Daily Observations of the Baha’i Faith in the Holy Land by Charles Mason Remey Second Baha’i Guardian, Volume Three

 

DAILY

OBSERVATIONS

OF THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH

MADE TO

THE HANDS OF THE FAITH

IN

THE HOLY LAND

BY

MASON REMEY

 VOLUME THREE

THE THIRD 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 III

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 III

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 CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

HAIFA, ISRAEL – 6 FEBRUARY 1959

            Today I made up my mind that I wanted to leave Haifa and absent myself from the Hands of the Faith in The Holy Land until the next conclave of all of the Hands of the Faith to be held probably at the Behje next November!

            Realizing as I do that the life of the cause is at stake under the present action of the Hands in their present stand of ending the Guardianship of the Faith which the majority of them claim is BADAH or the Will of God, but which to me standing alone against all of the others is a violation of the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha and in the end will be the death of the Abha Kingdom upon earth unless something be done to change this course of Baha'i affairs.  To me this condition is daily becoming more and more untennable.

            Since there is no other one of the Hands to make and to take this stand I must take this position against the united action of all of the Hands.  I must separate myself from this unity of opinion and do the best I can to awaken them one and all to this crisis which the Baha'i Faith now faces.  It is because there is no one other than I to do this that I am thus forced to do it myself.

            I hope to leave Haifa and through a most confidential and private correspondence with the Hands of the Faith here in The Holy Land exhort them to reconsider their action of trying to administer the Baha'i Faith without a Guardian, begging them to restudy the Will and Testament and the words and teachings of the Beloved First Guardian of the Faith Shoghi Effendi and see from all of these sources, each for himself, that the Guardianship must be continued.

            My bringing of this argument to these Hands of the Faith I cannot accomplish while I am here in Haifa.  I must be off somewhere by myself where I can think out and organize my forces and my arguement.  For obvious and other reasons I cannot accomplish this while living here as one of the Custodian Hands of the Faith in the Holy Land.

     I see that this will raise much trouble for me with the other Hands here in The Holy Land.  This I must face as best I am able for it cannot be avoided.  It may be some time before I can accomplish this, it is something to work toward.

12 FEBRUARY 1959

            This afternoon there was a meeting of the seven of us Custodian Hands of those now here in The Holy Land at which there was a discussion of many things – details of the comings and goings of pilgrims all of routine work and a letter from the local assembly of Lucknow, India was laid upon the table without remark, someone saying that it was a local problem – a matter that should be referred not to the Hands but to the National Assembly of India.

            Seeing the letter as it lay there on the table I glanced at it and was astonished indeed at its contents.  It was a record of the action of that local assembly in which seven of the nine members had united to dissolve that local body until such time as the Guardianship be renewed and functioning again – this letter (this copy of which was addressed to the Hands in The Holy Land dated 18 November 1958) was being sent to the Indian National Assembly in New Delhi.  This was indeed a most remarkable statement (in six short paragraphs and all on one sheet of paper) of the reasons why these friends cannot accept the present condition of the cause without a Guardian so the only thing that they could do was to dissolve their assembly until they could again function as a local assembly of the Administration as given in the Will and established by the First Guardian of the Faith Shoghi Effendi

            Therein I found an epitome of the main and vital points that I have urged the Hands to consider and about which they as an overwhelming majority will so far do nothing.  These men of Lucknow who wrote that letter are indeed clear thinkers as are those of the German National Assembly.  It is a masterpiece of statement, most extreme in its expression (it could not be more extreme) but with a foundation as firm as the foundation of the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha.  If possible I want to get for myself a photostat of this document, coming from the common believers of the Faith (as classed apart from the Hands – commoners and peers).  It gave me more hope than any of the other objections so far received by the Custodian Hands – objections to the action of the Hands in their tacit scrapping of the Guardianship that is of a divine nature and of their putting up in its place the present human organization in its place!

            In our meeting today no thought or consideration was given to this missive. Nevertheless it all brought me hope for I can see that this is but the first sign of a rebellion in the Faith against the Hands of the Faith.  Others have objected and questioned and thus said no more – but these people of Lucknow are now starting a rebellion that ere long as it assumes greater proportions will compel the Hands to reconsider their present stand and get the cause upon the right track which is the Guardianship.

            After this meeting of consultation, four of us Hands went up to the Oriental Pilgrim House where we met with a larger group than usual of pilgrims from Persia.  Here I am obliged to sit in silence while each of these other Hands expaciated upon the present policy established by the Hands of the Faith and pouring out into the ears of these visitors their thoughts that are ever leading astray these poor believers, the commoners of the Faith.

            I am not able to open my mouth against this flagrant denial of the Guardianship – thus I am having built up within me a higher tension every day that may lead me into creating an explosion at almost any time.  I will try to see however that it comes in a closed meeting of the Hands and not when any other believers are present.

14 FERUARY 1959

            For some time I have been expecting some open remonstrance from the believers at the stand taken by the Hands of the Faith that the Guardianship was ended.  There have been some few individuals in Europe and America who have written to the Hands in The Holy Land about this matter that these Custodian Hands have either replied to, telling them that when the Universal House of Justice was formed that this institution would supply the cause with infallibility or they have sent no reply at all as was the case from the letters from Drs. Schmidt and Schaefer in Germany whose letters and telegram were sent to the Second Behje Conference – the two returning Hands, Grossman and Muhhelegel, to Germany being commissioned to talk with these German friends.

            But now comes from Lucknow in India this letter from the L.S.A. that is indeed the first sign of a concerted Baha'i action against the present organization derived by the Hands in conclave to lead the Faith in place of a Guardian.

            This objection coming from India was indeed a surprise to me for I imagined such a documentary move would have emanated first from America rather than from the Orient.  (see the copy of this Lucknow L.S.A. letter attached to the volume, “The Question of the Guardianship”.)

            The other day this letter was presented here in a meeting of the Custodian Hands and was simply laid on the table, not mentioned save to say it was a matter that had to do with the cause in India and should be referred to the N.S.A. of India and Burma to be dealt with by them.  All but I had read it and passed it off with remarks to the effect that the Baha'is in Lucknow knew little or nothing about the Baha'i teaching and that anyway they were trouble-makers and no one should listen to them and at the same time denouncing the leader of the local assembly there saying that he was a trouble-maker and should not be listened to.

            Imagine my surprise when I read this letter of protest to find that whoever wrote it had a very fine concept indeed of the station and institution of Guardianship – the finest that I have yet read – contained in six short paragraphs upon one letter sheet of paper.  It must have been written by one of a legal mind and trained thought for it was a most terrible indictment of the present substitution of the Guardian by this present system of the Custodian Hands here in The Holy Land.

            In this document, I found my own thoughts and arguements stated with such clarity and briefness that I marveled that these other Hands here in Haifa could have thus put it aside and apparently out of their thought.  Needless to say that I lost no time in telling them that they, the Hands, were the ones who did not comprehend the station of Guardianship and not the believers in Lucknow.

            I often tremble when I think of what the outcome of all this will be for Ruhiyyih Khanum, and no one knows this better than I who have lived these years with them in their household but this very devotion in itself to Shoghi Effendi The Beloved Guardian, obscures from her vision the continuation of the Guardianship.  This is the inevitable that she must meet and I realize that I sympathize with her sufferings but I know that the cause of El Abha must go on – that it can not go on as it is now going without the Guardianship be continued and carried on, so as much as I for personal reasons do not like to take this stand against the united action of all of the other active Hands of the Faith I feel that I must take this stand and take it alone for I know that the Guardianship must be carried on and since no other Hand of the Faith arises to insist upon this continuance I, myself, must take the stand.

Some days later.

            I met with the friends upon the date on which they decided that the meeting should be devoted to hearing what I had to say about that letter from Lucknow and in fact about this problem of the Guardianship that I have continually been bringing up.  If I may so put it to their annoyance.

            When the meeting was in session Ruhiyyih Khanum was there as usual and the meeting opened as usual (of late) with the discussion of many of the domestic problems of our Baha'i household in Haifa which of late have been many, complicated and difficult to solve.  Thus the entire meeting was thus devoted to these matters, nothing was said about the Guardianship or my questions thereupon, so I supposed the matter forgotten by these friends. 

            A few days later in another meeting of us Custodians when I thought my hearing to be forgotten, it was brought up and I asked to speak.  My statement to my case was a question to the friends, I asking them to read that Lucknow letter and to please tell me what they thought amiss with it – taking it up and discussing each of its six paragraphs I, in order to start a discussion, telling them that leaving aside the question of whether or not the Lucknow Local Assembly should have written such a letter of protest, but considering only the six paragraphs stating their conception of the Guardianship.  I considered these paragraphs to be remarkably good brief statements of correct Baha'i teaching.

            My question of them for a discussion of this letter only brought forth their condemnation of the letter, they without going into any mention of the contents of the letter, each present saying that they had read the letter, that the Lucknow friends were not firm believers in the teachings, not properly instructed therein and thus the matter was dismissed, I maintaining clearly in kind words to them that to my mind the Lucknow friends had the true concept of the Guardianship and that in this present time of interregnum that they, the Hands of the Faith, were entirely upon the wrong track and at the same time assuring them of my affection and love for each of them and of my belief that the time would come, soon I hoped, when they would change their views and would be forced by conditions of disunity and decension in the cause to seek to reestablish the Guardianship.

            Thus this subject was dismissed.  We were at an impasse and there was nothing more to be said.  They all upon one side – I upon the other – neither willing to give in to the other!

27 FEBRUARY 1969

            That which is best for the Faith as a whole is often the most difficult for the believers individually and that which is best for the cause is usually difficult for the individual believers, for it means sacrifice upon their part.  This principle of personal sacrifice and efacement of the individual for the good of the cause was nowhere more clearly demonstrated than right here in Haifa in the days of the Beloved Guardian, for when the cause was going along so well under his command, the friends here and about him were suffering often to the limit of their endurance.

            To be sure this was a matter never spoken of between any of us, nevertheless it existed to an extent that could not at times be concealed for as was remarked by more than one firm believer that Haifa was a wonderful and a marvelously happy place to visit as a pilgrim or a sojourner for a few days, but it was no place when  one would want to remain for a long period.

            The Master Abdu’l-Baha’s admonition was that the Guardian of the Faith should be OBEYED by all.  This was the standard of Baha'i conduct in the days of the Guardian.  Those who obeyed him through this standard of obeyance maintained the unity of the Faith.  Those who disobeyed him were the covenant breakers and by their disobedience were cast out from the Faith.

            Measures were drastic and had to be met with by all but thereby the unity and the solidarity of the cause was maintained and the Faith was strong and it flourished in ways that the world now sees and recognizes.  One realized that without a Guardian in command of the believers the unity of the Faith would never have stood.  Without the First Guardian of the Faith the unity of the Faith would never have withstood the tests that were continuously bombarding the cause.

            But during all this growth of the Faith under the Beloved Guardian, those believers who were nearest to him were sacrificing and suffering the most.  As one of the members of the International Baha'i Council once remarked (it was Leroy Ioas) “Haifa is the Hell hole of this world” and the several other members of the council, myself encluded, in whose presence this remark was made, all of us with one accord agreed that life in Haifa was hell.

            Now in this present state of interregnum in which we find ourselves in Haifa without a Guardian, life for the individual believers here as it is elsewhere is far more comfortable for the individual believer than it was in the days of the Beloved Guardian, now there is no one to obey.  Each individual Baha'i can do about as he likes, of course we are civilized human beings and in general there is harmony and good will between us, at least for most of the time.  Nevertheless there is no “Command” to hold the cause together. To be sure we follow the advice and admonitions of the Custodian Hands as these are followed by the believers abroad the world around, certain ones of the Hands fight occasionally, but this unity that has held us together thus for the past fifteen and more months is by our volition to be so united.  But how long such unity is going to hold the cause in running order is to me a very serious problem that may take a turn at any time and become from its present benevolent way into one of virulency that will bewilder the friends the world around and if not disrupt the Faith.  The continuation of the Guardianship as an institution is our only safeguard for both the present and the future of the Cause of Baha’u’llah!

            To be sure such continuance of the covenant of the Master (His Will and Testament) will mean much sacrifice and personal inconveniences more or less to all the individuals that form the body Baha'is throughout the world and in particular the Hands and members of the Baha'i International Council who are in Haifa.  To have a Second Guardian of the Faith for us all to obey will at times to come as was in past time add much to our own personal problems for then we will not be free as we now are in these days of interregnum.  Then we will have to make all personal sacrifices and abase ourselves before this supreme commander in order that the Cause of God should triumph in the world.  The role we will then be called upon to play will indeed be a most difficult one but the only one under which the Faith can flourish.

            Now each of us Hands of the Faith must look at this problem and decide whether he or she prefers his or her personal individual liberty and freedom that we now have since we are without a Guardian, which in the long run means the disruption of the Faith, or are we each willing to give up and sacrifice our present personal liberties under the command of another Guardian which institution of Guardianship alone can hold the ark of the Baha'i covenant to its course and steer it over these troubleous seas of the world of humanity of these latter days of the old human order in the world.

            The fact is (as I have attempted to show from this present attitude of the Hands of the Faith that the thought of a continuation of Guardianship is actually repugnant to these Hands.  Our majority doesn’t want another Guardian.  As I am bringing out in my writing they wish to do away completely and for all time of the Guardianship.  This was the attitude of the Persian Hands in the First Behje Conclave and it continues on stronger now than it was in the first conclave for now it is supported by all the other Hands.

            I am aware that in bringing out into discussion this fundamental condition amongst us Hands that I am setting off an explosion in our midst, but this is the only means that I have to solve this problem.  Better have an explosion confined to the Hands of the Faith in conclave than have the entire Baha'i world involved in a matter that the Hands should handle and settle amongst themselves.  For surely unless we, the nobility of the Faith, do not solve this problem the time will come when the proletariat of the cause will arise, take the matter under their own control and settle it for us.

28 FEBRUARY 1959 PM

            In the meeting of us Custodians this afternoon the great importance of teaching the message of the Cause the world around was discussed and urged at some length during which I ran over in my mind the question that I have on several occasions brought up to the Hands – “What are we to teach now that we have no Guardian?”

            Today I did not put this question because it only irritates and annoys these friends when I speak to this point, therefore I sat in silence – an unhappy silence for me for I see the Hands of the Faith devoting great energy and resources in putting forth a teaching program that so lacks a center and a heart and a direction that if supplied now would bring forth a result that is impossible under this present campaign – aimless and pointless and without direction that it is.

            In the days of the Bab all confirmation came to those who were teaching that he was the Bab – the door and then the first point of this latter day revelation of God to the world.

            In the days of Baha’u’llah confirmation came to those who taught that he promised one was upon earth – here in the flesh with mankind.

            In the days of the Master Abdu’l-Baha confirmation came to those who were proclaiming that He – the Center of the Covenant – was directing the cause.  All who turned to him were confirmed and the cause flourished.

            In the days of the First Guardian of the Faith – The Beloved Shoghi Effendi – all who turned to him and obeyed him, according to the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha, were confirmed and blessed and under his guidance the cause was organized and spread the world around and according to the divine plan the succeeding Guardians of the Faith were to be the commander of the Faith on through the ages to come each in turn carrying on the works of those who preceded them.  Confirmation and progress under each Guardian coming to those and to those only who were following him, the living Guardian of the Faith in their own days.  Thus the cause was to be led onward from victory to victory through the ages to come – such was and is yet to be the source of guidance for mankind when the cause is back again in working order when it is out of this interregnum of this present substitution of “A New Baha'i Era” as explained by that Manifesto gotten out from Chicago by the Hands in America in collaboration with the N.S.A. of the U.S.A. in which it was definitely stated that there would be no further Guardianship, but the Administration of the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha was definitely ended forever.

            Such was the Baha'i ATTITUDE of these friends in Chicago and such is the present attitude of the Hands of the Faith as testified to by the Proclamation and the communications issued by them to the Baha'i world up until this present time.

            Such is the attitude now of the Hands of the Faith and by attitude I mean the real inner conviction of this body of Hands of the Faith.  To be sure they are not voicing this to the people of the Faith.  They are simply not saying anything at all about the Guardianship – not in so many plain words but are striking a middle course or compromise by keeping on saying nothing about their real thoughts by calling the attention of the believers throughout the world to a House of Justice to be formed by the people themselves – through the Assemblies, local, national and International (the international assembly being the Universal House of Justice) that they hold will be formed by them and without a Guardian and that this Universal House of Justice will then take over from them, the Hands, the direction of all Baha'i affairs in the place of the Guardianship.

            Thus the attitude of the Hands of the Faith shows that they do not want a continuation of the Guardianship.  Such pleas for the restitution of the Guardianship as are coming from Lucknow in India, and Frankfurt in Germany and from a few individuals in North America are not being listened to any more than are mine own exhortations in defiance of their actions.

            Attitudes often speak louder than words and such is now the case of the Hands of the Faith.  Their attitude against the Guardianship is that of denial – yet they don’t say so in so many words.  Nevertheless there is still this monumental attitude that speaks louder than words and that is now misguiding the Baha'i world – leading it away from the covenant established in the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha.  What greater violation could there be than this?

LATE AT NIGHT, 28 FEBRUARY 1959

            In my opinion and my opinion is based upon the Baha'i Administration principles of the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha that without the Guardianship, the unity of the Baha'i Faith cannot stand despite the present contention of the Hands that up until now it is now working quite well save in the few cases such as Lucknow, the German N.S.A. and in a few other isolated individuals whose questions they put aside as being the work of those who don’t understand the teachings of the Faith.  The Custodian Hands feel that now the believers are accepting the present set up of this new administration of the Faith and the program of the moment to continue as we are now going until they will have established the Universal House of Justice.

            The Guardianship heading the Administration of the Faith is the one principle and symbol that can ever insure the spiritual unity of the Baha'i Faith.  Of this I am so thoroughly convinced that I am prepared if necessary to stand alone supporting in the entire Baha'i world with all against me, knowing that in the end the Guardianship will be welcomed as the only way for the perpetration of our Faith.

            Thus I am taking this stand and I shall maintain it.

            I know the sincerity of the Hands in their present stand that the Will and Testament of the Master is now BADAH and that they feel that in time they will be led to set up some way of administering the Faith, but yet they don’t know just what this will be but they still feel that the Guardianship is BADAH.

            I am sure that the present apparently smooth running of the Faith will sooner or later get into such a state of disruption and confusion that the Hands will be forced by conditions they cannot control to go back to the control of a Guardian.

THE SECOND DAY OF THE FAST, 4 MARCH 1959

            Today we, the Custodian Hands, sat for four hours through the stormiest so far of our meetings of consultation, but to me it gave quite my most encouraging outlook yet for the salvation of the present Baha'i Faith from its present floundering about and confused condition that is maintained by the overwhelming majority (of 24 to 1) of the Hands of the Faith.

            When a body of people are as spiritually, mentally and emotionally confused upon so vital a matter as we are now confronted by in the Baha'i Faith and when they are so obsessed by a destructive or suicidal thought that is causing a mental and an emotional mass-illness amongst them, this illness must get worse and worse before they are able to recognize it – face their problem and do something about it.  As yet the Hands simply will not listen to me when I tell them that we Hands cannot run the Baha'i Faith without the instituted Guardianship in command of the situation.  Whenever I speak of this, and I’ve spoken of it often enough, these friends simply freeze up and with intense indignation refuse to consider this question – their entire attitude being that of an absolute refusal of the Guardianship.  To me and my way of thinking, this assumption is a direct violation of the Master’s Will and Testament.

            Today I viewed the confused violence and clashes between the personalities present, all with a self-contained complaisance of mind.  To me this fracas indicated that matters were getting worse between us Hands and feeling the worse it got the sooner they would at least listen to my argument for the reestablishment of the Guardianship.  I sat by assuming the role of a spectator, awaiting his opportunity to join in the fray as soon as he saw his opportunity to enter the arena with a prospect of accomplishment.  Yes, I was encouraged in my stand because with this present condition of the cause daily becoming more acute I feel the time may be near when they may listen to my arguement.

            I need not even mention in detail any of the points of contest between these Hands that developed at this morning session – these were many and varied but they all stemmed from the fact that they all refused to even consider a Second Guardian and are bent upon thinking that the Beloved Guardian now in the world beyond is still directing (spiritually of course) the work of the Hands in this world.  They insist that if we but follow the commands of the Beloved Guardian and love one another sufficiently, all will be well with this present plan of the nine Custodian Hands in command of the cause.  Upon this principle, the Hands stand firmly maintaining that a Guardian to follow the Beloved Guardian shall not be anticipated or looked forward to.  To be sure this has not been announced to the Baha'i world in so many words, nevertheless it is the attitude and the unspoken and unmentioned conviction of the majority of the Hands of the Faith that came out in the First Behje Conclave and has ever since been closely adhered to, although not mentioned in any of the messages of the Hands to the Baha'i public.

            This unspoken stand of the Hands that is now unspoken but that is evident in their attitude that there shall never be another Guardian, is the source of our present dilemma for which there is no cure other than for this all to change, for us Hands of the Faith to discover the Second Guardian of the Faith and by this means get the workings of the cause back upon the right track of the Administration of the Faith when we will have a commander and a guide to lead us on to victory continuing the methods and the policies as laid down and demonstrated by our Beloved now departed Guardian.  For the Hands to arise thus to protect the cause we are I feel justified to do in this emergency.  In fact it is the only thing that will save the Faith from disruption since our plan of the assemblies establishing a Universal House of Justice is doomed to failure until we have a living Guardian upon the throne of the Faith to establish such a Universal House of Justice.  As things now are without a Guardian, the formation of a Universal House of Justice is impossible.

            In Christ’s words, “The stone that was rejected by the builders has become the headstone of the corner”.  In words that apply to today, the Guardianship that the Hands repudiate will become the cornerstone of the Faith when the Hands of the Faith study and understand the letter from Bruxelles, the two letters and telegraphic dispatch from Frankfurt, and the letter from Lucknow (copies of which are in this series of writings) all of which have been rejected by the action of the Hands of the Faith for as I understand it, since no recognition was taken of these statements their contents were thereby rejected by the Hands of the Cause.

MARCH 8, 1959

            The Baha'i Faith is a Catholic Faith founded upon the same principles as that of the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church of Christ – namely the Revealed Word of God revealed to the people of the world by the word of God manifested in human form to the world.  Thus the Faith is a divine institution from its inception and not a formulation evolved by the human intellect.  It flowers forth from the one same and only rest of all divine revelations of the past – The Word of God – which was in the beginning with God and which was God.

            In the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha, the Center of the Covenant of Baha’u’llah who was God manifest to the world, the Lord of the Vineyard, the Father promised by Christ and the Prophets, bringing his Kingdom to us. In this Holy Will and Testament the administration of the cause was given to us and the Beloved Guardian of the Faith was commissioned to establish and to put into running order this administrative organization that he accomplished after so many years of labor, one of his latter acts of which was to appoint the Hands of the Faith whom he commissioned to stand with and next to him in the Administration of the Cause – as nobles in the service of their King – He, the Guardian head of the Faith being their earthly religious sovereign.

            In the midst of his labors our Guardian was suddenly called from this world, leaving things as they are hanging in mid air as it were – there being no trace that he had any idea whatsoever that his death was so near at hand.  But we have no reason to think that he did not completely fulfill and accomplish all that his mission called for him to accomplish.

