Anyone who has studied the statements of the Hands of the Cause and those who subscribed to their interpretations in late 1957 and in the succeeding years will realize that the majority of the Hands and their followers readily disavowed the continuing Guardianship of the Faith. Even before the Hands had ventured into their secret "conclaves" beginning in November 1957, the Bahá'í world was being conditioned to having a Faith without a Guardian.
The conditioning began on November 5, 1957, with the first message sent forth by the widow of Shoghi Effendi, Rúhíyyih Khánum, following Shoghi Effendi's death on November 4th. In her cablegram announcing the first Guardian's death, she wrote: "URGE BELIEVERS REMAIN STEADFAST, CLING INSTITUTION HANDS LOVINGLY REARED, RECENTLY REINFORCED, EMPHASIZED BY BELOVED GUARDIAN." No allusion whatsoever is provided to suggest that there might be a successor to Shoghi Effendi. Instead, the believers were urged to cling to the Hands.
One day later (November 6, 1957) the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá ís of the United States, in a letter to the Bahá ís in this country, repeated a message it had forwarded to the Local Spiritual Assemblies, a message which included the cablegram of Rúhíyyih Khánum and the NSA's own injunction for "EVERY BELIEVER TO RESPOND GUARDIAN'S SUPREME SACRIFICE BY OVERWHELMING EXPRESSION OF LOYALTY DEVOTION SERVICE AND UNITY..." The friends were then informed by the NSA that "The Hands of the Cause will meet in Haifa shortly thereafter [following the funeral of Shoghi Effendi on November 9] after which announcement will be made to the Bahá'í World concerning the future direction of the Faith."
Thus was the Bahá'í world readied for the "Proclamation by the Hands of the Cause to the Bahá'ís of East and West," sent forth on November 25, 1957, following their secret conclave in 'Akka. Written by Hand of the Cause, Horace Holley (as attested to by Rúhíyyih Khánum in her eulogy of Holley following his death), the document recounts how nine Hands of the Cause searched through the materials of Shoghi Effendi and "certified that Shoghi Effendi had left no Will and Testament." The document then stated: "It was likewise certifed that the beloved Guardian had left no heir."
In addition, the proclamation announced the following: "The Aghsan (branches) one and all are either dead or have been declared violators of the Covenant by the Guardian for their faithlessness to the Master's Will and Testament and their hostility to him named first Guardian in that sacred document."
Note two things in the previous sentence: 1) The word "Aghsan" is followed by the parenthetical "branches" with a lower case "b", although when Shoghi Effendi used the word "Aghsan" he capitalized the word "Branches." (The qualification is a significant one because the word "Branches" when begun with a capital letter after "Aghsan" signifies Bahá'u'lláh's sons--and does not relate to additional members of Bahá'u'lláh's lineage.) 2) Acknowledgement is made that Shoghi Effendi was "named first Guardian" in the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, which, of course, makes the case that, until that time, other Guardians were to follow Shoghi Effendi.
However, based upon their own perceptions and failing to recognize that the appointment of his successor could not be accomplished by a written will to be opened subsequent to Shoghi Effendi's death (since the Will of 'Abdu'l-Bahá makes it clear that the appointment is to be in the Guardian's own lifetime "that differences not arise after his passing"), Holley had the Hands coming to the "realization that no successor to Shoghi Effendi could have been appointed by him" and, thus, such a realization purportedly plunged "the Hands of the Cause into the very abyss of despair."
A different story is told by Mason Remey, who, in his "Daily Observations" wrote that early in their conclave it was proposed "that the Will and Testament of the Master 'Abdu'l-Bahá be pronounced Badah [God changed His mind] and that the Guardianship be ended forever and closed forever." Mason Remey said this view was "carried enthusiastically and supported by all the Persian Hands," and when Rúhíyyih Khánum concurred with this majority, the die was cast. However, the majority of the Hands "decided that it would not do at that time to announce to the world their abandonment of the Guardianship."
During these proceedings, Mason Remey recalled a vision that he had had a few years before in which he had seen himself to be the second Guardian of the Faith, but he did not realize then the manner in which he had succeeded to the Guardianship, that is, as President of the embryonic Universal House of Justice he had actually been designated Shoghi Effendi's successor. But that realization was to come at a later time. At the conclusion of the November 1957 meeting of the Hands, Mason Remey, on the basis of his vision and with his thought that he expressed in his diary at the time "that there be nothing of the kind for me in that vision," also signed the first letter put out by the Hands.
For the next two years on an almost daily basis he would remonstrate with his fellowHands not to violate the Covenant and the Will and Testament by abandoning the Guardianship, but to no avail. Instead, using Shoghi Effendi's designation of them as the "Chief Stewards of the Embryonic World Commonwealth of Bahá u lláh" as a justification for their actions, the Hands determined to establish a Universal House of Justice which, once constituted, "on consultation with the Hands of the Cause," could examine anew the conditions of the Faith "and the measures necessary for its future operation." Never mind that within the writings of the Faith there is no provision for the Hands to exercise such authority.
Such limitations did not bother the American NSA. In a report of the NSA in the February 1958 Bahá'í News, the NSA expressed the view that "any idle questioning of the direction of Bahá'í affairs proclaimed by the Hands assembled in the Mansion of Bahá'u'lláh is swept away in this fervent, eloquent appeal to respond to the Guardian's expressed intention and hope." According to the NSA, "Those at the helm possess experience, the skill, and the devotion to steer the ship through whatever stormy seas arise until the world triumph of the Faith is demonstrated in 1963, the Centenary of Bahá'u'lláh's Declaration." Furthermore, in the U.S. Supplement to the Bahá'í News of February 1958, the NSA wrote: "The guardianship of the Faith is still vouchsafed, and the direction of the work is safeguarded through the institution of the Hands of the Cause which he [Shoghi Effendi] himself perfected within months prior to his ascension."
