The Reading of the Covenant

*A retelling based on **God Passes By** by Shoghi Effendi. The phrase in quotation marks is from Bahá'u'lláh's Book of the Covenant.*

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When Bahá'u'lláh passed from this world at Bahjí, in the small hours of the twenty-ninth of May, 1892, the believers were plunged into a grief almost beyond bearing. For forty years they had turned to Him through exile after exile. Now He was gone. What would hold them together?

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Bahá'u'lláh had already answered that question, in His own hand.

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Nine days after His ascension, in the presence of His family and a gathering of the believers, a sealed document was brought out and opened. It was His Will and Testament — the **Kitáb-i-'Ahd**, the Book of My Covenant — written in His own handwriting. It was read aloud for all to hear.

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In it, Bahá'u'lláh turned every heart in one direction. He bade His kindred and His followers, "one and all," to "turn… their faces towards the Most Mighty Branch" — His eldest Son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá. Here was no vague hope and no contested succession, but a clear, written appointment from the Pen of the Manifestation Himself: after Me, look to Him.

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No Founder of a world religion had ever left such an explicit Covenant. It was Bahá'u'lláh's parting gift to the community He loved — a sure anchor, so that the ship of His Cause would not be scattered on the rocks once He was no longer among them.

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On the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh we mourn His departure in the night. But the reading of His Covenant is the reason that grief did not become confusion. He had not left His loved ones unguided.

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*This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see **God Passes By**.*

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