9 MARCH 1959 PM

            When we received such well and carefully thought out statement in defense of the perpetration of the Guardianship such as the letters from Frankfurt signed by Doctors Schmidt  and Schaefer and that communication from Lucknow in my mind the Hands would have done well to have called the authors of these attempts to save the cause into personal conversation with us in order to get together with them in thought for the benefit of the cause.  But instead of that we ignored completely the statement.

            From the Lucknow Assembly came its swan song, for now that assembly dissolved and no longer exists – the Hands in defense of their refusal to meet and to handle the issues of Guardianship so clearly stated in that copy of this their communication to their National Assembly at New Delhi – by refusing to do anything about this matter because the Hands considered it to be a local national matter that should be handled from New Delhi and not from the world center here in Haifa.

            In our throwing this responsibility back thus to India, a responsibility that was surely that of the Hands for the protection of the Faith, to my mind the Hands were not sufficiently considering the danger to the cause that this communication may cause at any time that it may get out among the Baha'is in general – a danger that now during this present interregnum of this Baha'i law and order of the Administration, is a great danger to the unity of the Faith that we hold.

            The Hands practically ignored the two communications from Frankfurt by not answering them directly but by delay through the two German Hands returning to Frankfurt who bore them our message that when we had established a Universal House of Justice in 1963 we would then have the infallibility that would answer all questions.

            Had the questions that these communications brought up have been minor matters such ignoring or delay would probably pass without comment but with such the all important thing to our Faith, as the Guardianship, it should have received the first and immediate attention of the Hands for the enlightenment of all Baha'is, ourselves, included, for of all the people in this world now at this time it is most important that the Hands of the Faith be set aright in thinking upon this above all questions that are in the minds of the Baha'i world. 

            Now at this very present moment there is an ominous quiet throughout the Baha'i world.  If the believers are entertaining questions regarding Guardianship, we here in Haifa have no information to that effect.  Daily do the Hands here try to assure me of the strength of this new Baha'i era, arrangement of Administration that we have set up, they attempting thus to shut me up about the question of Guardianship but all to no account, for I see the matter too clearly and distinctly to be thus cadjoled into accepting their point of view.

            I can see that the fire of the Faith that has enlightened these friends in Germany, India, and here and there elsewhere is burning but not yet generally perceived in the Baha'i world.  This is in these mentioned localities and in all probability also in other localities, slowly spreading all unnoticed.  This unseen fire may at any time now burst forth into a flame that will enlighten the proletariat of the Baha'i world to the extent that the Hands of the Faith will then be obliged to reconsider their stand against the Guardianship and in reconsidering it themselves, become enlightened thus they as a body will be both compelled from without and impelled from within to arise unitedly to want and to seek for the Second Guardian of the Faith.

            For this I supplicate daily and nightly in my prayers that I will be led to do the right thing if possible to right this matter.  I one of the Hands of the Faith and that I be protected from doing anything that I ought not to do in this connection, ending my prayer with the words that by now are a formula to me, “Oh, Shoghi Effendi, in the Abha Realm, pray for me, supplicate for me, intercede on my behalf before the Throne of God!”

9 MARCH 1959

            With this present set up of the democratic Baha'i Administration (that has no divine authority whatsoever and is not only without any authorization in the Baha'i Faith, nor of any other Faith for that matter) the Hands of the Faith have by a vast majority of twenty one to one decided to turn against their divine heritage vouchsafed them by their appointment as the nobles of the Faith, bestowed upon them by the Beloved Guardian – thus he elevated them from amongst all the Baha’is to the position of stewardship in the Faith – and now what have these Hands of the Faith done but formed a plan between themselves to violate the entire Baha'i Administration!  They have decided to forego all the responsibility that our Beloved Guardian bestowed upon them by their appointment and to pass this responsibility over in 1963 to a Universal House of Justice that WE not a Guardian of the Faith plan to ourselves create and then with this Universal House of Justice that we have thus created, we plan then to consummate this repudiation of our divinely spiritual calling by turning all of our responsibilities over to this organization that we envision will be the Universal House of Justice that the Hands claim will be infallible!

            The Hands have foresaken the spiritual ideal of a Universal House of Justice created by the Guardian of the Faith that he alone can create.  The Hands wish to forsake the ideal of the Master’s Will and Testament for this creation of their own that is a figment of their imagination, they claiming that they will set up their own source of infallibility.  What error could be greater than this?  And they, the nobles of the Faith, to whom the believers the world around are ignorantly looking for guidance!

            It was recently mentioned in a meeting of the Custodian Hands that in some place somewhere a believer had inquired if the decisions of the Hands of the Faith were not infallible?  Thus are we not only deceiving ourselves but laying the cause open to question such as this one that every student of the Baha'i Holy Writ should know.  The believers in former dispensations had these same spiritual temptations under which we now labor.  When the Prophet Moses was temporarily away from his people they fell too and made themselves a golden calf and worshipped this of their own creation until their prophet got them back upon the right track.

            In the days of the prophet Mohammad the same human phenominon again took place.  The people again set up the idols that he had overthrown and were worshiping them again until he finally had these ancient idols broken up and so completely demolished them that there was nothing left of them to be worshipped.

            The cases of such wanderings from truth are multitudinous in the Cause of Christ.  From the very early history of the Church there were heresies and chisms in the church until Christendom has arrived at its present bewildered condition of literally hundreds of sects and cults, that even now at this late date are still being invented by interprising people busily engaged in the invention of human systems of thought as a substitute for divine spiritual truth and then worshipping and worse than that getting others to worship these idols of their human imagination.  Let the Hands of the Faith see the danger in which the Faith is now placed and let them arise unitedly to PROTECT the Faith from all such heresies.  This we are enjoined to do under all conditions to protect the Faith and to accomplish this protection we must do the only thing by which this protection can be maintained – arise to give this complete protection by wanting the Guardianship that we have repudiated.  The sooner this is accomplished the sooner will our ten year world cruisade be won.  Unless we have a Guardian to head and to be the heart of our Faith, the Faith will surely die but of course this Faith is destined to live and for this reason I personally am hopeful that things and problems are going to so surround and arouse the Hands of the Faith as to eventually prod and force them to see their duty in this matter of seeking this only protection that can save the cause from disunion and death.

            This duty that the Hands must perform will mean a great sacrifice for the Hands both individually and collectively.  At present all are well ensconsed in their positions which for the moment (until the Guardianship be brought back) is supreme among all believers the world around.  Thus their exhalted position is one of great danger to both them and to the cause.

            You Hands of the Cause stand where the Beloved Guardian placed you – each one upon a pedestal in the eyes of the believers.  Now we all know that those who stand high upon pedestals while they are in places of high vantage, their positions are also attended with peril!  The Hands are in a position analogue to that of the high prelates of the church and their temptations are very similar to those of the clergy who do not want any changes made in the religion which their high station places them above the people – thus they don’t want the Guardianship.

            For example now, the group of Custodian Hands are now here in Haifa and are all greatly and evidently personally enjoying life here.  Far more than we ever enjoyed it during the days of the Beloved Guardian.  Now they are like children away from school with no teacher to direct their activities or to restrain them.  This freedom is indeed a personally delightful change from their state of years past when the Beloved Guardian was directing and actually in command of practically every move they made.  That life with him, the Guardian, was indeed a most difficult life – at times almost unendurable.  Baha'is who have not lived under the immediate commands of the Guardian can have no comprehension of the tests, trials and difficulties of those who were near to him and serving every day.  Although most difficult, it had its compensation in being also the greatest blessing that could come to a believer – to be near to the Guardian and to serve him as best one could and thus to serve the cause that is to serve God.  This was indeed a most difficult life for the individual but those were most happy and fruitful days for the cause for under the Guardianship the cause flourished and progressed and spread the world around.  Such was the procedure of the advance of the Faith.

            But now that we are all so much more free, every one his own master with no external guidance to thwart our own ways of doing what is right in his own eyes, the cause is indeed up against it in many ways and these problems are daily on the increase.

            The Hands of the Faith are called upon to again make the sacrifice that a Guardian here with us in the flesh would entail!  Attitudes bespeak the realities that lie behind them.  Attitudes is a language that speaks as clearly and distinctly as does the spoken and the written word.  Attitudes reveal that which is hidden behind the words that are spoken.  In the normal and happy life the spoken word and the attitude are in harmony one with the other – here there is indeed a harmony that breeds trust and confidence.  It is of the attitude of the Hands of the Faith that troubles me in this problem of the Guardianship.  For this attitude is definitely one decidedly opposed to the office of Guardianship which is the heart and the source of the direction of the Faith.

            That Manifesto circulated a year and more ago signed by the Hands in America and the N.S.A. of the U.S.A. put into plain English the attitude of the Hands of the Faith – that they wanted the Guardian ended once and for all and forever.  But when this paper quite accidentally reached Haifa, it caused no little commotion in the minds of the Hands in The Holy Land – not that they disagreed at all with the stand that this Manifesto took – namely that the Baha'is should abandon all hope of a continuation of the Guardianship for the majority of the Custodian Hands here in The Holy Land were firmly of this same opinion themselves.  But they didn’t want this Manifesto circulated the Baha'i world around.  They didn’t want the world to know in so many words that which their attitude was.

            In other words, the Hands are contented with things as they now are and their united effort (all save one who is I) is to have all the believers the world around to acquiesce to their opinion and solution of this problem.  In other words, they want and they expect the Faith to run along as they plan it to run – Guardianless and without the direction of the institution of the Guardianship – with they themselves in command!

            The clergy of the old dispensation are doomed at the advent of the Promised One.  Their only salvation is an individual one coming to those individuals of the clergy who accept the new manifestation and his cause.  Thus the clergy don’t want to give up their prerogatives and their easy life.  Those few who arise and follow the one promised by the Faith they hold are by making the sacrifice of the position in the world are among indeed the blessed ones of the new divine order in the world.

            Now let the Hands of the Faith see these matters as they are.  Let them relenquish their present blissful state of freedom and independence from the commands and the law and order of Guardianship.  Decidedly it will mean a great and a painful adjustment for the Hands (for example here in Haifa) the Hands will have to adjust themselves and their present freedom to the ways of and to be directed by a Second Guardian of the Faith.  Should he be a man with a wife and family it would indeed revolutionize in very many ways life here and not at all to the liking of those Hands, both men and women, in The Holy Land.  But we must first and above all else think of and consider that which is best for the cause even though it be most inconvenient for us personally; therefore our present problem, like all other problems in the cause, can only be solved by our personal sacrifices for it is by such that the Cause of God lives and progresses in the world.

            These sacrifices that we who are now here in Haifa may be called upon to make when we, the chief stewards of the Faith, find the Second Guardian of the Faith in command over us will spell for us the end of this personally free and happy time that we have been enjoying during this interregnum.  Then we will have to go back into the vassalage from which we are now freed and by so doing we will no longer enjoy the liberty that is now ours.  Nevertheless the Cause of God throughout the world will receive a direction that will forge it onward toward victories that are beyond that which we hope that the present world cruisade will accomplish.  This victory of the ten year cuisade will then be assured and beyond that will follow victory after victory.

            In this age of rapid transit and rapid transmission of thought and rapid everything else, the Baha'is under the divinely instituted Guardianship are destined to spread the Faith rapidly through the world because we will then be functioning again according to the divine administration principles that for the moment we have been freed (and as I have written, enjoyed and at this very moment are still personally enjoying).  As all things nowadays are in rapid movement, so also will be our movement – a very rapid and safely rapid movement when we are functioning up the right track.  Rapidity is safe when a train is on the right track and for such time as the train remains firm upon the right track – whereas the present condition of the Faith without the direction of the Guardianship is most hazardous.  We now are on the wrong track and may well dread the ultimate consequences of what may befall the cause if there be a rapid spread now that will increase our problems in proportion to our present dilemmas.

