Baha'u'llah, the Great Perfection - blessed be His words -
in the past, the present and forever - chose this insignificant one to be His
successor, not because I was the first born, but because His inner eye had
already discerned on my brow the seal of God. Before His ascension into eternal
Light the blessed Manifestation reminded me that I too irrespective of
primogeniture or age - must observe among my sons and grandsons whom God would
indicate for His office. My sons passed to eternity in their tenderest years,
in my line, among my relatives, only little Shoghi has the shadow of a great
calling in the depths of his eyes.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha
(Quoted to have told a German woman doctor, named Dr. J. Fallscheer, who
lived in Haifa in the days of the Master and occasionally attended the ladies
of His household; included by the Universal House of Justice in a letter dated
December 23, 1974 to the Hands of the Cause of God and the Continental Board of
Counsellors; printed in ‘The Power of Covenant, Part Two’, by the NSA of
Canada)
