An attempt I strongly feel should now be made to clarify our
minds regarding the station occupied by ‘Abdu’l Bahá and the significance of
His position in this holy Dispensation. It would be indeed difficult for us,
who stand so close to such a tremendous figure and are drawn by the mysterious
power of so magnetic a personality, to obtain a clear and exact understanding
of the role and character of One Who, not only in the Dispensation of
Bahá’u’lláh but in the entire field of religious history, fulfills a unique
function. Though moving in a sphere of His own and holding a rank radically
different from that of the Author and the Forerunner of the Bahá’í Revelation,
He, by virtue of the station ordained for Him through the Covenant of
Bahá’u’lláh, forms together with them what may be termed the Three Central
Figures of a Faith that stands unapproached in the world’s spiritual history.
He towers, in conjunction with them, above the destinies of this infant Faith
of God from a level to which no individual or body ministering to its needs
after Him, and for no less a period than a full thousand years, can ever hope
to rise. To degrade His lofty rank by identifying His station with or by
regarding it as roughly equivalent to, the position of those on whom the mantle
of His authority has fallen would be an act of impiety as grave as the no less
heretical belief that inclines to exalt Him to a state of absolute equality
with either the central Figure or Forerunner of our Faith. For wide as is the
gulf that separates ‘Abdu’l-Bahá from Him Who is the Source of an independent
Revelation, it can never be regarded as commensurate with the greater distance
that stands between Him Who is the Center of the Covenant and His ministers who
are to carry on His work, whatever be their name, their rank, their functions
or their future achievements. Let those who have known ‘Abdu’l Bahá, who
through their contact with His magnetic personality have come to cherish for
Him so fervent an admiration, reflect, in the light of this statement, on the
greatness of One Who is so far above Him in station. 
The only known color photograph
of Abdu’l-Bahá
- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah; included in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)
