Proclamation to the Baha'is of the World from Charles Mason Remey, Second Baha'i Guardian
PROCLAMATION
TO
THE BAHÁ’ÍS OF THE WORLD
FROM
MASON REMEY
THE SECOND GUARDIAN
OF
THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH
PROCLAMATION
TO THE BAHA’IS OF THE WORLD
THROUGH
THE ANNUAL CONVENTION
OF
THE BAHA’IS OF
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ASSEMBLED AT
WILMETTE, ILLINOIS
RIDVAN 117 BAHA'I ERA
FROM
MASON REMEY
SECOND GUARDIAN
OF
THE BAHA'I FAITH
PROCLAMATION
OF
THE SECOND GUARDIAN
OF
THE BAHA'I FAITH
ANNOUNCING HIS ADVENT
INTO THE BAHA'I WORLD
TO
ALL BELIEVERS OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
TO BE READ BEFORE THE DELEGATES ASSEMBLED
AT THE APPROACHING NATIONAL BAHA'I CONVENTION
IN AMERICA
THIS CARBON COPY OF THE ORIGINAL PROCLAMATION TO BE SENT
TO THE CONVENTION IS NOW BEING SENT TO
THE HANDS OF THE FAITH IN THE HOLY LAND
IN STRICT CONFIDENCE
IN ORDER THAT THIS PROCLAMATION BE KNOWN
TO THEM IN ADVANCE OF ITS BEING SENT TO
THE CONVENTION – THUS THESE HANDS OF THE FAITH
WILL THEREFORE BE THE FIRST BELIEVERS TO HEAR
THIS MESSAGE OF
THE PROCLAMATION OF
MASON R. GUARDIAN
OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
(CHARLES MASON REMEY)
COSMOS CLUB
WASHINGTON 8, D.C.
APRIL__, 1960
Mr. Charles Wolcott,
Secretary
National Spiritual Assembly
of the Baha’is of the United States
356 Sheridan Road
Wilmette, Illinois
Dear Charles,
Enclosed I send you my Proclamation of My Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith. This declaration explains itself. I send this to you to be read before the Baha'i Convention so shortly to convene at Wilmette.
I am pleased to have your letter of April 5, 1960 extending to me the invitation of your National Assembly to be present with you at your coming Annual National Convention.
I have been preparing a Proclamation communication addressed to the convention, a copy of which I enclose with this letter to you asking that this be read to the delegates seated in this convocation. This document will explain itself.
If it be the wish of the convention that I go to Wilmette at this time to meet with the Baha’is of America and further proclaim, declare and explain my status for life as commander in chief of Baha'i affairs of this world as I was appointed to do by our late Beloved Guardian as the Second Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, I will be very pleased indeed to meet the convention.
Should the convention wish this, let them send three believers of their choice to Washington bringing me their invitation to come to them – these three representatives of the convention to usher me to the convention in waiting for me. The importance, solemnity and the dignity of this occasion in the Baha'i Faith demands this formality.
I will be prepared to receive those three friends at the home of my sister, Miss Remey, at 2101 Connecticut Avenue, North West, Washington D.C. This delegation of three will let me know when and where I can get word to them on their arrival in Washington and they will make all arrangements for my traveling to Wilmette and for my stay while I am there as a guest of the National Assembly of the Baha'is of this country.
Faithfully yours
in El Abha
MASON R. GUARDIAN
of The Baha'i Faith
THIS PROCLAMATION
was first sent to The Hands of the
Faith in The Holy Land before it
was sent through the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is
of The United States of America
To the Annual Convention of Baha'is
assembled at Wilmette, Illinois
RIDVAN 117 Baha'i Era
The following letter to Charles Wolcott,
Secretary of the National Spiritual
Assembly explains this matter.
PROCLAMATION
TO THE BAHA’IS OF THE WORLD
THROUGH
THE ANNUAL CONVENTION
OF
THE BAHA’IS OF
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ASSEMBLED AT
WILMETTE, ILLINOIS
RIDVAN 117 BAHA'I ERA
FROM
MASON REMEY
THE SECOND GUARDIAN
OF
THE BAHA'I FAITH
Washington, D.C.
United States of America
Ridvan 117
BAHA'I ERA
BELOVED FRIENDS:
Believers have questioned me as to my status as President of the Baha'i International Council, appointed by The Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi, the First Guardian of the Baha'i Faith. I take the means of this proclamation, to the coming annual national convention to tell all Baha'is exactly what my position and status is in the Faith.
The Baha'i people the world around know that The Beloved Guardian singled me, Mason Remey, out from amongst all of the Believers upon earth to occupy the position of President of the Baha'i International Council. This is the only position suggestive of authority that Shoghi Effendi ever bestowed upon anyone, the only special and specific appointment of authority to any man ever made by him.
The Beloved Guardian declared the Baha'i International Council to be the forerunner of and the first step toward the establishment of The Universal House of Justice, and furthermore, that the Baha'i International Council was the embrio of The Universal House of Justice which embrio would eventually develop into The Universal House of Justice.
Although all Baha'is know that I, Mason Remey, am the President of the Baha'i International Council by the appointment of The Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi, yet many of you may not know me personally. I have been living at Haifa much of the time during these past ten years. My visits to America being in the summers when I have done but little travelling among the Baha'i communities so personally I may be a stranger to the many recently registered in the Faith. Therefore, I will tell you something about myself.
My forebearers were early American Colonials of New England in the north and Virginia in the south. I was brought up in the Christian Faith as taught by the Episcopal Church. The members of this church, as you know, although always orthodox may be anything from Catholic upon one hand to Protestant on the other. While this church is usually classed as Protestant, its Prayer Book proclaims it to be “The Holy Catholic Apostolic Church.” My inheritance was from the Catholic interpretation of Christianity rather than from the Protestant attitude.
To the average American, The Catholic Church usually means Roman Catholic, but there are other Catholic communions. In The Holy Land, that is now my home and has been for these past ten years, the Ministry of Religions of Israel lists eleven different Catholic communions in that country – Roman, Anglican, Russian, Armenian, Greek, Greek Orthodox, Coptic, etc. The Anglican Catholic Persuasion corresponding to the so called High Episcopal Church in America.
With this Catholic background it was the most logical and natural thing in the world for me to accept the Baha'i message without question as I did when I heard it in 1899-1900 from May Ellis Bolles (later Mrs. Sutherland Maxwell), because the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church teaches the Second Coming of Christ – The Christ to come manifesting as the Lord of Creation – the Prince of Peace – coming to establish “His Kingdom upon Earth as it is in Heaven.”
From New England on the north and Virginia on the south, my forebears came into the middlewest where I was born in 1874 at a town on the Mississippi River, two hundred and ten miles from Chicago, not far distant from the geographic center of the United States, this land that our Beloved Guardian has called “The Cradle of the Administration of the Baha'i Faith.” Thus do I introduce myself to those of you who may know me but by name only.
As I travel about through the Baha'i world, the friends ask me many questions about the life of the believers in Israel, and in particular about the Hands of the Faith in The Holy Land? The Baha'i people are just curious to know about things transpiring there and of how the problems of the Faith are being handled?
There is some general information that I can give them that is in no way confidential but I am not mentioning anything of a confidential nature to any Baha'i because as is well known in Baha'i circles from the first of the conclave of the Hands the majority of the Hands of the Faith were united in the opinion that absolutely nothing said or done in these conclaves be divulged, disclosed or revealed to any of the Baha'is outside of the body of the twenty seven Hands. However, each Hand of the Faith is not only allowed but urged to express herself or himself with perfect freedom within the four walls of the chamber in which the Hands are gathered. It is the duty enjoined upon each of the Hands to express her or his own convictions to the Hands when seated in conclave.*
I, as the President of the International Council was one of those things that every Baha'i knows but that just never happened to be talked about nor even mentioned in any of the conclaves or in the conferences of the Hands of the Faith; therefore, as this subject was never mentioned, I, having promised the Hands never to divulge any of their discussions, proceedings or decisions, am not breaking faith with International Council a subject that was never even mentioned nor brought up for discussion by the Hands of the Faith in any conference that I ever attended or know anything about.
Before going into the subject of my Presidency of the International Council and the stand that I take in the cause and explain in this letter, I would preface my statement by giving in a few words a picture of the set up of things in Haifa under the regime of The Beloved Guardian when all the members of the International Council including the resident Hands lived there and served the Guardian daily. Each of us council members were given instructions by Shoghi Effendi of what he wanted us to do and we reported to him as these various services were underway and completed. The sole authority of all these operations rested in the instructions given to each direct from the Guardian himself, thus as a council, a functioning body, we never undertook any services of any nature whatsoever.
*A Conclave, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is “Any meeting for secret consultation.”
After the appointment of the International Council, many times one of the members would come to me saying, “Mason, you are the President of the Council, get yourself busy, call a meeting, you are the President of the Council, you should take the initiative to organize this body and do something.” To which my response was always, “The Guardian of the Faith appointed the Baha'i International Council and He will tell me what I should do and when I should call the Council into action.”
The First Guardian of the Faith left this world without giving me any orders or instructions whatsoever regarding the International Council. The Beloved Guardian gave me no authority to do anything about the Universal Council during his lifetime for while He was living He was the Guardian of the Faith and as infallibility then was vested in him only, my position was then only that of I myself holding a potential responsibility. But with the death of Shoghi Effendi, He no longer being the center upon earth of infallibility, I became the acting President of the International Council in my own right as President of this body, thus I came into active command of the council. Therefore I am now assuming the powers that came to me automatically upon the death of Shoghi Effendi and that have been mine exclusively of all others upon earth since the death of the First Guardian of the Faith.
This is the authority I am now exercising when I refuse to recognize any interference from anyone in the affairs of the International Council. This means from any one at all, person or persons.
The Hands of the Faith can only function as protectors of the Faith when they are serving under the direction following the commands of the infallible Guardian of the Faith. They have no authority vested in themselves as Hands of the Faith to act in their own capacity nor in any other capacity, save under the directions of the living Guardian of the Faith.
The Beloved Guardian chose me to be the President of the Baha'i International Council that is according to his explanation the President of the Embrionic Universal House of Justice. Therefore I am the President of the Embrionic Universal House of Justice. When this August body becomes the Universal House of Justice, if such being during my lifetime, I will then be the President of the First Universal House of Justic of the Baha'i Dispensation.
Therefore, inasmuch as The Beloved Guardian in His Infallibility has thus placed me in command of the Faith to protect and to guard the Faith, I can do nothing but assume my place that he has given me with all of the responsibilities, the perquisites and emoluments that go with this position, therefore by his infallible orders I now alone after him command the cause and guard its integrity.
The delay until now of my calling the attention of the believers to the provisions for the protection and the guarding of the cause, made some years ago by our Beloved Guardian when He appointed me to be the President of the Baha'i International Council, has given the Hands of the Faith and the believers of the Faith ample time to discover for themselves, had that been possible for them to have discovered my unique position in the Faith. But until now no one, other than I, has discovered that such authority was vested in me by Our Beloved Guardian. To the moment of my sending out into the Baha'i world of this proclamation, I have taken no one into this confidence – I have stood single and alone in all the world guarding the Faith.
That I was to occupy this August position in The Baha'i Faith that the Beloved Guardian has chosen me to occupy, I have definitely known for the past twelve years more or less, without ever mentioning it to anyone until very recently when privately and in secret, I made this declaration to the Hands of the Faith in the Holy Land. In this proclamation statement to you I am now declaring my position of command in the cause to the Believers here in America, “The Cradle of the Administration of The Baha'i Faith,” and through this convention to all the Baha'i World.
In this time of confusion of thought and purpose that so threatens the Baha'i world, now is the propitious moment for me to make the announcement that I do in this writ. I cannot delay any longer. All these plans of the Hands of the Faith for 1963 that are so absorbing and confusing to the people of the Faith must be dropped and stopped immediately. I am the only one who can command this situation so I have arisen to do so for I alone in all this world have been given the authority and the power to accomplish this.
Be it understood. I of myself make no claims for myself. I am but telling and reminding the Hands of the Faith and the Baha'is of all the world of the responsibilities that The Beloved Guardian placed upon me as President of the Baha'i International Council.
It is well known throughout the Baha'i world and accepted by all Baha'is that the protection of the Faith and the propagation of the Faith are special and particular functions of the Hands of the Faith, they working and serving under the direction of the Guardian of the Faith. It is from and through the Guardianship that infallibility is vested and that the Hands of the Faith receive their orders.
The Program for 1960 as announced by the Hands of the Faith in their message to the Baha'i world of November 4, 1959 signed by twenty two of the Hands, as well as the same program announced in their former messages, so flagrantly violate and puts to naught the Will and Testament, the Guardianship, and the Administration of the Faith that the Beloved Guardian so laboriously and painstakingly built up during his long ministry, that I can no longer condone such actions upon the part of the Hands of the Faith. I have remained silent now for over two years hoping that they would give up this destructive propagandizing but all to no effect so now it is necessary that I call a halt upon their activities.
I now command the Hands of the Faith to stop all of their preparations for 1963 and furthermore I command all believers both as individual Baha'is and as assemblies of Baha'is to immediately cease cooperating with and giving support to this falacious program for 1963.