            The history of our Faith has proven that in all cases where people have become Baha'is who have not assimilated the teachings and have been of confused thought that great troubles have developed in our midst.  Our present condition of bewilderment without an acknowledged Guardian will be but increased in proportion to the number of new believers who come into the Faith in those days of uncertainty and lack of infallible guidance under which we now labor.  Therefore let us make haste to end this present dilemma and get the Faith back again onto the right track – then under the direction of the Second Guardian of the Faith, when we get this Guardian, the cause will indeed prosper.  This is actually our only hope as Hands of the Faith and it is also the only hope of the mass of the people of the Faith.  When this needed guidance and inspiration is given to us in the person of a Guardian, we will then witness an awakening throughout the Baha'is in all countries.  For a Guardian here with us will give the cause the boost and the direction forward that it now lacks and has lacked during this interregnum between the active ministries of the First and the Second Guardians of the Faith to be.

            But the first step to be taken in order to realize all of this – the victory of the Baha'i Faith depends now at this time upon the voluntary sacrifices of the Hands of the Faith (particularly of those Hands who are in The Holy Land) in surrendering their present free and happy personal lives in The Holy Land and in replacing voluntarily themselves again under the prospect of the yoke of the Guardianship.  Then and not until then will they have arisen to that for which the Will and Testament and the Beloved Guardian called them to perform.  Then the cause throughout the world will in reality have “entered into a New Baha'i Era” that will be one of hope and trust in the perpetration of the blessings of the direction of a Guardian to direct and command us and not the new era in the Baha'i Faith as stated in the words of that Manifesto from Chicago in which the believers were exhorted to abandon all hope of the Guardianship ever being reestablished.

            But in order to accomplish this victory of the cause, first of all the Hands of the Faith must as a group unitedly change their attitude toward the Guardianship.  This I know must be done but how and when and by what means this miracle is to be wrought is indeed the question of this moment.

11 MARCH 1959

            There is indeed a beautiful spirit of affection between me and the other Hands of the Faith – none of those personal maladjustments that cause so many disruptions of the Baha’is.  I am not conscious of the least trace of any sort of any adjustment problem of a personal nature between myself and any other Baha'is anywhere.  I differ radically with the other Hands of the Faith about this one certain problem of the Guardianship and I tell them quite frankly that I know they are all wrong in their united attitude that there shall be no successor to Shoghi Effendi – but without personal rancor.

            In this day all the Hands understand my stand.  Of course they are sincere in the unity between themselves upon this matter.  Thus we stand in opposition – I in opposition to all the others – yet all this is to my encouragement.  I will win out in the end.  We are all upon a most friendly and affectionate basis of happy personal relations.  My hope rests upon a        maintenance of this happy relationship for without that I would have but little hope of being able to do anything about this present deplorable condition in which the Baha'i Faith now is plunged.

            To recapitulate in brief the present controversy:

            All agree with me when I tell them that had we not had the Guardian Shoghi Effendi after Abdu’l-Baha we now would not have our united Faith the world around but would be divided up into many divisions.  But here our united opinion ends and we differ on the continuation of the Guardianship for which I take the stand and there we are at what seems to be an impasse, for the united ATTITUDE of all the other Hands is that there shall never be another Guardian of our Faith – not if they have anything to do about it.  BADAH!  That Almighty God has changed his plan and that we – the Cause Sans Guardian – shall be directed by the Hands of the Cause.

            They say God will lead us but without a Guardian in the flesh and upon this they are adamant.  This may end with the Hands eliminating themselves from the Faith – as did Ahmad Sohrab!  My only hope of the Hands changing their opinion is that a revolution start in some quarter of the world and surely if this looms up into a Baha'i world-wide flair-up, these Hands may find themselves obliged to capitulate.  But when will this show-down come?

            There are these indications from Frankfurt, Germany and Lucknow, India, and Belgium and a few isolated individuals in the Americas and me here in their midst in The Holy Land – all of which until now they simply and unitedly ignore – and won’t even argue or discuss the issue!  Now in the official statements of the Hands sent forth to the Baha'i world the facts of this condition are most carefully avoided.  In none of these statements is there any suggestion of abandoning the Guardianship – the matter is simply left hanging in mid air calling the attention of the Baha'i world to a Universal House of Justice that they promise to solve all questions in 1963 disregarding completely that the House of Justice can only be erected by a living Guardian in command of the Faith.

            As I have already recorded that Chicago Manifesto (A New Baha'i Era with no more Guardians) clearly stated the actual attitude of the Hands of the Faith but as this statement of fact was about to be spread in print by these enthusiasts for this “New Baha'i Era” from Chicago, a copy reached the Hands of the Faith in the Holy Land – reached them quite a round-about way  - a copy had been sent by someone to Germany and this copy in some way was sent from them here to Haifa.  Great was the consternation amongst the Custodian Hands – a cablegram from them to Chicago reached them just in time to stop the general circulation of the document.

            No!  The time was not then for the Baha'i world to have the unspoken ATTITUDE of the Hands revealed to the Baha'is abroad.  Now it is this unvoiced attitude that is directing the machinery of the administration in these days – the machinery centered in the Holy Land.

            It is quite evident that the Hands as individual personalities do not want to be under the command of a Guardian.  They don’t fancy the inconveniences of life that a Second Guardian might impose upon them.  They are quite satisfied with their own personal state or position in the Faith as things are now without a Guardian.  There is no law or order amongst the body of Hands.  They now stand supreme in command of the Faith.  They enjoy their present supreme position that is indeed a most happy free and enviable and so why make a change?  The temptation of the Hands is similar to that of the authodox clergy.  Any change in the present Administration of the Faith would greatly inconvenience them personally.  But what about the cause?  Happy and pleasant as is this interregnum, it is devastating to the Baha'i religion in all the world.

            The great spiritual blessing that the Beloved Guardian bestowed upon us Hands will only become our own blessings in the measure that we arise to sacrifice our personal ambitions and ease in the service of he Guardian, following his commands.  We individually cannot enjoy our position without making the necessary sacrifices of our very selves as we follow him who in the Master’s Will and Testament directs to be our commander-in-chief – the Guardian.

            The few statements from Baha'is abroad who want a Guardian show a comprehension of the Guardianship as an institute that is not acknowledged by the Hands who in their edicts have quite eliminated all mention of any Guardianship.  (Guardianship meaning the continued command of a series of Guardians on into the future, there always being one to follow and take command of the Faith when his predecessor dies).  This is the great mistake of the Hands – that they refuse this continued command.

            As I have mentioned, it is now a personal matter of sacrifice amongst the

Hands upon which the salvation of the Faith depends as for instance in the case of Ruhiyyih Khanum who was greatly blessed by the Beloved Guardian above all the women of the world.  She arose above all believers in her devotion and the sacrifice of her life to Shoghi Effendi.  But now no one will have to make so great a sacrifice as she at this juncture of the Faith for when the Second Guardian of the Faith is installed in his supreme state in this world, she will be relenquishing her prerequisites and amoluments and taking the position of the dowager-first lady of the Faith for a new Guardian may have a wife and family to occupy the Guardian’s house thus many things will be changed for Ruhiyyih Khanum, and this same change will have to be met by each and every one of the Hands.  I mention Ruhiyyih Khanum’s case as hers seems to me to be the most outstanding of any of the Hands in the changes that a Second Guardian would entail.  But each and every one of us is called upon to sacrifice our all in the path of the continued Guardianship of our Faith, for it is only by such sacrifice that we Hands of the Faith will be enabled to carry on and carry out the Administration of the Faith that we all hold so dear.

EARLY PM, 12 MARCH 1959

            The Hands of the Faith by their attitudes repudiate the continuation of the Guardianship.  How can they ever expect to win the ten year world cruisade?  Yet they insist that there is now no longer any need for a Guardian for in their own words “Hasn’t the Beloved Guardian taught and told us all that is necessary for us to win this cruisade?  We know what he wishes us to do.  We have no longer any need for any further instructions!”  In reality the Hands are going directly in opposition to all that Shoghi Effendi told them to do!

            I can see nothing ahead of this world cruisade but failure in the face of such a stand as this that the Hands have taken!

            To me the Hands seem blind to the reality of the principle of the Guardianship and until this be rectified there is but little hope.  The Holy Spirit from on high that flowed to us so plenteously through a living Beloved Guardian in our midst is now no more with us as before but these benighted Hands do not see this!

            What can be done to change their attitude?  I await daily a rebellion among the Baha'is abroad from here – The Holy Land – that will bring these Custodian Hands to their spiritual senses!  I can think of nothing other than such an outbreak amongst the believers that can awaken them.  A few of us individuals have failed to awaken them – the friends in Frankfurt and Lucknow, they refuse to listen to!  Now I ask myself from where can I expect help to come?  In my heart I feel it will come from America.  There seems to be no hope from Persia, but possibly from America since it was America that the Beloved Guardian called “The Cradle of the Administration”.  However, so far all of the American Hands are dead-set against the continuation of the Guardianship and in this supported by the N.S.A. of the U.S.A., as demonstrated in that Chicago Manifesto, “A New Baha'i Era – Guardianless”!  But I live assured that this will change and that the cause is to have a Second Guardian followed by others on throughout this epoch to come of El Abha.

LATE PM, 12 MARCH 1959

            This morning I was reading over some recently received letters addressed to the Hands of the Faith in The Holy Land and I found a letter from the National Assembly in India treating of the “Letter from Lucknow” that I have mentioned several times in these daily notes.  It seems that this letter was the work of one who signs himself P.C. “Gupta” against whom were made some complaints although their letter did allow that he had a knowledge of the Baha'i teachings.

            In first reading this Lucknow communication I recognized it to be the work of some one person mastermind, because of its brevity, clarity and logic of statement.  It was not only evidently the work of one mind but of a mind very well informed indeed of the intent of the Last Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha.  The fact impressed me from my first glance at this Lucknow document that it pointed out in most clear terms that the Administration of the Baha'i Faith could not go on functioning without the continuation of the Guardianship.

            Here is the rub upon which the fate of the Baha'i Administration rests!  The real cause of this present Baha'i dilemma is a hidden cause.  The Hands of the Faith refuse to acknowledge this for it is never mentioned in words in our meetings.  The vast majority of the Hands do not in their hearts want another Guardian.  This they do not say openly in so many words but their “attitude” toward the Guardianship reveals very clearly such is their real reason for acting as they do in seeking subterfuge in a Universal House of Justice which is no solution at all of our present dilemma for according to the Administration without first a Guardian there can never be a Universal House of Justice.  Should this present condition of our Faith continue another three or four years thus Guardianless, without the divine protection of a Guardian, the Faith will be running so low as to be very sick indeed.

            The first step toward the protection that we require can only come to us by the Hands arising to want a Second Guardian, despite the fact that it will for obvious reasons not then be so pleasant a life for the Hands as human beings as it now is without a Guardian in command!  Their trouble roots from the fact that they don’t want another Guardian!

13 MARCH 1959

            There is indeed a very deep and fundamental spiritual psychological necessity that the Faith have one head of direction to lead the believers and whose orders and commands should be followed.  The institution of the Guardianship is the symbol or sign in this world of the sovereignity of God in His eternal kingdom that encompasses all things material and spiritual throughout the universe of all the creation.  Such therefore being the basis upon which all things function and revolve about in the infinite creation that is beyond our conception, we can only know but not understand the why of, as we comprehend the laws of the infinite and eternal realm as established and imposed upon that realm by the creator of all creations – all of  which we upon earth are told by the Manifestation of God to us in the laws and ordinances that he imposes upon us.  These are given to us by a bounty upon his part and in no sense should be considered as an attainment of ours or as a reward to us for righteous living.  Upon this delicate point, that the spiritual realities of things are a gift to us upon the part of God and not in any sense a goal which we of our human selves have attained, this point is the line that divides authodox religious thought from heterdox religious realities.

