A
FRAUDULENT
TESTAMENT
Devalues the Bahai Religion
Into Political Shoghism
English by
Jeannine Blackwell
Revised by
Karen Gasser M.A. and Gordon Campbell M.A.
World Union for Universal Religion and
Universal Peace, Free Bahais
l. A HANDWRITING ANALYSIS OF THE
TESTAMENT IN 1930
The fictitious Will and Testament of
Abdul Baha is discovered to be a falsification by a London handwriting expert —
Further external indirect proof of falsification - The reaction of the Guardian
to these accusations - Time works against the Guardian
Motto:
"Protect yourselves with utmost
vigilance, lest you be entrapped In the snare of deception and fraud." 11
In her book The Bahai Religion and Its
Enemy, the Bahai Organization (Rutland 1929), the American Ruth White directed
sharp attacks against the alleged testament of Abdul Baha and the man it
favored, Shoghi (Effendi) Rabbani. The contents of this alleged testament were
not only a reversal of the teachings of Baha'u'llah themselves, but they also
stand in direct contradiction to the commentary and explanations concerning
these teachings by Abdul Baha.
In March of the following year, 1930,
Shoghi wrote a letter which was published in April by the German National
Spiritual Assembly of Bahais and published in New York In 1938 In the series of
letters of the "World Order of Baha'u'llah". In this writing, the
Bahai world was warned by Shoghi about the slowly forming truth of the alleged
testament of Abdul Baha with the words, "For let every earnest upholder of
the Cause of Baha'u'llah realize that ... this Infant Faith will have to
contend with enemies more powerful and more insidious than the cruelest
torturers and the most fanatic clerics who have afflicted it In the
past..." 12
This sentence represents a pure
diversionary tactic because the attacks of the clergy, particularly in the
Western world, are completely insignificant compared to the sharp criticism
from the ranks of non-organized Bahais. These highly dangerous enemies
described by Shoghi are simply the factual evidences which in the time to
follow would be presented against his system. Only a few days later, Shoghi
received a letter from Mrs. White (dated March 19, 1930) requesting the
original document of the alleged last will of Abdul Baha for analysis by a
handwriting expert who was familiar with Persian script. Although the receipt
of this letter was acknowledged by Shoghi's secretary, a reply never came.
A few months later, the first of the
"more powerful and more insidious enemies" prophesied by Shoghi
appeared in the form of a report that the handwriting expert Dr. Ainsworth
Mitchell, a staff member of the British Museum in London and publisher of the
periodical "The Analyst", had presented on June 3, 1930 about his
examination of the photocopy of the alleged testament of Abdul Baha. Mrs. White
condensed the most important points of the report into two statements:
1 "The alleged will of Abdul Baha
was not written throughout by the same person
2 No part of the alleged will has the
characteristics of the writing of Abdul Baha,
as shown In the authenticated specimens."
