The pertinent paragraph appears under the heading of
"ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER" and reads as follows:
"The passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá marked the
termination of the first and Heroic Age of the Bahá'í Faith
and signalized the opening of the Formative Age destined to witness the
gradual emergence of its Administrative Order, whose establishment had been
foretold by the Báb, whose laws were revealed by
Bahá'u'lláh, whose outlines were delineated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá
in His Will and Testament, and whose foundations are now being laid by national
and local councils which are elected by the professed adherents of the Faith, and
which are paving the way for the constitution of the World Council, to be
designated as the Universal House of Justice, which in conjunction with me, as
its appointed Head and the authorized interpreter of the Bahá'í
teachings, must coordinate and direct the affairs of the Bahá'í
community, and whose seat will be permanently established in the Holy Land, in
close proximity to its world spiritual center, the resting-places of its
Founders."
When Shoghi Effendi subsequently proclaimed the appointment of
this "World Council" in his cablegram of 9 January 1951, he significantly
and appropriately addressed this Proclamation to the "National Assemblies
of East and West" for, as the supreme administrative body in the
Bahá'í World, this Council would exercise administrative authority
over these national bodies. He provisionally named this World Council the
"International Bahá'í Council," a title that
appropriately described its role and function as the supreme administrative
institution in the Bahá'í Administrative Order, and he outlined the
several intermediary stages through which it would necessarily evolve prior to
"its efflorescence into the Universal House of Justice." However,
he did not immediately activate this World Council as an administratively
functioning body under his Presidency, as would have been anticipated, in the
light of his statement to the United Nations Committee quoted above, but created
this Council as an embryonic institution, but yet a complete
organism "from the first" which, as explained by
'Abdu'l-Bahá, is true of all embryonic organisms, (BWF p.313). In
creating this supreme administrative institution in its embryonic form, Shoghi
Effendi appointed both its irremovable embryonic Head (who would remain
that head as long as he lived) and a body of eight other members who,
although initially appointed, would, as he outlined, be elected members when the
Council became "an elected body," in the third stage of its
development. Having thus established "this first embryonic International
Institution,"–this embryonic Universal House of Justice–Shoghi
Effendi then carefully retained it as an inactively functioning
institution during the remaining years of his ministry, as attested by
Mason Remey, its appointed President, assigning tasks only to individual members
of the Council. In retaining, in this way, the International
Bahá'í Council as an inactive embryonic institution, Shoghi
Effendi had been able to use it as an instrument for indirectly appointing and
identifying his chosen successor "in his own lifetime,"
as enjoined by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in His Will and Testament, for the
embryonic President of this embryonic body and therefore the Guardian-to-be, are
indisputably one and the same person who would be awaiting birth into active life
upon Shoghi Effendi's passing. As neither the Hands of the Cause nor the
believers at large had perceived the significance of this act, Shoghi Effendi had
been successful in ingeniously veiling from the believers at the time the
identity of his chosen successor, Mason Remey, a Hand of the Cause whose
unparalleled services for the Cause had commenced at the turn of the century
during the Ministry of 'Abdul-Bahá, Who had acknowledged his unique and
outstanding services and his exemplary fidelity to the Covenant in his many
eulogies of him that may be read in the early publication, "Star of the West." As
evidence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's esteem for him, He had addressed a Tablet to
him on 2 March 1915, appearing in that publication, in which he significantly
promised him that: "Ere long, Thy Lord shall make thee a sign of
guidance among mankind." He was at the time of his appointment as
President of the International Council (identified to the Bahá'í
World as President of the Council in Shoghi Effendi's cablegram of 2 March 1951
)some twenty five years older than Shoghi Effendi. Had he been recognized at
that time, by the Hands and the believers throughout the World as Shoghi
Effendi's successor by reason of that appointment, this would have inevitably
revealed to them, to their great consternation, the inescapable fact that for
Mason Remey to outlive Shoghi Effendi and succeed him as Guardian of the Faith,
Shoghi Effendi had clearly foreseen and had, in effect, predicted his own early
passing (destined to take place some seven years later in November 1957).
It should therefore be clear why Shoghi Effendi had retained
the Council as an inactively functioning body during the remaining years of his
ministry which would only, upon his passing, assume its rightful active role, as
the supreme administrative body in the Bahá'í World presided over
by Shoghi Effendi's appointed President, Mason Remey, who could be none other
than his chosen successor. This Council then, for the first time, would become
an actively functioning "World Council," and commence to "coordinate and
direct the affairs of the Bahá'í community" as Shoghi
Effendi had projected in his letter to the United Nations Committee.
