Shoghi Effending Quotes 'Abdu'l-Bahá, in The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, about the Kingdom of earth and the Interpreter
"I affirm," is 'Abdu'l-Bahá's own written comment on the Tablet of the Branch, "that the true meaning, the real significance, the inner most secret of these verses, of these very words, is my own servitude to the sacred Threshold of the Abha Beauty, my complete self effacement, my utter nothingness before Him. This is my resplendent crown, my most precious adorning. On this I pride myself in the Kingdom of earth and heaven. Therein I glory among the company of the well-favored." "No one is permitted," He warns us in the passage which immediately follows, "to give these verses any other interpretation." "I am," He, in this same connection, affirms, "according to the explicit texts of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and the Kitáb-i-'Ahd the manifest Interpreter of the Word ofGod...Whoso deviates from my interpretation is a victim of his own fancy." –Shoghi Effendi. The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 138.