Joel J. Marangella
2008-06-29 03:21:32 UTC
POSTED ON BEHALF OF THE GUARDIAN OF THE BAHA'I FAITH
WHAT WILL BE YOUR EXCUSE WHEN YOU MEET SHOGHI EFFENDI IN THE NEXT WORLD?
(A POSSIBLE CREDIBLE SCENARIO)
What will be your excuse when, upon your own passing, you should meet Shoghi
Effendi in the next world?
SHOGHI EFFENDI'S UNDOUBTED INITIAL COMMENTS:
He would certainly say to you how greatly shocked, dismayed and saddened he
had been, upon his passing, to note that so many of the believers, like
yourself, who during his ministry had ostensibly evinced such faithful and
steadfast faith in the Covenant of Baha'u'llah and firm belief in the
sacredness and immutability of the divinely-conceived Will and Testament of
'Abdu'l-Baha, in which the Guardian of the Cause of God is named as "THE
CENTER OF THE CAUSE," and "THE SACRED HEAD AND DISTINGUISHED MEMBER FOR
LIFE" of the Universal House of Justice had then readily accepted, without
question, the incredulous conclusion that had been hastily reached and
proclaimed to the Baha'i World by the Hands of the Cause, gathered in
conclave at Akka but a few weeks following his passing, that the
Guardianship had come to a premature end based on the transparently
fallacious argument that because all of the Aghsan had either died or had
been declared violators of the Covenant he had left no will and testament
appointing a successor.
YOUR PROBABLE EXCUSE:
As you considered the Hands who had been appointed by Shoghi Effendi to this
exalted rank were more conversant on the Teachings and the provisions of the
Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha than you were, they must have been right
in their conclusion that the Guardianship had come to an end.
SHOGHI EFFENDI¹S UNDOUBTED FURTHER COMMENT:
He shall certainly point out how astonished he had been that the Hands, at
the outset, had expected to find a will and testament left by him and had
actually searched for one that had, of course, not been found and thus had
exhibited an inexcusably ignorance of, or forgetfulness of, the specific
terms of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha which require the Guardian
of the Faith to appoint his successor "IN HIS OWN LIFE-TIME" and not by
testamentary document. And moreover they had revealed an equally glaring
ignorance of or duplicity in their misrepresentation of the qualifications
stipulated by 'Abdu'l-Baha in His Will that the Guardian's successor must
possess to be considered for appointment, none of which could ever have
included a requirement to be an Aghsan, whom he had clearly identified in
his writings as a term referring solely to the sons of Baha'u'llah.
YOUR PROBABLE ADDITIONAL EXCUSE:
It had been a long time since you had read the Will and Testament of
'Abdu'l-Baha and you had forgotten its provisions relating to the specifics
concerning the manner in which the Guardian appoints his successor and the
qualifications that his appointee is required to possess.
SHOGHI EFFENDI LAMENTS THEIR FAILINGS:
Shoghi Effendi would then certainly mention how utterly incomprehensible it
had been to him that the Hands could have thought that he would have left
this world without fulfilling the sacred Mandate prescribed in the Will and
Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha that makes it incumbent upon him to appoint his
successor "IN HIS OWN LIFE-TIME" and thereby faithfully provide for the
continuation of the Guardianship and the continued vital preservation of
"THE CENTER OF THE CAUSE."
