Daily Observations of the Baha’i Faith in the Holy Land by Charles Mason Remey Second Baha’i Guardian, Volume Four
DAILY
OBSERVATIONS
OF THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH
MADE TO
THE HANDS OF THE FAITH
IN
THE HOLY LAND
BY
MASON REMEY
VOLUME FOUR
THE FIRST VOLUME OF
THESE FOUR VOLUMES OF
DAILY OBSERVATIONS OF THE BAHA’I FAITH,
MADE TO THE THEN HANDS OF THE FAITH
IN THE HOLY LAND,
WAS SENT TO THEM AS A SECRET DOCUMENT
BY MASON REMEY, WRITTEN BY HIM AS A HAND OF THE CAUSE AND
THE PRESIDENT OF THE BAHA’I INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL,
BUT BEFORE HE ISSUED TO ALL THE BAHA’I WORLD
THE PROCLAMATION OF
HIS GUARDIANSHIP OF THE FAITH
AND BEFORE HE, AS GUARDIAN OF THE CAUSE,
BROKE WITH THE HANDS THE PACT OF
SECRECY THAT HAD EXISTED BETWEEN
THE CUSTODIAN HANDS SINCE THE
FIRST BEHJE CONCLAVE
THESE SECOND, THIRD AND FOURTH VOLUMES OF THESE OBSERVATIONS
WERE NEVER SENT TO THE
CUSTODIANS IN THE HOLY LAND AND ARE HERE GIVEN
FOR THE FIRST TIME TO THE BAHA’I WORLD
IN THE YEAR 117 OF THE BAHA’I ERA
1960 A.D.
DAILY OBSERVATIONS
OF
THE BAHA’I FAITH
MADE TO
THE HANDS OF THE FAITH
IN
THE HOLY LAND
BY
MASON REMEY
VOLUME IV
IN THE YEARS
114-117
OF THE BAHA’I ERA
DAILY OBSERVATIONS
OF
THINGS AND CONDITIONS
IN
THE BAHÁ’I FAITH
MADE TO
THE HANDS OF THE FAITH
IN
THE HOLY LAND
VOLUME IV
BY
MASON REMEY
PRESIDENT OF THE BAHA’I INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL
AND
A HAND OF THE FAITH
114 - 117
OF THE BAHA’I ERA
1960
DAILY OBSERVATIONS
OF
THINGS AND CONDITIONS
IN
THE BAHÁ’I FAITH
MADE TO
THE HANDS OF THE FAITH
IN
THE HOLY LAND
VOLUME IV
BY
MASON REMEY
PRESIDENT OF THE BAHA’I INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL
AND
A HAND OF THE FAITH
114 - 117
OF THE BAHA’I ERA
1960
OBSERVATIONS IN CHRONOLIGAL ORDER
HAIFA, ISRAEL
APRIL 1959
I have told the Custodian Hands of my intention of putting my arguement for their not abandoning the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha before all the Hands of the Cause at their next conclave.
While the Custodians have listened to my arguement, they have listened without any sign of acceptance of my thought. They have disallowed me to communicate by writing to the Hands who are elsewhere. I am allowed to write a letter to them – the Custodian Hands – placing before them in writing my arguement as I have already done by word of mouth more times than I can remember but so far without any result save to antagonize them. Now as a last resort I am thinking of putting my apology before them in writing in a statement that each can study – such is one of my reasons for wanting to get away from Haifa as soon as possible to write my appeal to them. My other reasons added to this are that I want to get myself rested up and into shape to appear before this coming conclave to present my thoughts as well as to prepare myself in other ways for this important meeting.
When I suggested to the Hands several months ago that I leave Haifa, all arose against me saying that I must remain here at Haifa until the conclave, adding that now the stand had been taken by them that in 1963 the Universal House of Justice was to be formed and that I must work with them to carry our their project for the sake of the unity of the cause. That were I to leave Haifa before the conclave it would become known and would create doubts and questions in the minds of the believers and that since many looked up to me as a Hand of the Faith that such an action on my part would be very bad for the Faith. The Hands are always on the alert and are never sure of the support of the people of the Faith.
But knowing what is before me in the Baha'i cause, I refer to my flash vision I feel that I must leave as soon as possible to prepare myself for the work that is ahead of me; therefore if possible I hope to leave sometime within the next few weeks.
I trust I can arrange this with the Custodian Hands without unpleasant contraversy or trouble but if not I will have to go against their judgement in leaving Haifa the same as I am going against their united judgement in urging that the Guardianship be kept open and not pronounced ended by them.
Such is about all that I can do before the conclave to bring this matter to these Custodians by written appeal as an issue to be met and reconsidered by the Hands. But in addition to this I have much to do for myself and my affairs to meet the solution of this great issue is a very serious contention between me and all the other Hands of the Faith. I am not floundering about in thought. I know exactly what I am doing and why I am doing it. But I have no idea of how it will all come out?
I know that in the natural course of events I have not many years ahead of me in this world. Notwithstanding this however, I know beyond a doubt that the last of my life have upon earth will be the most important all around and that now I should plan and do what I can to be in as good spiritual and physical and mental condition as possible right up to the end of my natural life. Therefore with this intention in view, I want now at this time to take some time off away from Haifa to return here for the next conclave of the Hands of the Faith.
2 APRIL 1959
This morning I went over into the upper chamber where we Custodians hold our conferences where I read some of the recent incoming reports from the various assemblies. One of these letters referred to Frances Stewart and her activities against the Administration of the Faith down in Buenos Aires. Another to an attack on the Faith came from Washington D.C. signed by one “John Musto” which appears to have been issued by one Norman Powers using this name of “Musto” as an alias. At various times and in sundry ways he has embarrassed the friends of the local Baha'i assembly of the District of Columbia by his activities that have caused much inharmony between his supporters and that local spiritual assembly.
In thinking over these matters together with the deflection of Ahmad Sohrab and his followers I cannot help feel that had we the hope of the Second Guardianship firmly established that we would be in a better way to meet and to overcome such opposition than we are facing at this present time. The Hands are promising the Baha'i world a Universal House of Justice with powers of infallibility in 1963, a promise that they will never be able to fulfill simply because this Universal House cannot be established unless we first have an infallible Guardian as its first pillar of support and President of the Universal House of Justice which we do not have as yet therefore the falacy of the stand and of the promise to the Baha'i people by the Hands of infallibility in 1963.
We do not know at what time the Agsan covenat breakers may come forth with claims against the Hands of the Faith? Personally I cannot help but feel the wisdom of Lawyer Weinschell’s unsolicited (as I understand that it was by the Hand to whom he proferred his advice upon this point – Ugo Giachary) namely that with a Guardian the Baha'is would be in a much stronger position to defend the Faith than without a Guardian. There seems to be every reason why the Hands of the Cause should want to have the continuation of the Guardianship.
I trust at the next conclave that the Hands of the Faith will reconsider this aspect of the Guardianship along with the many other aspects that I am bringing up to the Custodians of the Faith in the documents of appeal that I propose to write and send to them.
AFTERNOON 2 APRIL 1959
Yesterday was a beautiful spring day that here in The Holy Land is now like late May or June in the city of Washington. Right now today is a lull for us resident Baha'is here between the pilgrimages that have been frequent of late. At about ten o’clock Ruhiyyih Khanum called me by telephone asking if I would like to join her, Milly Collins, Alice Kidder and Faise on a picnic over the hills of Galilee. In about fifteen minutes we were off on a delightful drive first to Nazareth then to the top of Mount Tabor, the Mount of the Transfiguration, where we went into the monastery and the church, both fine buildings but the latter to me quite the most impressive church I have found here in The Holy Land.
Recently built in the basicilica style of the early Christian Syrian Romanesque Epoch, a bit brutal in massas that that original style always was, but sincere, ponderous and honest construction relieved on the interior by brilliant mosaic treatments in the Byzantine style of San Marco in Venice. This church is indeed beautiful. It was a rare architectural treat for all of us.
Motoring on eastward over the mountains we came to a point where we had a view down over the expanse of the Sea of Galilee. Here under some trees we spread out traveling rugs unpacked hampers and enjoyed a delicious lunch. Later we continued on down to the town of Tiberius on the sea, all reminescent to me of my first visit there with my brother William in 1920 when we spent several days there with the Master Abdu’l-Baha. That was the last time that I was with the Master. When I returned here the following winter of 1921, Shoghi Effendi had just come into his ministry as the First Guardian of the Faith
In Tiberius, Ruhiyyih Khanum did some shopping getting some pieces of local-made jewelry for presents as she explainted, to give to some of the visiting pilgrims. We returned to Haifa via Nazareth stopping along the way to gather large bouquets of the very colorful wild flowers that grow in profusion upon all sides. This day was just one more of those humanly happy times that we are now so enjoying here in The Holy Land, none of which we had during the days of Shoghi Effendi for such in general he did not allow us.
Now again this afternoon I have just come to my room to do this writing looking down from my window into the garden where I had been sitting for the past hour reading. Fugita, our Japanese, who is so enjoyed and beloved by all Baha’is, has arranged this garden in a most attractive manner and largely in the Japanese style with a delightful little Japanese house, small but large enough for Fugita himself – for he too is small – made of whatever odds and ends of material that he could gather together from boxes and packing cases and what not he has created a truly Japanese atmosphere in the garden that is now fragrant with roses and flowering shrubs and vines.
I enjoy this garden very much both to walk in and to sit in in one of the comfortable wicker arm chairs under the trees and now to look down into my window from where the view extends on over the trees to the promintory of Mount Carmel in the distance where the Temple of the Baha'i Faith will eventually stand upon the site already secured there where The Beloved Guardian directed that there be placed an obelisk marker in dedication of this site.
I have written these words pictured scenes of the life that I and others as a Hand of the Faith are now enjoying here in Haifa – this most enjoyable life I have also mentioned elsewhere in these pages, free from cares and without the restraints and constraints that so marked the lives here in the days of the Beloved Guardian and that in all probability would not be for us again nor for those living here to have, were there a Second Guardian of the Faith now directing and urging our every effort and energy toward the drive of the Faith – not if he were of the same mind as Shoghi Effendi – forcing the cause forward to victory by his divine authority and command. For it was this divine authority and will that caused the cause to spread the world around that the function of the Guardianship of the Faith gave to us in the days of the Beloved Guardian. It was not because he was Shoghi Effendi the person, that he led the Faith onto its present victories but it was because he was the Guardian of the Faith that made him the channel through which, by virtue of the confirmation of The Holy spirit, divine guidance was given to the followers of the Faith.
As a human being I personally would find my present human life relations more to my own human material liking now as things now are rather than under a Second Guardian of the Faith, but I am convinced that such would not be best for the cause as a whole nor for me and my spiritual being as an individual; therefore I must put aside and behind me this present pleasant condition of freedom from Guardianship upon which we are now embarked in favor of the divine law and order that will be imposed upon us one and all when the Hands of the Faith will find themselves directed by the Second Guardian of the Faith.
It would not surprise me if this statement may seem strange to some Baha’is who look at the Guardianship not as an institution to be continued for apparently they consider the Beloved Guardian as a personality himself unique in this station and never again to be succeeded by another Guardian – such as the case of one of the Hands of the Faith Agnes Alexander, who remarked to me last year when I was in Australia that we now have no need of any further Guardian because the Beloved Guardian had given us all instruction as to how and what to teach and that now from the Abha Kingdom his spirit would continue to guide and direct us in our services to the Faith – therefore the Guardianship was no longer needed to direct and guide the Faith! I am amazed at the ignorance of Baha'i spiritual procedure held by some of the Hands of the Faith!