In other words, the alleged testament
did not issue from Abdul Baha and thus it is fraudulent. 13
This attack by Mrs. White, carried out
with much courage, the spending of much energy in the procurement of
photocopies and with considerable investment of her own means, found a strong
response only in Germany and
resulted In the creation of the "Bahai World Union" by W. Herrigel and the friends of Abdul Baha who assembled
around him. The further arguments of Ruth White, for example, about Abdul
Baha's extraordinary care in the translation of his Tablet To the Central
Organization for a Durable Peace, The Hague, 1919, which was republished by the
Bahai Verlag in 1968, left the great majority of Bahais rather cold. At that
time, two other Persians worked with Shoghi Effendi and Dr. Esslemont as
translators.14 Nothing more
is mentioned about them in the publication of 1968. Mrs. White's very
appropriate question remained open: Why, then, did a so much more important
manuscript, namely Abdul Baha's alleged testament, have to be translated by the
one person favored by the document, namely Shoghi himself, completely on his
own? Moreover, this translation took place after the demise of Abdul Baha. For
the critically oriented Bahais, it was a further piece of evidence for the
charge of fraudulency.15
The problems of the alleged testament
of Abdul Baha had been brought into the open a couple of years earlier, not by
the organization but by some independent thinkers, particularly in written form
by Mrs. White herself. The problems were these: The inherited Guardianship; the
placing of succeeding Guardians at the summit of the "House of
Justice" in an indisputable political function; the payment of the tax
allegedly instituted by Baha'u'llah, not to the House of Justice but to the
Guardian himself and the rigid organization with paid officials or priests, the
"Hands of the cause". All this was precisely the opposite of what
Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha had taught.16 Ruth White had discussed these problems in Bahai assemblies
in many large cities in the USA when she traveled to California in 1926.17 We read the reaction to this
explanatory activity in a letter from the Guardian dated February 27,1929:
"I will not attempt in the least
to assert or demonstrate the authenticity of the Will and Testament of Abdul
Baha, for that In itself would betray an apprehension on my part as to the
unanimous confidence of the believers In the genuineness of the last written
wishes of our departed Master"18
With these slick words, truly a
masterpiece, Shoghi sneaked away from the proof he could not provide. How
elegantly he has taken in the Bahais with the proverbial cunning of the
Levantines. He had learned from his teacher Machiavelli, "You must probe
the malignity of the abscess and if you have enough power to heal it, then do
it quickly and ruthlessly. If you do not have this power, leave It alone and
don't provoke it." 19
On December 31, 1928, Mrs. White had
publicly maintained in a letter to the former English High Commissioner of Palestine that the alleged
testament of Abdul Baha was fraudulent. At the same time she had requested this
highest official of the mandate government to investigate this accusation. She
had distributed this letter as a pamphlet under the title "Abdul Baha's
Alleged Will is Fraudulent". In his above mentioned letter of February 27,
1929, Shoghi is supposed to have expressed his opinion about this pamphlet in
the following words:
"The friends meanwhile should
avoid hurting Mrs.White's feelings and refrain from provocation. Her case ...
should remain completely unnoticed by the believers.."20
This letter from Shoghi on February 27,
1929, was printed as the first letter in Shoghi Effendi, World Order of
Baha'u'llah (New York, 1938). There, too, the above mentioned passage is
missing and no marks of omission make it plain that this letter was not printed
in entirety. Perhaps a scend letter was written by Shoghi Effendi on this day.
Shoghi faithfully followed the directions of his mentor Machiavelli at that
time: it paid to be completely quiet and wait until the storm, complete with
lightning, thunder and torrents of rain intermixed with big hailstones, was
over. The appearance of Mrs. White's book about The Bahai Religion and its
Enemy the Bahai Organization and, one year later In 1930, the proof by the
handwriting expert that the alleged testament of Abdul Baha did not corne from
him were accepted nearly without question as fact by the Bahai world and then
laid aside.
A few years later in Haifa, fortune smiled on the Guardian again.
The heavy storms were forgotten and Shoghi sat in the saddle more securely than
ever and whistled Machiavelli's tune as he wrote:
"The attitude which a besotted
woman later on assumed, her ludicrous assertions, her boldness In flouting the
Will of Abdul Baha and in challenging its authenticity and her attempts to
subvert Its principles were again powerless to produce the slightest breach in
the ranks of its valiant upholders." In the emotional excess of the
victor, Shoghi writes a couple of lines later: "...these notorious
exponents of corruption and heresy have succeeded in protruding for a time
their ugly features only to sink, as rapidly as they had risen, into the mire
of an ignominious end."21
The score of the discussions between
the critics of the alleged testament of Abdul Baha and the favored Shoghi
Effendi was 1:0 for the critics. Yet the great majority of Bahais were sleeping
then and still clung to the Guardian, although no one saw him. If the Captain
of Koepenick, alias Shoemaker Wilhelm Voigt, had the courage to put on a
uniform he had bought and to keep a small town at bay with a handful of
soldiers, Shoghi never had the courage to put on the self-made uniform of
Guardian — continuing the comparison — and to proclaim the teachings of
Baha'u'llah of the unity of mankind, the unity of religion and the necessity of
world peace. "The power is mine. . .", Shoghi seemed to want to say,
and in so doing ignored the opposing argument, "...yet tremble before the
slow, quiet power of time." 22
It was only time which brought the
further proof that the alleged testament of Abdul Baha was fraudulent. With the
publication of Shoghi's greatest work, God Passes By in 1945 and Its German
translation in 1954 arose the opportunity to compare passages stylistically
from the book with expressions and excerpts from the alleged testament of Abdul
Baha (published in toto in 1964 In Frankfurt by the Bahai Publishing
Committee). Any intelligent 14-year old schoolboy can follow this linguistic
comparison, and thus the expert evidence of the London handwriting expert finds confirmation
from many quarters. But before this linguistic proof of coincidental
expressions of one and the same author comes an historical comparison with
another great falsification in the area of religion, "one of the most
momentous falsifications" of history, the famous "Constantinian
Grant".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Words of Baha-ullah, cited in BWF, p.
