A DESCRIPTION OF THE KITÁB-I-AQDAS BY SHOGHI EFFENDI


Taken from _God Passes By_, His History of the First Bahá’í Century


Unique and stupendous as was this Proclamation, it proved to be but a
prelude to a still mightier revelation of the creative power of its
Author, and to what may well rank as the most signal act of His
ministry—the promulgation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Alluded to in the
Kitáb-i-Iqán, the principal repository of that Law which the Prophet
Isaiah had anticipated, and which the writer of the Apocalypse had
described as the "new heaven" and the "new earth", as "the Tabernacle of
God", as the "Holy City", as the "Bride", the "New Jerusalem coming down
from God", this "Most Holy Book", whose provisions must remain inviolate
for no less than a thousand years, and whose system will embrace the
entire planet, may well be regarded as the brightest emanation of the mind
of Bahá’u’lláh, as the Mother Book of His Dispensation, and the Charter of
His New World Order.

Revealed soon after Bahá’u’lláh had been transferred to the house of Údí
Ḵẖammár (circa 1873), at a time when He was still encompassed by the
tribulations that had afflicted Him, through the acts committed by His
enemies and the professed adherents of His Faith, this Book, this treasury
enshrining the priceless gems of His Revelation, stands out, by virtue of
the principles it inculcates, the administrative institutions it ordains