knowledge and behaviour to which the peoples of the world are being
called. He embeds His precepts in a setting of spiritual commentary,
keeping ever before the mind of the reader the principle that these laws,
no matter the subject with which they deal, serve the manifold purposes of
bringing tranquillity to human society, raising the standard of human
behaviour, increasing the range of human understanding, and spiritualizing
the life of each and all. Throughout, it is the relationship of the
individual soul to God and the fulfilment of its spiritual destiny that is
the ultimate aim of the laws of religion. "Think not", is Bahá’u’lláh’s
own assertion, "that We have revealed unto you a mere code of laws. Nay,
rather, We have unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might and
power." His Book of Laws is His "weightiest testimony unto all people, and
the proof of the All-Merciful unto all who are in heaven and all who are
on earth".

An introduction to the spiritual universe unveiled in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas
would fail in its purpose if it did not acquaint the reader with the
interpretive and legislative institutions that Bahá’u’lláh has
indissolubly linked with the system of law thus revealed. At the
foundation of this guidance lies the unique role which Bahá’u’lláh’s
Writings—indeed the text of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas itself—confer on His eldest
son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. This unique figure is at once the Exemplar of the
pattern of life taught by His Father, the divinely inspired authoritative
Interpreter of His Teachings and the Centre and Pivot of the Covenant
which the Author of the Bahá’í Revelation made with all who recognize Him.
The twenty-nine years of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ministry endowed the Bahá’í world
with a luminous body of commentary that opens multiple vistas of
understanding on His Father’s purpose.

In His Will and Testament ‘Abdu’l-Bahá conferred the mantle of Guardian of