431.
12. Shoghi Effendi, WOB 1938. p. I7.
13. White, Abdul Baha's Alleged Will Is Fraudulent, Rutland 1930. p. 16 f..
14. See Frankfurt edition of 1948.
15. White. Abdul Baha's Questioned Will and Tastament, Beverly Hills 1946, p. 70f:
Abdul Baha, Tablets II. 1919, p. 467, Tablets I, 1930, p. 151 f.
16. White, Bahai Religion, p. 53 f.
17. White, loc. cit, p. 27.
18. World Order of Baha'u'llah. 1938, p. 4.
19. Macchiavelli. Fischer Bucherei, 1956, p. 41.
20. The Bahai News Letter, Nr. 31 April, 1929. quoted in letters between lhe
High
Commissioner of Palestine and Ruth White concerning the alleged Testament of
Sir
Abdul Baha Abbas, edited by Ruth White, 1932, mimeographed in German, Stuttgart 1932,
retranslated.
21. Shoghi Eflendi WOB, p. 90, Letter ol April 21, 1933.
22. F. Schiller, Wallensteins Tod, I/3.
Chapter 2.
II. A HISTORICAL PROOF OF THE FRAUDULENCE OF THE ALLEGED
TESTAMENT OF ABDUL BAHA.
A
comparison of the alleged testament of the Master with the famous falsification
of the "Constantinian Grant" (c. 750 A.D.) shows that this served as
a model for the forger of Abdul Baha's alleged testament
"Falsification
of historical sources of every kind are in abundance in medieval and modem
times." (Roessler/Franz, Sachwor- terbuch zur Deutschen
Geschichte, 1958, Artikel Falschungen, p. 255.)
The
more a forger exerts himself, the more precisely he handles his forgery, the
more certain he is that the time of discovery of his product is shifted into
the future or that the falsification will never be discovered at all. The
alleged testamant of French cardinal and minister of state Richelieut(1642),
which was published in 1643 by a Jesuit, was shown to be unauthentic only in
1922 after the famous historian Leopold von Ranke did not recognize it as a
falsification and considered it valid. The alleged testament of Peter the Great
(+1725), probably put together in 1797-99, was recognized as fraudulent after
hardly 100 years.
The
best known historical falsification of the Middle Ages, which has made history
for a long time because of its far reaching political effects on the
relationship between church and state, is the so-called "Constantinian
Grant". It refers to Caesar Constantine the Great, who was the first Roman
emperor to tolerate Christianity and who stopped the persecution of its
believers. Out of thankfulness for the healing of his leprosy he is supposed to
have relinquished an extraordinarily large number of legal privileges to Pope
Silvester I after conversion and baptism. This grant of Constantine's came into history with the
Latin name Donatio Constantini or Constitutum Constantini (abbreviated CC). It
is interesting to pursue now the parallels which exist between the alleged
testament of Abdul Baha and the CC.