3 APRIL 1959
Last night in discussing the present state of Baha'i affairs with Milly Collins we arrived at the usual impasse that doesn’t seem to be a question with any of the Hands of the Faith save me; namely what are we going to teach the people in these last years of the ten year cruisade – now that we have no Guardian and when the Hands of the Faith are against there ever being another Guardian?
In the days of the Master Abdu’l-Baha, we went forth with the message that Baha’u’llah, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, had come in fulfillment of the prophesies of Christ and the Prophets and that we had the Center of His Covenant here on earth to guide us. Later in the days of the First Guardian of the Faith we went forth explaining the Administration of the Cause under the guidance of the Beloved Guardian and giving the message of the fulfillment of the ancient covenant together with the Administration with the divinely appointed Guardian leading the Faith. These two phases of the message given together brought hope and spiritual enthusiasm to the people. We had thus this two-fold message to give, the covenant and the administration together and inseperable. This was the message that give spiritual confirmation and belief to those who accepted it.
But now what are we to teach the people – now that the friends don’t want a Guardian-heart in the Administration of the Faith. We cannot continue teaching the Guardianship since the Hands of the Faith no longer give any hope of there ever being another Guardian? Yet the Hands of the Cause exhort the believers to go forth to teach the Administration as before?
People have asked the Custodian Hands what they should teach about the Administration and they tell them to continue teaching the ten year cruisade message as they did under the guidance of Shoghi Effendi, which of course makes no sense because we no longer have a Guardian to be the heart and the head of the Cause. Thus the teachers, if they think at all, are embarrassed for under the present Guardianless condition of the Faith, with no hope of a second Guardian to sustain the Faith, there is no answer to this question.
Thus the people when we are meeting are left hanging in mid air so to express it, for no one can give them the satisfaction and the courage of the belief that was ours in the days past when the first Guardian was himself the center of the Faith to whom all could turn for the confirmation and the guidance that the Beloved Guardian then gave us and which guidance and protection will again be ours only when we have the Second Guardian here to lead and direct us in accordance with the Administration of the Faith that we ought to hold dear in our hearts and minds – But no! These erring Hands of the Faith don’t want a Second Guardian!
When asked to speak of the Faith as I frequently am asked to do, I confine myself to speaking of the fulfillment of the Testament of the religions of the past just as we taught in the days of the Master before we had any administration and this is as far as I can go without coming out and openly causing a rupture with the Hands – a thing that I want to avoid if possible – therefore I bear with them hoping they will have a change of heart. Now without hope of another Guardian we have not got a confirming message for the world. In other words, the Hands are trying to do the impossible – to teach an Administration, the central point here with us is the Guardian himself – so finding ourselves without a Guardian and without any hope of one, we are unable to teach anything.
5 APRIL 1959
For some time, in fact, for some years unwise expenditures of the funds of the Baha'i Faith have troubled me much but I’ve not been able to do anything about it to right whis wrong so I’ve said but little about it.
Long before I came to The Holy Land, called here by Shoghi Effendi, while in America I was at times troubled by the way in which certain of the Baha'is who serving the Faith having their hotel and traveling expenses paid from the Baha'i fund, were indulging in extravagances and personal luxuries to which they were not accustomed to make in their ways of traveling and living when meeting their own expenses from their own personal funds. The Baha'i people are but human and when they see the officials of the Faith, assembly members and others drawing upon the funds of the cause unnecessarily they are bound to resent it and this causes trouble. As I write such had troubled me in America before I came to live here in The Holy Land and now here in Haifa the same troubles me again, for these same things I now see going on here at the center of the Administration of the Faith.
What can be done to rectify this is a problem that I cannot solve. One cant speak of it in a meeting of consultation for fear of creating a greater hurt and trouble than already exists and so this problem runs alone unsolved.
This money problem is particularly noticeable to me now in these past months that the cause has been without a Guardian to clamp down upon the personal extravagances and upon the general extravagances of some of these who hold position in the Administration of the Faith. Such extravagances as these did not exist in the days of the Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, because he did not exist in the days of the Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, because he did not allow them, but now there is no longer this protection. Knowing human nature as I do, I doubt if this particular problem can be solved until we have a Second Guardian in command. My fear is that if this condition were generally known among the Baha'is the world around that it would indeed cause trouble for people are human and they would resent this lack of consideration upon the part of those whom they trust and are supporting here at the center of the Faith. “Noblesse Oublige” is a duty that all who occupy position must arise to in order to maintain their high status.
Only yesterday I talked this matter over with one of the Hands of the Faith (Milly Collins) who sees and understands this condition both in America and here in the Holy Land just as I myself see it, but she felt that nothing could be done about it lest things be made worse than they are by the attempt to rectify the matter.
This conversation of yesterday brings to my mind a long arguement I had upon this subject with our dear Baha'i Imogene Hoagg some time before her death – she maintaining that a Baha'i should make his offerings to the Baha'i fund as a heart offering to God without any consideration of what was done with his offering – that if his offerings were misused that was the responsibility of the persons who did the misysing but a thing that the donor should never question. This advice given was indeed from a more spiritual and idealistic point of view than the viewpoint that I hold, for when I see these things taking place before my face it makes me indignant and troubles me greatly for I realize that it is all wrong and that it ought not to be and that so long as things are happening here at the center of the Faith that such weakens the Faith and lays it open to censure, the only protection against which I can see could only come through the Guardianship. With a Guardian in command this leak in the finances of the cause could be stopped by a word from him should he see fit to end this condition which should not be, for obedience to his command is incumbent upon all Baha'is.
NOTE:
I cannot express myself too forcibly upon this subject of the responsibility that the Custodian Hands of the Faith have in handling the moneys that are contributed at great sacrifice to many believers to the International Baha'i fund upon which they draw for living and other expenses here at the center of the Administration of the Cause in The Holy Land.
The Hands should reduce their demands upon the fund to a minimum – each and every one should so simplify their expenditures so that they personally demand or accept as little as possible from the International Fund. How can we expect others to support this fund unless we do all that we can to make it go as far as possible?
Now we need more and more funds for the teaching campaign of the ten year cruisade. We are trying to make this money go as far as it will. This matter is constantly under discussion in our conferences, but have the Hands here in The Holy Land denied themselves luxuries that are furnished us from the International Fund in order to have more to send out to support teachers in the teaching field? Have all cut down their luxuries to meet this need? If so, I don’t know who they are? Possibly there is one exception – Milly Collins who with all of her wealth is scrupulous in her personal economy in order that she can give large amounts to the Faith in her present support of the violation of the Guardianship of the Faith.
When I have mentioned this to one or two of the Hands, I have been reminded that times have changed now, several automobiles are now needed where one was sufficient in the days of Shoghi Effendi – and surely there is much logic and reason in this stand. Let us except automobiles, if one wishes from my arguement – but then there are other luxuries that are now demanded and that are costly. These I cannot mention here because this mention would involve personalities and more trouble than good would be the result. The only way to meet this very personal problem will be when each one voluntarily makes the necessary sacrifice to shake the Custodian Hands and all others here in Haifa out of this very pleasant life of ease and comfort that we are now enjoying in this Guardianless epoch that some have termed “The New Baha'i Era”. As I see this picture, I think I understand why the very subject of the Second Guardian of the Faith is so repugnant to many of the Hands. They are free to change their minds about this at any time.
9 APRIL 1959
It is curious the way in which a myth will start and if acceptable will be repeated from one to another, gaining credulence until finally it will be taken for fact and be generally so accepted until someone or ones will inquire into its beginning to find it spurious. Thus today, with the modern findings and ways of checking up on the past, many long aged and generally accepted facts of history are being put into the discard and we are getting perhaps a less romantic picture of past historical characters but a more true and exact one – such as for example the many Shakespeare myths from which was built up an entire lifetime story of him as the greatest of dramatic writers of all times – whereas now while there is yet much arguement about it as to who wrote the plays and poems attributed to Shakespeare, it is generally conceded by literary critics that William Shakespeare, the man of Stratford-on-Avon was not their author and that this case is one of the greatest impostures in the history of all literature.
Already we find myths tending to start among the Baha'is – a phenominon that the Hands of the Faith in particular should do all in their power to counteract. The following one of these myths that is now starting is as follows:
Several of the Persian Hands say that in the original Persian text of the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha, it is expressly stated that only the descendants of Shoghi Effendi himself were to be eligible as Guardians of the Faith and that since Shoghi Effendi had no issue of his own that that ended for all time the Baha'i Administrative order of the Will and Testament for henseforth there could never be another Guardian of the Faith and thus all that has been in the past is but prologue to what forms of Baha'i regulations the Hands are now going to be led to establish. Milly Collins is firm in her belief that in some way, not yet shown to us, that God will provide a Guardian to lead his cause through this present crisis to eventual victory. In the final analysis apparently all of the Hands agree that the Faith will endure, their only disagreement with me being as to how this triumphant victory is to be brought about. I concur heartily with all of the Hands of the Faith that the Faith will endure – my contention against the united front of all save me being that the Hands have no authority to take the attitude that the Guardianship now is definitely ended!
In a subsequent talk with Milly Collins this morning she said that she intended running down this latest objection of the Persian Hands of the Faith the original copy of the Will and Testament that states definitely that only the descendants of Shoghi Effendi are eligible as Guardians. She intends to make sure that this is the correct text or not and I trust that she will be able to clear up this myth before the matter gains more support by the credulity of the believers. And here we are at the same impasse at which the two conclaves of the Hands left me.
To disavow the Guardianship completely for all time as the Hands now wish, if done will surely end in the division and the complete wrecking of the Baha'i Faith.
In an emergency such as the Baha'i Faith faces today, our coming conclave of the Hands should not be a hurried conference such as have been our first two Behje conclaves. The Hands should meet together and remain indefinitely in session until after mature judgement and thought out and talked out from every possible angle. The Hands, the Aristocrats, the appointed Nobles of the Faith (odious as is the very mention of nobility in popular prolitarian America) should arise to this most great responsibility in trying to maintain the system of the Administration of the cause. Up until the present, the Hands have as a body refused to arise to this responsibility, for in forming and in following their present program to elect a Universal International World Baha'i Assembly in 1963, Sans Guardian, the Hands will be abandoning their calling as those who should stand next to and in the immediate service of the Guardian of the Faith but instead of so doing, they now advocate the doing away with the Guardianship completely. Thus are the Hands at present headed to abandon their responsibilities – take a subordinate place of their own will and let the proletariat of the cause assume the leadership of the Faith that will be a democracy maintained wholly by the vote of the Baha'i people.
Let us arise to our responsibilities and try to put the Administration of the Faith back again on the path so clearly shown us in The Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha in the hope of the ultimate restitution of the Guardianship, even though at present it is not known who will be the Second Guardian of the Faith?
12 APRIL 1959
A day or two ago one of the pilgrims (Elanor Hallabaugh) asked me something about the prospect of a Second Guardian of the Faith, the issue that the proclamation of the Hands of the Faith have avoided and that is not being mentioned by them. This subject is tabu and I told Elanor as best I could without letting her know how I personally felt about the matter – that this was not to be mentioned or talked about – this being the instruction given by the Hands in The Holy Land to the Baha'i world.
Word has recently come through Bill Sears and his wife that in Latin America this subject is in the minds of the friends and that Hermann Grossman who is traveling there has expressed the hope to the people that the Guardianship will be reestablished.
This news has caused some agitation here in Haifa amongst the Custodians where all save I are convinced that the Administration as given in The Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha is definitely out and in the discard but that when the Hands of the Faith will have established their House of Justice in 1964 that then they will have infallibility and that then a new Administration can be set up by this new source of infallibility and that the cause will then have infallible guidance and will not need a Guardian.