The projected active role and supreme administrative authority
of the International Council was further confirmed in a message sent to the
Bahá'í World on 23 November 1951 in which Shoghi Effendi stated
that during the evolution of the "Master Plan designed by
'Abdu'l-Bahá," the final stage of which he titled
the "Ten Year Global Crusade," would commence at Ridván 1953 and be
designed to: "embrace all the continents of the earth and will bring the
Central Body [i.e. the International Bahá'í Council]
directing these widely ramified operations into direct contact with all the
National Assemblies of the Bahá'í world which in varying degrees,
will have to contribute their share to the world establishment of the Cause of
Bahá'u'lláh, as prophesied by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and envisioned by
Daniel,–a consummation that God willing, will be befittingly celebrated on
the occasion of the Most Great Jubilee commemorating the hundredth anniversary of
the formal assumption by Bahá'u'lláh of His Prophetic Office."
As Shoghi Effendi labored to erect, "at long last the
machinery of its highest institutions" and the "supreme organs of
its unfolding Order," he followed up his appointment of the International
Bahá'í Council–this "Central Body" of the
Faith–with the appointment of the first contingent of twelve living Hands of
the Cause in his cablegram of 24 December 1952. He made additional appointments
during the concluding years of his ministry, raising the number to twenty-seven
at the time of his passing. On 8 October 1957, one month before his passing,
Shoghi Effendi dispatched his last cablegram to the Bahá'í World in
which he referred to the Hands of the Cause as the "Chief Stewards of
Bahá'u'lláh's embryonic World Comonwealth" with the clear
implication that unfortunately was never perceived by the Hands, that while they
were the current Chief Stewards–these Hands of the Cause–appointed by
the Guardian of the Faith would, as they died, be no more, but the institution of
the Hands itself as an integral and immortal organ of the embryonic Commonwealth
of Bahá'u'lláh, would continue to exist as long as the Dispensation
of Bahá'u'lláh endured, and that future Hands would continue to be
appointed by future Guardians during the course of the development of this
embryonic Commonwealth and as it achieved ultimate maturity in the Golden
Age of Bahá'u'lláh, similarly to the other institutions of the
Bahá'í Administrative Order, delineated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in
his sacred, divinely-conceived and immortal Will and Testament.
Upon Shoghi Effendi's passing, the Hands convened a conclave
in 'Akká less than three weeks later and, as their first act, delegated
nine Hands from their number to undertake a search of the safe and files of
Shoghi Effendi's office in Haifa, which had previously, upon his death, been
carefully sealed and secured. This search was carried out apparently in the
expectation of finding a will and testament in which Shoghi Effendi had named a
successor, in spite of the clear and unambiguous provision of the Will and
Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá which states that: "It is incumbent upon
the guardian of the Cause of God to appoint in his own life-time him that shall
become his successor."
Of course, no such will and testament was found, for Shoghi
Effendi, in complete fidelity to and compliance with the provisions of
Abdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament, had not used a testamentary document to
appoint a successor but had accomplished the appointment in the manner discussed
above. Although a will and testament was not found, the Hands
would still have been expected to retain an unwavering faith and assurance that
Shoghi Effendi would not have failed to be completely faithful to the provisions
of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and to conclude that he had
appointed a successor in some other way unforseen by them at the time. Assuming
that to be the case, they certainly would have been expected to at least have
taken the time to re-examine the provisions of the sacred and divinely-conceived
Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to discover why or if they had been
wrong in looking for a testamentary document in which Shoghi Effendi had
appointed a successor. For in accomplishig such a review they would have
perceived that 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Will clearly makes it incumbent upon the
Guardian to name his successor "in his own life-time," and that it
would have been for this reason that Shoghi Effendi had not left a will and
testament naming a successsor. The Hands then would certainly have realized the
necessity of undertaking a careful and thorough review of the important acts
taken, historic decisions announced or statements made by Shoghi Effendi during
his ministry, the significance of which they had obviously overlooked at the time
that had pointed to or had revealed the identity of his appointed successor. Such
a review however was never undertaken by the Hands, as attested by Mason Remey in
his diary titled "Daily Observations," and, in fact, in the opening few minutes
of the first consultative meeting they held after searching in vain for a will
and testament left by Shoghi Effendi, they came to the hasty, tragic and
unwarranted conclusion, as announced by them to the Bahá'í World in
the "Unanimous Proclamation" they issued on 25 November 1957., that
Shoghi Effendi had passed away "without having appointed a
successor."
