He[the Báb, earlier in His Ministry] likewise composed a
number of works in explanation and elucidation of the verses of the Qur’án, of
sermons, and of prayers in Arabic; inciting and urging men to expect the
appearance of that Person; and these books He named “Inspired Pages” and “Word
of Conscience.” But on investigation it was discovered that He laid no claim to
revelation from an angel.
Now since He was noted amongst the people for lack of
instruction and education, this circumstance appeared in the sight of men
supernatural. Some men inclined to Him, but the greater part manifested strong
disapproval; whilst all the learned doctors and lawyers of repute who occupied
chairs, altars, and pulpits were unanimously agreed on eradication and
suppression, save some divines of the Shaykhí party who were
anchorites and recluses, and who, agreeably to their tenets, were ever seeking
for some great, incomparable, and trustworthy person, whom they accounted,
according to their own terminology, as the “Fourth Support” and the central manifestation
of the truths of the Perspicuous Religion. (‘Abdu’l-Baha, ‘A Traveler’s
Narrative’)