I have delayed as long as I dare delay before issuing this command to the Baha'i world – I, hoping that the Hands of the Faith would see for themselves that the will and testament of Abdu-L-Baha was being violated and that they would of themselves abandon their stand. I, standing single and alone against the entire Baha’s world but confirmed and steadfast in my assurance of ultimately saving the cause from this calamity. My assurance is based upon the authority that The Beloved Guardian gave me as President of the Council, the authority enabling me to act and assume command of the Baha'is that came to me at His death.
It is meet right and timely that I should make this announcement in this convention of Baha'is of America which land the Beloved Guardian called the “Cradle of the Administration.” I make this call here and now standing single and alone before you but fully confident of your support and cooperation in all Baha'i matters for you understand the Administration of the Faith and that I guard it from all violation and harm.
Because the Beloved Guardian called America the Cradle of the Baha'i Administration, the American Baha'is have a very special and particular responsibility to which I am calling them now at this particular time.
I expect the friends in this convention to consider with prayer and with thought this declaration to the entire Baha'i world. I expect them to accept me without question as their Commander-in-Chief in all Baha'i matters and to follow me so long as I live for I am the Guardian of the Faith – the Infallible Guardian of the Baha'i Faith.
The line of the Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith is unbroken for I have been the Guardian of the Faith since the death of the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi.
* * * * * * * * *
At their earliest convenience the National Assembly of the United States should communicate with me so that I can arrange to receive them. Since they are the first amongst the National Assemblies to be called into spiritual action by me their responsibilities are very great for I am calling this American National Assembly first from all other National Assemblies of the world to support me in my command of the Baha'i Cause.
Dearly Beloved Friends, seated in convention in the land of the Cradle of the Administration of the Faith, this is all that I have to tell you now at this time.
With much love to you.
Faithfully In El Abha,
MASON R., GUARDIAN
OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
CHARLES MASON
of Washington, D.C., and Burlington, Iowa
Charles Mason, the third and youngest son of Chauncey Mason and his wife Esther Dodge, was born in Pompey, Onondaga County, New York, October 24, 1804. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point at the head of the class in 1829 in which class were noted officers, who later fought on both sides in the War between the States; among them was General Robert E. Lee. Two years later Charles Mason resigned from the Army, studied law, travelled and prospected in the western states, and eventually settled in Burlington, Iowa. In 1839 he was appointed First Chief Justice of the Territory of Iowa, which office he held until his resignation in 1847. From 1853 to 1867 he was United States Commissioner of Patents at Washington. During his tenure of office he became the first head of a government department in Washington to give regular office employment to a woman, when he chose Miss Clara Barton to be his official secretary, contending that if a woman’s work equaled that of a man she should have a man’s pay. Thus he established a precedent now providing positions for thousands of women.
To the founding and development of law and order in Iowa Charles Mason devoted much time and energy. As the inscription on the tablet to his memory in the Old State House at Iowa City testifies, he was a ‘Pioneer in establishing Law in the Territory of Iowa’ and ‘Principal Architect of the First Code of Laws of Iowa.’
The last twenty years of his life were spent largely in the study and promotion of questions of public welfare, upon which he lectured and wrote much for publication. He was among the pioneer advocates of temperance in the United States. Some of his articles thereon are incorporated in the series of his diaries, now preserved in the Historical Department of the State of Iowa. He travelled widely in this country and abroad, dividing his time principally between Burlington, Iowa, in the summer and the City of Washington, where he usually spent the winter. He died at his home at Burlington on February 25, 1882, survived by his daughter, Mary Josephine Mason Remey, the wife of George Collier Remey (later Rear-Admiral), United States Navy.
Rear-Admiral
GEORGE COLLIER REMEY
United States Navy
(Taken for the most part from Who’s Who
in America)
George Collier Remey was born in Burlington, Iowa, August 10th, 1841, the second son of William Butler Remey (of the line of the French Huguenot refugee Jacob Remy, who landed in Virginia in 1654) and his wife Eliza Smith Howland (of the line of the Mayflower Pilgrim Father John Howland). He entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1855 and graduated as one of the five honour men of the class of 1859. He married Mary Josephine Mason, daughter of Chief Justice Charles Mason, of Iowa, and his wife Angelica Gear, on July 8th, 1879. He was appointed Midshipman June 9, 1859, and promoted through grades to Rear-Admiral, November 22, 1989, and was retired August 10, 1903. He served on the U.S.S. Hartford, East India Squadron, 1859-61; and saw Civil War service on the U.S.S. Marblehead, on the N. and S. Atlantic Blockading Squadron, 1862-63; on the U.S.S. Canandaigua, 1863; participated in siege of Yorktown; engagement with Confederates at White House Landing Pamunky River, June 29, 1862; engagements with batteries on Sullivan Island, S.C.; engagement of Battery Wagner, August 17, 1863; commanded naval battery on Morris Island, August 23-September 8, 1863, bombardments of Forte Sumter and Gregg; commanded a division of boats in night attack on Fort Sumter, September 8, 1863, and was taken prisoner; spent thirteen months in Columbia Jail and Libby Prison, and was exchanged as a prisoner of war, November 15, 1864. He served on the U.S.S. Mohongo, 1865-67; at the U.S. Naval Academy, 1867-69; on the U.S.S. Sabine, 1869-70; on an expedition to Tehuantepec, 1870-71; at the U.S. Naval Observatory at Washington, D.C., 1871-72; on the U.S.S. Worcester, 1872-78; in the Bureau of Yards and Docks, 1874-76; he commanded the U.S.S. Enterprise, 1877-78; was torpedo instructor at the U.S. War College at Newport, Rhode Island, 1878; on duty in the Bureau of Yards and Docks, 1879-81; was attached to the U.S.S. Flagshig Lancaster, 1881-83; stationed at the Navy Yard, Washington, 1884-86; Captain of the Navy Yard at Norfolk, Va., 1886-89; commanded the U.S.S. Charleston, 1889-92; Captain of the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, N.H., 1892-95; member Naval Examining and Retiring Boards, 1895-96; commanded the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, N.H., 1896-98, 1898-1900; commanded the Base of Naval Operations at Key West, Fla., 1898, during war with Spain; and was Commander-in-Chief of the Asiatic Squadrons, 1900-1902, during the Philippine Insurrection and the Boxer War in China. In 1902 he was appointed Chairman of the Lighthouse Board, which post he held until his retirement in 1908. Rear-Admiral Remey was for several years the oldest officer of the Navy and the ranking officer retired. After his retirement Admiral and Mrs. Remey spent their winters in Washington, D.C., and their summers in Newport, R.I. He died in Washington, D.C., February 10, 1928, survived by his wife and five children. Named in his honor was the destroyer the U.S.S. Remey, that had a distinguished record on the Pacific in World War II.
CHARLES MASON REMEY
(Taken mostly from Who’s Who in America.)
Charles Mason Remey, ‘Architecte diplomé par le Gouvernement Français’ author and lecturer, was born in Burlington, Iowa, May 15, 1874, the eldest son of Rear-Admiral George Collier Remey, U.S.N., and his wife Mary Josephine Mason (daughter of Charles Mason, Chief Justice of Iowa). Student Norfolk Academy, Norfolk, Virginia, 1886-1889; Columbian Preparatory School and Columbian College, Washington, D.C., 1889-1892; Cornell University, 1893-1896; École des Beaux Arts, Paris, 1896-1903; travelled widely in Europe and the Orient; married in 1931 to Gertrude Heim Klemm, who died in 1932. Instructor in Architecture, 1906-1908; assistant Professor of Architecture, 1908-1910, at the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Made a special study of oriental architecture; lecture tour around the world in the interests of the Baha'i Faith Temple to be built upon Mount Carmel and the Baha'i Temple at Teheran, Iran. Patron in perpetuity, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Author of several works upon the Baha'i teaching for universal religion; Travel in the Orient; Baha'i Temples; Architectural Compositions in the Indian Style of Architecture; A Nonagonal Temple; The National Church, etc. Founder and organizer of the movement to build the National Church and Shrine of the United States of America in the city of Washington to carry out General Washington’s intention of erecting there at the National Capital a nonsectarian and nondenominational shrine for national purposes, such as public prayer, thanksgiving, funeral orations, etc. Member of the Cosmos and Chevy Chase Clubs of Washington and a Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U.S.A.
STATEMENT
BY
MASON REMEY
GUARDIAN
OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
At the first Behje Conclave, the Hands of the Cause took over the management of the affairs of the Baha'i Faith. This was followed by their repudiation of the Administration – Guardianship of the Faith. This violation of the Guardianship, that is the heart of the Administration of the Baha'i Faith, is condemned by the Second Guardian of the Faith and all who follow this violation of the Baha'i Faith are pronounced by him to be violators of the Faith for thus by this action have they severed themselves from the Baha'i Religious Faith.
One of the first actions of these violating Hands of the Cause in this first conclave was to decree that no recorded or written records be taken of things transpiring in their conclaves. At the same time by a universally passed resolution, all were to hold in secrecy everything that transpired in those conclaves.
The Second Guardian of the Faith, then in occultation, in the capacity of a Hand of the Cause and President of the Baha'i International Council, sat with the Hands in this conclave. He knew at that time that this violation of the Guardianship was being perpetrated, but hoping to rectify this condition through friendly argument and pacific methods he agreed with the others, to keep in strict secret with them from the Baha'i world, all things that passed between the Hands of the Faith in their conclaves and conferences. For he hoped to be able to show them their errors and thus save them from their violation of the Faith.
Thus two and a half years or thereabouts of time passed, the while he was telling the Hands of their violation and begging them to reconsider their stand against the Guardianship - - but all to fail in the end in this endeavor.
Through his forbearance, the Second Guardian of the Faith kept this pact of secrecy with the Hands of the Cause as long as it was possible to keep it, hoping that they would have a change of heart, cast aside their violations of the Faith and welcome the advent of the Second Guardian of the Faith. But when He, the Second Guardian of the Faith, found that the violations of the Hands were at the point of causing irreparable damage to the Baha'i Faith – then he had to break with the Hands of the Faith. It was then necessary for him to make the advent as Guardian of the Faith in order to save the Faith.
Therefore when He announced to the Baha'i World, Ridvan 117 B.E., that The Beloved First Guardian of the Faith had during his lifetime appointed him, Mason Remey, the Second Guardian of the Faith, he – for the preservation of the Faith – broke all connections with the violating Hands of the Faith – broke all connections with the violating Hands of the Faith and now for the safety of the Faith, he is telling and explaining to the Baha'i world the things that the Hands of the Faith have been perpetrating against the Faith; namely their attempt to do away with the Administrative-Guardianship of the Faith, the foundation of which was given to the First Guardian of the Faith, and to the Baha'i world in the will and testament of Abdu’l-Baha upon which foundation Shoghi Effendi inaugurated the Administration that the Hands of the Cause are violating.
INASMUCH AS CHARLES MASON REMEY
OF THIS PRESENT GENERATION OF THE
REMEY FAMILY IS THE
“GUARDIAN” OR THE HEAD OF THE
BAHA'I WORLD FAITH THESE
RECORDS OF THIS FAITH THAT APPERTAIN
TO HIM AND TO HIS RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES ARE
ENCLUDED IN THIS SERIES OF RECORDS OF
THE REMEY FAMILY
MASON REMEY
GUARDIAN
OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
I
ENCYCLICAL
LETTER
TO
THE BAHA'I WORLD
FROM
MASON REMEY
GUARDIAN
OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
TO THE BAHA'I WORLD
THIS IS THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF ENCYCLICAL LETTERS
FROM MASON REMEY, THE GUARDIAN OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
Sent Forth From Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Dear Friends of the Faith:
In my Proclamation to the Baha'i World – Ridvan 117 of this Baha'i Era – I announced to the Baha'i world that the Beloved Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi, had in his own life time appointed me to follow him in the Guardianship of the Faith as the Second Guardian of the Baha'i Cause, and that I have been the Guardian of the Faith (and had stood alone guarding the Faith) since the death of the First Guardian of the Faith.
In answer to any questions that may arise amongst the believers as to why Shoghi Effendi had thus chosen me, an American Baha'i, to fill this office of Guardian of the Faith appointed me to my present office in the Faith – appointed me during this life time as Guardian of the Faith. No believer should question this infallible appointment!
This I explained in my recent Proclamation declaring that I, Mason Remey, made no claims upon mine own behalf but that I was merely telling the Baha'i world what might have been evident to them had they realized that there had been no break in the Guardianship of the Faith between the First and Second Guardians of the Cause; for inasmuch as my appointment was during the life time of Shoghi Effendi, automatically at his death I was the Second Guardian of the Faith!
Therefore, in view of these facts there should be no question as to the legitimacy of my Guardianship since the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi accomplished this appointment all in accordance with the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha.
Let all Baha'is study the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha that each can understand for himself and for herself the manner in which the Beloved Guardian built up and developed the Administration of the Faith, built up the Administration upon the directions that were contained in the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha.
The Administration of the Faith, that is inseparable from the Guardianship of the Faith, is now under the attack of the violating Hands of the Faith. This is the present issue that the Baha'i world faces! It is the question of the violation and the putting aside and to naught of the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha and also of all that the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi accomplished during his long ministry as the First Guardian of the Faith.
All Baha'is understand that the Guardian of the Faith is to be the President of the Universal House of Justice and that the Universal House of Justice cannot exist without coexistence of the Guardianship. He who is President of the Universal House of Justice is the Guardian of the Faith for he who is the Guardian of the Faith is President of the Universal House of Justice. These two offices are one and the same. Therefore, when the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi appointed me President of the Baha'i International Council, that he explained was the forerunner of the Universal House of Justice that was the Embrionic Universal House of Justice that would eventually develop into the Universal House of Justice. I or one of my successors in Guardianship would be President of the divinely instituted infallible body, the Universal House of Justice; therefore the Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith and the Presidency of the Universal House of Justice are one and the same position in the Faith.
According to this manner of reasoning did the Beloved Guardian appoint me to be his successor as President to be of the Universal House of Justice and the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith.
Now the Baha'i Faith faces the opposition of the Hands of the Faith who in violation of the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha and of the Administration of the Faith built up upon this Sacred Document by the Beloved Guardian, (this organization of the Hands of the Faith that has no authority whatsoever according to Holy Baha'i Writ – no authority to exist), would put an end for all time to the divine office of the Guardianship of the Faith!
This is the problem that the cause faces now at this time, the problem of violation of the Guardianship of the Faith.
During the years of the mission of and the administration of Baha'i affairs by our late Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi there have been but few cases of violation of the Faith – such as, for example, the Ahmad Sohrab defection known as the New History Society and one or two others. These were promptly settled by the Guardian, by the cutting off from the believers and from the cause of his orders these violators.
But now this present well organized violation so far endorsed by all of the Hands of the Faith in their last message to the Baha'i world of November 1959, signed by twenty two of the Hands of the Faith (all that were present) with the exception of myself who refused to sign, threatens the existence of the Faith throughout the entire world.
Therefore, for the protection of the Faith it is necessary that the believers review and re-study the teachings of the Master Abdu’l-Baha about “Violation” and the manner in which this should be met by the people of the Faith.
In the Master’s last message to the Baha'is in this country – a cablegram sent through Roy Wilhelm in New York to me and to another believer (Mrs. Parsons) in Washington – were the words, “He who sits with leper contracts leprosy.” In many of the Master’s other teachings he pronounces “Violation” to be a spiritually infectious plague – a disease destructive to the spiritual life of the soul of man.
I urge all believers to read and to study the Master’s teaching upon “Violation” that they will thus be able to reinforce and protect themselves and the cause against this menace.
Knowledge of the revealed teachings of the Faith will guide the people of the cause to protect the Faith from all such spiritually disintegrating diseases. The believers should study these teachings and thus prepare themselves to avoid these destructive forces of “Violation”.
In order to protect our Faith I, the Guardian of the Cause, order the believers to have nothing whatsoever to do with those who are violating the Administration of the Baha'i Faith. The faithful believers should do what they can to explain this to those who waveringly follow these violators thus to bring them back into the Faith that they are violating, but if people persist in their violation the faithful believers should leave them to themselves – not associate nor fraternize with them. Nor should they in any way give cooperation or support of any description to these violators – this means no cooperation at all with them – the faithful friends should not contribute any money to the activities of these violators nor in any other way countenance any of the activities of this violation.
At this present time Ruhiyyih Khanum is traveling throughout the Baha'i centers in America upholding, preaching and teaching this violation of the Faith – the Administration of the Faith as established by the Beloved Guardian and the ending of the Guardianship!
She is the arch-violator of the violators of this present testing time of the believers. The people of the Faith should not give audience to her, for her determination is to destroy the administration and the Guardianship. The Master Abdu’l-Baha told us that the very breath as a violator is infectious and as a spiritual poison to the Faith! Every believer should study his words.
What more is it possible for me your Guardian to say to you in order to arouse all to protect the Faith?
Faithfully in El Abha
MASON R. GUARDIAN
of the Baha'i Faith
II
ENCYCLICAL
LETTER
TO
THE BAHA'I WORLD
FROM
MASON REMEY
GUARDIAN
OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
TO THE BAHA'I WORLD
THIS IS THE SECOND OF THE SERIES OF ENCYCICAL LETTERS
FROM MASON REMEY, THE GUARDIAN OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
Sent Forth From Washington 4, D.C. U.S.A.
P.O. Box 418
BELOVED BAHA'I FRIENDS:
After receiving and reading my Proclamation to the Baha'i world, announcing my appointment as The Second Guardian of the Baha'i Faith as made by The Beloved First Guardian of the Baha'i Faith during his lifetime, almost the entire Baha'i world, it would seem, endorsed the violation of the Hands of the Faith in their repudiation of the most important act of The Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, in thus fulfilling that which he was commanded to do in the Will and Testament of the Blessed Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: namely, during his lifetime as First Guardian of the Faith, to appoint his successor, the Second Guardian of the Faith. This he accomplished, as directed in the Will and Testament, when he appointed me, Mason Remey, as his successor in command of the Baha'i Faith.
Although my appointment was veiled at the time, when as his first step he appointed me President of the Baha'i International Council, later on The Beloved Guardian very explicitly explained (still veiled, but clearly explained when all of his statements were taken together with the instructions in the Master’s Will and Testament) his appointment of me as his successor. It is very clear and concise and not to be misunderstood.
Shoghi Effendi’s pronouncement first appointed me President of the International Council, saying that this was his first step toward the establishment of the Universal House of Justice. His next explanation was that the Baha'i International Council, under my Presidency, was the embryonic Universal House of Justice that would develop into the Universal House of Justice. Consequently, when this embryonic House of Justice becomes the fully developed House of Justice, I, Mason Remey, would find myself to be the President of the full functioning Universal House of Justice of the Baha'i world.
As explained in the Will and Testament, the Guardian of the Faith is to be the President of the Universal House of Justice; therefore, he who is President of the Universal House of Justice can be none other personage than the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith.
This is indeed a clear and understandable statement of my appointment by The Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, as the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, so this same President of this same living embryonic Universal House of Justice can be none other than the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith.
Thus did Shoghi Effendi indicate to the Baha'i world that I, Mason Remey, was to be his successor in the Guardianship of the Faith!
When the Hands of the Faith in the Holy Land come out, as they are doing in these days, condemning me for telling the Baha'is that I am their Guardian, they are in reality condemning and violating the Beloved Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi Himself. It was he who made the pronouncement: President of the embryonic Universal House of Justice that would develop into the Universal House of Justice –this embryonic Universal House of Justice in reality actually being The Universal House of Justice –that could only exist with The Guardian of the Faith as its President, which is no other person than I, Mason Remey, Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, thus appointed to this supreme position in the Cause by The First Guardian of the Faith during his lifetime and to take office as Second Guardian of the Faith upon his (Shoghi Effendi’s) death; all is according to the Will and Testament of The Blessed Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
What manner of appointment of The Second Guardian of the Faith could be more clear and understandable that this?
Therefore, when the Hands of the Faith condemn me for telling the Baha'i world of this appointment and accuse me of attempting to usurp the Guardianship of the Faith, they are in reality denying that which The Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi himself, wrought; for it was he who thus appointed me to be his successor. It was all accomplished by him. I have never made any claims at all for myself. According to the Will and Testament, such was not my role as The Second Guardian of the Faith to perform. The Guardians of the Faith do not appoint themselves, for they are appointed – each Guardian by his predecessor. Thus did Shoghi Effendi appoint me during his lifetime as the Guardian to follow him. My Proclamation to the world was merely the announcement to all Baha'is of that which Shoghi Effendi had done when he appointed me to be his successor, which I have been ever since his death in England in November, 1957.
Now why Shoghi Effendi made my appointment of Guardianship in the particular way in which he did, I do not know. Nor is it admissible or permissible for any Baha'i to inquire about or attempt to understand, because none of the Faith would question this which was done by the Beloved Guardian of the Faith.
Therefore, the fact that the Hands of the Faith now do question and condemn me for announcing my Guardianship to the Baha'i world, this very action of theirs is in violation to that which The Beloved Guardian did and performed, thus showing and clearly demonstrating to all the Baha'i world their own violation as the Hands of the Faith when they condemn the action of the Beloved Guardian and seek to nullify that which he performed.
This matter of violation, treated of so thoroughly in the teachings of The Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and acted upon for the protection of the Faith by The First Guardian of the Faith, is not generally understood by many of the believers in these days. Otherwise, the people of the Faith would not be so misled as they are by these violating Hands of the Faith, who, like all violators in the history of the Cause, have been bent upon the destruction of the Faith, as they are now upon the way to do; should they succeed in doing this and should the Guardianship end, as they are striving that it should; the Baha'i Faith would indeed be ended, for without the Guardianship—that is the heart and the soul of the Faith – the Faith must die.
But we of the Baha'i Faith have all assurance that in this great day of God His Kingdom is to triumph in this world and His Kingdom has come to dominate the world and all of its activities, even including the activities of the violators. Therefore, I assure you that nothing is in the end going to prevail against the Baha'i Faith. I assure you of this; and as Guardian of the Faith, my promise to you is infallible. You can with all safety to yourselves as individuals, and collectively as a Cause, depend upon this: the eventual victory of the Baha'i Faith over all obstacles, even this present united violation that seems to be of all of the Hands, save myself, against the Guardianship of the Faith. In the end the Cause will triumph over all.
But now before this triumphant end comes to pass, we find our Faith to be torn and wounded by the claws ad talons of the powers of violation, and so for the moment our attention must be focused upon this enemy that must be overcome in order that the Faith live.
The Master’s last message to America came in a cablegram to me and to another believer (Mrs. Parsons) in Washington, transmitted through Roy Wilhelm in New York. It was a warning to the believers, saying: “He who sits with leper contracts leprosy”.
It is most important now, at this time, that the people of the Faith study the Master’s teachings and tablets upon violation. It is most important that they can see and understand how this spirit of violation now, at this moment, dominates the Hands of the Faith and all their actions. The people should read and study the Will and Testament and note the manner in which the Beloved Guardian built up the Administration of the Cause, founding it upon the plan revealed in the Will and Testament. I urge them to study these holy teachings that they can see and understand for themselves how the Hands of the Faith are trying to lead them astray and kill the Faith in a fixed intent to do away for all time with the Guardianship, the very heart and life center of the Faith. What more can I, their Guardian, say to them? Why do they seek any other direction that this that I give them – I, the Guardian of the Faith?
Acceptance of the basic principles of the Baha'i Faith – namely, the present-day fulfillment of the Covenant as taught by The Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the acceptance of His Will and Testament that gave the Administration of the Faith to the Baha'i World –this forms the basis of the Faith to the Baha'i World – this forms the basis of the Baha'i Faith and belief today and is the message that the Baha'is have in this day to give the world. Such was the message given in the days of The First Guardian of the Faith, thus it still is and ever shall be under The Second Guardian of the Faith in this day, and thus will it be in the days of succeeding Guardians of the Faith in the future.
The message that the violating Hands of the Faith have substituted in place of the message of The Beloved Guardian, the message of the Faith “Sans Guardian”, is similar to that of Ahmad Sohrab and his followers of The New History Society, who claim that they are Baha'i followers of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá but that they do not accept the Guardian of the Faith. Thus, like Ahmad Sohrab and his followers, are the present Hands of the Faith violating the Administrative Guardianship of the Faith.
How does it come that this is not clear to the minds of the overwhelming number of believers of today who are blindly following these Hands of the Faith? Why can they not see, and see clearly, that they are all wrong? I will answer this question “Why?”. It is because of the disrupting forces of VIOLATION that poison the hearts and blind the eyes of the people of the Cause.
Let all Baha'is turn to the teachings and explanations of The Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá regarding violation, and therein they will find clearly explained the dangers and the pitfalls that attack those who violate and seek to change the Holy Revealed Texts to suit their own ends.
Such is the abyss into which these erring Hands of the Faith are now plunging the Cause the world around. Such should be clearly evident to anyone who reads The Will and Testament upon which is founded the Administration of the Faith.
The first move that should be taken by those who are firm in their support of the Administrative – Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith should be to go to the aid of those of the Faith who are confused and wavering – confused by the false and pernicious teachings of the Hands of the Cause that the believers have been subjected to since the death of the First Guardian of our Faith. These confused souls should be talked to and reasoned with, all argument based upon the study and restudy of the Will and Testament of the Master and the writings and teachings of Shoghi Effendi.
The spiritual safety of those people of the Faith, who have been and are supporting the program of violation of the Faith carried on by the Hands of the Faith, depends upon their knowledge of the Master’s Will and Testament and the interpretations of the Infallible Guardian of the Faith.
The Arc of the Covenant of the Faith in this present storm is in danger. As the first consideration of the Commander of a ship in distress in a storm at sea is to save the lives of those on his ship, so my first concern now, as Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, is the spiritual safety, life, assurance and well-being of the believers in this time of peril to the Faith.
Those who are confirmed and firm in the Covenant and the Administration of the Faith will now, with renewed energies and confirmation, go forth to continue the teaching of the world crusade instituted by our late Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi. The success of the crusade will be assured to them because they will be working under the Guardianship of the Faith – their Guardian being the heart of the Faith and leading them on to this victory, which victory will be followed by other victories of the Faith.
But the believers are now up against this pernicious condition of the violation that has so taken possession of the body of the Hands of the Faith as to make these Hands of the Faith the enemies-in-chief of the Baha'i Cause.