And, moreover, he would certainly further assert how incredulous it had been
that the Hands, upon finding that he had not left a will and testament,
should then have not taken any time whatsoever to reexamine the Will and
Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha where they would have readily discovered their
error in expecting to find such a will, for under its terms he obviously
would have appointed his successor and definitely revealed his identity
during the course of his ministry, but notwithstanding, they, as well as all
of the believers, had obviously inexplicably failed, at the time, to
recognize this appointment of tremendous import. He would certainly mention
how distressed and shocked he had been in noting the stand that had been so
surprisingly taken by Ruhiyyih Khanum, who had voiced vehement opposition to
any thought of their being another Guardian of the Faith, a stand that was
so utterly contrary to her views so often expressed during his ministry and
as expressed in her well-known work titled: "Twenty-five Years of the
Guardianship" in which she had emphasized the absolute essentiality of the
Guardianship. He could only conclude that she had so radically changed her
stand about the Guardianship because of her evident inability to reconcile
herself to seeing another believer take his place as the Guardian of the
Faith. This unyielding and flagrant opposition to such a possibility by one
who had been so close to him and had served as his secretary for some twenty
years had undoubtedly influenced her fellow-Hands, with a single notable
exception, in reaching their hasty and ill-considered conclusion that the
Guardianship of the Cause of God had come to a premature end with his
passing.
YOUR POSSIBLE FURTHER OBSERVATIONS:
You, would, of course, be able to claim your complete ignorance of the Hands
evident loss of faith (again with a single exception) in the Covenant and in
their confidence that Shoghi Effendi would have faithfully complied with
every clause of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha and particularly make
the point that you had no idea that Ruhiyyih Khanum, of all people, had been
so adamantly opposed to the continuation of the Guardianship.
SHOGHI EFFENDI OUTLINES HIS EXPECTATIONS:
Shoghi Effendi would then have undoubtedly pointed out that had the Hands
taken the time to undertake even a cursory review of the "HISTORIC" and
"EPOCH MAKING" messages he had dispatched to the Baha'i World during the
concluding years of his ministry, in which, for example, he had hailed in
one of his messages the erection of the highest institutions of the Faith at
the World Center of the Faith, they would have perceived and realized, not
only the significant import of the acts he had announced but most
importantly the significance that they should have accorded to the one and
only Proclamation he had issued during his ministry on 9 January 1951 in
which he had extolled the "HISTORIC DECISION" that he had taken "AT LONG
LAST" to form the International Baha'i Council and had eulogized this act
"AS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE
ORDER OF THE FAITH OF BAHA'U'LLAH," in whose constitution they would have
found, the key, although purposely and necessarily obscured by him, at the
time, to the identity of his successor whom they had tragically failed to
recognize. Had they, on the other hand, made a comprehensive reexamination
of these communications they should have recognized the identity of his
successor, and then have understood that, although he had made this
appointment publicly and in complete conformity with the terms of the Will
and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha, at the time, he had wisely chosen to make
this appointment in such an indirect and unexpected manner, that it had
successfully veiled his identity from the believers, as he had intended at
the time. For had the highly distinguished Hand of the Cause he had chosen
as his successor, a believer who had been eulogized in numerous Tablets by
'Abdu'l-Baha and whose multiple services to the Faith during half a century
had been unsurpassed by any other believer, been recognized by the Baha'i
World, at the time of his appointment, this knowledge would have caused
universal consternation amongst the Baha'is and virtually paralyzed them in
their labors to achieve the goals of the Ten Year Global Crusade soon to
begin, For the one whom he had chosen as his successor was not a young man,
or even of middle age, but twenty-three years his senior and yet despite
this advanced age was destined to succeed him. This was a clear indication
that he had foreseen the imminence of his own passing. While he had, in this
manner, been successful in obscuring the appointment of his successor, at
the time, he would certainly point out that he had expected that the
identity of his successor would inevitably be recognized and announced to
the Baha'i World when the International Baha'i Council--the embryonic
Universal House of Justice--would, for the first time, assume upon his
passing, its rightful active role as the supreme administrative body in the
Baha'i World, at which time, Charles Mason Remey, who had been appointed by
him as its President and irremovable Head, would then preside over this body
as it directed the National Spiritual Assemblies of the world in their
prosecution of the goals of the Ten Year Global Crusade in accordance with
the role he had projected in his message to the Baha'i World in 1952.
YOUR COMMENT:
You would observe that your failure to perceive the import of his
appointment of a successor in this way had revealed the same obvious lack of
perception that had inexcusably been exhibited by Mason Remey's fellow Hands
of the Cause and all of the other believers as well.