            For example, the Baha'i Faith is founded upon the principles of authodox Christianity as stated in the Apostolic creed that is accepted by all of the Catholic communions and by most of the Protestant sects of Christendom but not by any of the more modern anti-Christian beliefs now so wide spread throughout the Christian world such as Unitarianism, Christian Science, New Thought, Divine Healing, and many others.  Of all modern religious teaching, that of the Baha'i Faith is the only one holding the authodox Christian concept of revealed truth built upon the foundation of the authodox religions of the past, all of which have definitely foretold and prepared their followers for the Revelation of Baha’u’llah, the Prince of Peace, who would bring peace upon earth and the triumphant religious cause that he would bring to the world that would be the Kingdom of God upon earth, the continued ruler upon earth for centuries to come of which the Center of His Covenant, the Master Abdu’l-Baha, directs us in His Will and Testament is to be the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith.

            No administration of any sort, spiritual, idealistic or merely materialistic such as a business can function without a head, one supreme in command to keep the organization in order and functioning properly.  And upon this principle has Abdu’l-Baha directed  the Baha'i Administration formed around the Guardianship as its center or heart with a living Guardian in the flesh here with us for us to follow.

            But now what have the Hands of the Faith done but eliminate the Guardianship putting their own organization in its stead – an organization of their own creation for which there is no Revealed Baha'i authority whatsoever!

            Now what can possibly be done about this?  The Hands of the Faith cannot rectify this mistake that they have made.  At the same time for the dignity and safety of the cause, the Hands should not loose face before the Baha'i world, for this world is still listening although wrongly to them and following their guidance, all with but the few exceptions some of which I mention in these daily writings.  No one but the Second Guardian of the Faith can solve this problem.

            It would surely effect badly the position of respect that the believers in general have for the Hands were the believers to know and to realize that the present arrangement of the leadership of the Faith by these nine members of their own choice in their attempt to substitute thus their own plans for 1963 to replace the Guardianship.

            But now a thought comes to me by which the Custodians in The Holy Land may get some light upon this matter if they so want or desire more than that which their own wishes and thoughts that are now activating them.  Since they refuse to listen to me, the one of their members who sees the great danger to the Faith due to the way in which it is not administered, I suggest that they call to Haifa Doctors Schmidt and Schaefer of Frankfurt who evidently from their letters upon the subject have made a very deep study of this matter of Guardianship and arrange for those two friends to come here to Haifa in order to explain in person their understanding of this matter in response to any questions that we (the Hands) may have to ask of them.  Schmidt and Schaefer need not know anything more than the Hands may choose to tell them as to the reason for their thus being summoned to appear in The Holy Land.  Surely they will appreciate a call such as this to serve the Faith and the Hands in The Holy Land can naught but profit themselves by such information as they thus seek about what is going on in the hearts and minds of the believers in Germany that they are leading.

            Hands of the Faith!  Consider this suggestion, I beg of you.  The least these friends can give you will be the picture of their own agony over this present state of Baha'i affairs that concerns so very deeply the life of the Faith.

15 MARCH 1959

            There is a principle or a law working upon the human and the spiritual planes of creation by virtue of which the spiritual life and development of the soul can only be according to the proportion of sacrifice made of things human in favor of things spiritual.  This works thus both for the soul as an individual and for the souls of many in carrying on the collective activities in the spiritual life of the cause as a whole.  All have to meet this point of  sacrificing – even the Manifestation themselves for they, the chosen channels of eternal life that comes to earth from the heaven of the word of God that was in the beginning before the creation and which was God, they are human men like all of us and even they as human beings have to make this sacrifice even as we ourselves do – they in order that they may accomplish their mission upon earth.

            Every human element in the being of man is pitted against man’s spiritual life and being, thus so long as man is in this world he is never safe from the opposing forces acting upon this human plane.  The true Baha'is in this time and day are sacrificing their human interests in favor of the cause so dear to them and the cause is advancing in the world in the proportion that they make sacrifices for it.  This works upon the same principle in the individual lives of each of us as it does in the mass or collective life of the cause.

            Those of us who have been elevated to the station of Handship are the most honored of the people of the cause but in order to maintain that honor we are called upon to make our human sacrifices to this blessing and bounties that we have received.  For out of all the Baha'is in the world we are those who must sacrifice the most in order to carry on and carry out that to which we have been called to perform.

            The Guardian of the Faith by virtue of his position of Guardianship is our Commander.  To us his command is the command of God and must be obeyed.  For thereby only can the cause flourish and spread.  He demands from each one of us a continual sacrifice of all of our human wishes, feelings, desires and the like – that is why life here in Haifa was so very difficult for each one of us during the life of the Beloved Guardian and why now in this interregnum we are all enjoying to such an extent this human existence with its freedom.  How often did the Beloved Guardian allude to the tests given to those who were nearest to him.  The wife of one of the Hands, Mme Banani, was reported to have remarked that it was delightful to come to Haifa as a pilgrim for the nine day period thereof, but that to live here would be a very different matter.  One of the Hands on the International Baha'i Council, Leroy Ioas, remarked to me one day during the ministry of Shoghi Effendi, “Haifa is the Hell hole of this world”.  He voiced my feelings exactly and I assured him that I was in perfect unity with him upon that point.

            Thus do all who serve under the Guardianship suffer humanly as we look at it from the personal human viewpoint, but as we consider this matter from the spiritual viewpoint to the cause, the cause thrives and grows strong under such conditions of our obedience and in our abrogation of these things that the human heart longs for – freedom to do as one pleases – freedom from the burden of restraints and constraints that obedience to the Guardian imposes upon us at all times with no rights of our own of either question or suggestions – there is nothing to be done but obey and endure all things as they come along one after another.  Such is the life, as viewed from the human standpoint, that the Hands of the Faith and all other believers too had imposed upon them by the order of Baha'i procedure under the Guardianship.  But as I see it from the Baha'i viewpoint this was indeed our triumph.  For by this sacrifice, all things human that were pleasing personally, one attains the good pleasures of God, and under these conditions the cause progresses under the guidance of Guardianship and we ourselves through voluntarily sacrificing ourselves and suffering indignities arrive at that state of dignity to which we were called when elevated to this nobility of Handship with all of its responsibilities.

            But now in these days of the interregnum we are no longer under the absolute authority of the Guardianship. We are free to do what we believe to be right.  Each follows his own conscience and with the inevitable that sooner or later clashes and inharmonies will be coming up and coming along for such is the order and nature of all human guidance.  Thus since the departure from this world of the Beloved Guardian, this is our present condition in which we have as yet found no infallible authority to hold us together.  We are thus in danger as individuals and collectively speaking the cause is in very great danger.  These dangers are popping up all over the Baha'i world – our people feel that the cause is indeed in a “New Baha'i Era” of uncertainty that is even attacking the certainties and the assurances that we enjoyed under the Guardianship of Shoghi Effendi.  Now the people are “uncertain” and don’t know what to teach.  Now we are called to push forward the ten year cruisade, but I reiterate again the people are uncertain of what to teach.  Writes Kenneth Christian from Djecarta that one of the Hands of the Faith assures the people there that there will never be another Guardian and that when we Hands of the Faith all die off that that will be the end of this Handship of the Faith.

            Now, faced with these bewildering conflicts of Baha'i thought and interpretation we are indeed facing a dilemma that can only be met with and settled by a Second Guardian of the Faith and this the Hands of the Faith by their attitude do not want and by their proclamation and other communications wish to defer to a Universal House of Justice that they will set up whereas in the Will and Testament we are led to look toward the Guardianship and to the Guardianship only to organize that supreme body!

            The whole condition is indeed a mess!  The only hope for our Faith lies in the presence amongst us of a Guardian and in the continuation of the Guardianship.

            We, the Hands of the Faith, have upon us the duty of protecting the Faith under the direction of the Guardian of the Faith.  Protecting the Faith from what?  From anything arising anywhere that is detrimental and harmful to the cause!  Now at this moment what could be more detrimental to the Faith than no Guardian to hold us together?  The only remedy for this present condition of the moment is a Second Guardian of the Faith and then on following him the continuation of the Guardianship.

            Since this is the only way of providing protection for the Faith and since the Hands of the Faith are commissioned in the Will and Testament to protect the cause it is clearly and unquestionably our duty to arise now and to try to find the Second Guardian that he, by the divine right of his station of Guardianship, may take command of the cause in order that the Faith can continue on its triumphant progress throughout the world.

            The first problem before us who so sorely need a Guardian is the fact that by the “attitude” of the majority of the Hands, they don’t want a continuation of the Guardianship.  Therefore the first step for each one of us to take is to look into his own or her own heart and fight out this matter thus each within his and her own inner self.

            In the First Behje Conclave by personal acclamations.  All of the Persian Hands were in favor of ending the Guardianship and then there were other Hands too who wished the same.  Then and there a division of opinion was formed – a plain cleavage as it were in the solidity of the Faith.  But of course this was not to be countenanced at that time by the rank and file of the Faith so a compromise was made and this falacious plan to defer all to the Universal House of Justice was offered to the Baha'i public as a substitute for the Guardianship so this substitute was foisted upon the Baha'i world and since then this stand has been maintained by the Hands.  But gradually by statements that have been made by Hands here and there – slipping out in their talks and letters (such as the incident I mention in Djacarta) – and also one made by a Hand in Kampala not to mention in that Chicago Manifesto “A New Baha'i Era”, the Baha'is the world around are realizing that there are things behind the official statements of the Hands – things that are not being said in the open in so many words, and that the Guardianship upon which all the Baha'i world had centered its faith is by the Hands themselves in private meeting or in conclave already discarded by them.  Thus the Baha'i people are finding out things.

            Now as I have mentioned the first step for each of us Hands to take is to search within his own inner self and seek to find out why he or she may either want or does not want a continuation of the Guardianship?  Knowing something about my own inner feelings and having observed the reactions of some of the Hands when Guardianship is mentioned I am convinced that it is the present reluctance of the individual to voluntarily relenquish our present state of freedom from the orders and commands of a Guardian that makes the thought of another Guardian so offensive and not wanted by them, for with the advent of the Second Guardian of the Faith, all would be subject to his infallible order and command that all would have to obey.  Therefore the Hands must reason with themselves, understand the magnitude and seriousness of this matter and voluntarily for the good and for the progress of our Faith, make the complete sacrifice of themselves for the preservation of the Faith.  This is what the Faith demands of them in order that the Faith can live and increase in the world, but this sacrifice must be made by each.

            In these past few weeks and months, November ’58 to the present March ’59, I have from the human viewpoint enjoyed Haifa and the life we had here as never before – that is during the days of the Beloved Guardian, all of which I have already dilated upon at some little length.  This period to me personally has been one of relaxation and human satisfaction.  But the cause is not going along as well as it did in the past years of the Beloved Guardian – nor will it be so personally pleasant to me whenever we have the Second Guardian of the Faith as it is now for me.  This I know and this sacrifice I am prepared to make for the good and welfare of the Faith rather than continue on with life here under the present happy human circumstances of freedom from command that are so personally pleasing to me but which are so devastating to the cause.

            Now each of the Hands should look at his or her estate and visualize how the advent of a New Guardian coming in thus upon us would effect our lives and our estate that is now so agreeable to us.  In any event there would necessarily be many changes coming into the Baha'i community here to all of which we would all have to adjust ourselves and lives, which will mean a great and a prolonged daily sacrifice upon our parts – each one of us – but in the end the cause would thereby receive a spiritual power and force that would cause the Faith to surge forward upon this cruisade of ten years planned so carefully by the Beloved Guardian and in the end we ourselves would indeed be greatly spiritually blessed for by voluntarily sacrificing our present freedom from divine direction and command we would become recipients of a very great spiritual blessing.  Thus the matter is up to the Hands of the Faith to whom the entire Baha'i world is looking in the hope of the guidance that we cannot give them for ourselves, but which by the stipulations of the Will and Testament of the Master by which we are commissioned to protect the cause, this protection we can give the Faith by arising to serve the Second Guardian who by virtue of his station of divine command or Guardianship of the cause here on earth will be the source of the infallible guidance that will meet all present and future questions and matters of the Baha'i world.