Thus, by April 1958, the American Hands of the Cause and the NSA of that country were sufficiently emboldened to state in a document entitled "A New Bahá'í Era": "The door to the appointment of a second Guardian...is closed" And in that same month, as reported in the U.S. Supplement to the Bahá'í News of September 1958, Horace Holley emphasized the authority of the Hands in his talk at the 50th Annual Convention, giving credit to Shoghi Effendi for the Hands' assumption of power:
"...as you know, the Guardian himself, just a little while before he passed on, constituted them [the Hands] the chief custodians, so that they could qualify under the Will and Testament to appoint a body of nine, as the Will and Testament describes, and be recognized by the Faith."
If one reads this statement for the first time, he or she might well ask: "When and where did Shoghi Effendi conceive such a scheme?" Did Shoghi Effendi actually say that the Hands were to be "the chief custodians so that they could qualify under the Will and Testament to appoint a body of nine, as the Will and Testament describes"? Was it really the first Guardian's intent to set up the Hands as a collective Guardian following his passing? Do the writings of Shoghi Effendi and of 'Abdu'l-Bahá make it evident that the matter of the succession within the Faith should be as Holley described it in his talk, when he said: "If it had not been for that provision in the Will and Testament that the Hands were to appoint a body of nine, there would have been no one but the State of Israel"?
In his presentation to the Convention, Horace Holley contended that it was indeed the Guardian's view, for Holley stated: "Now you see how tremendous this is, what a vision the Guardian had." But those who would know the truth would be well-advised to check what Shoghi Effendi actually said, for the vision that Holley attributes to Shoghi Effendi appears to be a fabricated one. It is not to be found in the first Guardian's writings.
Furthermore, according to 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Will, the members of the body of nine Hands to which Holley referred were "to be occupied in the work of the guardian of the Cause of God." This provision, however, does not imply that they were to be the Guardian. The Will simply provides that these Hands "must give their assent to the choice of the one whom the guardian of the Cause of God hath chosen as his successor," a provision that Shoghi Effendi had previously indicated (Bahá'í News of Feb. 1955, p. 1) did not give the Hands the authority to overrule the Guardian. Like all the other Hands, the nine Hands are to "be under his [the Guardian's] shadow and obey his command."
'Abdu'l-Bahá's Will certainly identifies the relationship between the Hands and the Guardian of the Faith:
"This body of the Hands of the Cause of God is under the direction of the guardian of the Cause of God. He must continually urge them to strive and endeavor to the utmost of their ability to diffuse the sweet savors of God, and to guide all the peoples of the world, for it is the light of Divine Guidance that causeth all the universe to be illumined. To disregard, though it be for a moment, this absolute command which is binding upon everyone, is in no wise permitted..."
By January of 1959, however, the Hands of the Faith were firmly entrenched in their position of authority, and the Hands of the Cause in America (Corinne True and Horace Holley) could therefore state in a message to the 1958 state conventions that "the Chief Stewards supply the instrument through which the Bahá í World Community is guided and encouraged to complete the projects defined by the Guardian." The implication, of course, was that Shoghi Effendi had provided what was needed by the Hands to guide the Faith. Never mind that 'Abdul-Bahá had said that the Guardian "must continually urge them"!
In the report of the 51st U.S. National Convention, printed in the June 1959 Bahá'í News, the convention reporters singled out Horace Holley's brief address to the Convention. They wrote: "Particularly impressive was his reminder that through one inspired sentence designating the Hands as 'chief stewards,' Shoghi Effendi gave continuity to the Faith after his passing, when no national assembly could have taken the initiative in order to assure this."
Thus it was that the Hands in their "Third Annual Message...to the Bahá'ís of East and West" could assume all authority for the future of the Faith. Their message is replete with their usurped authority:
* "we have fixed the date for the election of the Universal House of Justice as Ridván 1963..."
* "We have therefore formulated the following plan of action..."
* "We call for the election in Ridván 1961 of the twentyone National Spiritual Assemblies of Latin America..."
* "We have therefore set the date for the election of these European National Bodies..."
* "We are also happy to announce that another milestone in Bahá'í history will be reached with the election of the International Bahá'í Council during Ridván 1961." (And in so doing they bypassed the establishment of a Bahá'í Court, called for in Shoghi Effendi's proclamation of the Council on January 9, 1951, and which the first Guardian on April 25, 1951, characterized as an "essential prelude to the institution of the Universal House of Justice.")
In their position of control, the Hands placed themselves over the Council, the embryonic Universal House of Justice, adding to the functions that the Guardian had originally given the Council. They said that the Council would be expected "To assist the Hands of the Cause in the care of the properties at the World Center, and in the establishment of the Universal House of Justice; and in any other functions which the Hands may assign from time to time."
Little wonder, then, that Mason Remey, whom Shoghi Effendi had appointed as the President of the Council, refused to go along with the plans of the Hands and left Haifa. Yet little wonder is it also that in Ridván of 1960, when Mason Remey identified himself as the second Guardian, most of those who saw or heard of his proclamation immediately discounted what he said and continued to follow the Hands. The conditioning of the vast majority of believers was complete. They now felt that a living Guardian of the Faith was no longer necessary and they could rationalize, along with the Hands, that the Hands were empowered to do what they were doing, even though it meant the abandonment of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Document that Shoghi Effendi identified with Bahá'u'lláh's Most Holy Book, saying that they "are inseparable parts of one complete unit."
The great majority of Bahá'ís can no longer subscribe to that statement of Shoghi Effendi's. Determining that a living Guardian is no longer necessary to guide the Faith, the Hands and their followers have blissfully brought Bahá'í Holy Writ to naught.