SHOGHI EFFENDI¹S FINAL OBSERVATIONS:
He had therefore been appalled when the Hands, contrary to his plans, and
lacking any authority to do so, did not permit the International Council to
assume its rightful role and had instead shamefully relegated this Council
to a subordinate position to an illegitimate body they had fashioned
themselves comprised of nine Hands, who as so-called Custodians of the
Faith, constituted themselves in the role of a collective Guardianship and
took over direction of their now sans-Guardian Faith for a period of some
six years until their demise and replacement at Ridvan 1963 with an elected
equally illegitimate sans-Guardian so-called Universal House of Justice.
He would certainly now point out that in their abandonment of the
Guardianship it was if he had never existed or had ever written a single
word about the Baha'i Administrative Order for they had ignored, as a case
in point, the emphasis he had placed in his writings on the sacredness and
immutability of the divinely-conceived Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha in
explaining that it was as much the Will of Baha'u'llah as that of
'Abdu'l-Baha and that together with the Kitab-i-Aqdas these two sacred
documents were to be considered as "INSEPARABLE PARTS OF ONE COMPLETE UNIT,"
thus making it clear that, as this Will was a part of the explicit Holy
Text, the institutions delineated in that Document were destined to endure
unchanged and remain in effect as long as the sacred laws of the Aqdas
itself were observed. Moreover, he had emphasized in the "DISPENSATION" that
the "BEDROCK ON WHICH THE ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER IS FOUNDED IS GOD'S IMMUTABLE
PURPOSE FOR MANKIND IN THIS DAY."
He would finally state how heartened he had been by the fact that there had
been a few stalwart believers who had retained their steadfast and
unshakeable faith in the indestructibility of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah
and in the immortality of its sacred and divinely-conceived Child--the Will
and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha--and had welcomed with elation the receipt of
Mason Remey's Proclamation at Ridvan 1960, in which their unwavering faith
in the Covenant and in the immortality and immutability of the sacred
provisions of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha, that provide for an
unbroken line of Guardians of the Cause of God as long as the Dispensation
of Baha'u'llah endures, had at last been fully vindicated. For, in this
Proclamation, they had joyfully found a completely sound and valid
explanation that undeniably proved the basis upon which he had rightfully
acceded to the Guardianship. These few believers and those who shall
inevitably follow in their footsteps in increasing numbers will assuredly
preserve intact and unaltered the institutions of the divinely-conceived
Baha'i Administrative Order in all of their perfection as bequeathed to the
world through the inspired Pen of 'Abdu'l-Baha and thus in this way insure
by their exemplary constancy, the ultimate establishment of the World Order
of Baha'u'llah in all of its destined glory and perfection in accordance
with God's immutable Purpose.
WHAT ELSE COULD YOU SAY?
In the light of all that Shoghi Effendi had explained it would now be
obvious that he had appointed his successor in faithful compliance with the
provisions of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha and that you, on the
other hand, had not presented a valid excuse for your own faithless
abandonment of the continuing Guardianship of the Cause of God. And you,
will now have sadly realized that you, had actually been a party, however
unwittingly, to the shameful betrayal of Shoghi Effendi in voicing no
objection, at the time or had questioned the dismantlement shamefully
carried out by the erstwhile Hands of the Cause of the highest institutions
of the Administrative Order that Shoghi Effendi had but recently erected at
the World Center of the Faith "AT LONG LAST" during the concluding years of
his ministry and moreover had blindly and erroneously recognized, and had
accorded allegiance initially to both a body of nine Hands, created outside
the provisions of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha that had
shamelessly been foisted upon the Baha'i World following his passing, and
had subsequently granted undeserved allegiance to their equally illegitimate
sans-Guardian so-called Universal House of Justice, as corrupted substitutes
for the institutions of ³THE ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER WHICH THE MASTER-HAND OF
ITS PERFECT ARCHITECT HAS FASHIONED.²
(CAPS ADDED)
Joel Bray Marangella
Guardian of the Baha'i Faith
June 2008
WEB: http://www.Bahai-Guardian.com/excuse/html
WHAT WILL BE YOUR EXCUSE WHEN YOU MEET SHOGHI EFFENDI IN THE NEXT WORLD?
