The Wrongful Pattern
of the Sans-Guardian Bahá'ís

        In the mistaken belief that those of us who believe in the continuing Guardianship of the Bahá'í Faith are to be labelled as "covenant-breakers" (an obviously false belief inasmuch as the continuing Guardianship is the very heart of the Covenant), numbers of sans-Guardian Bahá'ís have resorted to name-calling and character assassination in statements that they make about Orthodox Bahá'ís and the materials that we print.

        For instance, members of the sans-Guardian organization have referred to Orthodox Bahá'ís as "spiritually corrupted people" who are "spiritually sick." They have lumped us in with all covenant- breakers and have publicly condemned us as those who "lie and distort the truth in a manner that it cannot be easily detected." They have included us with those who "are continuing a pathological lie and pathological slander" and have characterized our actions as "an outrage to the Bahá'í Faith." And as to the materials that we have produced and reproduced--most of which are replete with quotations from 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant, and Shoghi Effendi, the first Guardian of the Faith--they have condemned them as "filled with nefarious ideas and distortions."

        As recently as December 1996-January 1997, some sans-Guardian believers have sought the removal of the home page of the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith from its proper placement within the Bahá'í Faith in the Yahoo Index. Those individuals indicated that the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith has the same relationship to the Bahá'í Faith as the Branch Davidians have to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, a most onerous relationship that is as far from the truth that it is possible to be.

A VALID COMPARISON BETWEEN THE ORTHODOX BAHÁ'Í FAITH
AND THE HETERODOX ORGANIZATION

        For inquirers who want to understand the relationship between the sans-Guardian organization and the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith, the following information is provided.

        The closest parallel between the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith and the heterodox Bahá'ís is to be found in Islam, in which one sees the division between the Shiites, who recognize the Imáms as the rightful successors of Muhammad, and the Sunnites, who fail to recognize the hereditary authority of the Imáms and who, accordingly, established the Caliphate instead. The Sunnites can be compared to the heterodox Bahá'ís who, following the passing of the first Guardian, have not recognized his successors and have established a substitute organization without the Guardianship. The tenets of the Faith call for successive Guardians, each appointed by his predecessor in office in his lifetime. It is upon the Guardians of the Faith that the authority of Bahá'u'lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Faith, has been placed in their capacity as successive heads of the Faith for the duration of His Dispensation. They are the sole interpreters of Bahá'í Holy Writ.

        In a letter written on his behalf that espouses the views sanctioned by him, Shoghi Effendi, the first of the Bahá'í Guardians, affirmed that "the guidance vouchsafed to the Imáms regarding the laws and institutions of Islam was absolute and unqualified. Their infallibility was derived directly from the Manifestation." Thus, Shoghi Effendi upheld the Shiah succession within Islam. In that same letter he observed that the descent of the Bab, the precursor of Bahá'u'lláh, from the Imám Husayn "is no doubt a proof of the validity of the Imamate." (Lights of Guidance, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, New Delhi, India, p. 497.)

        Ironically enough, on pages 126-7 of Volume One of Adib Taherzadeh's The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, a work that is held in high esteem by sans-Guardian Bahá'ís, Taherzadeh, who himself has condemned the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith, cites the importance of the Shiite position. He states that those who turned to the Imáms "received the spirit of faith and became filled with the knowledge of God, and those who rejected their authority and relied on their own understanding of the Qur'an were deprived of the inner significances of that Book." He goes on to say that 'Ali, the first appointed successor, "was to be regarded as the Guardian of the Faith of Islam and its spiritual head." Then he notes that "Because the appointment of 'Ali was not considered conclusive or binding by the majority of the followers of Muhammad, they disregarded the wishes of their Prophet and acted against His counsels."

        We who are Orthodox Bahá'ís maintain that the sans-Guardian Bahá'ís need to consider the implications of the first Guardian's and Taherzadeh's statements about the Imáms and recognize how the current arguments of the sans-Guardian organization do, in fact, constitute a rejection of the true succession within the Islamic Faith as well as that of the Bahá'í Covenant. We think the sans-Guardian Bahá'ís need to recognize that they are repeating the Sunni pattern and developing their own interpretations of Bahá'í Holy Writ rather than following the prescribed pattern established in the Writings, the pattern that calls for a continuing line of Guardians to guide the Faith. They need to realize that it is they who are misguided, and it is they who have manifestly violated the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh.