Series of Questions continued from the posting of September 7, 2008Q.5. What is the reason then why the present group of Baha’is under the leadership of the Haifa organization do not recognize the continuance of the Guardianship?
Ans. Upon the passing of Shoghi Effendi in November 1957, a majority of the Baha’is were tragically led astray from their former faithful adherence to the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha by the highly revered Hands of the Cause (distinguished and highly esteemed assistants appointed by the Guardian who serve under his direction) who, upon the passing of Shoghi Effendi, failed to recognize the import and significance of Shoghi Effendi’s appointment of Mason Remey as President of the first International Baha’i Council (the embryonic Universal House of Justice) over which according to the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha only the Guardian of the Faith presides as its “sacred head” and for this reason had been carefully retained by Shoghi Effendi as an inactive body, pending his passing. These Hands, losing sight of the fact that the Guardian must appoint his successor “in his own life-time” and therefore not by a conventional will and testament, upon not finding such a will, erroneously concluded that the Guardianship had come to a premature end. They then appointed a body of nine Hands from their own number, a body outside the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, which assumed the role and functions of the Guardianship and took control of the world administrative seat of the Faith in Haifa. Some six years later, in 1963,this body transferred the authority and functions it had illegitimately assumed to the UHJ in Haifa, a now headless and incomplete body in the absence of a presiding Guardian, whose successor elected bodies have been similarly named Universal Houses of Justice. It should be clearly understood that the Universal House of Justice established by ‘Abdu’l-Baha in His Will and Testament was designed as the supreme legislative body of the Faith, in contrast to the Guardianship who is endowed with supreme executive authority in the Faith, and for this reason these two institutions of the Baha’i Administrative Order are complementary and inseparable and have been referred to by Shoghi Effendi as the “twin institutions” of the Faith. As the so-called UHJ in Haifa is currently inappropriately exercising both executive and legislative functions, this body is therefore rightfully considered by Orthodox Baha’is to be a patently illegitimate body. Furthermore, under the terms of the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha the Guardian of the Faith, is not only designated the “Center of the Cause” and the sole interpreter of Baha’i Holy Writ but he is endowed, as well, with the essential function of presiding, for life, as “the sacred head” of the Universal House of Justice, and as the sole interpreter of the Words of Baha’u’llah, thereby insures that the UHJ does not consider, much less pass, any legislation that would be contrary to the spirit or meaning of the laws revealed by Baha’u’llah or would run counter to His utterances.
Ans. Upon the passing of Shoghi Effendi in November 1957, a majority of the Baha’is were tragically led astray from their former faithful adherence to the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha by the highly revered Hands of the Cause (distinguished and highly esteemed assistants appointed by the Guardian who serve under his direction) who, upon the passing of Shoghi Effendi, failed to recognize the import and significance of Shoghi Effendi’s appointment of Mason Remey as President of the first International Baha’i Council (the embryonic Universal House of Justice) over which according to the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha only the Guardian of the Faith presides as its “sacred head” and for this reason had been carefully retained by Shoghi Effendi as an inactive body, pending his passing. These Hands, losing sight of the fact that the Guardian must appoint his successor “in his own life-time” and therefore not by a conventional will and testament, upon not finding such a will, erroneously concluded that the Guardianship had come to a premature end. They then appointed a body of nine Hands from their own number, a body outside the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, which assumed the role and functions of the Guardianship and took control of the world administrative seat of the Faith in Haifa. Some six years later, in 1963,this body transferred the authority and functions it had illegitimately assumed to the UHJ in Haifa, a now headless and incomplete body in the absence of a presiding Guardian, whose successor elected bodies have been similarly named Universal Houses of Justice. It should be clearly understood that the Universal House of Justice established by ‘Abdu’l-Baha in His Will and Testament was designed as the supreme legislative body of the Faith, in contrast to the Guardianship who is endowed with supreme executive authority in the Faith, and for this reason these two institutions of the Baha’i Administrative Order are complementary and inseparable and have been referred to by Shoghi Effendi as the “twin institutions” of the Faith. As the so-called UHJ in Haifa is currently inappropriately exercising both executive and legislative functions, this body is therefore rightfully considered by Orthodox Baha’is to be a patently illegitimate body. Furthermore, under the terms of the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha the Guardian of the Faith, is not only designated the “Center of the Cause” and the sole interpreter of Baha’i Holy Writ but he is endowed, as well, with the essential function of presiding, for life, as “the sacred head” of the Universal House of Justice, and as the sole interpreter of the Words of Baha’u’llah, thereby insures that the UHJ does not consider, much less pass, any legislation that would be contrary to the spirit or meaning of the laws revealed by Baha’u’llah or would run counter to His utterances.
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