(A POSSIBLE CREDIBLE SCENARIO)
What will be your excuse when, upon your own passing, you should meet Shoghi
Effendi in the next world?
SHOGHI EFFENDI'S UNDOUBTED INITIAL COMMENTS:
He would certainly say to you how greatly shocked, dismayed and saddened he
had been, upon his passing, to note that so many of the believers, like
yourself, who during his ministry had ostensibly evinced such faithful and
steadfast faith in the Covenant of Baha'u'llah and firm belief in the
sacredness and immutability of the divinely-conceived Will and Testament of
'Abdu'l-Baha, in which the Guardian of the Cause of God is named as "THE
CENTER OF THE CAUSE," and "THE SACRED HEAD AND DISTINGUISHED MEMBER FOR
LIFE" of the Universal House of Justice had then readily accepted, without
question, the incredulous conclusion that had been hastily reached and
proclaimed to the Baha'i World by the Hands of the Cause, gathered in
conclave at Akka but a few weeks following his passing, that the
Guardianship had come to a premature end based on the transparently
fallacious argument that because all of the Aghsan had either died or had
been declared violators of the Covenant he had left no will and testament
appointing a successor.
YOUR PROBABLE EXCUSE:
As you considered the Hands who had been appointed by Shoghi Effendi to this
exalted rank were more conversant on the Teachings and the provisions of the
Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha than you were, they must have been right
in their conclusion that the Guardianship had come to an end.
SHOGHI EFFENDI¹S UNDOUBTED FURTHER COMMENT:
He shall certainly point out how astonished he had been that the Hands, at
the outset, had expected to find a will and testament left by him and had
actually searched for one that had, of course, not been found and thus had
exhibited an inexcusably ignorance of, or forgetfulness of, the specific
terms of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha which require the Guardian
of the Faith to appoint his successor "IN HIS OWN LIFE-TIME" and not by
testamentary document. And moreover they had revealed an equally glaring
ignorance of or duplicity in their misrepresentation of the qualifications
stipulated by 'Abdu'l-Baha in His Will that the Guardian's successor must
possess to be considered for appointment, none of which could ever have
included a requirement to be an Aghsan, whom he had clearly identified in
his writings as a term referring solely to the sons of Baha'u'llah.
YOUR PROBABLE ADDITIONAL EXCUSE:
It had been a long time since you had read the Will and Testament of
'Abdu'l-Baha and you had forgotten its provisions relating to the specifics
concerning the manner in which the Guardian appoints his successor and the
qualifications that his appointee is required to possess.
SHOGHI EFFENDI LAMENTS THEIR FAILINGS:
Shoghi Effendi would then certainly mention how utterly incomprehensible it
had been to him that the Hands could have thought that he would have left
this world without fulfilling the sacred Mandate prescribed in the Will and
Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha that makes it incumbent upon him to appoint his
successor "IN HIS OWN LIFE-TIME" and thereby faithfully provide for the
continuation of the Guardianship and the continued vital preservation of
"THE CENTER OF THE CAUSE."
And, moreover, he would certainly further assert how incredulous it had been
that the Hands, upon finding that he had not left a will and testament,
should then have not taken any time whatsoever to reexamine the Will and
Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha where they would have readily discovered their
error in expecting to find such a will, for under its terms he obviously
would have appointed his successor and definitely revealed his identity
during the course of his ministry, but notwithstanding, they, as well as all
of the believers, had obviously inexplicably failed, at the time, to
recognize this appointment of tremendous import. He would certainly mention
how distressed and shocked he had been in noting the stand that had been so
surprisingly taken by Ruhiyyih Khanum, who had voiced vehement opposition to
any thought of their being another Guardian of the Faith, a stand that was
so utterly contrary to her views so often expressed during his ministry and
as expressed in her well-known work titled: "Twenty-five Years of the
Guardianship" in which she had emphasized the absolute essentiality of the
Guardianship. He could only conclude that she had so radically changed her
stand about the Guardianship because of her evident inability to reconcile
herself to seeing another believer take his place as the Guardian of the
Faith. This unyielding and flagrant opposition to such a possibility by one
who had been so close to him and had served as his secretary for some twenty
years had undoubtedly influenced her fellow-Hands, with a single notable
exception, in reaching their hasty and ill-considered conclusion that the
Guardianship of the Cause of God had come to a premature end with his
passing.