Are the believers of the Baha'i Faith going to accept and follow this studied and determined plan of the violating Hands of the Faith to destroy and put aside forever the Administration of the Guardianship of the Faith, given to the Baha'i world by The Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Will and Testament and founded upon the Will and Testament by the Beloved First Guardian of the Faith? Is the Administration of our Faith, that is being attacked by these violating Hands of the Cause, now to be abandoned? Are the believers going to join with the violators in their plans for 1963 to set up for themselves another and a different order of procedure, one that they falaciously proclaim will be infallible?
Are the Baha'is going to accept this falacious plan and reject the Administration founded upon the Will and Testament and created by our Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi? If so, it would be better had you never heard of the Baha'i Faith and well for you to so avow our intention that those believers standing firmly with the Guardian of the Faith should know who you are, that they can avoid you, and thereby not allow you to empoison others with this spiritual virus of violation that is so deadly to the Faith.
All Baha'is should read and study the Will and Testament of the Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the teachings that he gave about violation and its ruinous ability to spread corruption and destructiveness in the Cause of God; for unless they read and study these Baha'i teachings and get a basic knowledge of these realities, they will not be able to protect themselves against the forces that, at this time, are so obsessing the Baha'i Faith as to threaten its very existence.
What matters most is that within the Baha'i Fold there be those who understand the Faith, for in knowledge there is safety and spiritual power. Knowledge of the teachings shows the believers how to teach and spread the Faith. Without this knowledge, and the accompanying wisdom that goes with it, one is at the mercy of every violator of the Faith, who one may chance to meet, and he will be unable to protect himself from this violation.
The Hands of the Cause accuse me of attempting to create a split in the Cause –as if this were a bad thing for the Baha'i Faith! I am indeed making a split in the Faith, for I am separating the diseased from the healthy living spiritual organisms of the body of the Baha'is. Such was the manner in which The Blessed Master saved the Faith in his day and the Beloved Guardian saved the Faith in his day.
When there is a cancerous growth in the human body the only way to save that person is for the surgeon to cut out completely all of the infection. Such is the way that we of the Baha'i Faith are taught to treat violation of our teaching – to cut it out and cut it off absolutely and entirely lest all the members of the entire body be destroyed. Those who are the source of this infection should be separated from the others lest all become infected.
Therefore, it is necessary now, at this time, that I, Guardian of the Faith, call all believers to separate and to cut themselves off completely from the direction of the Hands of the Faith and from participation in any way or form or manner with them in their plans for 1963, because these plans are all in violation of the Administration of the Faith as taught by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi. Therefore, I exercise the right of the Guardianship to cut off from the Baha'i Faith all of those Hands of the Faith who went upon record in the report of November, 1959, sent forth from the Holy Land and published to all the Baha'i world, declaring their intention of support to their plan for 1963.
These Hands of the Faith I expel from the Faith, and I forbid all association with them and any support of their plan by the believers. I cut them off from the Faith until each of them renounces his stand for this violation and indicates to me, beyond a doubt, his intention of following and supporting the Second Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith.
There may be those among the twenty-two Hands, who signed that statement of violation, who did so under pressure upon the false concept that the minority should always follow the majority in Baha'i Administrative matters. If so, to these Hands of the Faith I give every opportunity for reinstatement in the Faith as Hands of the Baha'i Cause. But should there be such who persist in supporting this violation, then these are to remain as outcasts from the Faith.
The rule of the majority applies in all Baha'i administrative matters with the exception of the violation of the teachings and of the principles of the Faith. Where and when the traces of violation become apparent there should be no uniting whatsoever with the violators. Such is the Baha'i teaching. If there are Baha'is who do not understand this, let them turn to the Will and Testament and to the other teachings of the Master ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and they will find this principle of the cutting off from all association with the violators clearly taught and explained.
Therefore, in order to maintain the purity and the spiritual strength of the Cause, I, your Guardian, insist that the Faithful followers of the Baha'i Faith comply with this order to maintain a most firm stand against any violation of our Faith and to sever all connections with and support of those who violate the Faith.
The way of the Baha'i Faith is difficult. At all times one must be awake to its perils, and particularly so in times of crisis such as the one in which the Faith now finds itself; for, at this present time, the very existence and the future of the Faith upon earth hangs in the balance. Should the Guardianship of the Faith lapse and the line to allowed to break (as these violators are making every effort to accomplish), the line of Guardianship will be broken, infallibility will be lost to the Faith, and all hopes will be lost for the Kingdom of God upon Earth.
Such a condition we must not allow to happen. Even though we be but a mere handful – a very small number of followers faithful to the Covenant and the Administration of the Guardianship – we, with all the world in violation against us, must stand together and support the Guardianship.
We must stand in firmness for the Guardianship, that is, the Administration of our Faith. Not only must we do this for our own sakes and for the present existence of our Faith; but it must be done for the Faith in the ages to come, for it we fail now and allow the Guardianship to pass out of existence and this spiritual line of heritage to become extinct, future generations will have no Cause. All infallible divine guidance will be at an end.
Therefore, Friends of the Baha'i Faith, arise and maintain the life center – the heart and the soul of the Abha Kingdom upon earth that is the Guardianship – for only by our so doing will the Cause of El Abha be saved for this world. Even though all the rest of the world be against us, nothing can destroy this Cause so long as even a small few believers stand in support of the Guardian and the continued Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith.
With Baha'i love.
Faithfully in EL ABHA,
Mason Remey, Guardian of the Baha'i Faith
III
ENCYCLICAL
LETTER
TO
THE BAHA'I WORLD
FROM
MASON REMEY
GUARDIAN
OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
TO THE BAHA'I WORLD
THIS IS THE THIRD OF A SERIES OF ENCYCLICAL LETTERS
FROM MASON REMEY, GUARDIAN OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
Sent Forth from Washington 4, D.C., U.S.A.
P.O. Box 418
Now is A Time of Judgement of the people of the Baha'i Faith.
Unknown to anyone until his Proclamation to the Baha'i world, he, the Second Guardian of the Faith, had been upon guard over the believers for these past two years and more of his Guardianship since the departure of the Beloved First Guardian of the Faith.
During the period of his occultation, as his mission in the administration of the Faith was gradually being born into his consciousness and his responsibilities were moving him to protect the Faith, the Second Guardian stood alone against the united Custodian Hands of the Faith, they insisting that the Guardianship of the Faith be abandoned and he frankly telling them that they, by their stand, were violating the Will and Testament of the Master ‘Abdu’l-Baha and that everything they were doing in their organization was wrong and in opposition to the Administration of the Faith that had been inaugurated by the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi.
To all of his entreaties and appeals the erring Custodian Hands turned a deaf ear. Neither these Custodians nor the entire body of the Hands when seated in conclave wanted another Guardian. Thus, for reasons of their own, they were against then, as they are now, the continuation of the Guardianship. Thus through their influence among the Baha'is at home and abroad, the Cause now finds itself under this present cloud of violation and dominated by these erring Hands of the Faith.
The present Guardian of the Faith forebore as long as possible to call these violating Hands to the judgement of their iniquities, for according to the Baha'i standard of sin, there is no greater iniquity that that of the violation of the divine holy law and writ. During this period before his declaration, your Guardian was ever pleading and urging the erring Hands not to abandon the Administration, the heart of which is the Guardianship of the Faith. But finally, as Ridvan 117 B.E. approached, this violation had attained such proportions that it was becoming too great a menace to the Faith throughout the entire world to be allowed to continue. Therefore, your Guardian was obliged to take drastic action against this violation by coming forth and revealing himself in his supreme station as the Administrator of the Faith, thereby forcing this issue of the Guardianship upon the believers throughout the entire Baha'i world. He therefore called all believers, without exception, before the Baha'i Bar of Justice, where every individual believer must now make his stand either for or against the Guardianship!
No middle course is allowed. The division must be clear and distinct, and it must be so maintained.
Those who follow the erring Hands of the Faith and reject the Guardianship will inevitably fall into confusion and division amongst themselves, and they will leave naught behind them in this world save a page in the history of the Cause that will be known to future generations as “The Epoch of the Great Violation of the Baha'i Faith”. Upon the other hand, those who remain firm under the guidance of the Guardian of the Faith will lead the Cause on and on toward victory after victory in the triumphant growth and expansion of the spiritual power of the Faith.
Believers, followers, and upholders of the Faith, witness the power of your Guardian! At the approach of the Feast of Ridvan 117 B.E., when apparently all the Baha'i world endorsed and unitedly supported the program of the erring Hands for 1963, a program that would definitely establish their own Universal House of Justice Sans Guardian (all in direct defiance of the Master ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Will and Testament) – at that time when practically the entire Baha'i world supported this violation, your Guardian then arose as but one believer in solitary opposition to all others on earth and called a halt to this violation of the Hands of the Faith. He, but one individual, pitted his power against all others; he, standing single and alone, was confirmed in changing the entire course of the Faith from the chaos of violation, and with his Proclamation he put the leadership of the Faith back again under the Guardianship. At the moment when the violation of the erring Hands was apparently without question, your Guardian struck them a blow that sent them and their many supporters into a state of confusion that resounds around the world, a state of dismay that demonstrates the fallacy of their stand against the Will and Testament of the Blessed Master ‘Abdu’l-Baha.
Every individual Baha'i in the entire world is now compelled to make his or her stand either with and for the Guardianship, or against the Guardianship and for the violation of the Faith. Thus will the Cause be cleansed of this present violation.
The Guardian of the Faith expels from the Faith all who stand with and give support to these former Hands of the Faith, who are leading this movement in violation of the Guardianship. The Guardian enjoins all believers and supporters of the Administration of the Guardianship to have naught to do with these enemies of the Faith. There must be a clean-cut and a strict line drawn dividing these peoples. This is a very definite and clear-cut issue before the Baha'i world, and it bears no compromise.
The most immediate duty of the believers who are firmly established in the Guardianship is to save as many as they can of those who are following the violation of the Faith. These firm believers should also, and at all times, strive to give the message of the Baha'i Faith (that is, the message of the Guardianship of the Faith) to all the peoples of the world in general, and thus to carry on and win the World Crusade.
Since the day of the First Guardian of the Faith, the message that he taught the believers to propagate has not been given by the erring Hands of the Faith and those supporting them in their violation. They have been making great efforts and sending out their teachers all over the world, and many people have been brought into the violating Baha'i belief that these erring Hands have propagated. But in their propagation of error, they have not been building up the true Baha'i Faith which is “Pro Guardianship”. During these last two years and more they have been converting people to their “Sans Guardianship” doctrine, thus assembling and organizing, in all parts of the world, cohorts who now follow and support them in their violation and who in reality, are the enemies of the only true Baha'is – those who are following and supporting the Guardianship of the Faith.
Friends of the Faith under the Guardianship! At present we are but few in comparison with out enemies, who are commanded by the violating Hands who were formerly of the Faith; but now victory over all opposition is vouchsafed to us, and to us only, for we have been given the power under the Guardianship to stand up against this violation. We will win this battle.
There is no doubt in the mind of your Guardian but that the vast majority of the avowed Baha'is, who are now supporting the violations of the former Hands of the Faith, are sincere in their faith in these violators. But while sincerity is a virtue when following in the true path, sincerity in following the wrong path can lead only to destruction. Therefore, let every avowed Baha'i study and restudy the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha and the words and works of our late Beloved Guardian so that each can understand for himself or for herself the path prescribed for Baha'is to follow. The believer will find that there is but one path to follow – the path directed by the Guardian of the Faith. Any and all other paths will lead the followers astray.
As previously explained, this “Epoch of the Great Violation” is indeed a “Time of Judgement” of the people of the Baha'i Faith. The Faith has been spreading throughout the world these past few decades, and now the believers are being tested. Those who are firm in the Covenant and in the Administration under the Guardianship will stand. Those who oppose the Guardianship will fall, and they and their works will come to naught. Let all ponder and think well and deeply with study and prayer. Let each make his or her stand in the Faith.
This is the day of division, when the sheep and the goats are being sorted out, one from the other, and when the wheat and the tares are being separated. We are told in Baha'i holy writ and the day would come when only pure virtue would pass the test and be accepted. The Master ‘Abdu’l-Baha told us of this time when only a few might stand, but following which those who stood firm would arise and carry the Cause to victory after victory.
In that period does the Baha'i Faith now find itself plunged. No one can escape it. It seemingly has come upon the believers with suddenness, as it were, striking the believers all over and around the world and in such a manner that no one individual can escape. Every individual is compelled by force of the circumstances of this situation to take his or her stand either for or against the Guardianship. The division must be clean-cut and decisive beyond a doubt. Therefore, for the safety of the Faith, the Second Guardian now commands all faithful followers to have nothing at all to do with the works and activities of any and all of those who oppose the Guardian of the Faith, the Faith that has been firmly established by the First Guardian of the Faith in the manner directed by the Will and Testament of the Master ‘Abdu’l-Baha.
Let every firm believer, to whom this Encyclical Letter is addressed, do what he or she can to bring back into the fold of the Faith those who are now following and supporting the violation of the Guardianship. Let him or her make every effort to turn them from their erring way, but if they refuse, leave them to themselves and, with radiant heart, go forth to the people of the world who are awaiting and ready for the Baha'i message of the World Crusade, a message that only the Baha'is, led and protected by the Guardian of the Faith, have to give them.