16 MARCH 1959

            I see no indication whatsoever with but the exception of myself that the Hands of the Faith wish a Second Guardian of the Faith – at least if they do they have not said so within my hearing whereas a number have expressed themselves as being definitely against it.  The two exceptions alluded to are Adelbert and Harmann from Germany, both of whom expressed themselves mildly in the conclaves as thinking the cause could not function without a Guardian, but were satisfied when told that the Universal House of Justice would be formed in 1963 and that their decisions would be infallible and that they would then take over the direction of the cause and might, if they chose best to reestablish the Guardianship – thus these two German Hands were satisfied to content themselves until 1963, but not I.

            In the consultation meeting of the Custodian Hands this morning, the first draft of a general communication to the Baha'is throughout the world was presented and suggestions as to this text were asked for.  This draft, written by one of the Hands, dwelt at some length and ended by promising that the Universal House of Justice to be established by the delegates from all the National Assemblies would convene in 1963 and then give us all the infallibility that the cause requires.

            All were asked to speak to the points made in this message so I gave my opinion that we were holding out a falacious hope to the mass of believers now looking toward us for spiritual guidance – a hope that could not be realized because only a Guardian could establish the Universal House of Justice – we the Hands of the Faith had not this power.  Here it was suggested that this arguement was interrupting the business of the meeting and that the subject should no longer be discussed but deferred to some future date when there would be ample time for discussion – thus the subject was dismissed.

            As has always been the ease whenever the matter of Guardianship has come up for our consultation I have brought it up, whereupon all the other Hands have unitedly argued against a Second Guardian.  I cannot help but feel that a Second Guardian is not wanted by them for if in their hearts they really wanted him there would at least be some expression to this effect but there is not.  I am faced as if by a solid wall so resistant that there is no way of penetrating it, therefore the only thing that I can see for me to do is to wait as patiently as possible the inevitable appearance of such troubles in the cause as will force upon the Hands a change in their stand.

            At the close of the discussion, Paul Haney maintained that the people themselves through their local and national assemblies were the only ones who had authority to elect the Universal House of Justice and that we must await the spread of the Faith in order to be able to have sufficient national assemblies to hold such an election.  All present but I concurred with him – I maintaining that it was the duty and the responsibility of the Hands of the Faith in their capacity as the nobility of the Faith to at least go upon record as wanting a Second Guardian themselves – but no.  This all important matter was left where I fear it must remain until there be an entire change of attitude in this body of Hands.

19 MARCH 1959

            Thus by the Hands signifying a desire for the continuation of the Guardianship – this one move of the Hands of the Faith will place the operations of the Faith again in operating order upon the track established by the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha and gotten into shape and ready to welcome the Second Guardian of the Faith.

            Were this accomplished by us now and the Baha'i affairs again under the hope of the continuation of the Guardianship thus restored, the doors of the minds of the Hands would be open to the coming Guardian of the Faith.

            But this move that I urge the Hands to make will only be possible for us to unite upon when each individual Hand wants this Second Guardian of the Faith sufficiently to make the personal individual sacrifices required of him and of her that the Second Guardian of our Faith ensconced in his position as our commander-in-chief will demand.  Therefore let each one of us Hands look this problem straight in the face.

            Upon our action now rests the future of the Baha'i Faith.  Are we going to make the sacrifices that a Second Guardian of the Faith will require of us or are we not?  If we arise to this readjustment, the cause will continue on from victory to victory.  The friends throughout the world still arise with renewed courage and will be confirmed in winning the goal of the cruisade.

            The way is straight and clear.  Let us arise to follow it.  There is no other hope open to us than this!

            When the Hands of the Faith are all thus united in the spirit that they really want a Second Guardian to direct them, we will then be on the way to accept a Second Guardian, but until we by acknowledgement supported by our attitudes really want a Guardian to command the cause.  The Holy Spirit cannot guide us and we can expect no confirmations.  Before we can be guided by The Holy Spirit we must put aside and sacrifice our all.  Then we will have the guidance of The Holy Spirit.

20 MARCH 1959

            At the Second Behje Conclave of the Hands of the Faith, the major part of the time was spent in discussing ways and means for teaching the Baha'i message the world around and increasing the number of Baha'i local assemblies in order that there be sufficient to form national assemblies thus carrying out the plan of the Beloved Guardian’s ten year cruisade.

            But I seeing that the entire aspect of that which we had been teaching under a Guardian was now that we are without a Guardian so utterly changed as to have destroyed our fundamental law and the divine order of the Administration to this present condition of this freedom from divine authority to democratic rule of the people.  I questioned, what are we to teach now that we no longer have the Guardianship?

            Now only was there no answer to my question but this matter was brushed aside and I was told that we were to go right ahead teaching the message as we had been doing in the days of the Beloved Guardian.  These people are not using their heads!

            Recently I have been reading over about all of the correspondence letters coming to the Custodian Hands in Haifa and letters going out from there to all parts of the world.  From these documents it is easy to perceive that this question of “What are we now going to teach” is in the minds of the friends in many places and this direct question is not being answered at all by the Hands.  They are simply evading it by telling them to await the Universal House of Justice then they will be told what to teach.  Could anything be more confusing to the people of the cause than this?  Especially now that the people are studying the Master’s Will and Testament and Shoghi Effendi’s words more than ever trying to make some sense out of what the Hands are telling them.

            How can the ten year teaching campaign ever amount to anything other than confusion and failure when almost everyone knows that the fundamental center of the Administration – the Guardianship – is under question?  Nevertheless, the Hands of the Faith are exhorting the believers to teach – the Hands themselves all confused themselves over this entire issue.

            Under these reigning conditions I see naught but confusion of thought and the disintegration of the Baha'i organization so laboriously built up by our late Beloved Guardian.

            However, of one thing I am certain and that is that the Cause of God is going to survive and live but in order that it live:

1. That the Guardianship must continue.
2. That the Hands of the Faith, the Nobles of the Faith appointed by

our late Beloved Guardian, if they be faithful should want the continuation of the Guardianship.

1. That the present attitude of the Hands that there shall never be another Guardian must change.
2. That the very apparently personal attitude of so many of the Hands of the Faith positively themselves not wanting the continuation of the Guardianship should change.
3. That when the majority of the Hands really want the continuation of the Guardianship and are united in this wish that a most necessary step forward will have been made by them.
4. Then in this state of new found unity we will realize that in order to perform our duty of protecting the Faith the only protection that will save the Faith will be the Second Guardian.
5. That having thus a majority of us united that through the confirmations of The Holy Spirit we will be divinely guided in our quest for a Guardian.
6. That from then on the success of the ten year cruisade and the successful solution of all other Baha'i problems will be assured.
7. Because we will have then arisen to maintain the Will and Testament the Master Abdu’l-Baha, the Center of the Covenant of Baha’u’llah, that we will be led out from this our present confusion.

24 MARCH 1959

            All of the Custodian Hands here in Haifa and all of the other Hands throughout the world with but the exception of myself are making a desperate struggle to make a go of this control of the cause that they have set up in the place of the Guardianship – the control directed by the Hands here in The Holy Land.  Their attitude proclaims their stand that the Guardianship is ended once and for all and forever with the death of the First Guardian.  They point to the Universal House of Justice to be the ultimate unique source of infallible guidance despite the fact that such a house as they intend to form cannot be formed and function without first a Guardian – this fact though very clear and evident in the fabric of the Administration – they refuse to admit.  They center their authority upon their own imagingings and in order to insure the support of the believers in general they are constantly promising that the Universal House of Justice that they will establish in 1963 will have all power and the infallibility to lead the cause.  To this end they are all working steadfastly carrying on all the time a propaganda in support of their theory.

            Now I am but one of this group of twenty seven Hands and I cannot openly before the Baha'i world  oppose them or even be suspicioned by the Baha'is at large of differing with the other Hands.  I am at liberty and in my right to tell my fellow Hands exactly what is going on in my mind and this I do tell them whenever I have the opportunity.  This is of course all right with them but I must not let this be known to the world outside of our college or institution of Hands.  Such was the pact of secrecy that I entered into with the Hands of the Cause.  And to this pact I adhere to faithfully.

            When I was on my travels during this past year around the world and in particular in America I avoided meeting certain of the friends for fear they might question me upon this matter of Guardianship and perhaps find out my attitude that I am here expressing so freely and with safety to myself upon paper.  But now my fellow Custodian Hands tell me that I should give my whole hearted support to their united point of view – that I should accept their united action and work with them without reserve!

            This because of my convictions so explained at length in this writ I can not do.  I can and I do as yet submit to their wishes.  I can take this without a trace of enmity in my heart, but that which I know about the Administration, its principles and its workings I know and nothing can change my inner convictions in these matters even though I must for the moment make it appear before the Baha'i world that I am with the others who stand together for “The New Baha'i Era” that they in all their attitudes proclaim – this new era of no hope of a continuation of the Guardianship.  Needless it is for me to add that this condition of conflict – I to return of course for the next conclave of all the Hands.  I see coming the time when I will be obliged to break my pact of silence with the Hands and take my solitary and alone stand before the Baha'i world against the Hands of the Faith!

            In order to meet the next conclave and speak to these points of which I write I will need all the strength of my eighty five years and more; therefore I am today feeling the need to prepare myself for that coming conclave for I feel that there and there alone may be a chance that this attitude of the body of Hands may change and in one moment of inspiration the entire picture may change and the Second Guardian of the Faith then be forthcoming – then all will need all of their forces in hand to meet our new responsibilities that will come with the restitution of the Guardianship.

            It is in the hope and in view of that vision of mine that I want now to have a few weeks or months away from Haifa when I can attend to some of my own personal business and family affairs in order to have my mind clear of such problems that I can then meet with rested and renewed bodily and mental forces my services to the Baha'i Faith in Haifa.

24 MARCH 1959

            I cannot but perceive that those of the Hands who were the closest and under the most immediate orders and commands of Shoghi Effendi are now the most insistent that there shall never be another Guardian to follow him for to these Hands the very mention of the continuation of the Guardianship is as an alarm calling them to arise to direct the Faith against the repetition of the institution of the Guardianship that was such a success and conducive to the spread of the Faith in his days of the First Guardianship, the abandonment of which I who was near to our beloved First Guardian, being the only exception to prove this general rule that I here delineate and describe as one of the greatest of all the perils if not the greatest peril that the Cause of El Abha has ever faced in all of its history.

            In other parts of this writing I have noted the freedom of the Hands of the Faith here in The Holy Land from many of the personal restraints placed upon them there and elsewhere in the days of the Beloved Guardian which restraints now lifted in reality do open up as that Chicago Manifesto so aptly dubbed it “A New Baha'i Era”.  As I have expressed it, this is indeed a new Baha'i Era of freedom from the regime of the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha which is the Guardianship of the cause, a freedom now much enjoyed by some of those who were formerly under the Guardian’s control.  This control was all for the benefit and the advancement of the Faith and for the evident good of the cause which is clearly demonstrated by the result of Shoghi Effendi’s ministry as the First Guardian of the Faith.

            But now those nearest to Shoghi Effendi personally, they are the ones who now oppose most strenuously any further Guardianship.