YOUR POSSIBLE FURTHER OBSERVATIONS:
You, would, of course, be able to claim your complete ignorance of the Hands
evident loss of faith (again with a single exception) in the Covenant and in
their confidence that Shoghi Effendi would have faithfully complied with
every clause of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha and particularly make
the point that you had no idea that Ruhiyyih Khanum, of all people, had been
so adamantly opposed to the continuation of the Guardianship.
SHOGHI EFFENDI OUTLINES HIS EXPECTATIONS:
Shoghi Effendi would then have undoubtedly pointed out that had the Hands
taken the time to undertake even a cursory review of the "HISTORIC" and
"EPOCH MAKING" messages he had dispatched to the Baha'i World during the
concluding years of his ministry, in which, for example, he had hailed in
one of his messages the erection of the highest institutions of the Faith at
the World Center of the Faith, they would have perceived and realized, not
only the significant import of the acts he had announced but most
importantly the significance that they should have accorded to the one and
only Proclamation he had issued during his ministry on 9 January 1951 in
which he had extolled the "HISTORIC DECISION" that he had taken "AT LONG
LAST" to form the International Baha'i Council and had eulogized this act
"AS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE
ORDER OF THE FAITH OF BAHA'U'LLAH," in whose constitution they would have
found, the key, although purposely and necessarily obscured by him, at the
time, to the identity of his successor whom they had tragically failed to
recognize. Had they, on the other hand, made a comprehensive reexamination
of these communications they should have recognized the identity of his
successor, and then have understood that, although he had made this
appointment publicly and in complete conformity with the terms of the Will
and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha, at the time, he had wisely chosen to make
this appointment in such an indirect and unexpected manner, that it had
successfully veiled his identity from the believers, as he had intended at
the time. For had the highly distinguished Hand of the Cause he had chosen
as his successor, a believer who had been eulogized in numerous Tablets by
'Abdu'l-Baha and whose multiple services to the Faith during half a century
had been unsurpassed by any other believer, been recognized by the Baha'i
World, at the time of his appointment, this knowledge would have caused
universal consternation amongst the Baha'is and virtually paralyzed them in
their labors to achieve the goals of the Ten Year Global Crusade soon to
begin, For the one whom he had chosen as his successor was not a young man,
or even of middle age, but twenty-three years his senior and yet despite
this advanced age was destined to succeed him. This was a clear indication
that he had foreseen the imminence of his own passing. While he had, in this
manner, been successful in obscuring the appointment of his successor, at
the time, he would certainly point out that he had expected that the
identity of his successor would inevitably be recognized and announced to
the Baha'i World when the International Baha'i Council--the embryonic
Universal House of Justice--would, for the first time, assume upon his
passing, its rightful active role as the supreme administrative body in the
Baha'i World, at which time, Charles Mason Remey, who had been appointed by
him as its President and irremovable Head, would then preside over this body
as it directed the National Spiritual Assemblies of the world in their
prosecution of the goals of the Ten Year Global Crusade in accordance with
the role he had projected in his message to the Baha'i World in 1952.
YOUR COMMENT:
You would observe that your failure to perceive the import of his
appointment of a successor in this way had revealed the same obvious lack of
perception that had inexcusably been exhibited by Mason Remey's fellow Hands
of the Cause and all of the other believers as well.