The Guardian urges every firm believer to take it upon himself to seek out those avowed believers who are confused and who are questioning the Guardianship. Let the firm friends do all they can to help these wavering ones and to confirm them in the Guardianship. But should any refuse and decide to stand with the violators against the Guardian of the Faith, then let the Baha'is separate themselves entirely from these enemies of the Faith.
All true Baha'is should take their stand for the support of the Guardianship of the Faith. Let all see and understand from the pronouncements of the erring former Hands of the Faith that this body stands against the Guardianship.
Let every true and sincere Baha'i forsake this violation, turn to the Guardian of the Faith, and openly, and before the world, avow his allegiance to the present Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, who was appointed Guardian by our late Beloved First Guardian Shoghi Effendi. Then, when that state of unity of the pure Faith is re-established as it was in the day of the Beloved First Guardian, when the Cause is free from violation – then, and not until then, will the victory of the Faith be assured and the way made for the triumphant completion of the World Crusade of the Baha'i Faith.
The confirmation and blessings of El Abha will descend upon all who make this stand under the Guardianship and arise to give this message to the world. Then we can succeed in reaching the goal set by the Beloved Guardian in the World Crusade.
With Baha'i Love to All
Faithfully in El Abha,
MASON REMEY, GUARDIAN
of the Baha'i Faith
POSTSCRIPT
THE BAHA'I FAITH under the Administration of the Guardianship is THE Baha'i Faith – the only TRUE Baha'i Faith! Other organizations, such as the New History Society in New York City, as well as the organizations of the former Hands of the Faith of Haifa, Israel, both of which proclaim themselves to be “Baha’is Sans Guardianship”, should not be considered as Baha'is, for the only true and legitimate Baha'is are those now serving under the Second Guardian of the Faith. These Believers need not trouble themselves at the pretensions, claims, and assertions of those who claim themselves to be “Sans Guardian Baha'is”. You Baha'is under the Guardianship should pay no attention to the declarations of any of the “Sans Guardian” followers, for you are occupied in serving under the infallibly appointed Second Guardian of the Faith and in proclaiming this message to the people of the world. You should ignore all these opposing people.
To reiterate once more in this letter to all Baha'is: The Baha'is under the Guardianship have two very clearly defined duties to perform. They should make every effort to bring into the Faith those who have been led astray by all “Sans Guardian” propaganda; and they should go forth into the world teaching of the fulfillment of Baha’u’llah of the Covenants of the Religious Revelations of the Manifestations of the past ages and calling all people to the Administration under the Guardianship of His Cause that is now engaged in carrying forward the Baha'i World Crusade and giving the message of all the world of the triumphant coming of the Kingdom of God upon earth under the Administration of the infallible Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith.
M.R., G.
of the Baha'i Faith
Orleans, France
9 July, 1960
Dear Baha'i friends,
By this time I am sure that most, if not all of you to whom this letter is addressed will have learned that I, as well as a number of the other believers in France, have accepted Mason Remey as the second Guardian of the Cause of God.
Not having the time to write all of you individual letters and desiring particularly to communicate with a large number of whom I have known for many years, some since the days of my boyhood, I felt the only way to do so would be to write this general open letter which could be reproduced. My reasons for desiring to write you are twofold:
First; I would like to explain for the benefit of all those who have been wondering why I have made this decision (as they may have, for the time being at least, taken an opposing stand) the processes of my own thoughts and research on the question of the Guardianship following the passing of our beloved first Guardian and prior to receipt of the Proclamation of Mason Remey and the clear and undeniable realization which came to me following receipt of this momentous document.
Second; I feel with all the intensity of my being that the only salvation for the continued life of our beloved Faith lies in a close and studied examination of the Proclamation of Mason Remey in a prayerful attitude from an unprejudiced and unbiased viewpoint and in the light of our Sacred Writings and all that our beloved first Guardian wrote on the Institution of the Guardianship. Only in this way can we free ourselves from the influence and viewpoints of others (whatever their position or rank may be) and hope to arrive at the truth and an unfettered decision. Is this not the same process which we have been enjoined to follow in accepting the Faith itself? (i.e. through independent investigation of the truth).
For those of us who have loved and served our first Guardian during his lifetime and have treasured and held dear his imperishable writings and instructions, our foremost desire since his passing has been, I am certain all will agree, to remain faithful and obedient to the instructions he has given us during his lifetime and left with us as an eternal bequest from his infallible pen. The present crisis which faces our beloved Cause, it seems to me, revolves solely around this point coupled with the doubt which many have permitted to creep into their own minds stemming from a lack of faith in the inviolability of the Covenant of Baha’u’llah, “the all-mighty Covenant, the like of which the sacred Dispensations of the past have never witnessed”, “one of the distinctive features of this most mighty cycle” and the “Ark of Salvation”. (See pg. 239 “God Passes By”)
Following the passing of Shoghi Effendi and the disclosure that a traditional type testamentary document was not found in his papers, we all heard the following speculations which are not acceptable in the light of the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha and all that our beloved first Guardian has written:
a) That the plan of God had been changed and there would never be another Guardian.
b) That the Faith does not need a Guardian any longer.
As for myself, I perhaps found it easier to embrace the second Guardian than most of my fellow Baha'is because, following the passing of Shoghi Effendi, I had been unable to shove the all-important question of successorship to the back of my mind and forget about it but rather I felt impelled to intensify my studies and review again minutely the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha and the “Dispensation”. This study coupled with searching meditation during many sleepless nights led me to come to the following conclusions concerning the Guardianship which, now as I look back in retrospect, prepared me to approach the Proclamation of Mason Remey with an open mind:
a) The Institution of the Guardianship was essential to the continued existence of our beloved Cause.
b) The view that one heard from some source that the Guardianship had ended with the passing of Shoghi Effendi was completely untenable and could never be accepted from whatever source.
c) The Universal House of Justice could not come into existence and function as an infallible body without the Guardian sitting as its’ “sacred head” in view of the following ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS which Shoghi Effendi had so carefully pointed out in the “Dispensation” are performed by the Guardian as its’ President:
- PROVIDES THE INTERPRETIVE AUTHORITY OF THE SACRED WRITINGS.
- “INSISTS UPON A RECONSIDERATION BY THEM OF ANY ENACTMENT HE CONSCIENTIOUSLY BELIEVES TO CONFLICT WITH THE MEANING AND TO DEPART FROM THE SPIRIT OF BAHA’U’LLAH’S REVEALED UTTERANCES” (This clearly indicates that without the guidance of the Guardian it is possible for this body to pass a law which runs counter to both the meaning and the spirit of Baha’u’llah’s Writings and is therefore fallible without his guidance.)
- DEFINES THE SPHERE OF IT’S LEGISLATIVE ACTION.
- POSSESSES THE SOLE AUTHORITY TO EXPEL A MEMBER WHO COMMITS A SIN INJURIOUS TO THE COMMON WEAL.
d) Mason Remey was the only one who could possibly sit as President of the Universal House of Justice when it came into existence (provided he were living) because of his appointment by Shoghi Effendi as President of the International Baha'i Council (the Head of it’s embryo). This conclusion came to me when in my meditations I recalled a very interesting and highly significant conversation at table with Shoghi Effendi on the evening of November 30, 1952 when my wife and I were on pilgrimage. Shoghi Effendi had been describing the successive stages through which the International Baha'i Council would evolve in its development towards maturity and in speaking about its’ second stage (Baha'i Court, cited by Shoghi Effendi in his message of 25 April, 1951, as an “essential prelude to the institution of the Universal House of Justice”), these were his words:
“THE PRESENT PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL BAHA'I COUNCIL WILL THEN BECOME THE JUDGE” (THE GUARDIAN IN AN ASIDE TO MASON AND WITH A SMILE ASKED, “MASON, ARE YOU READY TO BECOME A JUDGE”)
Note: The above may be verified from hand-written notes taken by me at the table at the time and inscribed in ink in a book of consecutive unattachable pages.
I remembered being puzzled at the time as to why Shoghi Effendi had singled out Mason Remey as “the Judge” when all the other members of the Council were also seated at the table, except one, and I had considered them all as having co-equal status. Now while meditating on the question of who could possibly occupy the position of President of the Universal House of Justice, if it were to be formed, (as obviously someone would have to fulfill this role) it suddenly dawned on me that Mason Remey by virtue of his having been appointed by the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, as President of the International Baha'i Council (the embryo of this body) was the only logical one. What now amazes me, since receipt of the Proclamation, is that, although I had come to this conclusion, I did not, either then, or at any time prior to the Proclamation, carry this conclusion one step further and realize, what then should have been obvious, that as Presidentship of the Universal House of Justice and Guardianship are synonomous titles, Shoghi Effendi’s appointment of Mason Remey as President of the International Baha'i Council during his lifetime was, in effect, identical with naming him his successor. (the embryo with its’ appointed head conceived in the infallible mind of Shoghi Effendi was only awaiting its birth).
With the receipt of the momentous Proclamation of our second Guardian, the final veil was lifted from my eyes and I was led to discover and realize the following additional facts:
a) The tremendous import and significance which Shoghi Effendi had attached to “his epoch making decision” to establish the International Baha'i Council as evidenced in his historic message to the Baha'i world of 9 January 1951 in which he had referred to establishment of the Council “as the greatest event shedding lustre on the second epoch of the formative age of the Baha'i Dispensation potentially unsurpassed by any enterprise undertaken since the inception of the Administrative Order of the Faith on the morrow of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s Ascension, ranking second only to glorious immortal events associated with the Ministries of the Three Central Figures of the Faith”.
b) The obvious fact (now that it had been brought to our attention in the Proclamation) that, as Presidentship of the Universal House of Justice is synonomous with Guardianship, (i.e., they are one and the some position) Shoghi Effendi’s appointment of Mason Remey as the President of the Council – the embrionic Universal of Justice – was identical with naming him the future Guardian.
Note: For those who may argue that the third stage of this embrionic Institution (“the duly elected body”) calls for the election of all 9 members, careful thought should be given to the “principle” involved in the “operation” of this Institution for, unlike the National Houses of Justice, of which the present National Spiritual Assemblies are the embryo, the Universal House of Justice combines “the hereditary authority” symbolized by the Guardian – its’ President ~ with the democratic element elected by “the representative of the faithful” (NSA’s). We, as fallible beings, are certainly not empowered to alter this principle and destroy “this divinely revealed Order”, “this unique Order” which “however long it may endure and however extensive its ramifications, cannot ever degenerate into any form of despotism, of oligarchy, or of demagogy which must sooner or later corrupt the machinery of all man-made and essentially defective political institutions. (See pg. 154 “Dispensation”)
c) That the foregoing conclusion is further supported by the words of ‘Abdu’l-Baha concerning the embryo. He said, “the embryo possesses from the first all perfections …..all the powers – but they are not visible and become so only by degrees” (pg. 313, BWF). Therefore, the embrionic Universal House of Justice (the International Baha'i Council) potentially (embrionically) possesses all the powers exercised by the fully developed Universal House of Justice.
d) That as a result of our preconceived idea that Shoghi Effendi’s successor would be named in a traditional-type testamentary document (although this is not prescribed as a requirement in the Will and Testament), we (the Hands included) had overlooked or failed to go back and examine Shoghi Effendi’s message of 9 January 1951 for the key.
e) That, if the Hands had realized the significance and intent of the aforementioned message they would not have found it necessary to create a separate organization called “Hands of the Cause in the Holy Land” (or “Custodians of the Faith” – a term, by the way, applied to Assemblies in the words of Shoghi Effendi on page 331, “God Passes By”). If they had grasped the import of this message which hailed the formation of the International Baha'i Council as the “Forerunner of the supreme administrative institution” they would have realized that the international administration of the Faith should have been placed in its hands while they occupied themselves with their spiritual “obligations” and “responsibilities”, as the chief stewards. Obviously, this Institutions (International Baha'i Council) which Shoghi Effendi had waited so long to establish and whose final formation he had hailed with such joy and been pushed aside and had been all but forgotten (Howbeit unintentionally).
f ) That the separate organization “constituted” by the Hands in their Proclamation of 25 November 1957 (a body of 9 Hands) to reside in Haifa was not the “NINE PERSONS” elected from their own number spoken of in the Will and Testament (as they were selected and not elected). Therefore this body presently in Haifa – this “organization of the Hands of the Faith” has no authority to exist on the basis of the Will and Testament.
g) The Hands in Haifa as time went on inevitably became involved in administrative matters which are clearly outside their domain according to the Will and Testament.
h) That, as the Will and Testament makes very clear and as reemphasized repeatedly by Shoghi Effendi in his writings, the Guardianship is an “hereditary office”, the Guardian “symbolizes the hereditary principle in this Dispensation” and he exercises the “the hereditary authority”. Therefore, the Guardianship can only be handed down from one Guardian to another. (i.e., inherited) The successor in Guardianship cannot be chosen or elected by any other Institution such as the Universal House of Justice or the Hands.
i) That the Covenant of Baha’u’llah had remained INVIOLATE; the CONTINUITY of Guardianship had been preserved. Shoghi Effendi had not only appointed his successor “during his lifetime” but had announced it to the entire Baha'i world.
j) That the Hands are not assigned authority in the Will and Testament but only spiritual “obligations” and “responsibilities”, serving under the direction of the living Guardian of the Faith.
k) That the Hands have no authority according to the Will and Testament to consult with the Universal House of Justice (such as cited in their 4 November 1959 message).