            I am sure the whole Baha'i world will agree that Ruhiyyih Khanum of all the believers was the nearest to and the most devoted to Shoghi Effendi but now from her attitude when I mention in her presence anything about the institution of the Guardianship, the very thought of this is so abhorant to her that in all of her reactions it is clear to me that she does not want that there ever be a Second Guardian of the Faith.  Of all of the Hands, Ruhiyyih Khanum is the strongest against the continuation of the Guardianship.

            Of all the Baha'is in the western world surely there was no one so closely instructed and controlled by the Beloved Guardian as was Horace Holley both under the Guardian’s control as an individual person and in his capacity as the most prominent believer in the west because of his many years of his official Baha'i service upon the National Assembly of the U.S.A But now as I read over Horace’s correspondence with the Custodian Hands of the Faith in The Holy Land, I see that his personal stand is that the Guardianship is forever ended and that from what he writes and from his ATTITUDE it is very clear to see that he does not want to be under the orders of a Second Guardian of the Faith any more than does Ruhiyyih Khanum.

            The Beloved Guardian of our Faith was more strict in his control of the people of the Faith in Persia than he was with us in America.  There in the Orient the people through countless ages of autocratic rule were better conditioned emotionally and mentally to receive without protest the regulations and restraints that the Baha'i Faith with its well defined Administration, wherein all believers were enjoined to obey implicitly the commands of the Guardian of the Faith and to these orders the personal believers as a whole responded to as a matter of course and without apparent arguement or question.

            Upon the other hand the Beloved Guardian tempered his commands to the American believers because of their lack of accustomness to any autocratic control such as his.  Thus he led the believers of the western democratic world little by little giving his commands to us there in proportion to our ability to accept and live by the same.

            In other words, those of the masses of the Baha'is who were nearer and more close to the source of the laws of the Faith, he was more strict with than he was with others who were at a distance.  However as foreign as is implicit obedience to law and order is to the average American mind, under the ministry of the Beloved Guardian the cause in the western hemisphere has advanced to a very great degree as manifested in the first group of pioneers of the Faith who first went out from their homes to the Latin American lands and to those of the Latin countries of Europe as well as to the North European Scandinavian lands.  Here also I have noted that the farther away from contact with the First Guardian of the Faith, the less opposition there seems to be in the attitude of the Baha'is toward the continuation of the Guardianship.  Whereas amongst these Hands that were nearest to Shoghi Effendi, the more is the Guardianship as an institution to be perpetrated is opposed to the continuation of the Guardianship – that is that a Second Guardian is wanted.

            Thus have I noticed that this matter of Guardianship is apparently more wanted by the Baha'is of the western world than by those of the Orient.  This I seem to understand because I am conscious of some things and considerations that are going on inside of mine own mind and feelings.  As I have stated, there is a personal and an individual freedom of the individual believer now when we are without an acknoweledged Guardian that the Hands now are enjoying.  This Laisee Faire – without the restraint or the constraint of a control that is absolute is very pleasing to those individuals but it is not at all good for the cause as a whole for the cause progressed to such heights under the First Guardian of the Faith because of the control of his Guardianship.  If anyone doubts this fact, let him use his imagination for a few minutes and picture to himself where the Baha'i Faith would be now had there not been a Guardian in command of the Cause for the thirty six year period following the mission of the Center of the Covenant?  Can anyone imagine that such a go-as-you-please Baha'i direction (as we now have had during these past sixteen months since we have been without a Guardian) could have held the cause together for very long?  These years of my residence here in Haifa have proven to me that there can be no other possible way that the cause could possibly hold together and function other than under the command of the Guardianship as given to us in the Will and Testament of the master Abdu’l-Baha and that it is up to us Hands of the Faith, Chief Stewards of the Faith, to -*take ahold of matters in this time of emergency and get the cause back and into the thought of the continuation of the Guardianship established by our late Beloved Guardian, upon the instruction in the Will and Testament.  Since the restitution of the Guardianship is the only means by which this can be accomplished, the Hands surely have no authority to inaugurate their House of Justice in 1963.

            Let the Hands awake and individually change their desire not to have a Guardian into the desires to have this office occupied – then united in this desire they will be guided to its accomplishment – they will then be led to discover the Second Guardian of the Faith.

            To be sure it will then not be so pleasant for many of us personally as it now is in this state of freedom from the command of a Guardian that we now enjoy (personally) but we must think of the cause and not of our own personal satisfactions.

            Should a very few of the Hands arise unitedly taking this stand I believe that this would launch such confirmation in the group of the twenty seven that almost instantly this great dilemma in which the cause is now will disappear and the ten year cruisade upon which we embarked under the institution of our late Guardian will surge forward to the triumph of its completed goal!  But this can only be accomplished by a change of heart amongst those of us who at present from their attitude do not want a Second Guardian of the Faith and have taken their stand firmly against the continuance of this – the focal life-giving source of spiritual life of our Faith.

            I too would be personally and from the human stand or view of life be more at my ease and enjoying my individual pleasures were this present arrangement with no more Guardianship of the Cause to command and to direct my actions be continued than to be subject to the dictates of the Second Guardian of the Faith, but for the sake of the cause I must be ready to sacrifice all personal liberties and freedom that the cause may be divinely directed according to administrative plan of the Will and Testament.  The other Hands must be ready to do likewise lest the unity of our Faith perish from the face of the earth.

25 MARCH 1959

            As I have already written the position in authority (now at this present time) of the Hands who are the chief stewards of the Faith, is similar to that of the clergy of a religion who themselves although without divine authority have assumed this stewardship so are considered to be the stewards of their Faith (whichever one it may be) by their followers.  With the coming of a new manifestation these clergy have always turned against the Manifested One and refused him and his message.

            Now as I write the position of the Hands who are now in control of the Faith at present in analogue to that of the clergy of past and present times.  The Hands are for the moment in control of the Baha'i Faith!  Do they want a Second Guardian of the Faith to take over the command that they will be the first to buckle down to and “obey”?

            I ask this question point blank to the Hands of the Faith?  I myself do insist that for the sake of the welfare of the cause the system of the Guardianate must rehabilitate.  No one but the Second Guardian can accomplish this!

            The cause is under the divine guidance of the Guardianship as we are commanded to do in the Will and Testament of the Master.  There may be, that is I believe there may be believers who as yet have not expressed their deep inner convictions that there should be a Second Guardian of the Faith – and from so on a continuation of the Guardianship, but so far until this present date none such as these have said anything about their holding such convictions – none save me.  If there are such they have remained silent upon the subject.

            But not so however with the Hands for they have by their attitude stood and are standing firmly against the continuation of this divinely instituted institute of Guardianship.

            We know what has happened in both the past and this present dispensation when any one or ones has by attitude or otherwise attempted to thwart the truths of the Religion of God – those who have stood out against the revealed truth have come to great confusion and abasement – that they have left the Faith.  Surely the Hands do not want such to take place with them in this day!  It is indeed necessary that they consult together about this momentous problem of the Second Guardian of our Faith and make his coming welcome to him – this they should do as soon as possible both for the salvation of the cause itself as well as for the personal health and well being of each individual Hand of the Faith for our Beloved First Guardian of the Faith has appointed them to their position of Handship that demands that they give the protection that the cause requires at this particular moment in order that it surge forward and win this spiritual victory over the world that can only be won under the guidance and orders of a Second Guardian of our Faith.  The Beloved Shoghi Effendi commanded the Hands to do this!

27 MARCH 1959

            Last night I found myself again in arguement with Milly Collins over the subject of the Guardianship of the Faith, she maintaining as formerly that God had changed the Master Abdu’l-Baha’s plan given us in his Will and Testament and that that was now out but that she believed that if we just kept the ten year cruisade of Baha'i teaching going, that God in some way would lead the cause – she had no idea of how God was to accomplish this Sans Guardian!  Further she maintained that the assemblies national would in 1963 come together and elect a Universal House of Justice and that then we would have infallible guidance that would settle all Baha'i problems of every nature so now for the present all we had to do was to keep on going as we are going.

            In other words, Milly voices again the united opinion of the Hands that we can do nothing but put the matter of the guidance of the Faith up to a Universal House of Justice to be elected democratically by the mass of the people of the Faith through their National Assemblies to obtain infallible guidance.

            I maintain that by thus throwing aside our responsibility as Hands – the Nobles of the Faith – and thus asking the people to take the matter of the guidance of the Faith into their own hands Sans Guardian that we are evading the responsibilities that the Beloved Guardian placed upon us when he elevated us to our present position in the Faith with the responsibility to protect the Faith.  Are the Hands protecting the Faith by thus refusing to endorse and uphold the Guardianship?

28 MARCH 1959

            This afternoon there was a meeting of consultation of the Hands of the Faith in The Holy Land and as I often do I brought up the matter of the Guardianship and was again told by the Hands that with the Universal House of Justice established in 1963 all would be changed for us for then we would have the infallible guidance that we now lack because of no Guardianship!

            Here I reminded them as I have many times before that without Guardianship it would be impossible for us to have a House of Justice since we would have but one pillar without a Guardian – that of the International Baha'i Assembly and that without a Guardian of the Faith the Universal House of Justice could not function – some voiced the opinion that a Guardian was not necessary.  I stood out that there must be these two pillars, otherwise no House of Justice was possible.  The premise on which this is based being that without a Guardian as we now are, the Faith has no protection.  It being but a matter of time when division will come to us.

            All stood against me in this matter although they agreed with me that had we not had the First Guardian of the Faith in command of the situation after the close of the Master Abdu’l-Baha’s ministry that the Faith could not have held together but would by now have been divided into many cults.  This all agreed upon as we looked at the cause in retrospect but they rejected this same necessity of a Guardian as they viewed the cause in prospect, saying that they believed that God would confirm them, the Hands of the Faith, and in some other way not yet known that the cause would receive infallibility through the Universal House of Justice to be elected by the people of the Faith in 1963 which is the date that they now are talking about.  Thus we were right back where we started from, they convinced that they are right and I convinced that I am right.

            But throughout all of this discussion as I have noted before, the attitude of the Hands was ever the same as I have noted before.  They really don’t want a Second Guardian.  They resented the thought of any desire to place a Guardian in command of the situation – the theory so clearly put in that Manifesto from Chicago, “A New Baha'i Era” with no more Guardianship was the foundation of their stand. But of course this was never mentioned in so many words, nevertheless it is plain to me to see that this is indeed the ruling sentiment and I have explained before in my thoughts recorded in my written observations.

            It would indeed greatly disturb and disrupt this present life that we Hands of the Faith are now so enjoying here in Haifa and elsewhere.  Things are getting settled down and into a sort of a system or order pleasing to the Hands where they are the most honored by the Baha'is the world around – and they have this prospect for the life here upon earth.  The Hands are now established and don’t want a change in their position anymore than do the clergy of any of the other religions of the world, so now the Hands like the clergy don’t want a change of command any more than the clergy want that a new manifestation should appear and supercede their authority over the people.

            For example, all the Hands are now adjusting and adjusted to things as they are going here in Haifa.  A Second Guardian (should he be a married man with wife and family) coming into command of the Faith would take up residence here in the Guardian’s house, his wife becoming the first lady of the Faith which would relegate the widow of the First Guardian to the position of the dowager lady of the Faith.  Such a change as this change alone would create a very difficult problem indeed and this would for obvious reasons be but one of a thousand and one other changes and adjustments to the regieme of a Second Guardian that would have to be met by the present Hands of the Faith and then added to all these changes would be the new Hands of the Faith that a Second Guardian of the Faith would be appointing – NO all of this would indeed be very disrupting to this present non-canonical-and-without-any-divine-authority-regieme that the Hands have set up and are following.  They are like the pagans of old – they are creating an idol that is an idealistic organization of their own and are now following it and they don’t want to be disturbed in this their own way of life.