Milly Collins and I argue daily. I maintaining that it is the duty of the Hands to keep alive the hope of a Second Guardian and make the Administration go along as was the procedure persued by Shoghi Effendi, but she firmly believes with all the others save me the Administration is Badah and that the majority opinion of the Hands should be adhered to by all.
I too have to submit to this stand (that is in direct contradiction to my own convictions) before the Baha'i world in order to keep the pact of unity before the Baha'i world made with the Hands which I do by silence, suffering desperately in my heart to see the way in which the cause is being led astray.
I want to get myself away from Haifa for this period of this violation of the Will and Testament – get myself away from all of the Baha'is so that I will not be a source of sedition against this present decision of the Hands. I want to get away and hide myself until they wake up and realize that the Administration must not be thus put aside but must be wanted by the Hands!
13 APRIL 1959
I awakened early this morning thinking about things and by the time I got out of bed was in an indignant frame of mind and in a grouch that I’ve been nursing the better part of the day so when I went for a walk and a talk with Milly Collins the latter part of the morning I blew off my indignation at the way in which the Custodian Hands are dispensing moneys from the Baha'i funds here in Haifa.
This is a subject that I should take up in our meetings of consultation but because it touches too intimately upon personalities I don’t dare say anything lest I create still more trouble. Milly who is one of the most obstenious and economical persons I ever knew, saves upon her own expenses rigidly in order to give by the thousands of dollars and pounds to the Baha'i Faith. She is quote as aware as I am of the extravagances that upset me but there is nothing that she can do to curtail this waste of Baha'i funds that begin at the top and extends on down. The trouble starts at the top.
As I have already recorded in these notes in the years past in America I have seen the flagrant misuse of Baha'i money that has personally benefited certain ones at the top and I know that this has had a very bad effect upon many believers, in that it is bound to cause resentments that in turn tend to reduce the contributions to the cause of these indignant ones when such waste is known amongst the friends.
I dread to think of what the effect would be upon the contributions to the cause all over the Baha'i world were all the friends to see and to witness the things that I have seen and am still seeing done about me here in Haifa? Waste and other things that ought not to be.
The only solution that I can see to this and to many other problems now before us is the reestablishment of the Guardianship, then there would be a strict control that is needed to correct this condition. But how can this be done? At this present time, money is going out here and there in many extravagances that the Beloved Guardian would never have sanctioned. Surely the Hands of the Faith here in The Holy Land must know this condition – yet it continues.
Human nature is very slippery in its ways. People who want to do a certain thing soon find a way of attaining their ends and of so rationalizing as to make acceptable to their own consciousness, things that they would not countenance in others nor in themselves were they to see themselves as they really are.
In my observations of the way that the minds of the Hands of the Faith work I have noted that among the majority they do not want a Second Guardian of the Baha'i Faith. This is very plain to see in their ATTITUDE TOWARDS this question of the Guardianship. I grant that these friends do not think this out and may not all be aware of this fact. Nevertheless there is this strong stand against the Guardianship in their attitude, one aspect of which is that the very word “Guardianship” is tabu. I am the only one of the Hands here who ever mentions the word and when I do the attitude of all the others is that of a united blank and impenetrable wall that I am up against.
As I say this word is tabu among the Hands of the Faith. It’s mention has been most sedulously avoided in all of our messages and proclamations to the Baha'i world as it is in our converse. Even today at lunch one of the visiting inquired something about the Guardianship and immediately the subject was shunted off onto some other subject by the Hands who were present.
I have noted the freedom in these days from restraints that the Guardianship imposed upon the believers. Now we are all each upon his own, as it were, enjoying the very free and easy life here in Haifa now that there is no Guardian to regulate us. Each of us is free to do as he likes and is doing things that the Beloved Guardian would never have sanctioned. Personally I, Mason Remey, as a human being enjoy my individual liberty. Were I thinking but of myself alone, I would never want a Guardian of the Faith whom I would have to obey. Indeed as a human being I would never want this – nevertheless as a believer and as a spiritually aspiring soul I must sacrifice my human tendencies and willingly submit myself and all of my human desires under the (at many times very painful and distressing conditions) to the commands of a Guardian, all because the Baha'i Faith can only survive and continue under the divinely appointed and inspired institution of the Guardianship, for without this direction and command the Baha'i Faith cannot live. This is why we should all want to have a Second Guardian against which the human nature of the Hands of the Faith revolt.
Picture the condition here in Haifa were a Second Guardian in command here. Our present way of life would indeed be upset and revolutionized with the new Guardian established here possibly with a wife and family here in the Guardian’s house at 7 Persian Street! Indeed this would be a change that many of the Hands revolt against in their hearts and this shows to me that in their attitudes they don’t want any restitution of the Guardianship and this is why the subject is tabu with them. Ruhiyyih Khanum, in moments when she speaks without thinking but says exactly what she really thinks, has gone on record as saying that she would not stand for a Second Guardian.
14 APRIL 1959
This noon the Custodian Hands of the Faith met in conference. News very disquieting had come to us that Hermann Grossmann in South America has told Baha'is that the Hands of the Faith had had a change of mind and that undoubtedly there would be a Second Guardian of the Cause!
It was suggested to cable Herman to stop this talk. This suggestion was followed by such a variety of suggestions as to what to cable him that in order to avoid the possibility of making things worse it was decided to await until tomorrow afternoon to allow more thought upon the subject before wording the cablegramme. Then this was followed by much conjecture about exactly what Hermann was telling the people, how they were reacting toward this and many other aspects of this problem?
During the discussion some one suggested that possibly Hermann thought that the Universal House of Justice might reestablish the Guardianship. Whereupon Ruhiyyih Khanum said that she was unalterably opposed to our having another Guardian and that if there were ever one appointed that she would abandon Haifa and the Baha'i Administration and take herself somewhere up into the wilds of Tibet there to hide herself from all Baha'is.
While for some time it has been quite clear that such was Ruhiyyih Khanum’s attitude toward the Guardianship, this which she said to us today tells us in plain language not to be misunderstood exactly how she feels – in other words, she does not want the continuation of the Guardianship and threatens to walk out upon the Guardianship if it ever be reestablished!!! In reality Ruhiyyih Khanum is the dictator of the Custodian Hands in the Holy Land. In one of her addresses before the Kampala Conference now over a year ago, she announced that the Guardianship was definitely closed and ended. In a subsequent meeting of the Custodians here she made the definite statement that after her present tenure of the Guardian’s House (at 7 Persian Street, Haifa) that no one would ever be in residence there (after her present tenure of those premises).
When faced by some one who quoted her Kampala statement (here some weeks ago) she said that she had spoken in Kampala without thinking and had she thought over the matter she would not have made such an announcement. The Custodians felt this statement to have been a most untimely declaration upon her part. Thus are these Custodian Hands, who are so trusted by the Baha'i world, playing a double game as it were to deceive the Baha'is.
Now I find that in things that the Hands actually say, that they feel as Ruhiyyih Khanum does that they don’t want that there ever be another Guardian and that by their ATTITUDE it is clear to see that the vast ruling majority of the Hands feel as does Ruhiyyih Khanum in this matter!
Friends, Hands of the Faith, if you stand thus as a united majority, you will kill our Faith! This stand is indeed a violation of the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha. It will indeed be a great personal sacrifice upon the part of each of you to change your personal wishes and accept a Second Guardian and be forced to obey his commands, but the Cause of God requires you to make this personal sacrifice and to subordinate your wills to the Will of the Second Guardian, just as you did to the First Guardian of the Faith for thereby and by there by only can this Cause of God win this battle of all times past, a spiritual battle between the human forces of man as pitted against the spiritual forces of God. The latter are destined to conquer in these latter days of the past and the dawning days of God’s Kingdom on Earth!
15 APRIL 1959
I am interested in knowing why Hermann Grossmann’s reported remark, that the Hands of the Faith had had a change of mind and now wanted a Guardian, should have so stirred up the believers in Rio? Were the people pleased or displeased? Did they want a Guardian or were they like the majority of the Hands and didn’t like the prospect of a Second Guardian of the Faith?
I suppose in a little more time we will be hearing something more about this episode that I look upon the complaisance hoping that it will so stir up the believers to the point of their hoping for the advent of a Guardian as to make the Hands sit up and listen to the needs of the Faith for a Guardian to lead us in the way of the Administration that the Hands would see replaced by some system without Guardianship.
The Hands of the Faith are now in command of the cause and their one thought uppermost is to keep the people from even thinking of and wishing for a Guardian. The every move and thought in the conferences of the Custodians is to eliminate and squelsh any thought of Guardianship. It is tabu. So far as I can judge all stand with Ruhiyyih Khanum squarely against another Guardianship. If any think otherwise they say nothing. This is clearly seen in their attitude of tabu, although they don’t threaten as she did the other day to desert Haifa with the Administration here and flee to the mountain fastnesses of Tibet should the Universal House of Justice reinstate the Guardianship of the Faith, nevertheless they don’t want another Guardian and their every move and attitude shows this.
All the Hands in Haifa know that I stand against them. I am ready to quit Haifa until the next general conclave of all the Hands, but for some reason that I don’t understand I am not able to make up my mind just when to make the break, for it will be a break in defiance of the Hands who all wish that I remain here and put my signature upon all their documents that go out from here to all parts of the Baha'i world endorsing their actions and attitudes all of which to me is falacious and is leading the people astray and keeping the cause in darkness for in the Guardianship we have the only source of the light of guidance and without this the cause is lost. The Hands don’t want the Baha'i world to know where they stand about the Guardianship. This their ARRIERRE PENSEE they carefully hide.
I am in revolt against this two-faced stand of the Hands for in reality they are two-faced. They don’t want a Guardianship and they are at all times acting upon this basis, but this they don’t mention. In the Proclamation and in all the other letters and messages of the Hands to the people, a strict silence is held – no mention is made of the Guardianship – the thought of the people is constantly being led away from and diverted, evidently hoping that the people will forget that the Guardianship was the central feature of the Administration. When I bring up this point, I am told that God has changed all that and that the plan of the Administration of Abdu’l-Baha’s Will and Testament no longer holds – that it is BADAH!
16 APRIL 1959
In our consultation of the Custodian Hands this morning was read a letter from Germany telling of Hermann Grossmann’s travels in South America and of his being questioned by the Baha'is about the prospect of a continuation of the Guardianship.
The believers have great reverence and respect for the Hands of the Faith and they place us each upon a high pedestal, as it were, and therefore our obligation to the cause and to the believers themselves in very great and at the same time the position of a Hand of the Cause carries with it the tremendous obligation of “Noblesse Oublige”. The Hands direct the people in many ways and in other ways they support the Hands. This is a mutual obligation and one that the Hands of the Faith cannot take advantage of in any way for if they do take advantage of their position, their position will soon be in jeopardy. The higher the pedestal is upon which one stands, the greater is the danger of one’s falling.
I am very considerably bothered and worried by the ease of the way of life in Haifa in these days as compared with the same in the days of the Beloved Guardian. The Hands of the Faith have an obligation to fulfill that is not being fulfilled and that will not be fulfilled until the Hands change and want a Second Guardian of the Faith to succeed Shoghi Effendi and to carry on the mission of the Beloved Guardian which mission cannot be carried on and executed by this provisional substitute of the nine Hands in The Holy Land that the Hands have set up to direct the activities of the Cause protem until we have a sort of a House of Justice, for which we have no authority whatsoever to attempt to institute because only a Guardian of the Faith can establish the legitimate Universal House of Justice.
