Covenant of Baháʼu'lláh

The greater covenant refers to an agreement of progressive revelation: that God will send messengers about every thousand years, and it is humanity's duty to recognize them and respond to their teachings.

For example, they regard the successorships of Jesus to Saint Peter and Muhammad to Ali as unwritten attempts to maintain unity that ultimately failed as their religions broke into contending factions.

[1] Through the covenant, the Baháʼí Faith prevented schism, and the several attempts to form alternative leadership have failed to attract a sizeable following due to their lack of scriptural authority.

[1] For their part in the greater covenant, the followers of each religion have a duty to investigate with an open mind whether a person who claims to be the promised messenger of their faith does, or does not, spiritually fulfill relevant prophecies.

[4][5] In expressing God's will for this world they reveal social and spiritual principles and laws which educate human beings according to their capacities and the specific needs of the time and place in which each manifestation appears.

Unto this subtle, this mysterious and ethereal Being He hath assigned a twofold nature; the physical, pertaining to the world of matter, and the spiritual, which is born of the substance of God Himself.

[11][12] Differences between revelations are not considered dependent upon the knowledge of a particular manifestation, but are instead attributed to various societal needs and factors reflecting the "conditions" and "varying requirements of the age" and the "spiritual capacity" of those being taught.

[13] By means of this school of divine guidance, humans have gradually evolved to achieve ever-widening circles of unity involving families, tribes, city-states, and most recently nations.

[14][15] Based on this concept, Bahá'ís accept the divine origin of all the world's major religions and see them as different stages of one great educational process ordained by God.

Bahá'ís also believe Bahá'u'lláh is the most recent manifestation sent by God, and through the application of his teachings the human race will finally attain its collective maturity.

[16][17] The nature and promise of God's greater covenant with all people is a key component of religious literature, expressed in both prophecies and mentioned by the divine teachers themselves.

[2] The first is to recognize and accept the new manifestation when he comes, the second is to obey and put into practice the new teachings he brings; Bahá'u'lláh describes these twin duties are inseparable.

[20]As God fulfills His greater covenant through the process of progressive revelation, Bahá'u'lláh declares in his Book of Certitude that the Lord also tests the purity of heart and sincerity of those who claim to be devoted followers of a former manifestation whenever a new one appears.

[26] Being firm in the covenant of Bahá'u'lláh, loyal to its provisions, and having unshakable confidence that decisions of the authority at center of the Baha'i Faith reflects the will of God, is a chief spiritual virtue for Bahá'ís.

[31] When the Kitáb-i-'Ahd was unsealed and read after his death, Bahá'u'lláh's previous references to 'Abdu'l-Bahá in these two documents were confirmed and then fully understood by believers.