A Covenant in the religious sense is a binding agreement
between God and man, whereby God requires of man certain behaviour in return
for which He guarantees certain blessings, or whereby He gives man certain
bounties in return for which He takes from those who accept them an undertaking
to behave in a certain way. There is, for example, the Greater Covenant which
every Manifestation of God makes with His followers, promising that in the
fulness of time a new Manifestation will be sent, and taking from them the
undertaking to accept Him when this occurs. There is also the Lesser Covenant
that a Manifestation of God makes with His followers that they will accept His
appointed successor after Him. If they do so, the Faith can remain united and
pure. If not, the Faith becomes divided and its force spent. It is a Covenant
of this kind that Bahá'u'lláh made with His followers regarding 'Abdu'l-Bahá
and that 'Abdu'l-Bahá perpetuated through the Administrative Order...
- The Universal House of Justice (From a
letter dated 23 March 1975, to an individual believer; The Compilation of
Compilations, vol. I, The Covenant)