SHOGHI EFFENDI¹S FINAL OBSERVATIONS:
He had therefore been appalled when the Hands, contrary to his plans, and
lacking any authority to do so, did not permit the International Council to
assume its rightful role and had instead shamefully relegated this Council
to a subordinate position to an illegitimate body they had fashioned
themselves comprised of nine Hands, who as so-called Custodians of the
Faith, constituted themselves in the role of a collective Guardianship and
took over direction of their now sans-Guardian Faith for a period of some
six years until their demise and replacement at Ridvan 1963 with an elected
equally illegitimate sans-Guardian so-called Universal House of Justice.
He would certainly now point out that in their abandonment of the
Guardianship it was if he had never existed or had ever written a single
word about the Baha'i Administrative Order for they had ignored, as a case
in point, the emphasis he had placed in his writings on the sacredness and
immutability of the divinely-conceived Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha in
explaining that it was as much the Will of Baha'u'llah as that of
'Abdu'l-Baha and that together with the Kitab-i-Aqdas these two sacred
documents were to be considered as "INSEPARABLE PARTS OF ONE COMPLETE UNIT,"
thus making it clear that, as this Will was a part of the explicit Holy
Text, the institutions delineated in that Document were destined to endure
unchanged and remain in effect as long as the sacred laws of the Aqdas
itself were observed. Moreover, he had emphasized in the "DISPENSATION" that
the "BEDROCK ON WHICH THE ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER IS FOUNDED IS GOD'S IMMUTABLE
PURPOSE FOR MANKIND IN THIS DAY."
He would finally state how heartened he had been by the fact that there had
been a few stalwart believers who had retained their steadfast and
unshakeable faith in the indestructibility of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah
and in the immortality of its sacred and divinely-conceived Child--the Will
and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha--and had welcomed with elation the receipt of
Mason Remey's Proclamation at Ridvan 1960, in which their unwavering faith
in the Covenant and in the immortality and immutability of the sacred
provisions of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha, that provide for an
unbroken line of Guardians of the Cause of God as long as the Dispensation
of Baha'u'llah endures, had at last been fully vindicated. For, in this
Proclamation, they had joyfully found a completely sound and valid
explanation that undeniably proved the basis upon which he had rightfully
acceded to the Guardianship. These few believers and those who shall
inevitably follow in their footsteps in increasing numbers will assuredly
preserve intact and unaltered the institutions of the divinely-conceived
Baha'i Administrative Order in all of their perfection as bequeathed to the
world through the inspired Pen of 'Abdu'l-Baha and thus in this way insure
by their exemplary constancy, the ultimate establishment of the World Order
of Baha'u'llah in all of its destined glory and perfection in accordance
with God's immutable Purpose.
WHAT ELSE COULD YOU SAY?
In the light of all that Shoghi Effendi had explained it would now be
obvious that he had appointed his successor in faithful compliance with the
provisions of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha and that you, on the
other hand, had not presented a valid excuse for your own faithless
abandonment of the continuing Guardianship of the Cause of God. And you,
will now have sadly realized that you, had actually been a party, however
unwittingly, to the shameful betrayal of Shoghi Effendi in voicing no
objection, at the time or had questioned the dismantlement shamefully
carried out by the erstwhile Hands of the Cause of the highest institutions
of the Administrative Order that Shoghi Effendi had but recently erected at
the World Center of the Faith "AT LONG LAST" during the concluding years of
his ministry and moreover had blindly and erroneously recognized, and had
accorded allegiance initially to both a body of nine Hands, created outside
the provisions of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha that had
shamelessly been foisted upon the Baha'i World following his passing, and
had subsequently granted undeserved allegiance to their equally illegitimate
sans-Guardian so-called Universal House of Justice, as corrupted substitutes
for the institutions of ³THE ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER WHICH THE MASTER-HAND OF
ITS PERFECT ARCHITECT HAS FASHIONED.²
(CAPS ADDED)
Joel Bray Marangella
Guardian of the Baha'i Faith
June 2008
WEB: http://www.Bahai-Guardian.com/excuse/html