1) That the Hands had interpreted the last message of Shoghi Effendi to the Baha'i world in October 1957 wherein he designated them as the “Chief Stewards”, to confer upon them a role of collective Guardianship of the Faith and had fostered this unwarranted interpretation on the part of the mass of the believers throughout the world. (It is interesting to note that in the last paragraph of this same fateful message, not only the Hands but the “entire body of believers” and “their elected representatives” are all called upon to display a “worthy stewardship of the Faith of Baha’u’llah”.)
Note: For those who insist that “stewardship” denotes authority, your attention is kindly invited to page 143 of “Baha'i Administration” wherein Shoghi Effendi has clearly outlined, in writing about the responsibilities of NSA’s, the difference between authority on the one hand and stewardship on the other.
It need only be said in conclusion that those who continue to accept the self-delegated authority and interpretation of the Hands of the Cause in the Holy Land instead of the explicit provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha and the instructions and appointment of our first beloved Guardian, have only the following to look forward to:
The termination of the Guardianship. (The “Center of the Cause”, the “Guardian of the Administrative Order”, “The Head Cornerstone of the Administrative Order”).
The election of a so-called Universal House of Justice which will not have its sacred appointed HEAD (the Guardian) and therefore, will not be the infallible institution prescribed in the Will and Testament.
The complete absence of a source of divine infallibility.
The annihilation of the Baha'i Faith and the setting up in its place of a man-made religious organization with all the attendant evils found in the past religious organizations.
Whereas, those who accept the second beloved Guardian of the Cause of God:
Praise Baha’u’llah that His Covenant has remained inviolate and the continuity of the Guardianship of His Cause has been preserved as promised.
Have turned to the “Center of the Cause” and sworn fealty to him.
Have preserved the integrity of the Baha'i Faith for the present and future generations.
With warm and loving Baha'i greetings.
Faithfully, in devotion to His Covenant,
Joel Marangella
P.S. What has shocked and distressed me since the issuance of the Proclamation is the obviously superficial manner in which some of the friends have read this document and the first Encyclical letter which followed. Some are saying that Mason Remey is advocating putting aside the Ten Year Crusade when he speaks of “this falacious program for 1963” whereas it is evident he is speaking about the announced program of the Hands to proceed with the election of the Universal House of Justice in1963 (which was never called for under the objectives of the Ten Year Global Crusade given by Shoghi Effendi), or they are saying that in his First Encyclical letter he is claiming the Hands have no authority to exist, whereas, if you read this passage closely, it says: “this organization of the Hands”, which is quite a different matter. The Will and Testament outlines no organization of the Hands, such has been developed by them since the passing of Shoghi Effendi. Nor does this Document prescribe that they meet in conclave or in the consultative meetings to make joint decisions. On the contrary the Will and Testament prescribes that the Hands work as individuals under the direction of the living Guardian of the Faith.
NOTE: THIS OPEN LETTER HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO THE SECOND GUARDIAN OF THE BAHA'I FAITH FOR APPROVAL PRIOR TO ITS DISPATCH. HE HAS NOT ONLY GIVEN HIS APPROVAL BUT HAS URGED ITS WIDESPREAD CIRCULATION THROUGHOUT THE BAHA'I WORLD, EVEN TO THOSE WHOM I DO NOT KNOW PERSONALLY.
J.B.M.
21 October 1960
Orleans, France
Dear Baha'i friends,
I am writing this second open letter to the believers based on a personal letter which I addressed to a Baha'i friend some time ago. I am doing this at the request of our beloved Guardian as he had been furnished a copy of the aforementioned letter and felt that the arguments set forth therein would constitute a further “document of proof” to the believers. In this letter I should like to discuss certain questions which were not treated in my former letter – questions which I am sure have been in the minds of many, if not most, of the believers, concerning the reasons behind and the causes of the present crisis facing the Baha'i world.
First, before going into these questions, I would like to say that at the time I took my own stand in support of the Second Guardian I felt that a majority of the friends throughout the Baha'i world would not at the outset accept the Second Guardian for the following reasons:
a. The manner of the appointment of Mason Remey by Shoghi Effendi as his successor had obviously been veiled.
b. The Hands in Haifa had immediately rejected his claims and advised all National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the Baha'i world to do likewise.
c. The Proclamation issued by Mason Remey had not been reproduced and given general circulation amongst the mass of the believers by the National Spiritual Assemblies so as to permit the believers to investigate his claims independently and reach their own decisions.
d. In non-English speaking countries there was a dearth of translations of Abdu’l-Baha’s Writings on the Covenant and Shoghi Effendi’s writings on the Institution of the Guardianship (writings which were essential to a full understanding and appreciation of the issues involved).
In the face of the above listed handicaps to recognizing the claims put forth in the Proclamation of the Second Guardian, it would have been surprising indeed if more than a handful of believers had immediately accepted the Second Guardian on the morrow of his Proclamation.
As subtle a test as the Proclamation proved to be to the mass of the believers, it was apparent that it would be even a greater test to the Hands of the Cause because:
a. A majority, if not all, of the Hands had already made up their minds definitely that the Institution of the Guardianship had ceased to exist with the passing of the beloved First Guardian.
b. An acceptance of the Second Guardian on the basis of his Proclamation would necessitate an admission by the Hands that they had lacked the spiritual perception to recognize him during the period since the passing of Shoghi Effendi.
c. Many of them had already revealed the fact that their love for the person of Shoghi Effendi was so great that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for them to transfer this love to his successor even if the appointment were clear and not veiled.
Why is it that the Baha'i world should be faced with this great test? Most of us had assumed that our period of testing in connection with the Covenant had come to an end following the early years of Shoghi Effendi’s ministry and the consolidation of the Institution of the Guardianship accomplished during his ministry.
For an answer to this question let us go back in time and recall to mind the confusion, despair and consternation which seized the Baha'i world on the eve of the passing of Shoghi Effendi when it was learned that a testamentary document of the type which most of us had anticipated was not found. Even those believers who refused to believe that the Guardianship had ended, instead of retaining their faith that Shoghi Effendi had in some inexplicable way appointed his successor according to the manner enjoined upon him in the Will and Testament, deluded themselves into thinking that the question of successorship would be resolved by the Universal House of Justice when it was formed. I, too, was guilty of this delusion for a time. However, when time was found to study and re-study carefully the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha and the “Dispensation of Baha’u’llah”, the complete falsity of holding such a belief and the impossibility of the Universal House of Justice deliberating upon and resolving such a question became glaringly obvious. It became clear that the believers would either have to maintain their faith that the beloved First Guardian had fulfilled his obligation to name his successor according to the provisions of the Will and Testament, in some way, not as yet clear to us, and despite appearances to the contrary, or face the only other alternative, namely; that the Guardianship had ended. Acceptance of this alternative meant that our Divinely conceived, perfect Administrative Order fashioned by its Master Architect, delineated in the “immortal Document” representing “His greatest legacy to posterity” and “the brightest emanation of His mind” – “the supreme act” associated with His mission, would be for evermore deprived of its Guardian and thereby permanently mutilated and rendered imperfect.
So many of the friends have asked why it was that Shoghi Effendi did not leave a clearly written testament naming Mason Remey his successor which would have left no doubts in the minds of the believers. If we consider this question carefully in the light of the explicit provisions of the Will and Testament it is clear that the Will and Testament does not specify that the Guardian should name his successor in a testamentary document to be opened after his passing. On the contrary, the Will and Testament makes in incumbent upon the Guardian to name his successor during his lifetime. Conceding that this is so, the question then follows, why did not Shoghi Effendi appoint his successor in such a clear way during his lifetime that there would not be any doubt as to his rightful successor and the Baha'i world would not be any doubt as to his rightful successor and the Baha'i world would not now be faced with its present crisis? Without presuming to be able to answer this question, as it is not for the servants of God to question His inscrutable ways, let us ask ourselves this question: What would have been the affect on the believers throughout the Baha'i world had Shoghi Effendi come right out in a clearly announced statement and named Mason Remey, during his own lifetime, as his successor – a man some twenty-five years his senior? If such an announcement had been made, would it not have caused utter consternation and even incredulity amonst the believers? For such an open and clear appointment would have indicated that Shoghi Effendi would not live to an old age, as Mason Remey was destine to outlive him. If for no other reason, was there then not a wisdom in the manner in which Shoghi Effendi chose to accomplish the appointment of his successor in accordance with the sacred provisions of the Will and Testament, while at the same time veiling this appointment and its immediate implications from the believers? It was not the first time in religious history that a Divine appointment has been veiled even from those who have been the closest to the one making the appointment. We need only to call to mind this principle as applied to the appearance of the Manifestations of God down through the ages. Religious history teaches us that rivers of blood have flowed and every Manifestation of God has suffered the direst persecutions and drunk from the cup of martyrdom because the followers of His Predecessor have failed to pierce the veils of love, of pride or their own preconceived ideas concerning the characteristics of the succeeding Manifestation and the manner and conditions of His appearance. And both the Center of the Covenant and the First Guardian were deluged in a sea of tribulations at the beginning of their ministries because of this same failure to understand and to remain steadfast in the Covenant even on the part of many of those closest to Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha, including their own families. Does this explain the behavior and opposition of the former Hands of the Cause to this Divine appointment; those, who had been elevated to foremost spiritual rank among the believers by the First Guardian? Could the very love and admiration they have for Shoghi Effendi now be the veil interposing itself between them and the recognition of his appointed successor? If this be so, then is it not reminiscent and characteristic of what has happened in past Dispensations and what transpired following the first two Divine appointments in our own Dispensation? (i.e., the appointment of Abdu’l-Baha as Center of the Covenant, and His appointment of Shoghi Effendi as the First Guardian) Both Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi were made the target of every abuse and were denied, repudiated vilified by the very ones who should have been the first to accept and support them. In connection with this theme, it is significant that the Master should have seen fit to quote in His Will and Testament the Bab’s warning to His followers: “Beware, beware, lest the Nineteen Letters of the Living and that which hath been revealed in the Bayan veil Thee” (pg. 4, 1944 U.S. Edition). Is this, then, the test that now faces the Baha'i the world over, especially those who loved our First Guardian the most – the test of being able to overcome their great personal love for him as an individual and recognize that the Institution which he represented – the Institution of Guardianship – is eternal in this Dispensation and must be adored above all? In this test do we not find the true meaning of steadfastness in the Covenant? Must the history of mankind’s violation down through the ages of the Greater Covenant and the violation of the Lesser Covenant in this Dispensation which we have already twice witnessed be repeated once more in order that we may be forever freed from the worship of the human personality and attach ourselves, instead, to reality? Are we not Baha'is – the followers of the Light? In pursuance of this theme it is appropriate to call to mind the Bab’s words of warning addressed to Vahid, characterized by Shoghi Effendi as the “most learned, most eloquent and influential among his followers” “By the righteousness of Him whose power causeth the seed to germinate and Who breatheth the spirit of life into all things, were I to be assured that in the Day of His manifestation thou wilt deny Him I would unhesitatingly disown thee and repudiate thy faith…If on the other hand, I be told that a Christian who beareth no allegiance to my Faith will believe in Him, the same will I regard as the apple of Mine Eye” (Pg 101, Dispensation).
Can we use preservation of “Divine Unity” as an excuse to oppose and repudiate the second Guardian of the Cause of God, i.e., join with the majority who have opposed and repudiated him because they are the majority and in order to preserve unity? The answer is clear if we but recall what would have happened if this principle had been followed when the beloved Master was struggling against the machinations and evil doings of the archbreaker of the Covenant at that time who was then supported by “almost the entire family of Baha’u’llah” and who had accused Abdu’l-Baha of being an “ambitious, a self-willed, an unprincipled and pitiless usurper, Who had deliberately disregarded the testamentary instructions of His Father …” – they, together with many who had been the closest to Baha’u’llah, “all united in a determined effort to subvert the foundations of the Covenant which the newly proclaimed Will had laid” (See pg. 247, “God Passes By”). And, a second time, we have the example of what happened to our First beloved Guardian who suffered the repudiation of his entire family. If unity had been the principle followed in both of these instances of violation of the Covenant our precious Cause would have long since been destroyed. We only have to refer to the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha for the answer. No, it is unmistakably clear that the principle of unity does not apply when the Covenant is being violated. (See Pg 12 W&T).
And are we to be veiled because there was no Aghsan to inherit the Guardianship? Do we think that the Hand of God was chained and unable to assure the continuance of this Divine Institution ordained by Him for the preservation of His Cause? Does not Abdu’l-Baha answer this question for us, and significantly in His last Tablet to America treating exclusively of the Covenant, when He says: “The Divine Gardener cuts off the dry or weak branch from the good tree and grafts to it, a branch from another tree. He both separates and unites…” (BWF, Pg. 438). What could be clearer than this statement of the Master pointing out how God – the Divine Gardener – changes the bad branch for the good? Are we then, in the face of this statement, prepared to say that the Guardian of the Cause of God, acting under His infallible guidance, is incapable of changing the bad branch for the good in appointing his successor?
And, finally, there is the question of approval and endorsement of the nine Hands elected from their company based on the argument advanced by many that the provision contained in the Will and Testament requiring these nine successor, gives them the authority to overrule the Guardian. If those who advance this argument would search out the writings of Shoghi Effendi they would find the following pertinent statement of his appearing in a letter published in the U.S. Baha'i News of February 1955:
“The statement in the Will of Abdu’l-Baha (the passage in the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha which provides for successor to the Guardian and reference is made to the Hands) does not imply that the Hands of the Cause of God have been given the authority to overrule the Guardian. Abdu’l-Baha could not have provided for a conflict of authority in the Faith. This is obvious in view of His own words which you will find on Pg. 13 (Pg. 11, 1944 U.S. edition) of the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha. ‘The mighty stronghold shall remain impregnable and safe through obedience to Him who is the gardian of the Cause of God. It is incumbent up…..the Hands of the Cause of God to show their obedience, submissiveness, and subordination unto the gardian of the Cause of God, to turn unto him and be lowly before him. He that opposeth him hath opposed the True One…etc’”
In view of this clear and highly significant statement made by the beloved First Guardian, it is obvious that the argument cited above is completely false and without foundation. How could we have permitted ourselves to think otherwise for the Guardian is infallible in making his appointment. Is he to be opposed or overruled by his fallible assistants? Then you may view Shoghi Effendi’s statement we must search for another significance behind this provision. Without attempting to interpret what this significance is, it is certainly obvious that, as all, including the Hands, are enjoined to be submissive, obedient and lowly before the Guardian of the Cause, any refusal on the part of these nine elected Hands to give their assent would constitute disobedience and disloyality to the Guardian and indicate that they would not be willing to work under the guidance of his successor (should they be living at that time). Under these circumstances the Guardian would have no choice but to expel them. Aside from all this, we know that the present organization of nine Hands in the Holy Land designated by them as the “Hands of the Cause in the Holy Land” or “Hands of the Faith in Haifa” is not the “nine persons” elected from the company of the Hands as provided for in the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha. We further know that Shoghi Effendi did not call for this election during his lifetime.
There are many who are still clinging to the hope that the Universal House of Justice scheduled to be formed in 1963 under the plan of the Hands (not being one of the objectives outlined by Shoghi Effendi for the Ten Year Global Crusade) will find a way to the continuance of the Guardianship. Aside from the fact that such a body would not be the Divine infallible Institution described in the Will and Testament without its sacred head – the Guardian – serving as its President (a point which I discussed in detail in my general letter), is not such a hope completely unfounded and a delusion when one considers that the Hands have already definitely made up their minds that the Guardianship had ended and have announced in their message of 4 November 1959 to the Baha'i world that they will sit in consultation with the Universal House of Justice which they are bringing into existence (a right not given them by the Will and Testament) and decide the question of the Guardianship. Does anyone harbor the illusion that their minds are going to be changed in the meantime and that their view will not prevail during such consultation and that we shall find any other decision coming out of this body but that the Guardianship (i.e., the living Guardianship) has ended forever? When this happens, those who have deluded themselves into believing that the Universal House of Justice, formed under the plan of the Hands without its sacred head, is, in fact, the infallible Institution described in the Will and Testament will then be forced to bow to the decision made by this body that the Guardianship has ended, under pain of being labeled a Covenant Breaker. This great deception will have then run its full course and the mass of the believers who have supported this decision will find themselves united in a permanent violation of the Covenant of Baha’u’llah.
If there are any of the believers who may still be unconvinced that the former Hands have not made up their minds that the Guardianship has ended, a few of the multiple evidence might be cited. For the American believers, there was the letter put out by the American Hands in 1958 stating all hope should be abandoned for a future Guardian. More recently, in France, we have the statements made by both Mr. Faizi and Mr. Khadem. Mr. Faizi in meeting with the members of the National Spiritual Assembly of France, who had accepted the Second Guardian, stated emphatically that the Guardianship had ended supporting his contention with a perversion of the well-known passage in the Holy Writings of Baha’u’llah wherein Baha’u’llah states there will not be another Manifestation “ere the expiration of a full thousand years” saying that in the text from which he was reading (Persian and Arabic) and translating, this statement of Baha’u’llah’s also applied to the Guardianship. This was a shocking and amazing statement. It is significant that the Master in the Will and Testament twice refers to the use of this same quotation (pgs. 6 and 8, W &T) by those who violated the Covenant in former times and asks, “can a transgression be imagined more glaring than this, the interpolation of the Holy Text?” Mr. Khadem, in a talk given at the Paris Baha'i Centre, (as reported in the illegal French Baha'i Journal of September 1960), had this to say: “The station of the Guardianship of the Faith is so divine and lofty that one is not even able to conceive it. In order to give an elementary idea of it it is necessary to recall this Prophecy of the Koran which says: ‘In the future Manifestation, the Guardianship will be for God, Himself, the true Lord of the world…” The Bab, Baha’u’llah as well as Abdu’l-Baha have spoken of it.” It is interesting to compare this statement of Mr. Khadems with Shoghi Effendi’s own words contained in the “Dispensation of Baha’u’llah” which Shoghi Effendi states he has written to lay special stress “upon certain truths which lie at the basis of our Faith and the integrity of which it is our first duty to safeguard”. In this document Shoghi Effendi says: “The Guardian of the Faith must not under any circumstances, and whatever his merits or his achievements, be exalted to the rank that will make him a co-sharer with Abdu’l-Baha in the unique position which the Center of the Covenant occupies – much less to the station exclusively ordained for the Manifestation of God. So grave a departure from the established tenets of our Faith is nothing short of open blasphemy.” (Starting with last line on Pg. 150) Then, there are the recent addresses of Ruhiyyih Khanum throughout the United States in which she has reiterated views expressed publically at the Kampala Intercontinental Conference that God had changed His plan with regard to the Guardianship – that is, He has ended the Guardianship. Also in hand is a copy of a letter addressed by former Hand, Mr. Ala’i, to a French believer in which we find this curious statement: “According to the opinion of this impotent one, it is certain that the House of Justice will designate among its members someone to be President who in deference to the Blessed Testament will have the title of deputy director or representative, who will operate in accordance with the duties designated under the House of Justice; but it is certain that he will never be the Guardian of the Cause of God.”
Dear friends, it should be clear and obvious that the only hope and salvation for the Baha'i world in this time of crisis is to closely study again in the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha and all that our beloved First Guardian wrote on the Guardianship. Then in the light of these Writings, let us prayerfully read and reflect on the Proclamation issued by the Second Guardian of the Faith and his Encyclical Letters so that we may discover for ourselves how Shoghi Effendi did not abandon this precious, infant Faith of God to the pitfalls of man-made interpretations, plans and institutions, but on the contrary, has preserved the integrity of our glorious Faith in the manner he was enjoined to do under the sacred provisions of the Will and Testament of Abdu’l-Baha for both the present and future Baha'i generations.
Very sincerely in my love for His Covenant,
Joel Marangella
“O ye spiritual friends! Firmness (constancy) must reach a degree that if all the souls (Baha'is) be destroyed by the evil wishers and there remain but one, that one singly and alone should be capable of withstanding all who live on earth, and of spreading the fragrance of holiness.” (Pg. 25, Vol. I, Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha)
SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHA’IS OF RAWALPINDI
No. SG/1/RSA 437/8, Nai Abadi,
Tench Bhata,
Rawalpindi (West Pakistan)
October 16, 1960.
Mason Remey Esq.,
The Guardian of the Baha'i Faith,
P.O. Box 418
Washington 4, D.C. U.S.A.
Beloved Guardian of the Faith,
I have the honour to submit before you an open letter dated October 7, 1960 issued by the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Rawalpindi to the NSA/LSAs/ Baha'i Groups/Isolated Believers in Pakistan. This letter has been despatched to all concerned in this Country in response to your call to the believers as well as Assemblies to cease cooperating forthwith with those violating the Faith presently and support the institution of Guardianship instead. By the grace of God, we are alive to the need of the day and are whole heartedly willing to uphold the truth wherever it is. Nothing can deter us from treading the correct and rightful path.
We shall feel much obliged if all the relevant documents and encyclical letters issued from your office from time to time are also supplied to this Assembly at your convenience.
We pray to God humbly to enlighten us always with the Divine Guidance and submit, therefore, before the will and command of the Beloved Second Guardian of the Baha'i Faith. May he be gracious enough to accept our humble submissions!
Faithfully yours in El Abha,
S.A. Kazmi
c.c. Secretary
1. Charles.H.Gaines Esq.,
229 W. Chestnut Street,
Lancaster. Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
2. Joel B. Marangella Esq., 3. L.S.A. Lahore
7. Rue Jousselin,
ORLEANS, FRANCE
.
LOCAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHA’IS OF RAWALPINDI
437/8, Nai Abadi
Tench Bhata,
Rawalpindi (West Pakistan)
October 7, 1960.
Will 11, 117 B.E.
To: - The NSA/LSAs/Baha'i Groups/Isolated Believers in Pakistan.
Believers, followers and upholders of the Faith, witness the power of your Guardian! He says, - “Now is a time of Judgment of the people of the Baha'i Faith”. He therefore calls all believers, without exception, before Baha'i Bar of Justice, where every individual believer must now make his stand either for or against the Guardianship!
Ever since the death of our Beloved First Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi, we have been pondering over the question of Guardianship that is inseparable from the Administration of the Baha'i Faith as given in the Will and Testament of the Beloved Master Abdu’l-Baha. As the Baha’is all over the World had found themselves plunged into the sea of grief and agony on the passing away of Shoghi Effendi, no one could then take the opportunity of going anew through the messages issued to the Baha'i World by the Beloved one – particularly His message of January 9, 1951 wherein He had announced with great emphasis, the appointment of Mr. Mason Remey as President of the Baha'i International Council that is according to His explanation the President of the Embryonic Universal House of Justice. This appointment made by the Beloved Guardian was so veiled that no one on earth could understand its true meaning and significance though this event was definitely ranked by him second only to all other events in the times of the Three Central Figures of the Faith. But as this appointment was made by our Beloved Infallible Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, in his life time, in accordance with the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha, no believer should question this infallible appointment!
LSA Rawalpindi, therefore, considered at length the Proclamation, since issued by Mr. Mason Remey, to the Baha’is of the World through the Annual Convention of the Baha’is of the United States of America, assembled at Wilmette, Illinois during Ridvan 117 Baha'i Era, and were united in their stand to accept Mr. Mason Remey, the Second Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi, without break. The Assembly submitted before the will and command of the Second Infallible Guardian of the Faith and decided that all relations/connections with the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Pakistan and the former erring Hands of the Faith residing in the Holy Land be severed forthwith.
Beloved friends in the Faith, all this has been done after prayerful thinking when we had been convinced that the Will and Testament of the Beloved Master Abdu’l-Baha, the Mightiest Document unparalleled in the history of religions, wherewith the Beloved First Guardian of the Faith had built up the present Administration of the Baha'i Faith so painstakingly during his long meritorious Ministry, was now being ruthlessly violated by the Hands of the Faith. We, therefore, had no other recourse but to rise up and support the Guardianship – the Guardianship that even upholds the infallibility of the Universal House of Justice with its possibility of an error there if the affairs of the Cause are going to be handled by the Universal House of Justice only and in consultation with the Hands of the Faith but excepting the President of that august body that is none other personage than the Infallible Guardian of the Baha'i Faith. That office cannot under any circumstance, be filled up by election otherwise infallibility, the most essential ingredient for that position, would be lacking. It is incumbent, therefore, on the Infallible Guardian of the Baha'i Faith to nominate, in his life time, his successor as is invariably provided in the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha and that can be none other than the Infallible one fully competent to be the President of the Universal House of Justice. How can it be tenable that the First Infallible Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi, could not discharge such a vital duty as had been precisely enjoined upon him by the Beloved Master? It may be mentioned here that the Hands have no authority, whatsoever, vested in themselves, to indulge in the Administration of the Faith, assuming thereby the role of collective guardianship. Their duty is only to take their orders from the Living Infallible Guardian of the Faith. Moreover they have no authority whatsoever to organize themselves into a body so as to govern the affairs of the Faith.
We, therefore, sincerely invite you to please give this matter your sincere and prayerful thinking, individually as well as collectively, so that no moment is wasted to support the just cause of Mr. Mason Remey, the Second Guardian of the Baha'i Faith. In case you do not give due weight to our invitation, the future generations will find a page in the history of our religion known as “The Epoch of the Great Violation of the Baha'i Faith”. On the other hand, we have been given an assurance that those who remain firm under the guidance of the Guardian of the Faith, will lead the Cause on and on towards victory after victory in the triumphant growth and expansion of the spiritual power of the Faith.
We would, however, be lacking in our duty if we do not invite the attention of the believers, once again, toward the Mightiest Document of the Faith that is the Will and Testament of our Beloved Master Abdu’l-Baha. As told by the First Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi, this Document cannot be detached or separated from this Most Holy Book (Aqdas) revealed by the Pen of Baha’u’llah. It is the most invaluable legacy of our Beloved Master and deserves full attention of the believers. No believer should, therefore, ignore the contents of such a document as history has never seen before in the past.
We earnestly hope that the believers will read and re-read the Will and Testament of the Blessed Master Abdu’l-Baha in a true Baha'i spirit with a view to upholding the principle of independent investigation of truth since enunciated by Baha’u’llah and moreover when it is purely meant for this purpose and none else.
You are now to judge and decide individually whether you need the Divine Guidance through the Line of Infallible Guardians exactly in accordance with the Will and Testament of the Master Abdu’l-Baha or the Administration presently run by the Hands of the Faith contrary to the aforesaid Sacred Document meets your spiritual requirements?
Faithfully in El Abha,
Local Spiritual Assembly of
the Baha’is of Rawalpindi.
Mason Remey On behalf of the
Second Guardian of the Baha'i Faith Baha'i Community
Post Box No. 418 LAHORE; 17th Sep 1960
Washington 4, D.C.
O The Beloved of our Hearts!
We thank Almighty God on this day, the 17th Sep 1960, when we received your Blessed Promulgation through Mr Morangello of France for which we were anxiously waiting and trying from various sources and now we hereby declare allegiance to your authority as the Second Guardian of the Baha'i Faith. The Community accepting and supporting your Claim and desirous of serving the Beloved Faith under the direction of your infallible Commands consists of the following members:-
1. Major Nawazish Ali Siyyid – Member NSA Pakistan
2. Mr. Kabir Khan President LSA Lahore
3. Mr. Jan Mohammad Vice President LSA
4. Mr. Zaffar Ali Khan Secretary
5. Mr. Shabbir Hussain Treasurer
6. Mr. Siraj Din Member
7. Mrs. Nawazish Ali Siyyid
8. Mrs. Zaffar Ali Khan
9. Subedar Ghulam Shah
All the above mentioned believers prayfully beg your infallible Guidance for the promotion of their spiritual life in this world and the world to come.
After hearing the news of your Promulgation through a negative source i.e., the so-called Hands faith and the NSA of the Baha’is of Pakistan about 2/3 month ago, the Community loyal and steadfast to the Institution of Guardianship accepted your Claim, rejected the views of the Hands faith, and issued a booklet to the believers is Pakistan and with your supporters from various sources within their reach and at last today this Community received your Declaration and are in a position to express their humble feelings before you.
Kindly accept our allegiance and guide us in these hard days for our spiritual life and keep us posted about your Command and Guidance.
We are circulating your Declaration to all Local Spiritual Assemblies and Believers of Pakistan.
P.S. Kindly Send us as many possible copies of your Declaration and subsequent letters
Yours humbly, in Your Service.,
Zaffar Ali KhanMian Imam Din’s Quarters
Garhi Shahu., Lahore, West Pakistan
A STATEMENT BY THE SECOND GUARDIAN OF THE FAITH
In several of my writings I mention a momentary vision, that I had about the year 105 of the Baha'i Era, in which I saw myself as the Second Guardian of the Faith. At the time, this seemed to me to be an absurdity of my imagination. But after the Beloved Guardian called me to Haifa, made me President of the Baha'i International Council, and made his home in the Holy Land to be my home - - these factors, together with other matters that, beyond a doubt in my mind, were preparing me at that time for service I was to do at some future date, I found myself thinking of that momentary vision I had had. However, these thoughts came and went from me. At times I would seemingly forget all about my vision; then it would come to my mind again. These thoughts were vague and fleeting.
Such was my condition of mind - - even for some time after the departure of the Beloved Guardian and all during my years in his house in the Holy Land. As these years accumulated, my future in the Faith was anything but clear to me. In fact, I did not think much about it. I was busy with the then present-day matters of the Cause.
Such was my state of mind when the Hands of the Faith met in the First Behje Conclave shortly following Shoghi Effendi’s passing. While at that time I thought that I might become the Guardian of the Faith in some way or another, I did not know how. It was all more or less vague, hazy and indefinite in my thoughts, and so I succumbed, as did others, to the proposition of the Persian Hands of the Cause and a few others, who all
together formed a ruling and a united majority. So I accepted the dictum of this unity and signed the Proclamation to the Baha'i world along with all of the other Hands.
In other words, while I was semi-conscious to what was going on, I was more or less asleep mentally and spiritually. There just did not seem to be any clear solution to the problem before us. All was more or less confused. Thus, the present regime of the Custodian Hands of the Faith came into working order, accepted by all of us, myself included.
But before long my mind began to work, and I saw that those Hands who did not want a renewal of Guardianship were leading us afar and away from the way of the Will and Testament; but, as I then thought to make things pleasant and happy in Haifa, I said nothing. To myself, however, I thought a great deal.
While I was thus just beginning to awaken to the radical departure that Baha'i affairs were taking in opposition to the Will and Testament, the time came for the Second Behje Conclave of the Hands. That was in November, 1958. It was at this conclave that I found myself thoroughly awakened to the violation of the Hands of the Faith in their NOT WANTING the Guardianship. In this second conclave, the very word “Guardianship” was becoming taboo. It was hinted at when letters and a telegraphic dispatch, bearing hopes for a Second Guardian, were directed to the conclave from the friends in Germany; but while a few of us read these pleas from Germany, asking that the hope for a Guardian of the Faith not be abandoned, none of these communications was before the conclave. Nor were these communications discussed. They were merely mentioned by some, and only then on the side.
But during these sessions I, myself, was beginning to awaken from the state of Baha'i apathy that had until then quite dominated me. I began to think that someone ought to make the stand that these Hands of the Faith should at least appear to want a Guardian, even though they did not know how they were going to get one. The underlying fact (never mentioned in so many words, but then quite clear to me) was that, as shown in their attitudes, these Hands actually did not want the Guardianship to continue.
Between these first and second Baha'i conclaves, a few people in America had begun to question the Hands’ attitude of no more Guardianship wanted.
Ruhiyyih Khanum, in a large public Baha'i gathering at Kampala in Africa, had stated definitely that the friends should abandon all hope of any continuation of the Guardianship. And in America, led by Horace Holley, a Manifesto from Chicago was issued that was signed by Holley, Paul Haney, and Mrs. True, entitled “A New Baha'i Era”. It spoke of the Faith, Sans Guardian, and explained that the Guardianship was a closed subject.
This Chicago Manifesto stirred up a good deal of discussion amongst the Hands in the Holy Land, who, although thoroughly in sympathy with the substance of this Manifesto (this they specifically wrote to Holley), called him down for thus making a stand that publicly proclaimed the Sans Guardian doctrine. Thus were these Hands of the Cause in the Holy Land playing a double-faced game; for they, by avoiding the subject were thus conditioning the believers, if it were possible, to forget about the Guardianship. Thus did they intend to reinforce themselves in their own leadership of the Faith and in their plans for creating a House of Justice in 1963 – a House they claimed would be infallible Sans Guardian!
In order to put over onto the Baha'i world the plans of these Custodian Hands of the Faith, they had decided in the first conclave that all of their actions should be kept a secret from the proletariat of the Cause. In the Chicago Manifesto, those American Hands who signed it broke the pact of secrecy when they consulted with the N.S.A. of the United States. All nine members of this N.S.A. approved; and together with the three American Hands, they signed the Manifesto.
Thoughts on all of these matters were surging through my mind during this second conclave and stirring me greatly. But even then, because of the vague thought of myself as a possible Guardian of the Faith, I felt that if such were ever to be, then someone other than I should, in this conclave, make the stand that the hope for the continuation of the Guardianship should not be abandoned. Reluctant to make this stand myself, I felt that the Hands should at least hold this door open and not close it as they were doing. But I felt that someone other than I should do this, because, as it were, I would be considered as an interested party. Reasoning thus, I waited, hoping that some other person would take this stand. Thus, in this conflict of thoughts, I sat silent most of the time in the conclave. I remained silent up until the last session when I arose, took the floor, and told the members of the conclave that they were violating the Will and Testament of the Master ‘Abdu’l-Baha in their attitude of not wanting a continuation of the Guardianship.
My stand created a stir of indignation in the conclave. I was immediately silenced by several voices under the pretext that I was out of parliamentary order in bringing up a subject that had already been acted upon by the assemblage and was a closed issue. So that was that, and the conclave closed.
However, in this moment so charged with emotion, I was asked why I took this stand in defense of the Guardianship against the united opinion of the conclave. To this my reply was that some one of us Hands should stand for the Administration with the Guardianship; and, as there was no one other to do it, I must alone (against all others) make this stand.
At that time I was then the Guardian of the Faith, as I had so been since the death of Shoghi Effendi; but since I was still asleep spiritually, I was not conscious of my actual status of protector of the Faith as the Guardian. Yet, unconciously, I was thus moved to stand up against this violation of the Will and Testament; and although I was not mentally conscious of my status as Guardian of the Faith, somehow or other I felt that I must stand up alone in that conclave and protect the Faith by defending the Guardianship. It was much over a year later before I realized that at that very time I actually was standing guard over the Cause - - and standing quite single and alone - - against all of the other Hands of the Faith united against me! But at that moment, I had no idea about the why of my doing as I did; I arose only to protect the Faith.
In the conferences of the Custodian Hands in Haifa, following this Second Behje Conclave, I told the Hands repeatedly that they were violating the Will and Testament. Together with them I had made the agreement that strict secrecy be maintained as to all that passed between these Custodians. It had also been agreed that we could and should all speak out openly in our conferences, and this I always did, speaking most frankly. But as I stood alone, no one paid any attention to me. Thus, matters went along for a year until I refused to sign my name any longer as being “In the Service of the Beloved Guardian of the Faith” (Shoghi Effendi). My contention in refusing to sign was that the Guardianship of the Faith is a function of this world and that with Shoghi Effendi in the Abha Kingdom, he was no longer our Guardian in the flesh to be obeyed; consequently, we were no longer in his service. Rather, we should then be in the service of the Second Guardian of the Faith! But even then I did not realize that I, Mason Remey, was then the Second Guardian of the Faith.
My refusal to sign the message of the Hands from the Third Behje Conclave to the Baha'i world, in November 1959, precipitated matters and eliminated me from the nine Custodians. Therefore, shortly after this, I left Haifa for Washington, where I am now in voluntary exile from my home in Haifa - - the home that, publicly and before all of the Baha'i community in the Holy Land, Shoghi Effendi ordained for me on this earth.
The Custodians did not want me to leave Haifa. They evidently feared that I might not keep their pact of secrecy and that I might let the people in America know what they were up to, for at that time there were many in America who still hoped for a Guardian to lead the Faith. But I chose to leave Haifa, and in the end this was accepted by the Hands.
I left for America via Italy, all under apparently pleasant conditions, I assuring the Hands that I could keep their secrets and not tell any of the believers what they were doing. With me to America I took all of my notes and records of the happenings amongst the Baha'is in the Holy Land during my residence there. Then, in America, away from the Custodian Hands in the Holy Land (and even before that in Italy), I started formulating a written argument to the Custodian Hands of the Faith. This argument I prepared in “An Appeal to the Hands of the Faith”, “Another Appeal to the Hands of the Faith”, and a “Last Appeal to the Hands of the Faith”.
These lengthy documents were bound in book form and sent by me to the Hands in Haifa. When I started in upon this last effort to awaken the Hands to their violation, my thoughts, that before this had been disordered, gradually began to arrange themselves in a logical sequence in my mind; and step by step, one thought opened up the way for a more comprehensive thought. Slowly, little by little, one thought led to another until I found myself considering the Beloved Guardian’s appointment of me as the President of the International Baha'i Council (a subject that had never even been mentioned in any of the conclaves or conferences of the Hands of the Faith). Finally, little by little, it was born into my consciousness that I, myself, Mason Remey, was actually then the protector of and the Guardian of the Faith and that I had been in this supreme station of protector – that is, I had been the Guardian of the Faith – ever since the death of the First Guardian.
Thus at last, Ridvan 117 B.E., all was clear to me. The great danger to the Cause from the violating Hands of the Faith made it necessary for me to come out with the Proclamation of my Guardianship – first to the Custodian Hands in Haifa, then before the Ridvan Convention in America. This had to be done in order to save the Faith from the utter destruction that was being perpetrated by the erring violating Hands of the Faith.
I was indeed a very long time in coming to the realization of mine own command of this entire situation of the Faith. But during this time, while my mind was not at all alert to these conditions in the Cause, I was arising instinctively to defend and to uphold the Guardianship of the Faith. As people read over my notes of my thoughts and the mention of events transpiring in Haifa, they will see and understand the complexity of thought that was gradually being straightened out in my mind. At times I was away, far away, from the solution of many of the problems of the Faith, even considering at one time that the Hands of the Faith, in order to protect the Cause, might choose and install a Guardian. Other such ideas were pondered; but out from this maze of thought, I gradually realized that the Beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi had actually appointed me the Second Guardian of the Faith and had so announced this to all the world. Until that time, no one, not even I, myself, had realized this. It was thus, in this way, and little by little, that I arrived, until now - - as the acknowledged Guardian of the Faith (acknowledged by the few who faithfully follow the admonitions of the Will and Testament, as against the many who are misled by the erring Hands who have renounced the Guardianship) - - I am clear upon any and all matters as they come up for me to take action in leading the Faith on to its destined triumph over the powers of mankind and bringing victory to the Kingdom of God upon Earth.
MASON REMEY, GUARDIAN
Of the Baha'i Faith
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 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue - - New York
and in libraries in a few other cities.
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