Alleged "WILL
& TESTAMENT
OF ABDUL BAHA"
|
"CONSTANTIAN
GRANT" Consitutum Constantini
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1
"Very long document" (Ahmad Sohrab, Will, p. 13) 24 pages
long as opposed to the Testament of Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Bahai
religion, which is 3 pages. Baha'u'llah, Kitab-I-Ahd in BWF p. 207f.)
Kitab-EI-Ahd (The Book of the Covenant) in Three Tablets of Baha'u'llah, Bahai
Publishing Society Chicago 1918, p. 149f.), Will and Testament of Abdul
Baha, Wilmette 1971.
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1
"An Extensive Document"
(Realenzyklopaedia fur Protestantische Theologie 1902, Vol. XI, p.1.)
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2
The alleged Testament of Abdul Baha was divided into three parts in the
translation (from the Persian); because the third part is only a repetition
of the first part, it consists of only two parts in actuality. At the burial
of Shoghi (Elfendi) Rabbani only parts I and II were read aloud (Ruhiyyih
Khanum/John Ferraby: The Passing of Shoghi Effendi, 1958, p, 25).
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2.
The "Constantinian Grant" falls
into 2 parts :
Part I : The Silvester Legend
Part II: Concessions to the
Pope ( Die Religion in
Geschichte und Gegenwart ,
1929, Vol. III, column 1227 f.).
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3
"The Document ... signed and sealed by Abdul Baha; entirely written with
His own hand." (Shoghi Effendi, GPB, p. 328).
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3.
The document .. - a decree of Constanline the Great to Pope Silvester ...
with the date and his own signature . . ." (Johannes Haller, Das
Papsttum, 1934, p. 406).
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4
Abdul Baha never mentioned in his lifetime anything — either spoken or
written — about a successor.
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4
"Until the middle of the eighth century there was no trace to be found
about this grant which was later to become so famous . . ." (Dollinger, Die
Papstfabein des Mittelalters, 1890.
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5
Abdul Baha died on November 28, 1921. In the middle of February in a Bahai
gathering in New York
a typewritten translation of his alleged Will and Testament was read aloud,
without commentary. Three years later, in February 1925, typed copies of the
document were distributed "only among old and recognized believers"
(White, Bahai Religion 1929, p.
"In view of the momentous importance of the Last Will and Testament of
Abdul Baha . .. we feel that it would be inadvisable, for the present, to
undertake any commentary on its contents ..." (J. E. Esslemont, Baha'u'llah
and the New Era, 1923, p. 223).
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5.
"It is nevertheless certain that in the beginning nobody took pains to
circulate It (the alleged decree of the Grant of Constantine)"
(Dollinger, loc cit.p.89).
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6
"This written paper . .. preserved underground . .. that certain parts
of it were injured by the damp..." (Alleged Will and Testament of
Abdul Baha, 1971, p. 15)
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6.
"Indeed, already in Rome
. . .'they had let themselves be deceived by documents which had been handed
down and partially mutilated" (Haller, Das Papsttum, 1950, Vol. 1. p.
437).
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7
"By this body (that is, the Universal House of Justice, a kind of World Parliament
- author's remarks) all the difficult problems are to be resolved and the
guardian of the Cause of God is its sacred head . . ." (Alleged Will and
Testament of Abdul Baha, 1971, p. 14)
The "Guardian" and his heirs and/or the designated successors
receive the highest sovereignty over the "House of Justice" (a kind
of World Parliament chosen from all mankind) as spiritual leaders over the
government of all nations of the world.
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7.
"Because it is not right that an earthly ruler has sovereignty where the
Prince of the bishops and the Head of Christianity has been appointed by the
heavenly Lord." (A section from the CC, quoted by Haller, Das
Papsttum , 1934, Vol. I, p. 407)
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8.
"He (the Guardian) is the expounder of the words of God . . .
Whatsoever they (the House of Justice and the Guardian) decide, i3s of God .
.." (Alleged Will and Testament of Abdul Baha, cited in Whlte,
Bahai Religion ,1929, p.179 andW.&T.1971,p.21).
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8.
The forger has his pseudo -Constantine maintain, "and that the Bishop of
the Holy Roman Church ... should be higher and prince over all the Bishops In
the whole world and that all things concerning worship of God and belief of
Christianity to be undertaken or confirmed are determined by his
judgement." (Martin Lutherssammtliche Werke, ErIanger Ausgabe
1830, Vol. 25 P. 178. The article about the Constantinlan Grant, translated
into German by Luther, 1537).
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9,
". . . that the Hands of the Cause of God must be ever watchful and as
soon as they find anyone beginning to oppose and protest against the Guardian
of the Cause of God, cast him out from the congregation of the people of
Baha. . ." (Alleged Will and Testament of Abdul Baha, cited in
White, Bahai Alleged "Will and Testament of Abdul Baha"
Religion, 1929, p. 179 and W.&T. 1971, p. 12)
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9.
"Further, under the name of Constantine,
the right is given . . . to have a bodyguard." (Doellinger, loc. cit. p.
87).
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10
Threats by the Pseudo-Abdul Baha directed toward those who do not listen to
the Guardian: "May the wrath, the fierce indignation, the vengeance ot
God rest upon him" (Alleged Will and Testament of Abdul Baha, cited
In White, Bahai Religion, 1929, p. 179 and W.&T. 1971, p. 21).
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10.
The fictitious Constantine
wishes that every offender "should be bound and subjected to eternal
damnation ... and burn and rot with the devil and all the godless in the
deepest hell". (quoted by Martin Luther, loc. cit. p. 181.)
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11.
Immediately upon the entrance of a new believer into the Bahai community, the
applicant is bound fourfold by the alleged testament. In Shoghi's own words,
"I would only venture to state very briefly . . . the principle factors
that must be taken Into consideration before deciding whether a person may be
regarded a true believer or not."
a "Full recognition of the station of the Forerunner (the Bab), the
Author (Baha'u'llah) and the True Exemplar of the Bahai Cause, as set forth
in Abdul Baha's Testament;
b Unreserved acceptance of, and submission to, whatsoever has been revealed
by their Pen (therefore also of the alleged Testament of Abdul Baha - remarks
by the author);
c Loyal and steadfast adherence to every clause of our Beloved's sacred Will:
and
d Close association with the spirit as well as the form of the present-day
Bahai Administration throughhout the world (Shoghi Effendi, Bahai
Administration, 1968, p. 90, included in Article II "By-Laws of the
National Spiritual Assembly", De claration of Trust and By-Laws, Wilmette
1969, p. 9)
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11
. The power of the Popes had become
so strong that they forced the emperor to acknowledge the "Constantinian
Grant" at his coronation: "Clement V . . . arranged it so that the
German Emperor Heinrich VII swore confirmation of the Constantinian Grant in
his royal oath . . ." (Helmut Luepke, Historische Falschungen als
Werkzeug der Politik, 1939, p. 13).
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12.
Falsifiers and covenant breakers who want to destroy the divine teachings and
against whom one must defend himself, are mentioned on fourteen of the
twenty-six pages of the testament. The tiring, unceasing repetition of these
relatively minor falsifications and their creators-which had actually taken
place earlier, particularly at the death of Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha's
acceptance of the responsibility for the teachings-is supposed to mislead
mankind about the mammoth falsification at the death of Abdul Baha and the
discovery of his alleged Will and Testament. About the contradictions
in the alleged testament of Abdul Baha, more is later spoken.
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12
"People have despised to this day ... the use of fraudulent documents
and therefore have had a right to consider themselves exalted over the
'treachery of the Greeks' who had to use these means more often .. ." (Johannes
Haller, 1950, loc. cit. p. 437). In reference to the Pseudo-Isidore
Decrees, Johannes Haller speaks of "endless repetitions and
occasional contradictions". (Johannes Haller, Nikolaus I. und
Pseudo-lsidor, 1936, p. 171). The Pseudo-lsidorian Decrees are a
collection of church laws and privileges with valid, invalidated and forged
edicts and documents in which the Constantinian Grant was also contained. Its
editor called himself Isidor Mercator, probably after the famous Bishop
Isidore of Seville
(632).
