With it, may be said to have begun the last and most fruitful of the four stages of a life,
- the first twenty-seven years of which were characterized by the care-free enjoyment of all the advantages conferred by high birth and riches, and by an unfailing solicitude for the interests of the poor, the sick and the down-trodden;
- followed by nine years of active and exemplary discipleship in the service of the Báb;
- and finally by an imprisonment of four months’ duration, overshadowed throughout by mortal peril, embittered by agonizing sorrows, and immortalized, as it drew to a close,
- by the sudden eruption of the forces released by an overpowering, soul-revolutionizing Revelation.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘God Passes By’)