Thus the Hands are blundering along, misleading the people of the cause all over the world by insisting that the people accept, follow and believe this falacy that they set up rather than accept this responsibility that is theirs to try to and to want to carry through the program of the Will and Testament for the government of the Faith.
Ruhiyyih Khanum and the Persians under her direction rule in Haifa while the minority against Ruhiyyih Khanum, that consists of me only, thus forms too small a minority to accomplish anything against the united support of all the others. Leroy Ioas’ disagreement is his personal dislike of Ruhiyyih Khanum. They are like cat and dog – always personally fighting one another – Ruhiyyih Khanum being the stronger of the two invariably wins out in the end. Nevertheless Leroy is himself a firm supporter of the Sans Guardian violation and a devout in his support of the violation program of 1963.
This Guardianless Baha'i message that at present is being foisted onto the people by the action of the Hands of the Faith is not the Baha'i message at all. The covenant alone was indeed the message to the world during the ministry of Abdu’l-Baha but when the Will and Testament was given us – this Will and Testament with the Guardianship as its very heart and soul then became together with the covenant the teaching of our Faith and from then on it is the message of the Baha'i Cause and the only message for us to give.
Again I tell the Hands that that which they are teaching now – without hope of ever having another Guardian – is a most pernicious falacy that ere long will completely destroy the Faith. We are now at the eleventh hour. Let us arise before it be too late to save the Faith, the guidance of which has been instrusted to the Guardianship that is not wanted by the Hands.
19 APRIL 1959
When Ruhiyyih Khanum tells the Custodian Hands as she did the other day that should the Universal House of Justice, that the Hands propose to establish in 1963, decide to elect a Second Guardian of the Faith, she will abandon Haifa – when as faithful a Hand such as she had apparently been during the ministry of the Beloved Guardian, makes such a statement showing her determination that the Guardianship shall not continue, I am wondering what others among this body of twenty-seven Hands may become covenant breakers in the day of the Second Guardian of the Faith, that is surely to come. I have every assurance that that day will come ere long because without the functioning of this heart of the Administration, the Administration cannot continue to function and this will mean the breaking up and the extinction of our Faith. While I know there is to be a continuation of the Guardianship – I have seen this in vision and I know it is to come – I have no idea at all of how it is to be brought about.
We all know that the Faith of Baha’u’llah is destined to live and to triumph in the world. I have every assurance that eventually the Guardian will be revealed to the Baha'i world – but how? Even if I be the only one of the Hands now at this present time to stand up among the Hands for the Guardianship, I know that I must do so otherwise our Faith will die and the Faith must live.
In the days of Baha’u’llah some of those nearest to The Bab were breakers of his (The Bab’s) Covenant. In the days of Abdu’l-Baha some of those that had been nearest to Baha’u’llah became covenant breakers and the enemies of the Master Abdu’l-Baha. In the days of the First Guardian of the Faith, among those who had been nearest to the Master Abdu’l-Baha refused to obey Shoghi Effendi and thus became the covenant breakers of the days of his ministry to the Faith.
Now in this day – today – what about us? Today should be the day of the Second Guardian of the Faith!
Let each of us Hands now take a spiritual inventory of this situation of Guardianship that now lies before us. Let us see and understand that it was the Beloved Guardian’s intention at all times that the Administration as he had formed it and established it after the plan laid out in the Will and Testament should endure. Then let us make every effort to make sure what this plan is and as faithful stewards of the First Guardian of the Faith, seek and want to carry on and carry out the plan upon which he worked so many years to establish – he at the end to be suddenly called to the Abha Kingdom before his program was understood by us!
In the carrying out of the program of the Administration lies the future of the Baha'i Faith. If the Hands of the Faith arise, wishing it to be carried out we will surely be aided, guided and reinforced by The Holy Spirit and we will conquer. If there are those in our number who object to the continuation of the Guardianship they are not only now in great danger as covenant breakers in these days of the interregnum, but in the days to come of the ministry of the Second Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, they may find themselves in manifesto loss.
22 APRIL 1959
Today in the meeting of the Custodian Hands of the Faith in alluding to things now of the past, Ruhiyyih Khanum said that when the Beloved Guardian sent Keith Ransom Kehler to Persia he commissioned her in particular to explain the Administration and the Guardianship to the Persian believers. This he wanted them to understand since at that time, early in the Guardianship, it was an entirely new idea to the Persians that the Will and Testament had given them and that this Administration of the Faith needed to be explained and taught to them. I believe it to be a fact that even in the days of Shoghi Effendi, the Persian friends were not in sympathy with the Administration of the Faith and that is why the Persian Hands of the Faith now hold that the Guardianship should be BADAH and ended for this Baha'i Dispensation.
21 APRIL 1959
The general, but subtle, revolt against the ways and pressures exherted by the Beloved Guardian in his command of the cause and its believers during the years of his ministry is now confined to the Hands of the Faith. The freedom of such restraints I have aforementioned in this writ, but now at this date I am witnessing it also among the old and tried servants who serve the Hands here in the Baha'i household here in Haifa, in Acre, at Behje and upon Mount Carmel.
When Baha’u’llah, his family, and with the group of his most staunch and firm followers were brought to the fortress of Acre as religious exiles and prisoners under the ottoman rule of Turkey a number of Persian believers came with them in the capacity of household servants, whose forebears had been of the Zoroastrian Faith, and until this present day the descendants of this first original group of servants have lived on here in the Baha'i colony serving in turn in the homes of the Master and the Beloved Guardian as household maids, gardeners and the like, they being a part of the Baha'i organization here in Israel, where they have led a communal life – their housing, board, keep, doctor bills, etc., being met by the Baha'i community and they each being given a stated allowance as pin money for their other expenses. Such system apparently worked well through these times and up until very recently.
When I arrived here to make my home in the Beloved Guardian’s household apparently all this arrangement of years standing was going along in working order and all appeared to be happy and their services were most carefully and spontaneously given. But after the death of Shoghi Effendi, little by little I observed that these servants were not as happy with their lot as I had at first imagined them to be – now and then one would manage to get away from this communal life and migrate to other parts – nor was the household service so carefully rendered as it formerly had been. Only a few days ago one of the house maids refused to do a certain service that had been asked of her. I felt that there was rebellion in the air so yesterday in the conference of the Custodians, I asked Ruhiyyih Khanum if she knew the why of this rebellion and she told me quite frankly that in the days of the Beloved Guardian they feared to disobey him so submitted to the restraints imposed upon them but that now since the rule of the Guardian was no more, they were rebelling and in her opinion it was but a matter of time when they would all be off on their own and out from under this regieme now passed and the Baha'i center of operation here will be obliged to face a new problem of house and garden service.
In other words, those household servants as well as the Hands, the Nobles of the Faith, are now enjoying a liberty and a freedom that they never before have had and now the servants are rebelling at their lot that is indeed from American standards a hard one. Sure the Hands are enjoying it all but what about the morale of these friends and the progress of the Faith? This progress has depended upon our all obeying the Guardian of the Faith. Under this Baha'i system of Administration, obedience is demanded to be rendered by all. This is most explicitly explained to us in the Will and Testament of the Master and this obedience, unpleasant as it may have been to some, was the very key note of the success of the Faith under the Beloved Guardian.
As I have afore shown, this Sans Guardian time is indeed personally a pleasant thing for us in our human capacities. We now have liberties that we did not have with the Beloved Guardian or that we may not have when we are directed by a Second Guardian of the Faith. Therefore some do not want a continuation of the Guardianship. The Beloved Guardian was an exacting disciplinarian. It is very clear to me and I see that the Cause is suffering from this go-as-one-pleases freedom and that the Faith cannot fulfill its destiny in the world unless we all buckle down under the divine rule of the Guardianship of the Faith.
With this thought in mind, I am hopeful that the Hands of the Faith will see and understand this situation as it is and seeing it and the crisis before us, that they will want to arise to do something to alter their present opinions – that is to say will want a Second Guardian of the Faith!
RIDVAN 116 (21 APRIL 1959)
During the Baha'i celebration of today, many thoughts come to me with respect to the divine wisdom of the Beloved Guardian in appointing as he did, in the eleventh hour of his ministry, the Hands of the Faith, thus creating a spiritual aristocracy or nobility in the Faith and together automatically with this imposing upon the Hands of the Faith the duty of protecting the Faith and bestowing upon these chosen ones efforts under his direction, the power and the authority to exercise their vigilance at all times for the propagation of the Faith and for its protection. The common believers have it enjoined upon them to teach the Faith but upon the Hands has been laid the special duty of this protection under the direction of the Guardian thus making them especially responsible in this particular phase of Baha'i service – propagation and protection.
As I have mentioned in others of these recorded thoughts, the divine or spiritual life of man does not come from the result of his human or mental activities or aspirations but comes to him as a gift from on high as divine bounty given to man through the channels of divine revelation of the word of God; therefore following this line of thought and reason we see that this priceless gift to mankind comes down from above, so to express it, and is not an evolution from below attempting to work upwards such as do the human democracies of mankind.
God the creator of his kingdom imposes its laws and ordinances upon the members of his kingdom. They have nothing at all to say about the laws of the kingdom or the set-up of its government or the appointment of the Hands (the nobles) of the Faith. These laws were established in the beginning. This is all directed by a higher hand than that of the democratic choice of one of the people – notwithstanding this however in the actual working out of the Baha'i government upon earth in the Will and Testament, it is given to us that the common people are to have representation in the ruling body to be known as Universal House of Justice of the Baha'i Faith. Thus there is given a balance between the Guardian who is directing the nobles who surround him upon one side and the International Assembly chosen or elected by the people upon the other side.
The first of these two elements of this serving body of Hands being divinely directed and under the guidance of the Guardian directing them as his nobles – the second element, democratic as it is from the voice of the people themselves – they acting quite independently by their own popular vote.
The Hands (Nobles of the Faith) are under the direct control of the Guardian himself who has been called by the Beloved Guardian of the Faith – the first of the two pillars or supports of the Universal House of Justice – the second pillar or support of this Universal House of Justice being the International Baha'i Assembly whose members are elected by the commoners of the Faith and are representative of them and their interests and viewpoints. Thus the people are given this right of expression, a balance so to express it, but this International Assembly which is representative of the people has no infallibility at all in itself. The infallibility of the Universal House of Justice is only realized when the Guardian of the Faith sits and acts with this International Assembly as its President. This is to say the International Assembly in itself, without the Guardian, is merely the International Assembly of Baha'is and is not the Universal House of Justice that it becomes when it has the Guardian as its president – thus infallibility comes to the Universal House of Justice only when it functions with the Guardian as its president and without there be a living Guardian amongst us to preside as president over this International Assembly, there can be no infallibility of that body. In other words, there can be an International Baha'i Assembly chosen by the commoners of the Faith but infallibility only comes to this body when there is a living Guardian President presiding over its deliberations for them and then only does it become the Universal House of Justice whose decisions are infallible. Therefore there is no infallibility in view to lead the Baha'i Faith until there first be a Guardian to establish this Universal House of Justice.
Herein lies the fallacy of the present action of the Hands of the Faith for in the proclamation and in other communications to the Baha'i world – as well as reiterated and announced by the Hands of the Faith – the people of the Faith have the promise of a Universal House of Justice in 1963 that can never then or at any other time be realized – not before we have a Guardian in the flesh functioning as was the Beloved Guardian, thus carrying on the Guardianship as established and formed by the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha.