            I know that I am putting forward my thoughts to the Hands in a direct and in a somewhat brutal way but such, I feel, has to be done to awaken these friends to this most precarious condition in which the Baha'i Faith now finds itself plunged and for some good reason – unknown to any save to my own self – no one of the Hands of the Faith appears to realize this.  Notwithstanding this condition, I feel that I must take my stand alone and with courage.

            In this afternoon’s meeting after we had discussed and come again to this condition of stalemate, Leroy Ioas said that in reply to a question put by George Latimer, that the Beloved Guardian had written him definitely that a Guardian could not be appointed by the Hands of the Faith.

            For a time I had thought that in order to protect the Faith, the Hands could choose a Second Guardian, but I had soon to abandon this hope when I found that only the reigning Guardian could appoint his successor.

            Thus now have the Hands of the Faith set up the present organization that they are preaching the world around and that the people of the Faith are blindly following.  Thus are the people of the Faith being led astray.

            My argument is that this is all wrong according to the text and the spirit of the Administration as developed by the Beloved Shoghi Effendi.

            Believing firmly as I do that the Administration is going to work out and in the end maintained and the Faith triumph in the world I look for something to happen somewhere to shake the Faith of the people and of the Hands in this “New Baha'i Era” that they are trying to establish – a something that will so shake the Hands and the rest of the Baha'i world that it will in some way get the Administration again into working order and the cause again functioning under the Guardianship of the Faith.

30 MARCH 1959

            It is surely from the human viewpoint the most delightful job in all the Baha'i world now to be living here in Haifa as a Custodian Hand of the Faith.  As individual Baha'is we are living here in ease and luxury – highly thought of and sincerely revered by all the Baha'i world with no one above us to tell us what to do.  We are going just about as we please and apparently all save I thoroughly enjoying this new freedom and liberty from the control that the cause was under during the days of the Beloved Guardian when the every movement of those of us here was controlled by him and subject to his command.

            None of the Hands here are more aware of this new Baha'i Era of freedom from the dictate of the Guardianship than I, Mason Remey, am.  Like all the others here from the personal viewpoint I am now since the death of Shoghi Effendi living here in an atmosphere of relaxed freedom and personal liberty that I never dreamed of when we had a Guardian to command and order us at every turn to do this or do that.  I here testify that the human state of being a Hand of the Faith now – here in The Holy Land – is indeed a delectable one compared with the state here in Haifa of a Hand of the Faith under the Guardianship which in those days was a state of literal hell upon earth.  It was only through the Grace of God that I got through those years without voluntarily killing myself to escape my suffering caused from being constantly beaten down to the point of desperation and of wondering how I was going to endure it.  Shoghi Effendi told us many times that Haifa was the most difficult place in all this world for a Baha'i – such was the first thing that I found in living there with the Beloved Guardian.

            If they will be as frank as I am, others who lived here in Haifa under the Beloved Guardian will tell you the same as I am telling in this writing but from my present size up of the friends now here in Haifa I have but little hope that anyone of them would want to go on record as I am here doing.  So I will probably have to stand alone before all the Hands in thus revealing my agonized sufferings while serving the Beloved Guardian here in Haifa – an agony from which there could have been no relief so long as there was a Guardian with us here in the flesh.  Did not the Beloved Guardian himself tell us that here in Haifa nearest to him was the most difficult place on earth to live and serve the Faith?  Who but we of the International Baha'i Council could or would have taken this life here, save us?  One day at table, one of the Hands (Leroy Ioas not I) remarked that “Haifa was the Hell hole of this world” to which we all present, myself encluded, with one word attested to it.

            I could easily write a long book depicting the intense sufferings of we council members one of whom, L.S.H., came to me one day with tears flowing confiding in me that twice had he been at the very verge of suicide.

            Well!  That is that!  Now it is all over and at an end until such time as the Guardianship be reestablished in our midst when per force it will all have to be brought back and lived over under the leadership of the Second Guardian of the Faith and from him on and so on.  Undoubtedly as the years roll on and things become more routine and adjusted in the Baha'i world, the sacrifices of those near to the Guardian of the Faith will gradually become more ameliorated and less severe, but as we are now in the early days of the formation of the Administration of the Faith, these tests and trials we may now expect to be more hard and difficult to meet them than they will be later on when we will be better conditioned to life here then we are now.

            But how is the cause faring in these early days?

            In the days of the Beloved Guardian, the cause flourished.  No one can gainsay this statement.  The more we here in Haifa served Shoghi Effendi and suffered the more the cause flourished and this was not all due by any means to our services and sacrifices here in Haifa.  This existed all over the Baha'i world – this existed directly in the measure that the friends everywhere arose to subject themselves to the Will of the Guardian and to lay aside that which they hold dear to take up the service of the Guardian.

            When Shoghi Effendi wrote telling the friends to leave and desert their homes and businesses that they had been years of toil in creating, this was not an easy thing for those believers to do, but since the Guardian commanded it they felt the necessity to obey even at a very great sacrifice and it was by such sacrifices (voluntary ones) that the Faith has spread the world around in these comparatively few years.

            Thus it is that suffering and sacrifice benefits the Faith as a whole or collectively the world around.  It advances in direct proportion to the sacrifices of the friends as they follow the commands of the Guardian and the Faith is held back in the proportion that the Guardian’s commands are not accepted or acted upon.

            But now in these present days without a Guardianship the Faith is yet living on and advancing because of the momentum it received from the days of the First Guardian of the Faith upon earth.  We are now in need of a renewed and a continuation of this momentum in order to keep the cause on the move and growing and this continuation of the outpourings of The Holy Spirit can only come with the continuation of the Guardianship as an institution as a series of different personalities of the succeeding Guardian – thus the supply of the spiritual forces of the Abha Kingdom will be continued on and on throughout the Baha'i Dispensation – the power coming through the Guardianship.

            Such in principle is the functioning of the organic fabric of our Faith as given to us in the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha.  A break or cessation of this flow of The Holy Spirit flowing to us through the Guardianship of the Faith is bad for the Faith and if cut out altogether as the many Hands of the Faith now favor – it will surely be the death and disruption of our Faith.

            Now I would address my arguement to those Hands of the Faith who do not want the continuation of the Guardianship!  For they are the ones causing this present crisis in the Baha'i world.  To be sure these friends (in general) do not say in so many words that they don’t want a Second Guardian – they do not openly proclaim this intention – nevertheless as one studies their ATTITUDES one sees clearly what is their hidden thought and why personally they don’t want a Second Guardian of the Faith.

            WHY?  Because they are personally happy and quite contented with things as they are now going on in the Faith and naturally as human beings they don’t want to disturb this status quo that is so pleasing to them.

            As for example, this specific group of the Hands of the Faith here in The Holy Land are comfortably settled and functioning.  As personalities we are fond of one another.  To be sure there are small minor personal problems that are constantly coming up but these are but very minor matters.  On the whole we are a very happy Baha'i colony here in The Holy Land living in the lap of luxury – thoroughly enjoying one another’s society not to mention that of the many Baha'i pilgrims coming and going from all points of the world.

            What happier personal existence could there be than this?

            But the Faith needs a Guardian in the flesh to direct Baha'i world affairs and to direct us serving here in Haifa.  But do the Hands here want this new Guardian?  THEY DO NOT!

            Now all is running along more or less to the satisfaction of the Hands here.  Do they want a Second Guardian (whom they will have to obey as they did Shoghi Effendi) to be installed here in the house of the Guardian – the former house of the Master Abdu’l-Baha?  There is no telling what shifts and changes in the running of the Baha'i establishment here in Haifa that a Second Guardian might make since all would be subject to his bidding.  NO.  Few of the Hands of of the Faith here in The Holy Land want this.  In fact any suggestion of Guardianship is abhorant to their way of thinking.  I myself testify to this for as far as I can detect I am the only one of all the Hands who wishes this.

            The Beloved Guardian kept down with economy the living expenses of the Baha'i colony here in Haifa.  Our living under him was strictly curtailed.  He thought it best for our spiritual service that we did not have luxuries.  How many times did he decry the American way of life with so much comfort and ease.  One of the friends here wanted an automobile to facilitate his getting around.  The Beloved Guardian said no.

            At present under the Custodian Hands of the Faith, we have several automobiles and many other privileges and luxuries that run up into expenditures from the funds of the Baha'i Faith that Shoghi Effendi would not have allowed in his day.  Now in making this observation I know perfectly well that as the cause expands, automobiles and other things become necessary, yet from my own personal observations here made during the past year and a half, I see extravagances in the expenditure of Baha'i funds that ought not to be according to my idea of “Noblesse Oublige” a waste of money that I would expect a Second Guardian of the Faith to curtail along with other freedoms of this New Baha'i Era through the curtailment of which the Faith, the cause in general, would benefit even allowing that such might not be as agreeable to the Hands in The Holy Land, myself included, as is now our present freedom that is not under the control of a Guardian.

            My contention is that the Hands of the Faith should restudy their problem of leading the Baha'i Faith, taking into consideration such problems as I am bringing up in this writing and with an unprejudiced mind try to get our Faith into the running order of the Administration as it was intended that it should be by the Beloved Guardian as he innaugurated the Administration as directed in the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha.

31 MARCH 1959

            Daily I find myself obliged to listen to a propaganda that to me is a violation of the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha as well as a violation of all that the Beloved Guardian taught us – namely that the Baha'i Faith should continue as it now is without a Guardianship.

            This morning I had a talk with Milly Collins who tenatiously holds that God has changed his plan and the Master’s Will and Testament is now all BADAH.

            This afternoon in the meeting of consultation of the Custodian Hands this same thought was dominant, and again tonight at the oriental pilgrim house, this same thought was reiterated by the Hands present in talking to the Persian Pilgrims now there, all with the definite intent of backing up and putting over their theory of no more Guardianship – the infallibility of the Faith to be obtained in 1963 by a Universal House of Justice to operate without a Guardian which is the solution for the guidance of the Faith in place of the guidance of the Faith in place of the guidance as directed in the Will and Testament, centered in and coming through the Guardianship.

            And the believers everywhere seem to be pinning their hopes and thus conditioning themselves to this order of “A New Baha'i Era” that now seems to be dominant in the cause.  How many times am I told that if we only love and obey the Beloved Guardian and teach what he told us to teach, all would be well for then we would not need any other guidance.

            To show the falacy  of such talk were I now to openly proclaim the guidance of the Faith under the Guardianship, I would certainly be expelled from association of the believers for although this is exactly what Shoghi Effendi told us to teach and which we did teach in his day – that same would not be heretical and place me in the category of those who oppose the Baha'i institutions.

            It is all an impossible situation.  What are the believers to teach today?  We no longer have a definite message and an assurance to give people.  We are told to teach as Shoghi Effendi taught us to teach – which in brief was that Kingdom of God upon earth was under the assured guidance of the Guardianship.

            Now since we no longer have a Guardian and the majority of the Hands of the Faith believe the Guardianship to be definitely ended, what are we to teach?  What assurance of infallible guidance have we to give to the world? 

            It all just doesn’t make any sense.  I long to teach as we all taught to back in the days of the Beloved Guardian that in the Guardianship we have infallible guidance.  But now it is claimed that God has changed his plan so if I continue to teach the plan of the Administration I will be defying the stand that the Hands have taken and like Tony Fillon and others would suddenly find myself expelled from association with Baha'is.

            So there we are at this impasse!  I wish I knew what I could do about this but I am but one Hand against twenty four or twenty six Hands?  Yet through it all I have the assured vision that the Guardianship will be reinstalled and that there will be a Second Guardian at the head of the Baha'i Faith and upon this vision I am placing my all, assured that these things shall come to pass yet at no time have I had any idea at all of how, by whom and when the cause will be gotten back into the spirit and the letter of the Administration of the Faith as we have it from the Master and from the Beloved Guardian.

END OF VOLUME III

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’i Faith

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 42^nd Street and Fifth Avenue    - - New York

            and in libraries in a few other cities.