The fourth period (1921–1944) is motivated by the forces
radiating from the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l
‑Bahá, that
Charter of Bahá’u’lláh’s New World Order, the offspring
resulting from the mystic intercourse between Him Who is the Source of the Law
of God and the mind of the One Who is the vehicle and interpreter of that Law.
The inception of this fourth, this last period of the first Bahá’í century synchronizes with the birth of the Formative Age of
the Bahá’í Era, with the founding of the
Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh—a system which is at once the
harbinger, the nucleus and pattern of His World Order. This period, covering
the first twenty-three years of this Formative Age, has already been
distinguished by an outburst of further hostility, of a different character,
accelerating on the one hand the diffusion of the Faith over a still wider area
in each of the five continents of the globe, and resulting on the other in the
emancipation and the recognition of the independent status of several
communities within its pale.
- Shoghi Effendi
(‘Preface to God Passes By’)