It literally tears my heart in pieces to be obliged to sit by complaisantly and thus endorse as it were all the falacious teaching that the Hands of the Faith have and are teaching to the people the world around – thus actually leading them astray on a promise that is in direct contradiction to all that the Beloved Guardian has taught us!
All that I, one member of this erring body, can do is to thus call attention to this terrible mistake that they are making and are foisting upon the Baha'i people. Of course they may be sincere in their intention but sincerity is only a virtue when it has a truth to support. Some of the greatest tragedies of all times have been brought about by perfectly sincere, but thoughtless and stupid people off upon the wrong track.
Again I tell the hands that under the present circumstances of no Guardian commanding the Faith and no possibility of a Universal House of Justice, the one problem before the Hands of the Faith is for them to find the Second Guardian for our Faith? In this notion they will be providing the only possible protection that in the end can save the Baha'i Faith, because the life of the Faith depends upon the continuous functioning of the heart of the Faith that is the Guardianship. He is somewhere, but where?
What more can I say? The thing that the Hands have promised the people, namely that the International Assembly of Baha'is that they will elect, will give infallible guidance to the cause, is falacious and up on a false foundation as I have shown in these paragraphs. Such promises as have been made by the Hands in their announcements to the Baha'i world, if carried out, will completely wreck the cause because it will throw into discard all that has gone before. In other words, they are casting aside their spiritual calling and responsibility to God, they the Nobles of the Faith, quitting their duty to protect the cause and throwing it over to the commoners of the Faith to handle by themselves by the popular democratic vote of the prolatariat of the Baha'i Cause! Could anything be a worse move than for this aristocracy of the cause, the Hands of the Faith, to thus desert their responsibility.
In other words, it is plainly the duty of the Hands of the Faith, the Nobles of the Cause to whom has been given the responsibility of serving the Guardian of the Faith, to seek for and to try to find the Guardian in this perplexing crisis of the cause to bridge over this emergency. Upon the other hand it is indeed a repudiation of the Faith when the Hands are in favor of an International Baha'i Assembly to be chosen among the commoners of the cause that, Sans Guardian, the Hands claim will be infallible!
This program upon which the Hands have by majority launched the cause may be popular one with some people because it is “democratic” but this popularity will be amongst those who do not understand the fabric and the functioning of the Administration of the Cause.
When I was in America last summer it was reported to me by Stanwood Cobb that there were those in Green Acre, a group of them who were talking approving highly of this heresy of a New Baha'i Era without Guardianship, saying that when this generation of Hands die off that then the Faith will be upon a truly democratic basis without the aristocracy of the Hands – so this present policy of the Hands to place the leadership of the Cause in the hands of the prolitariat of the Faith unfortunately has a support among some of the Green Acre people.
21 APRIL 1959
I dread to think of the problems that await those believers who now during this Guardianless epoch of the Faith are adjusting their beliefs to the confused state of the Baha'i mind of these days, for these souls and also any new converts to the Faith will naturally condition their ideas to this present regieme, all of which will have to be readjusted to the normal working of the Administration and its function when we have the Second Guardian of the Faith to guide us – that will be an entirely different set up of Baha'i government from that of the confused state with its many contradictions under which we are now laboring.
Only yesterday I was reading incoming reports to the Custodian Hands of Baha'i affairs in Latin America from which the need was very evident of the guiding hand that the authority of the Guardianship alone could give these people. The spread of the spiritual kingdom that the Hands are attempting to run without the divine guidance of the institution of the Guardianship is not progressing. This Guardian-less program is detrimental to the progress of the Faith and to the tranquility and assurance of the people of the Faith.
But as I have mentioned elsewhere in this writ, the Hands of the Faith should examine into their innermost consciences and understand why and how their human desires may prompt them not to want a Guardian to direct the cause when they compare the present easy go-as-you-please without any Guardian control of our present way of life with the life here under Shoghi Effendi. Now they are spending Baha'i funds for pleasures here that each one must know perfectly well that the Beloved Guardian would never in his day have approved of.
Of course from the human side the Hands may prefer this present laxity from control. It makes life more pleasing to them in many ways than it was when they were under the control of the Guardian, but they should consider what affect all this liberty of control may have upon the workings of the cause the world around. This is what I am thinking of and I am sure that each of the other Hands of the Faith will see this when they look at things and at themselves with penetrating sight.
25 APRIL 1959 P.M.
I am feeling depressed tonight! The cable reports are coming in from the annual Baha'i conventions all over the world assuring the Hands of the Faith in The Holy Land of the happy acceptance of the message of the Custodian Hands to these many conventions and assuring the Hands of their confidence in their leadership of the Faith and of their hearty support.
These messages show that the people of the cause are being conditioned more and more as the time passes to this Guardian-less leadership of the Faith that the Hands of the Faith are proclaiming to the world thus building up more and more firmly the Faith of the believers in this present falacious administration in place of the infallible Administration that is all built upon the Guardianship with the living Guardian upon earth as the heart of the Faith – not only more of which is now being held by the Hands, but upon the contrary they take the stand that the Beloved Guardian from the Abha Kingdom is leading them here upon earth from his supreme position in the next world!
All of our out-going messages to the believers are signed by the Hands “In the Service of our Beloved Guardian”. These telegrams coming in from afar are also signed “In the Service of our Beloved Guardian” and so this falacious teaching that the Hands of the Faith are proclaiming is now being accepted as a matter of course by the believers the world around – thus this false Baha'i doctrine flourishes as the believers become conditioned to its falacies.
This pleases all of the Custodian Hands save me; therefore I am distressed because of the deepening of this trouble in which our cause is plunged with I the only one who stands against this united attitude of the Hands.
Hermann Grossmann wrote from South America that one believer sick in a hospital asked him when there was to be another Guardian to lead the believers? He replied, “Not yet”. This remark was understood by others to contain a ray of hope for them so they talked about it and this was reported here in Haifa. To the Custodian Hands it was as an alarm to arms against an invader. Every effort was immediately made to stop all hopes among Baha'is in that land that there would ever be any revival of the Guardianship! By their attitude, the Hands of the Faith not only do not want the Guardianship continued, but they intend stopping and killing any hope the friends may entertain of a Second Guardian.
Newell Atkinson of the Washington community of Baha'is is now here in Haifa. I, by sounding him out in various was, find his observation is that in America the vast majority of the believers are led without question by the Hands of the Faith but that some of those who are thinking of joining the Faith but have as yet not signed up are the ones who question this present “Sans Guardian” condition of the Faith.
Tony Fillon in South America who refused to give up faith in and hope for another Guardia has, I understand, been dropped from his Baha'i voting membership and is in disgrace. Were I not a Hand of the Faith and now in Baha'i duty bound by promise to abide by the majority and keep my mouth shut to all save my fellow Hands of the Faith, I would rebel openly against this attitude of the Hands of no more Guardianship just as Tony Fillon does, but I say nothing hoping that by remaining with the Custodian Hands I will be able to show them their deviation and awaken them to their danger.
The Beloved Guardian labored for thirty-six years to establish the Administration. The Guardianship is the heart of the cause and now in less than two years after his death, the Hands of the Faith are doing what they can to destroy any hopes that believers may entertain of our ever having another Guardian. Until this present time this destruction seems to be having results that please the Hands in The Holy Land, all but with the exception of myself. The Hands are constantly calling my attention to the success of their program.
26 APRIL 1959
This morning I went up to the hospital on Mount Carmel to see Milly Collins who is there for a few days of treatment and we talked, she insisting as do all of the Hands save I, that the Beloved Guardian laid out his plan for this world cruisade and all the guidance that the Faith now needs is contained in this world cruisade plan that we must carry out in order to have a House of Justice in 1963 that will be infallible. Such is the united contention of all save I who contend that without a Second Guardian to be a point of guidance for us now in these days of the cruisade that the cruisade possibly succeed.
Without the Guardianship what possibility is there for the Universal House of Justice? None! There must be a living Guardian to be President of the International Baha'i Assembly before this assembly can function as the Universal House of Justice – So do I see this problem! Therefore I am calling to the attention of the Hands of the Faith that they should reconsider this matter in their next coming conclave and that they should change their former decisions and the plan upon which they are now conducting the affairs of the Faith – scrap their present policy of steering clear of the Guardianship and in a right-about face movement give the Faith hope of the continuation of the Administration under the Guardianship back again onto its former foundation – then we will indeed have a concrete and logical message to give to the world and hope that in some way unknown to us now, that a Second Guardian will be forthcoming to lead the Faith. By so doing, we will indeed be giving our Faith the prospect of the protection that can assure the success of the Faith. When I have urged this procedure, the Hands with one accord say that I should unite with the majority who believe that now the former divine Administration is BADA.
NOON, 6 MAY 1959
This morning at ten o’clock I was in the upper chamber where a conference of the Custodian Hands was to be held. There I waited for two hours. Since no one came there to meet, I have returned to my room to this writing. While in the upper chamber, I read Bill Sear’s report of his travels and teachings of late in America. From this reading, I got much the same idea of condition there that Newell Atkinson gave me some days ago while here on his pilgrimage. When he explained that while the believers were not objecting to the present regieme of the Hands of the Faith, they were nevertheless ill at ease and not assured and needed the assurance that only the hope of a Guardian of the Faith could give them. Lukewarm support of the local assembly work, bickerings and quarrelings among the local assembly members, many unanswered questions in people’s minds about the Guardianship. But few or no indications of any revolt against the dicta of the Hands as given in their Proclamation and communications to the Baha'i world. Yet, in general a sign of omission of spiritual duties rather than one of commission against things as they now are in the Administration – these conditions were gradually revealled by Newell in our long conversation possibly without his realizing that he was telling me of the failing conditions of the Faith in America.
The hope I see came to my mind, as I have mentioned, in the meeting of the Custodian Hands, the day before yesterday – the hope that the Hands will see by their increasingly difficult problems, the fallacy of their present stand. The conferences day before yesterday was a meeting called for the general routine business when came such an eruption with certain of the Hands denouncing one another in the bitterest words highly charged with such emotion that the contestants were yelling and screaming at one another at the tops of their voices to such an extent that despite it being a hot day it was necessary to close the door and windows of the chamber lest the neighbors, some of whom are of the covenant breakers, or people passing in the street, should hear such bitter epithets and expressions of anamosity issuing from the House of Abdu’l-Baha at 7 Persian Street, Haifa!
16 MAY 1959
In the meeting of the Custodian Hands this morning Faizay said that he had observed for some time that there had been a general let-down in the spirit and of the general activity of the Baha'is, particularly in Persia and in America and that he was much perturbed by this. Then Leroy Ioas bore testimony to this same lack of energy and enthusiasm as manifested in both these two strongest of Baha'i countries, whereupon Jalal added his opinion saying that the cause was like an army of good and faithful soldiers but without a head in command.
Jalal surely struck the nail upon its head. The trouble is that there is no commander. I have been speaking of this to the Hands of the Faith for these many months past telling them that hope in the Guardianship should be reestablished by the Hands of the Faith, but all to no effect whatever save to so antagonize them. Therefore today when Jalal spoke as he did I said nothing for I knew that by “command” he meant the command of the Custodian Hands of the Faith and that this was what all others present (save me) understood him to mean.
Finally is was decided that each of us should prepare a thought to be put into a general letter to be composed at our next session to be sent forth to the Baha'i world to try thus by exhortation to rally the spiritual forces and energies of the cause to meet the call of the ten year cruisade and make it a go in all parts of the world.
I myself see this success only if and when we have a Guardian to lead us onto this spiritual victory. Surely this present plan of departure from faith in the Guardianship is the source of our present dilemma. But how can I get this idea over to the other Hands for they will have nothing at all of it? Yet I am sure that eventually they will be obliged to change their point of view for without the hope of the Guardianship to be continued the cause cannot live. I know it is not going to die, so I fix my hopes on their eventual change of heart and of mind and of the continuation of the Guardianship.
22 MAY 1969
HAKOOK! What is going to happen to hakook under this new Baha'i Administration arrangement of no more Guardianship that is so ardently supported by the Hands of the Faith?
With the elimination of the Guardianship, Hakook is automatically eliminated together with all other authority vested in the supreme office of the Guardian of the Faith – thus the door is being opened for troubles of a magnitude sufficient to destroy the unity of our Faith. The destruction of the Guardianship means the destruction of Hakook which means the destruction of the Law of God!
One day several years ago, the Beloved Guardian took me aside and away from others of those about him and he explained to me this matter of Hakook that was to be paid by each believer to the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith. Such he explained to me was the Law of God.
- One fifth of ones total capital property should be given outright to the Guardian.
- After this the one-fifth part of one’s annual increase of capital should be given to the Guardian. By increase is meant that which one has in hand from all income as clear profit or capital above ones necessary annual living expenses.
- Upon one’s death, one-fifth of one’s total estate capital after all debts are paid should be given to the Guardian before any other bequests are made.
Such the Beloved Guardian said is the Law of Baha’u’llah and is not changed.
Then he went on to tell me that it would be far better should a Baha'i give more than the one-fifth amount in making his Hakook, praising highly one believer who had given everything that he had to him – the Guardian – but adding that this was a matter for each believer to decide, stating again that Hakook was the Law of Baha’u’llah.
In my own case after being told this law, I gave the Beloved Guardian 19% of the capital of my own personal estate that belonged to me myself apart from that which I hold that belongs to my family (brother, sisters, and myself) and not to me personally. From this family capital we of the Remey Family all have the income therefrom but by our agreement with our parents who gave us this capital estate, in case of no children this property on our death reverts to the children of the family line.
Thus unless I be the last living descendant of my parents (which is not likely, since I am the eldest of the four of us still living of my generation, one of the second generation and already five children of the third generation) it is not likely that I will have this family property coming to me to eventually be a part of my own personal independent estate.
24 MAY 1959
Our American and Persian pilgrims are at Behje today to return to Haifa tomorrow, so last night was a quiet time in the western pilgrim house. I had dinner here alone with the Revell sisters. In our conversation, Jessie remarked to me that the American pilgrims had spoken to her about the general slowing down of Baha'i activities in America in these past months since the cause has had no Guardian. In my heart there was much that I could have said about this matter, but about all this I kept silence.
Of late Ruhiyyih Khanum has on several occasions in speaking with me alone, made this same observation to which I had no comment that I thought it wise at those times to make to her for all that I could have said would have been to tell her that such conditions in my estimation must be because we have no Guardian. Ruhiyyih Khanum gets herself into an anger when any one opposes her – so in the interest of peace, I remain silent. Had I have told her what was in my heart, it would only have stirred her up for she gets very agitated and angry whenever the thought of a continuation of the Guardianship is ever mentioned in the meetings of the Custodian Hands just as I have mentioned she did one day when someone in the meeting of Custodians suggested that the Universal House of Justice that the Hands propose establishing in 1963 might appoint a Guardian.
During the past months at several meetings I have told the Custodians that the Faith will not be able to continue on thus without a Guardian, all of which as been like running up against a solid wall. Therefore I am biding my time until the Hands of the Faith themselves see and realize this need of the Guardianship before stirring them up by my remarks.
For the present, the Hands are not ready to listen to anything I have to tell them but from signs that I see coming along in America I hope that ere long the Custodian Hands will be awakening as a body to face this problem – then perhaps they will listen to what I have in my heart to tell them. Only night before last Jalal had dinner with us here at the western pilgrim house and he dilated at length upon the Universal House of Justice to come in 1963 that would be the infallible guide for the Faith by which supreme infallibility, all of our questions would be solved.
It hurts me very much to have to sit in silence and hear such stupidities taught to the believers and I not able to say anything for were I to express my opinion to the people of the Faith then there would indeed be more trouble here in Haifa. NO! I must remain silent until something happens that will awaken the Hands of the Faith from their present lethargy. The great majority of the Hands of the Faith, like Ruhiyyih Khanum, do not want the Guardianship to be continued. They are fixed in this opinion. Although I am but one against all the others of the Hands, I am as confirmed in my belief that we should hold to the hope of the reestablishment of the Guardianship but they hold that it shall end now and forever! BADA!
I am holding to my point and I have told this to the Custodian Hands as I did to all the Hands in the Second Behje Conclave. We will see this turn out as it has been shown to me in my flash vision. But how this is to be brought about I know not?
25 MAY 1959
A Kingdom consist of a King, his Nobles, and his subjects – the nobles standing with the King under his orders protecting his rule over his Kingdom. Thus did the Master Abdu’l-Baha frame up the government or Administration of the Baha'i Faith that is the government of the cause and to the establishing of this regieme the Beloved Guardian devoted his entire mission of over thirty-six years to be suddenly called from this world to the Abha Kingdom before the people realized that he had completed the task before him. As the cause now seems to be going under the present guidance of the Hands, in a few years we will have no more Hands living and with no possibility of reestablishing the Guardianship of the Faith and no authoratative divine ruling power in the world to direct the affairs of this Kingdom upon earth. The representation of the prolitariat or the commoners of the Faith in the International Assembly that the Hands plan to establish in 1963 can never be the Universal House of Justice. There first must be a Guardian to function with this body as its President in perpetuity because the Universal House of Justice can only exist and function when supported by its two pillars – I. The Guardian, and II the International or Universal Assembly chosen by and representing the common people of the Faith.
Without there first be a Guardian with the Hands of the Faith, there can be no Universal House of Justice since the Universal or International Assembly of Baha'i in itself cannot function without its divinely instituted Guardian President for only when its Guardian President sits with this assemblage does it then become the infallible Universal House of Justice.
An International or Universal Assembly of the Faith chosen by the people and standing thus alone without a Guardian at its head is not infallible and here is the falacy that is the opinion so far as I have been able to see and to ascertain that is held by twenty-four of the twenty-five Hands of the Faith who met in the Second Behje Conclave – I being the only one who stood out about this point. To me the position of this majority of the Hands of the Faith is a flagrant violation of the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha and of the mission of our Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi!
Why is it that a majority of the Hands of the Faith do not want that there ever be another Guardian? Let them each look into their own hearts and realize what their stand is doing to the Baha'i Faith. The Guardianship is the very heart and soul of the Faith. There will be many persons who will be Guardians of the Faith. The power vested in these Guardians will not be due to their personal attainments but will be theirs by virtue of their station and position of Guardianship and this infallible position will continue on through the ages ahead as the spiritual light of guidance to the Kingdom of God upon Earth.
As we look back at our Faith over the years of the ministry of the Beloved Guardian with all the problems that he had to solve and with so much opposition to the Will and Testament even by the members of the family of Abdu’l-Baha, we see clearly that the Guardianship was the point of unity of the Faith. Had we not had the protection that Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian, gave to the cause it could not have remained the united body that it was during his ministry. But now there are those of the Hands of the Faith who hold that the Faith no longer needs a Guardian – that Shoghi Effendi is directing them from the Abha Kingdom and that the Guardianship upon earth should be put aside and no longer exist. How can they expect a continued unity of the Baha'i Faith without we have the Guardianship to maintain it? The people of the Faith need and require this point of unity – the Guardianship – to hold them together?
29 MAY 1959
Another meeting of the Custodian Hands this morning. Perturbation disquieted us to some extent. The covenant breakers of the Master’s family – several of them – have gone to Persia and it is feared that they may have gone there to stir up something. It seems the millions in property that were in the name of the Beloved Guardian and that now are taken over by and are in the possession of the Custodian Hands of the Faith may be in jeopardy. Should these people ally themselves in Persia with the Moslem enemies of the Faith and through the powers of Islam bring claims for this wealth, they may be upheld by the Persian Government.
When Ugo Giachery and one or two others from amongst the Hands talked with attorney Weinchel of Haifa some months ago about this vast property held by Shoghi Effendi, Weinchel told them that were there a Guardian head of the Baha'i Faith to claim possession of these lands and houses that were in the name of Shoghi Effendi that thereby these Baha'i interests would be much more secure than under the present system of nine Hands of the Faith residing here in The Holy Land! In fact Weinchel presumed to suggest that they appoint a Guardian protem – possibly a boy who when matured would then become the active Guardian successor of Shoghi Effendi, the First Guardian of the Faith! Of course any such maneuver would not be compatible with the canons of the Baha'i Faith!
The friends were worried this morning. There was fear that the followers of Ahmad Sohrab might join forces with these covenant breakers and unitedly put up a front against the cause that would be difficult to meet.
These friends were worried – particularly Ruhiyyih Khanum!
Personally I was somewhat complaisant over the turn of the affairs for I am convinced that in the Guardianship and the Guardianship only lies the strength and the unity of the Faith that we need to carry us along in these early days of the Faith when there are so many enemies against the Faith – chiefest amongst which I think are the Hands of the Faith who are operating right here from the Baha'i center in The Holy Land.
But of this I said nothing today to the friends. For the very word “Guardianship” is as a call to arms among the Hands of the Faith in these days. It is the one word never used – that is to say pronounced in our gatherings, for when I have spoken of this in the past the Hands become agitated. Thus I await and watch for my time to speak in the future when the iron is hot and a blow can be struck hoping to change this policy of the Hands. But things must become much worse before this can be accomplished.
I did raise my voice to express my opinion that an opposition to the Hands of the Faith framed up by the covenant breakers of Shoghi Effendi’s family would indeed be a spiritual spur and might in the end be a good thing for the cause in a spiritual sense. I await the time when, if they listen to me, I will be able to tell them a few things that they should know – that they are violating the Will and Testament of the Master in putting the Guardianship in the discard trying even to destroy any hope of Guardianship. This has so blinded them to the spiritual function of the continued Guardianship that they are all confused upon the issue and consequently all unitedly doing the very thing that is getting them and the cause into deeper troubles each day! But the time will come I hope when they will be forced to see and to understand these conditions.
MAY 30, 1959
I awakened this morning with the thought in mind that Jalal voiced in our meeting of consultation of the Custodian Hands when he likened the present condition of the Faith to a well trained and equipped army of loyal soldiers but without a Commander! No notice was taken of his remark – that is no one said anything in response to this idea, but on that day I made a note of it in my notes. I felt that he had hit upon the matter of the strength when under the command of the Guardian when we had a commander and our weakness now that our former Guardian is dead and for this interregnum we are without a Guardian, when we find ourselves like an army without a General in command.
In a well trained army, docility is the basis of the success of the action of the army under command. All depends upon the faithful and prompt carrying out of the orders of the commander and this can only be obtained when the army is so drilled and equipped that orders are immediately obeyed by the troops. This complete docility is needed by the individual soldier that he should follow without question his commander. But when an army finds itself without a commander, this very docility that under a commander gives it strength, without a commander is immediately its undoing and destruction, when the command is usurped by a usurper.
The mass of the Baha'is throughout the world were well adjusted to receiving and carrying out the commands of the Beloved Guardian. This command is now taken over by violators, chiefest amongst whom is Ruhiyyih Khanum. When the Hands of the Faith usurped the command, being docile and in good training there was little or no objection to this – the people had been taught to obey without question and they have obeyed with but a question coming from here or there from people who saw that without a Guardian commander, the cause could not live.
