenant.’ Again in His words,’ . . . the “Sure Handle” mentioned from the foundation of the world in the Books, the Tablets and the Scriptures of old is naught else but the Covenant and the Testament.’ And again: ‘The lamp of the Covenant is the light of the world . . .'(God Passes By)

That which can give concrete form to the oneness of mankind, the oneness with which God has endowed His creation, is the teaching and precept of Baha’u’llah. Nothing else can make or will make the spiritual unity of mankind a fact indisputably acknowledged and upheld by all the denizens of the earth, the prime principle operative in every sphere of human activity. This and this alone will rescue man from self-immolation. But to do this the teaching of Baha’u’llah must not suffer corruption. Otherwise it will assuredly fail. It is the Covenant of Baha’u’llah, the invincible power of which has been tested and proved time and again, that has preserved and will preserve the integrity of His teaching. The Covenant and the Covenant alone has stayed the hand of the desecrator.

‘Abdu’l-Baha is the Centre of this Covenant. In Him and Him alone the Covenant found its expression. His alone was the authority to divide the faithful from the faithless. ‘In accordance with the explicit text of the Kitab-i-Aqdas,’ He Himself has testified, ‘Baha’u’llah hath made the Centre of the Covenant the Interpreter of His Word — a Covenant so firm and mighty that from the beginning of time until the present day no religious Dispensation hath produced its like.'(The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah)