Dear Susan,
I'm not sure what to make of that last statement, whether you are suggesting
that Baha'is play down their belief in world peace through world governance
or whether we should down play the role Baha'i institutions are eventually
expected to play in this process as we move from the Lesser Peace to the
Most Great Peace?
I am not saying that Baha'is should down play their belief in world peace. World peace is what Baha'u'llah promised and it will be achieved.
Besides World Tribunal, Guardian Writings refer to World Parliament too. Here is from the World Order of Baha'u'llah:
"Such a state will have to include within its orbit an international executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a world parliament whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries and whose election shall be 41 confirmed by their respective governments; and a supreme tribunal whose judgment will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration."
What is the use of a world parliament if the House is supposed to do all legislation for civil laws.
There was a time when I was inclined to your own position
on this issue until I saw that some of those promoting it were deliberately
distorting certain passages of the Writings and leaving out entire sections
of other authoritative texts in order to reach this conclusion. I think what
first alerted me to the fact that something was wrong was when Juan Cole
tried to argue on H-Bahai that the *qanun* in the Will and Testament meant
canon law. Anyone with two years of beginning Arabic knows that qanun
signifies secular or common law as opposed to religious law.
My own understanding of *qanun* is the civil laws which have their origins in religions. I am sure the House will make many civil laws based on Kitab-i-Aqdas and that's why this most Holy Book is called the charter of world civilzation.
While there may well be several possible understandings of the proper
relationship between religion and state envisioned for eventual World Order
of Bah�'u'll�h, anything which claims to represent the Bah�'� Teachings on
this matter must take into account the full breadth of authoritative sources
and these include letters written on behalf of the Guardian and elucidations
made by the Universal House of Justice.
Now I would like to ask you a question. Please don't misunderstand me. My intention is not to undermine the station of Guardian or the Master. But I have this question and I hope you can help me to find an answer. Does Abdu'l-Baha or Guardian have prophecy power? Are they prophets? For example, the Lesser Peace happening in 20th century did not come true. Now I hear that Lesser Peace is a process and it started in last century, but I don't think so. For me it's absolutely OK and I don't expect the Center of Covenant to be a fortune-teller. He was the perfect examplar and the perfect Baha'i that we all should strive to be like. Don't you think that some of the Guardian's prophecies about the future and about the future world order might not occur as expected. There is also another concept in Baha'i Writings and that's "Bada".
What I am trying to say here we really don't know the nature of the future world government. So better for us not to advocate something that we don't know about. Already many foes are accusing Baha'is of taking over the world government which to my opinion is not true.
Best regards, Firouz
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