The James Barretts of Panama and the friends of the National Assembly of Germany and a very few others decided to accept the falacious proposition of the Hands of the Faith and thus retain their status as members of the “Sans Guardian” Baha'i Faith. Others, rather than get themselves into trouble, such as those few in Norfolk, Virginia and Los Angeles, California, have also quieted down so as yet nothing more has been heard from them.
But what effect is all this falacious doctrine now being propagated abroad by the Custodian Hands of the Faith having? What effect is this having upon the cause? It is having a deadening effect upon the Faith in all parts of the world. The people are not opposing the Custodian Hands – no, the mass of them are completely docile but are being led by these Custodians along this falacious way of no hope – “Never again another Guardian” – for this is the fixed intention of the violating dominating Hands of the Faith.
To be sure the Custodians are saying nothing at all to the people at large about their intention of no more Guardianship. Thus they may think they are hiding from the people by not in any of their messages (nor those of the Hands in conclave) mentioning the word “Guardianship” nevertheless some of the people are feeling that the Faith is without the commanding Guardian in perpetuity that the Administration calls for – they are feeling this lack of divine command with the result that they are getting more and more apathetic. The Faith is viewing down and there is no help for it so long as the Hands of the Faith continue this falacious regieme that they have set up that is all against the letter and the spirit of the Master’s Will and Testament and the entire structure that the Beloved Guardian constructed thereon and in harmony with it – the Will and Testament.
In the meeting this morning of the Custodian Hands, I could see clearly the beginning of the downfall of this falacy that the Hands have set up and are struggling so hard to make endure – impossible! The sooner this collapses and we get the cause into running order in the hope of the coming command of a Second Guardian, the better it will be for the Faith. The Hands of the Faith are promising the people a falacy that can only come to naught! The Hands of the Baha'i Faith have compromised the Will and Testament of the Maser Abdu’l-Baha and they have violated the Administration of the Faith as established by the Beloved Guardian. They will not be able to escape reaping the fruits of this violation.
Like the docile sheep following a bewildered shepherd the believers the world around are at the mercy of the enemies of the Faith, both those within as well as those without the fold of the Faith. Under these present conditions one wolf in sheeps clothing can do an calculatable amount of harm to the Faith. In a very very short time irreparable havoc can be created, all because the people are docile, easily led and without the protection of a Guardian! The wolf is never dismayed at the number of the sheep. One wolf can kill any number of sheep for without a shepherd, a flock of sheep are helpless. Such is the condition of the Baha'i Faith at the present time.
Nevertheless I have hope that the Hands of the Faith will arouse themselves from this lethargy and turn away from this false idol they have set up for themselves and cause for when they make this turn they will be blessed with victory for the ten year world cruisade, and from there they will ride on to victory after victory. But they must see this for themselves. The way things are now promises that the cruisade upon which the Faith is now launched will be a failure!
Can I, as one Hand of the Faith with all the other Hands of the Faith against me, can I do nothing to save the cause? Someone must accomplish their awakening and that of the believers the world around. Since no one is arising to do this, I seem to be the only one to do this. But how am I to accomplish the awakening? Awake, Hands of the Cause, and see what you are doing! You may be sincere indeed in your falaciousness, but sincerity is no substitute for righteous and right thinking. There is no divine sanction whatsoever for the regieme you Hands of the Cause have set up and for the promises you are making the people – nay, rather all that you have done in forming this present regieme with its promises of infallibility are in direct opposition to the Administration of the Faith as established by the Beloved Guardian. Awake! See this condition. Seek for and welcome the Second Guardian of the Faith when he is found – he who will lead the cause on to victory! Only he can do this. The Hands cannot do this without him.
JUNE 16, 1959, FLORENCE, ITALY, WRITTEN ON MY WAY RETURNING TO AMERICA
The cause is at this moment at a critical point. At present in the statistics of our year books, reports that may well delude us into believing the cause to be far stronger and more firmly rooted than it actually is. From some recent reports from the assemblies in Central America as well as from some other parts of the world, a great struggle is on to maintain the minimum number of resident believers since in some places even the majority of the believers required to maintain this assembly quota are foreign pioneers whose residence there is at all times difficult to maintain and more or less in jeopardy because of uncertain living conditions, maintenance and passport problems and uncertainties of developments at any time that would cause the loss of assembly status.
Because of this very delicate and sensitive problem, any cessation of Baha'i efforts or reduction of spiritual force may have a most disasterous effect upon the cause. The very fact that of late reports of spiritual inactivity and a general lack of enthusiasm coming to the Custodian Hands in The Holy Land from America and from other countries is indeed a bad sign and indication that the people of the Faith are feeling the lack of leadership and the living inspiration of the Guardianship. Surely the Administration of the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha can never function without a Guardian. The fact is that the Hands of the Faith have voluntarily discarded the Will and Testament upon which the Beloved Guardian built and carried on his entire mission as the First Guardian of the Baha'i Faith.
I as a Hand of the Faith see that we should arise and as a united body attempt to get the cause back again if possible into the working of the Administration where the Beloved Guardian left it. Let us look the matter fairly and squarely in the face and understand the condition of the cause. If the Guardianship is not continued, the Baha'i Faith will surely die!
FLORENCE, ITALY, 20 JUNE 1959
Last night after turning in I found myself thinking of the condition of the Baha'i Faith so now at this hour of 4:00 AM after so far a sleepless night I write these lines.
From what Ugo Giachery told me recently while I was in Rome about conditions in Central America and in the United States and from some of the reports that come to us Custodian Hands before I left Haifa, it was very clear in my thought that the cause in general and the teaching work of the world cruisade is not moving along in as vigorous and healthy a way as it should move if we are going to achieve the goal set for us by the Beloved Guardian. This being the case we should in the coming conclave of the Hands of the Faith look into this condition and try to ascertain where and what the trouble is and rectify it – if this be possible?
Ugo also told me another thing – off the record so to express it. While in Panama he was in the house of the Barretts. Now Jimmie Barrett and his wife, Yevonne, hope for the continuation of the Guardianship but they have been ordered by the Hands of the Faith to desist in this hope. Therefore when Ugo went to see them there was just naturally a strained condition in the meeting. From their attitude he felt this but they did not mention the word Guardian. However their eight year old son gave the situation away by asking Ugo when the Guardianship was to be returned? Thus the youngster revealed the thought that his parents didn’t dare mention for fear of being cast out from the Sans Guardian Faith of these violating Hands.
Every living organism has a heart. Upon the healthy action of which these organisms are dependent for their proper functioning; so does the Baha'i Faith have a heart upon which its life depends and this heart is the Guardianship of the Faith. But the Hands of the Faith in their dilemma at the death of our Beloved Guardian were so confused and upset that they thought the cause must get along without any more Guardianship – thus setting up a substitute for this Guardianship in their present intending leadership of the nine Hands of the Faith in The Holy Land for which body there is no authority whatsoever in the administrative plan of Baha'i government as given us in the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha.
Now it is becoming evident to the believers in many and widely distant one from another parts of the world, parts of the world that this system is not working. These friends are not openly objecting to this save in a very few cases where some of those have been told to keep their thoughts to themselves – one of those who saw this matter of Guardianship clearly – namely Tony Fillon – because he continued to hope for a Second Guardian of the Faith and to maintain this hope before the people, was expelled from his position as an active voting believer in our Faith. I hear of others who hold the same hopes that Tony does but keep their silence rather than like him find themselves cast out from their communities. These few friends for the most part are afraid to object to the dictum of the Hands for fear of being expelled from their cause!
The people of the Faith the world around are looking toward the Hands of the Faith to lead them out of their present condition and they, the Hands, are leading the people astray. Things are not at all as they should be among the Hands themselves.
FLORENCE, 22 JUNE 1959
As a very young girl and now as an older woman our Baha'i friend, Anna True Peron, gets off some very trite and amusing sayings, one of which now comes to my mind – “Any goose can propagate if she has a propaganda!”
As one looks back upon the growth and development of the Baha'i Faith, we find that much good and effective teaching has been done by some sincere but not at all brilliant people – in fact by people of quite mediocre and of defective mentalities but they had a very definite spiritual message to give which backed by sincere devotion with love in their hearts won others to the Faith. I have known one case in the founding of the cause in Germany when the believers who started it all was really mentally deficient – notwithstanding which because of his sincerity and the fact that he arose to give the then clear and direct Baha'i message to those people, it took ahold of the people but like the case of the goose that Anna Peron spoke of, basically there had to be a propaganda adhered to as the basis of success.
The basic trouble that we Baha'is face today is that the Hands have no basic and centered propaganda (message that is) for the world. They are engaged in a great world cruisade trying to lead the people and they don’t know what their message is and where they are leading the people. They have scrapped the Administration as layed before the believers in the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha and as established by the Beloved Guardian. The Hands have thrown this all aside and they have no idea at all what to teach or where they are leading the people of the Faith?
In the days of our Blessed Master the covenant was the message that confirmed the believers. In the days of the Beloved Guardian the Administration added to the covenant was the message that forged the cause onward until it reached around the earth. But now what definite message of hope have the Hands for the world – NONE!
It is exactly as Jalal put it one day in a meeting of the Custodian Hands in Haifa, saying “We are as a loyal and an equipped army but without a Commander”. He spoke the truth for now the Faith is without the Guardianship – we are indeed without a commander. Jalal Khasim spoke better wisdom than he thought because from all the other things that I have heard him say all testify to me that apparently he himself like all of the other Hands with the exception of myself, take the stand that he takes against any continuation of Guardianship. We will never be able to win the cruisade that the Beloved Guardian instituted until we are commanded by the Second Guardian of the Baha'i Faith – then our spiritual army will have the commander for whom I hope. Then the cruisade will forge ahead and triumph! But how are we to get this Guardian? All that we ourselves can do is to hope and to seek for this Guardian but this hope is the one thing that the Hands of the Cause are bent upon destroying.
Shortly after the reading of the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha, Mountfort Mills, one of the very important, if not the most prominent at that moment in America, said to me, “Why”? The set up of the Guardianship is like that of the infallibility of the papacy of the Roman Catholic Church?” Replied I, “Well the papacy has so far held the church of Rome together in unity better than that of any of the other Christian communions!” Had the Roman Church not had a pope their unity would never have held – by now they would be as divided up as in the Protestantism today”. Since then, now nearing thirty-nine years ago (this incident that I mention took place here in Haifa in February 1921), the Baha'i world has had time and ample opportunity to observe so far the admirable working out of this principle of the Guardianship of our Faith. We all now realize that without the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi whom we all to a soul had to obey, because so commanded by Abdu’l-Baha’s will, there would have been no unity at all or coordination so necessary for the carrying on of our cause. For without the Guardianship by now we would surely have broken up into many divisions, sects and cults. So far until now we face the Sans Guardian stand of the Hands, the Sohrab Heresy is the only deflection of any consequence from the Guardianship of the Faith due to the fact that we have this institution of infallibility which to some may look something like the papacy but which differs fundamentally from it in that the Roman Papacy is a human institution by election while the Baha'i Guardianship is by divine appointment and has divine authority for its being the promises spiritual victory to our Faith that is the establishment of God’s Kingdom upon Earth.
Often people decry the failure of the church to establish Christ’s Kingdom upon Earth. All Christians are thus failing in this endeavor because it was the plan of God that the Revelation of Christ should win this victory over the world. Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God rejected by the world but he taught very definitely that He – the Christ – The Word of God would come again in the Glory of the Father Manifesting himself as the triumphant Lord of the Vineyard and that at that time He, the Father, the Prince of Peace, would then set up his Kingdom upon Earth and that He would rule in his own right in his kingdom upon earth.
None now upon this earth should know these things better than the Hands of the Baha'i Faith. The Baha'is should all know this too and know that Abdu’l-Baha gave us our First Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, who inaugurated this Baha'i Administration that called for a continuance amongst us of this infallible rule vested in the Guardianship as an institution – a permanent organization with the Guardianship as its heart and center of guidance added to which will in time (when the cause is sufficiently strong and wide spread around the world with assemblies and National Assemblies functioning in many countries) will be the elective institution of one great international assembly which, together with the Guardian of the Faith as its President will form the Universal House of Justice that will rest upon the two pillars, the Guardianship and this elected international body. Thus two institutions taken together then being them the infallible guide of mankind. But until this institution of the Universal House of Justice is formed the Guardianship alone is for the guidance of the cause and this responsibility can be met only by the Guardianship for it is a Guardian who will establish the Universal House of Justice – none other than he can accomplish this.
The abolition of the Guardianship that is held by the Hands of the Faith indeed produces a most critical state of unbalance for the cause at this time. I have made up my mind that I am going to fight this to a finish and with God’s help I trust that the cause will be saved by our again having a Second Guardian to guide us at this perilous time.
AT SEA, 18 JULY 1959
I awakened in my berth at sunrise this morning, awakened very suddenly all over, as it were, with a jump, thinking of the serious condition of the Baha'i Faith!
It is incomprehensible to me that the Hands of the Faith should actually be repudiating as they are doing, the Administration of the Faith as given in the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha and as attested to and started running by the Beloved Guardian – thus violating all that has been built up by the Center of the Covenant and the Beloved Guardian by their decision to cast all this aside and place the cause in the hands of and under the guidance of an International Assembly of the prolitariat of the Faith that they promise the Baha'i world that they will establish in 1963 thus stepping out themselves and eliminating together with the Guardianship the body of the Hands of the Faith – thus will be the complete destruction of the cause. This is actually what they are doing and the vast number of believers the world around – sheep like – are being thus deceived by them.
I see this condition and its perils very clearly. Is there not another one of the Hands to stand up with me to try to rectify this error?
The Hands of the Faith have sanctioned the condemnation of those of the believers who insist in harboring the hope of the continuation of the Guardianship – thus Tony Fillon is in Baha'i disgrace down in Quito Ecquador. That man, D.C. Gupta, in Lucknow, India who awaits the reestablishment of the Guardianship was clever enough to resign his Baha'i membership for the duration of this interregnum, so that he could not have his voting rights taken from him or be expelled formerly from the Faith.
According to the Baha'i procedure of the Administration, the Hands of the Faith have not got the power to expel any one from the Faith – nevertheless they are now expelling those who differ from them. Therefore I realize the seriousness of the step that I am taking when I stand alone among us Hands and tell you these things that are so in opposition to everything that you have decided to do and are doing and want to continue doing, but I, as one of this body have the conviction that the very life of our Faith depends upon my telling them that everything that they are doing and promising to the friends is upon the wrong basis and is leading the Faith to its destruction.
However I am speaking only to the Hands of the Faith and in strict confidence. To no other believers have nor will I mention these things. If these matters be divulged to the believers it will be through the indiscretion of others of the Hands.
AT SEA, PM 19 JULY 1959
In the proclamation and the other communications from the Hands of the Faith to the Baha'i world the intent of the majority of the Hands of the Faith that the Guardianship was definitely ended was very stupidly and carefully concealed – nothing at all was mentioned about this – this the people didn’t know what was really in the minds of the Hands regarding the Administration with the Guardianship as its heart. The real attitude of the Hands was revealed to the friends in America through that Manifesto, “A New Baha'i Era” that was formulated by three of the Hands of the Faith then in America, in collusion with whom were the members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States. At least these believers endorsed this document and sanctioned its circulation. From its style in its writing it was doubtless composed by Horace Holley.
The believers at large are thinking and talking among themselves and some are questioning the evasiveness of the communications of the Hands of the Faith? I hope for the time when the Hands will realize the peril in which they are placing the Faith.
AT SEA LATE AT NIGHT, 19 JULY 1959
The truth of the matter is that the majority of the Hands of the Faith actually do not want a Second Guardian of the Faith. Of the 27 Hands of the Faith there are of course some who are more to the fore in their influence than others – the others just following along as it were in the wake of the majority – veering to this side as to the other as emotional winds of the cause blow this way or that way. As in every group there is a certain number who control the whole, and as I see the present condition of things, it is they who don’t want that there should be a continuation of the Guardianship. They are in control and they not only have no desire at all to have another Guardian but they are dead against the continuation of the Guardianship and have no intention at all of allowing anything to interfere in their present position of supreme power in the Faith.
Let these Hands of the Faith now beware of their assumed responsibilities! Their position in the Baha'i world is a very high one and their responsibilities are in proportion to their position in the Faith. To those who are thus favored greater sacrifices are demanded by the cause than are demanded of those less favored believers. Those who are perched high upon pedestals are in greater danger than those below them upon the ground!
In other parts of this writ I have shown how much easier and humanly delighted is life now in Haifa than it was in the days of the Beloved Guardian who held the purse strings and insisted at all times that the cause was to be considered first of all and each of the believers needs secondary to the welfare of the Faith. In the days of Shoghi Effendi there was not the waste and the extravagances at the Baha'i headquarters in Haifa that there is now. Shoghi Effendi insisted upon austerity for the individual Baha'i that the cause might luxuriate and not the individual. Such should be now and the only way to obtain this is in my opinion to have a Guardian in the chair of command of the Faith to steer and hold the ark of the covenant to its course in these troubleous times.
AT SEA, AM, 19 JULY 1959
I have had a long experience in the Faith in America and in England in 1914 with violators and with the spirit of violation and with how it beclouds and bewilders all who come in contact with it. It is as a poison that first bewilders, then destroys. Like a disease it lays its victims low and helpless, then if they are not rescued they are done for completely.
AT SEA, 19 JULY 1959
There has been a successive build-up in the teachings and doctrines of the Baha'i Faith based upon the Revelation of Baha’u’llah that has followed Baha’u’llah’s day on through the thirty years of the ministry of the Center of His Covenant and this build-up of Baha'i law and procedure, following out the Will and Testament of the Center of the Covenant was carried on to further fruition under the thirty-six years of the ministry of the Beloved Guardian.
Now the procedure that the Hands of the Faith should follow is to try to uphold this build-up. To be sure the line of hereditary Guardians from the progeny of Baha’u’llah as envisioned by Abdu’l-Baha is for the moment broken but there is always the prospect of in the time to come that there may appear faithful descendants of the line from Baha’u’llah from whom the infallible Guardianship may be recruited and gotten back into the hereditary line of Baha’u’llah that has, as we know, come down to us from his progenitor, the Prophet Abraham. But such is not to be considered now. This matter together with all other questions should be left to the infallible decisions of the Guardianship.
Let those of the Hands of the Faith who do not want that there should be any more Guardianship – let those Hands look into their own hearts and ask themselves why it is that they don’t want a Guardian? Is it because they do not want to give up their present position that they have assumed of directing the affairs of the cause in favor of Guardian as the supreme commander? Is this their reason for not wanting the continuation of the institution of the Guardianship? I ask each of these Hands who do not want the Guardianship this question?
We all know that from a human standpoint, as I have shown, in my observations, that life in Haifa under the Hands of the Faith is far more easy and pleasant than under a Guardian’s supreme command, but as we have seen the cause blossom forth and grow under the Guardianship and the Faith wither when this supreme command is withdrawn as it is at this present time.
AT SEA, 20 JULY 1959
It was upon the insistence of Ruhiyyih Khanum in the First Behje Conclave that no written records be made of any of the proceedings, decisions etc, of the Hands of the Faith in conclave and this principle has also been adhered to in all of the meetings of consultation and deliberations of the Hands of the Faith in The Holy Land – reason for this as stated by her that it was not the spiritual way of conducting the affairs of the Faith – maundain business matters are conducted in that way but the affairs of the cause should be done upon a more elevated plane.
Therefore it is impossible to look back over our proceedings and decisions with any degree of certainty as to just what was done and said and by whom and what it was all about.
As for myself I have a very good and accurate memory of things that effect and interest me – some other matter of little or no interest I do not remember so well and still many others not at all.
Many people have not only very inaccurate memories but they get things so mixed up in their minds that imagination and error rule their memories and their recollections that they claim to be facts are all wrong.
For more than two years past I have each day or two, or more or less often, kept this series of daily notes on what was happening in the cause about me and my recollections to it all – my thought being from these notes to make a resume (somewhat a lengthy one) have it typed as a record of this time of judgement of the Baha'is the world around. In order to see and in order to understand the workings of the Faith one must study the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha. I am amazed in these days to find how many believers seem to know but little of the Holy documents that are the very foundation of the Administration and the Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith.
I am fairly staggered and amazed at the complete ignorance of the vast majority of the Hands of the Faith when it comes to applying the spirit and the principles of the Kingdom of God to the affairs of the cause. The cure for all of the present dilemma of the Faith is in the teachings we are supposed to follow but in order to do so we must first understand those teachings.
The violation of the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha by the majority of the Hands of the Faith who stand in a solid block against the continuation of the Guardianship is the cause of this present confusion of thought amongst the Baha'is the world around.
Such is the effect of violation. The Baha'is should understand this by studying the teachings upon this matter of violation.
VOLUME FOUR
FINIS
AFTER WORD
In these observations there is much reiteration. The writing was done without thought of its ever being put forth in this form. This record of my Baha'i thoughts is as jotted down day by day.
C. M. R.
ANNOUNCEMENT
This volume is one of a series of treatises- - of nine or ten or more in all- -each of which is printed in a very small edition of but fifteen copies. These writings are not intended for general circulation at this present time (1960 A.D.), but have been prepared especially to be placed in a few important libraries at home and abroad. They consequently will be available to readers and will be preserved for future generations as a record of conditions that exist now and things that are at hand and taking place among the followers of the Baha’i World Faith--the Universal World Religious Movement that of recent years has been spreading in many of the countries of the world but that now, at this time, is threatened by internal forces of disruption, the causes for which are shown and discussed in this series of theses. This volume contains one of these several arguments and is written, arranged, and bound in this form personally by the present “Second Guardian” as Head of the Baha’i World Faith, and who, at present, is living in the city of Washington in America in voluntary and temporary exile from his home upon Mount Carmel in the Holy Land.
The libraries at home and abroad where these volumes can shortly be found are registered upon the accompanying listing. In order to facilitate their indexing in these several libraries, the Library catalogue cards are accompanying each volume now being sent forth by- -
Mason Remey, Guardian
of the Baha’iFaith
From P.O. Box 418
Washington 4, D.C., U.S.A.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The transportation of these volumes from Washington, D.C. to the foreign libraries listed has been gratuitously undertaken by the International Exchange Service of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, D.C. For this favor, the author and donor of these volumes here expresses his sincere appreciation.
The Libraries:
Bibliothèque Royale - - Bruxelles, Belgium
The Library of the
Free University of Berlin - - Berlin-Dahlem, Germany
Library of the British Museum - - London, England
The Bodleian Library - - Oxford, England
Bibliothèque Nationale - - Paris, France
State Archives and Library - - Hakirya, Jerusalem
Israel
Library of the United Nations - - Geneva, Switzerland
Public Library of
New South Wales - - Sydney, Australia
In the United States of America these treatises will
be found in:
The Library of Congress - - Washington, D.C.
The New York City Public
Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue - - New York
and in libraries in a few other cities.
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