The Fateful Decisions Affecting the Future of the Cause
Made by the Hands Assembled at Bahji Two Weeks after the Passing of Shoghi
Effendi
(The unrecorded and unpublished account
as revealed by one who was present)
When a tenet of one's religion is fundamental to the
administration of that Faith, the practitioners of that Faith will emphasize
the tenet so that no one outside the religion will have any doubt about
the importance of the matter. Thus, Orthodox Baha'is repeatedly refer to
the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha, which the first Guardian of the
Faith characterized as the "Charter of the New World Order."
In particular, Orthodox Baha'is repeatedly point to the provision within
that sacred and immutable Document that establishes a continuing line of
Guardians, each of whom is to be appointed by his predecessor in the predecessor's
lifetime and each of whom is to be the "sacred head" of the Universal
House of Justice (UHJ), the supreme legislative institution of the Faith
"for life of that body."
Since 1963 the position of the Orthodox Baha'is has taken
on increased significance because in that year the heterodox Baha'i organization
formed a UHJ without its sacred head. This event occurred six and a half
years after the passing on November 4, 1957, of Shoghi Effendi, the first
Guardian of the Faith.
The story behind the formation of the sans-Guardian UHJ
is set in the Mansion of Baha'u'llah at Bahji in Israel, on November 19
and 20, 1957. Except for some minor emendations, the story is told in the
words of one of the Hands of the Cause, who, in those fateful days, kept
a diary that he called his "Daily Observations." This, then,
is his account of what transpired on those November days in 1957...
***
"Twenty-six of the twenty-seven Hands of the Faith,
assembled in conclave in the great pillared hall of the Mansion of Bahje
in the early afternoon, after the reading of prayers, read the report of
those of us who had searched in the Guardian's rooms and found no will
and testament among his papers. Such in a few words was our report.
"Upon Ruhiyyih Khanum's* insistence, no minutes
or written records were kept of the proceedings of the conclave. To me
this seemed to be unwise. I felt that a record should be kept of this most
important meeting of the Hands of the Faith, but as no one made any objection
to this procedure, and as I myself was quite conditioned through my years
of residence in Haifa to accept and to follow without question everything
that Ruhiyyih Khanum told us to do, I therefore refrained from saying anything
about this subject.
"No one objected to her insistence in this matter,
so no records were taken. There followed, as I remember, some talk upon
the parts of a number of our members about inconsequential things and then
the meeting was adjourned until the following morning.
"Several of us returned to Haifa for the night while
the rest, consisting of all of the Persian Hands, remained the night at
Bahje, where we who had gone to Haifa for the night met with them on the
following morning.
"Following prayers and some mention of the Guardianship
to the effect that no will or testament had been found in the safe or in
the desk of Shoghi Effendi, Dr. Muhajir, the youngest of the Persian Hands,
sprang to his feet proposing that the Will and Testament of the Master
'Abdu'l-Baha be pronounced BADAH [a term found in Islam meaning that God
changed His mind] and that the Guardianship be ended forever and closed
forever.
'This was immediately seconded and carried enthusiastically
and supported by all the Persian Hands, who spoke to the point supporting
the putting aside for a thousand years (until the coming of the next Manifestation)
the institution of the Guardianship -- allowing that this next coming Manifestation
might then possibly see fit to reestablish the Guardianship if he thought
best in a thousand years from this present date -- but as far as this dispensation
was concerned that there should be no more Guardianship.
"Each of the Persian Hands spoke supporting this
motion, each repeating practically verbatim the same argument, so one could
understand at first thought that they had talked it up and decided it all
beforehand. This entire matter was so quickly done and its passage pressed
and accomplished so quickly that it was very apparent that at some time
during those night hours these Persian Hands at Behje had consulted together
and made a covenant amongst themselves and had made this arrangement to
pronounce the Guardianship Badah and thus railroad the matter through and
carry the day. Furthermore, Ruhiyyih Khanum concurred with this majority,
so their point was carried by the majority.
"Subsequently in this conclave, without abandoning
their intention of no more Guardianship, these Hands decided that it would
not do at that time to announce to the world their abandonment of the Guardianship
since there would be many believers to whom this would be a great shock
and disappointment. Therefore, it was decided in their Proclamation to
the world that no mention was to be made of the word "Guardianship"
but that the program of these Hands would be to elect by a popular democratic
vote of the prolotariat of the Faith a Universal House of Justice in 1963,
a House of Justice that the majority agreed would be infallible..."
--Mason Remey
******
And so it started, and Mason Remey, the appointed head
of the embryonic Universal House of Justice, came to see that the other
Hands did not want a Guardian. He was subsequently to learn that they were
willing to do whatever it took to insure that their plan for the future
would be carried out, that once the Hands had set forth on their chosen
path, nothing was going to deter them from achieving their goal: the establishment
of a sans-Guardian UHJ in 1963.
In 1963, success was theirs. The fact that there
is today an organization that calls itself the Universal House of Justice,
but which lacks its "sacred head," is the result of their dubious
success, a heinous accomplishment that is the central feature of the greatest
Violation of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah in the Faith's history.