Take heed lest the word "Prophet" withhold you from this Most Great Announcement #167 181. any reference to "Vicegerency" debar you from the sovereignty of Him Who is the Vicegerent of God #167 182. Call ye to mind Karím #170 183. O ye the learned ones in Bahá #173 184. refer ye whatsoever ye understand not in the Book to Him Who hath branched from this mighty Stock #174 185. the School of Transcendent Oneness #175 186. We accepted the verses of God ... which He presented unto Us #175 187. O people of the Bayán! #176 188. the letters B and E were joined and knit together #177 189. this new World Order #181 190. O source of perversion! #184 191. remember how We nurtured thee by day and by night for service to the Cause #184 192. God hath laid hold on him who led thee astray. #184 193. Select ye a single language ... adopt ye ... a common script. #189 194. We have appointed two signs for the coming of age of the human race #189 Glossary PREFACE In 1953 Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, included as one of the goals of his Ten Year Plan the preparation of a Synopsis and Codification of the Laws and Ordinances of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas as an essential prelude to its translation. He himself worked on the codification, but had not finished it when he died in 1957. The task was continued on the basis of his work, and the resulting volume was released in 1973. That publication included, in addition to the Synopsis and Codification itself and explanatory notes, a compilation of the passages from the Kitáb-i-Aqdas which had already been translated by Shoghi Effendi and published in various books. The Synopsis and Codification covered the text of both the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and the Questions and Answers which constitutes an appendix to the Aqdas. In 1986 the Universal House of Justice decided that the time had come when the preparation of an English translation of the complete text of the Most Holy Book was both possible and essential and made its accomplishment a goal of the Six Year Plan 1986-1992. Its publication in English will be followed by translations in other languages. It has been recognized that the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, being Sacred Scripture, should be presented in a form which can be read with ease and inspiration, uncluttered with the footnotes and index numbers that are common in scholarly texts. Nonetheless, to assist the reader in following the flow of the text and its changing themes, paragraph divisions have been added—such divisions not being common in works of Arabic literature—and these paragraphs have then been numbered for ease of access and indexing, as well as for uniformity of reference in all the languages in which the work will be published. Following the text of the Aqdas is a brief compilation of Writings of Bahá’u’lláh which are supplementary to the Most Holy Book, and a translation of the Questions and Answers published here for the first time.