is crisis, misconceived as a schism, which political as well as
ecclesiastical adversaries, no less than the fast dwindling remnant of the
followers of Mirza Yahya hailed as a signal for the immediate disruption
and final dissolution of the system established by Baha'u'llah, was
precipitated at the very heart and center of His Faith, and was provoked
by no one less than a member of His own family, a half-brother of
'Abdu'l-Baha, specifically named in the book of the Covenant, and holding
a rank second to none except Him Who had been appointed as the Center of
that Covenant. For no less than four years that emergency fiercely
agitated the minds and hearts of a vast proportion of the faithful
throughout the East, eclipsed, for a time, the Orb of the Covenant,
created an irreparable breach within the ranks of Baha'u'llah's own
kindred, sealed ultimately the fate of the great majority of the members
of His family, and gravely damaged the prestige, though it never succeeded
in causing a permanent cleavage in the structure, of the Faith itself. The
true ground of this crisis was the burning, the uncontrollable, the
soul-festering jealousy which the admitted preeminence of 'Abdu'l-Baha in
rank, power, ability, knowledge and virtue, above all the other members of
His Father's family, had aroused not only in Mirza Muhammad-'Ali, the
archbreaker of the Covenant, but in some of his closest relatives as well.
An envy as blind as that which had possessed the soul of Mirza Yahya, as
deadly as that which the superior excellence of Joseph had kindled in the
hearts of his brothers, as deep-seated as that which had blazed in the
bosom of Cain and prompted him to slay his brother Abel, had, for several
years, prior to Baha'u'llah's ascension, been smouldering in the recesses
of Mirza Muhammad-'Ali's heart and had been secretly inflamed by those
unnumbered marks of distinction, of admiration and favor accorded to
'Abdu'l-Baha not only by Baha'u'llah Himself, His companions and His
followers, but by the vast number of unbelievers who had come to recognize
that innate greatness which 'Abdu'l-Baha had manifested from childhood.

Far from being allayed by the provisions of a Will which had elevated him
to the second-highest position within the ranks of the faithful, the fire
of unquenchable animosity that glowed in the breast of Mirza Muhammad-'Ali
burned even more fiercely as soon as he came to realize the full
implications of that Document. Al