The Baha'i Studies Listserv Hi Brent, Thanks for your many invaluable posts on this and other subjects.
The following scenario did not occur (of course!) but may have been possible had an eligible successor or two been available: that is, were Shoghi Effendi to have appointed in a Will an eligible individual as his successor and chosen not to inform anyone else of this. If, after Shoghi Effendi's death, the Hands had found the Will and had elected nine from among themselves by majority vote, and if subsequently a majority of these nine had assented to the choice of the Guardian, then I believe the requirements of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha would have been met and the legitimacy of the new Guardian would have been established. The Will and Testament does not stipulate that the Hands must give assent before the passing of the Guardian. Therefore I think your assertion "This is why the appointment had to be made "during his lifetime"-- they had to vote on the successor" might be a tad too strong. Although I think it is clear that the Will and Testament of the Master outwardly (legally) endowed the Hands with the authority to withhold their assent from the Guardian's choice, I think rejecting the Guardian's selection while the Guardian was standing before them would have been completely unthinkable for a majority of the Hands, since the Master's Will and Testament, in the strongest possible language, enjoins upon all the Hands the duty of turning to the Guardian and being submissive and lowly before him, and discloses the consequences of failing to do so: "It is incumbent upon the members of the House of Justice, upon all the Aghsan, the Afnan, the Hands of the Cause of God to show their obedience, submissiveness and subordination unto the Guardian of the Cause of God, to turn unto him and be lowly before him. He that opposeth him hath opposed the True One, will make a breach in the Cause of God, will subvert His Word and will become a manifestation of the Center of Sedition." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Will and Testament, p. 11-12) In my view, a majority of Hands would always have trusted in a Guardian's choice. I think the Master's stipulation that the Hands must assent to the appointment (the W&T in English says the Guardian must "appoint", not "nominate") may have had other purposes as well, but I think its primary purpose was merely to raise the bar for false claimants (such as Remey), so that false claimants could not be successful in creating a permanent split in the body of the Cause, because a false claimant would never be able to secure the collusion of a majority of the Hands. The scenario you outline, of the Guardian presenting a Will to the nine elected Hands for their assent to his choice in advance of his death, makes sense to me as well. It is merely that I think it is not required in the Will and Testament, and a Guardian might have been guided to keep his choice of successor secret, even from the one chosen, following in the pattern of the Master's own appointment of Shoghi Effendi. I can well imagine that it might not have been any help but only an unnecessary burden and test, had the Master disclosed secretly to Shoghi Effendi (or had word somehow come to him in any other way, perhaps months or years before the Master's passing) that he had been selected to become the Head of the faith after 'Abdu'l-Baha. And while one might suppose that nine of the Hands could assent to a Guardian's choice and knowledge of the choice might still be kept from the Guardian-designate and from the world at large, that would be in opposition to the well-known maxim that it is only possible for a secret to remain a secret if no more than two people know of it, and even then, only if one of the two is dead. In any case, in a few thousand years or so, after the Guardianship is re-established during the next Dispensation, I suppose we will find out how all the details work. Vaughn -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Brent Poirier Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2010 1:01 AM To: Baha'i Studies Subject: RE: Sects The Baha'i Studies Listserv Marangella is just confusing things, not clarifying them. Both Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha had appointed Their Successors during Their lifetimes, by specifying them in Their Wills, but had not made their identities known, perhaps to protect their lives. However, the situation changed, and the Cause was on more secure footing, as was the society in which they lived. On page 12 of the Will, Abdu'l-Baha directs the Guardian to make known the identity of his successor Guardian, to the nine Hands of the Cause. This is why the appointment had to be made "during his lifetime"-- they had to vote on the successor. Putting all of this together, and making certain extrapolations, here is my personal understanding of how these provisions in the Master's Will might have been carried out had the circumstances allowed. The Guardian would select his successor, and, following the example of his Forbears, name him in writing in his own Will and Testament. He would then present his Will and Testament to the nine Hands of the Cause, who would familiarize themselves with the appearance of the Will, and give their assent to the Guardian's choice of successor. Perhaps they would all have countersigned the Will, confirming it as the Guardian's Will and Testament, and assenting to his choice of successor Guardian. After the passing of the Guardian, these Hands would then present to the Universal House of Justice and the Baha'i world, the Will and Testament of the Guardian. They would confirm that it was the same document that the Guardian had presented to them. The Universal House of Justice and the nine Hands would then present the new Guardian to the Baha'i world. These high officers who had been the closest persons to Shoghi Effendi, would be the first to turn to his successor Guardian. All of the Baha'is would be assured by this that the Guardian's will was authentic, and that that successor was the one who had actually been chosen by Shoghi Effendi. This is conjecture on my part, based on my understanding that Abdu'l-Baha put these provisions in His Will for unmistakable clarity, as safeguards to remove all doubt and place the successorship on an absolutely clear foundation. As He wrote in a passage quoted above, these provisions were so that differences would not arise. The choice of successor had to be during "his own life-time" because the Master's Will required the Guardian to provide the identity of his successor to the nine Hands of the Cause for their assent. He would be of course available to them to personally verify the authenticity of his Will and his choice of successor; so that these Hands could, in turn, provide ironclad assurance to the Baha'i world when the time came, adding their personal testimony-these most trustworthy of all the believers in the world-to the written provisions in the Guardian's Will and Testament. During the lifetime of Shoghi Effendi he did not direct the Hands of the Cause to elect nine of their members to be involved in the important work of the Guardian; nor did he identify a successor Guardian, or show a Will and Testament to anyone. There is far more to the issue than that it be "during his lifetime." The successor must be a male descendant of Baha'u'llah to fill what Shoghi Effendi calls the "hereditary" office of the Guardianship; he must meet the spiritual qualifications; his identity must be presented to the Hands of the Cause and they must vote on it. And it seems obvious, but it has to be somebody who will uphold the Cause of God -- and Remey didn't. Mason Remey stated, as quoted in a letter from the House of Justice, that Shoghi Effendi made a great mistake by misinterpreting the Master's Will, so everything Shoghi Effendi did has to be undone, because he didn't establish the Baha'i Faith, and Remey now will. Remey worked against Shoghi Effendi, and that proves quite clearly that he was no Guardian. (And how Marangella gets around the requirement that he, Marangella must be a male descendant of Baha'u'llah is interesting to say the least.) I have addressed this in several postings on my blog: http://tinyurl.com/succession-1 "Observations on Shoghi Effendi not having written a last will and testament" http://tinyurl.com/succession-2 "Resting on No Foundations Whatever: The Preposterous Claims of Charles Mason Remey" There are others on this subject as well, listed along the right side of the blog http://bahai-covenant.blogspot.com Brent __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[email protected] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[email protected] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
