claim
to so exalted a station among the Prophets.

However graphic the record which the eminent chronicler of His life has
transmitted to posterity, so luminous a narrative must pale before the
glowing tribute paid to the Bab by the pen of Baha'u'llah. This tribute
the Bab Himself has, by the clear assertion of His claim, abundantly
supported, while the written testimonies of 'Abdu'l-Baha have powerfully
reinforced its character and elucidated its meaning.

Where else if not in the Kitab-i-Iqan can the student of the Babi
Dispensation seek to find those affirmations that unmistakably attest the
power and spirit which no man, except he be a Manifestation of God, can
manifest? "Could such a thing," exclaims Baha'u'llah, "be made manifest
except through the power of a Divine Revelation and the potency of God's
invincible Will? By the righteousness of God! Were any one to entertain so
great a Revelation in his heart the thought of such a declaration would
alone confound him! Were the hearts of all men to be crowded into his
heart, he would still hesitate to venture upon so awful an enterprise."
"No eye," He in another passage affirms, "hath beheld so great an
outpouring of bounty, nor hath any ear heard of such a Revelation of
loving-kindness... The Prophets 'endowed with constancy,' whose loftiness
and glory shine as the sun, were each honored with a Book which all have
seen, and the verses of which have been duly ascertained. Whereas the
verses which have rained from this Cloud of divine mercy have been so
abundant that none hath yet been able to estimate their number... How can
they belittle this Revelation? Hath any age witnessed such momentous
happenings?"

Commenting on the character and influence of those heroes and martyrs whom
the spirit of the Bab had so magically transformed Baha'u'llah reveals the
following: "If these companions be not the true strivers after God, who
else could be called by this name?... If these companions, with all their
marvelous testimonies and wondrous works, be false, who then is worthy to
claim for himself the truth?... Has the world since the days of Adam
witnessed such tumult, such violent commotion?... Methinks, patience was
revealed only by virtue of their fortitude, and faithfulness itself was
begotten only by their deeds."

Wishing to stress the sublimity of the Bab's exalted station as compared
with that of the Prophets of the past, Baha'u'llah in that same epistle
asserts: "N