Seizing upon the appellation that Shoghi Effendi had given
them in his last message to the Bahá'í World, quoted above, the
Hands interpreted this appellation to endow the institution of the Hands with a
primacy over all other institutions of the Faith and an institution now invested
with supreme authority in the Faith, notwithstanding the fact that such authority
is clearly not theirs under the provisions of the Will and Testament of
'Abdu'l-Bahá. Deluded as they now were in this belief of their supreme
authority, the Hands had the temerity to announce to the Bahá'í
World in the Proclamation cited above, that they were "the supreme body of
the Bahá'í World Community and yet, in the very same
Proclamation, they surrendered most, if not all, of their authority in their
announced appointment of an illicit body of nine Hands from their number to which
they gave the appellation: "Custodians of the Bahá'í World
Faith," a body completely outside the provisions of the Will and
Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. This illicitly formed body then ignominiously
proceeded not only to flagrantly usurp the functions that should have been
rightfully exercised by an actively functioning International Council, as Shoghi
Effendi had planned, but, as announced in this same Proclamation, to shamelessly
assume all of the "functions, rights and powers in succession to the
Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith." Thus, this illicitly
established bogus body disregarded Shoghi Effendi's projected plans for the
International Council, made it subordinate to themselves, and blatantly usurped
its functions as they took over direction of the National Assemblies in their
prosecution of the remaining goals of the Ten Year Global Crusade.
In their further plans, the Hands announced that the body of
the Custodians in which they had invested such great authority would cease to
exist after its brief reign of some six years with the election of the Universal
House of Justice during Ridván in 1963. Although it would be a body minus
its "sacred head"–the Guardian of the Faith–and therefore
a headless, fallible and illegitimate body, they nevertheless would pretend that
it was nothiing less than "that Supreme body" unmindful of the
further fact that its election at this stage in the evolution of the Faith was
far too premature, as Shoghi Effendi's plans, embodied in the goals of the Ten
Year Global Crusade had not envisaged the evolution of the International
Bahá'í Council beyond its second essential stage as an
International Bahá'í Court by Ridván 1963 and even then it's
establishment as an International Court would be contingent upon the
establishment of six national Bahá'í Courts "in the chief cities
of the Islamic East" which he had named. Although, the demise of the
ill-named body of the "Custodians of the Bahá'í World Faith" would,
according to their plans, take place coincident with the election of their
headless Universal House of Justice at Ridván 1963, they made no mention
about the assumption by that illegitimate body of the "functions rights and
powers in succession to the Guardian" previously usurped by these
Custodians. It may have been inferred that the Hands intended that these
function, rights and powers be assumed by their so-called Universal House of
Justice, even though interpretation of the sacred Writings is a right reserved
solely to the Guardian of the Faith according to the Will and Testament of
'Abdu'l-Bahá.
It should be clear to any unbiased observer from the foregoing
discussion that, in the Hands' unseemly haste to end the Guardianship of the Cause
of God and in their usurpation of the "functions, rights and powers" of
the Guardian of the Cause of God as well as the role and functions of the
International Bahá'í Council–the embryonic Universal House of
Justice–they had been guilty of an inexcusable lack of faith in the Covenant
of Bahá'u'lláh, a repudiation of the most important provisions of
the Will and Testament of 'Abu'l-Bahá, and a shameful betrayal of both
'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi in their complete corruption of the
Bahá'í Administrative Order whose Institutions he had so
laboriously labored to erect during his 36 year ministry in complete conformity
with the divinely-conceived, sacred and immutable provisions of the Will and
Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
The Hands of the Cause were equally guilty of ignoring other
historic and equally highly significant statements made by Shoghi Effendi in his
writings and cablegrams that undeniably proved the continuation of the
Guardianship and the essentiality of this Institution to the World Order of
Bahá'u'lláh. These failures have been discussed at length in other
writings of the undersigned as well as by many of the believers who have remained
steadfast in their faith in the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh and may be
found in the respective web pages where this documentation has been posted.
Joel Bray Marangella
Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith
September 2004
