A Study of Baha’u’llah’s
Kitab-i-Iqan, The Book of Certitude
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The duration of dispensation of Christ was 622 years; that of Muhammad was 1222 years (i.e. 1844-622=1222 solar years or 1260 lunar years). The number of years separating the revelation of the Bab from that of Baha’u’llah was nine, however these two dispensations are intertwined. The Baha’i dispensation will be at least 1000 years. The interval of 1000 years given in this paragraph, as shown in the two interpretations given below by the Guardian, is to be taken as very approximate. – F.A.
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1565. Duration of the Baha'i Cycle and Dispensation
"Concerning your question relative to the duration of the Baha'i Dispensation. There is no contradiction between Baha'u'llah's statement in the Iqan about the renewal of the City of God once every 1000 years, and that of the Guardian in the 'Dispensation' to the effect that the Baha'i cycle will extend over a period of at least 500,000 years. The apparent contradictions is due to the confusion of the terms cycle and dispensation. For while the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah will last for at least one thousand years, His cycle will extend still farther to at least 500,000."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, November 14, 1935: Baha'i News. No. 102. August 1936, pp. 2-3)
(Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 474 )
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1602. Iqan, Kitab-I-Iqan -'City of God', Meaning of
"...as to the meaning of the passage in the 'Iqan' in which Baha'u'llah refers to the renewal of the 'City of God' once in about a thousand years: this, as the word about implies, is simply an approximate date, and should not therefore be taken literally."
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, October 29, 1938: Dawn of a New Day, p. 202)
(Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 482 )