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13.
At every opportunity, mention of the "Will and Testament" was made
by Shoghi and is still made today by the organization. The thing that should
be tested serves as a basis of proof !
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13
The "Constantinian Grant" represents the absolute legal basis for
the papal party.
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14.
The fictitious testament is the foundation of administrative arrangement and
of the whole organization.
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14
From the eleventh century on, the fictitious document, this "Constantinian
Grant" plays a fateful role in the argumentation of the papal party for
the realization of their claim to world authority. (Article on
"Konstantinische Schenkung" in RGG, 1959, Vol. Ill, column
1787.)
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15
The alleged testament of Abdul Baha has become the Magna Charta, the great
carte-blanche for the Bahai organization and the basis for re-evaluation and
devaluation of the Bahai religion.
Further parallels between the pronouncements of the Guardian Shoghi Effendi
and his followers and those of the "Constantinian Grant".
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15
The "Constantinian Grant" strongly influenced the course of history
In the Middle Ages.
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16
"By leaving certain matters unspecitied and unregulated in His Book of
Laws, Baha'u'llah seems to have deliberately left a gap in the general scheme
of Bahai Dispensation ." (Shoghi Effendi, WOB, p. 4).
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16
The concessions of Constantine
mean the restitution of the rights to Peter which had been withheld from him
up to this point.
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17
Also to Shoghi's Administration, Matthew 22:21, "Render unto Caesar.
.." is no longer valid. Just as invalid is the statement, "My
kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36: the fictitious testament
proves this. The Bahai organization thinks it must take over political power
(cf. also Sears, Thief in the Night, 1961, p. 148f.).
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17
'The Constantinian Grant belongs to the genre of great ecclesiastical
falsifications which the Popes and their lawyers have known how to use as an
effective weapon against the empire throughout the centuries"
(Roessler/Franz, Sachwor- terbuch zur Deutschen Geschichte, 1958, p.
555). "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's..." is likewise
antiquated.
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18
Did not Shoghi Eflendi likewise Interpret the legal basis for the "Bahai World State"
from the Will andTestament of the pseudo-Abdul Baha? Only in tha Shoghi era
were the words of Jesus, "Render unto Caesar.. .", still absolutely
valid to Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha, replaced by: "the idea of religion
giving a law to the nation". (Shoghi Effendi, WOB 1938, New York,
introduction by H. Holley, p. VI).
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18
"Innocent IV... the one who interpreted the legal basis for the
Christian state from the former legal basis for papal rights and claims . .
." (Luepke, loc. cit. p. 13).
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19
Ahmad Sohrab gives sharp, Justified criticism about tha interpretation of the
Bahai teachings by Shoghi and the organization; however, he does not question
the validity of the document.
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19
The heretics in the thirteenth century did not attack the validity of the
document.
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20
Pseudo-Abdul Baha's Will and Testament was supposed to play a role in
world history. However, already in 1930 the American Ruth White made public
the conclusion of research on Abdul Baha's fictitious testament by a recognized
London
handwriting authority in a brochure, "Abdul Baha's Alleged Will is
Fraudulent". No line of the long testament Is identical with the
handwriting of Abdul Baha. Also the four signatures on the envelope do not
come from him.
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20
The "Constantinian Grant" played a role In world history until its
discovery by the humanist Valla in 1440, whose 'declamatio' was printed in
1519 by Ulrich von Hutten and was translated in 1537 by Martin Luther.
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21
In Russia,
where the first Bahai temple was built, the movement was prohibited in 1938
thanks to the politicalization of the Bahai religion. Many really
enthusiastic believers in the religion of Baha'u'llah were repulsed by this
political trend and have become "Free Bahais", only following the teachings
and not the organization.
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21
"And it (the Constantinian Grant) also remains the faithful companion to
the papal claims, always alive to the domination of the church over the state
and thereby at the same time to world domination." (Luepke, loc. cit. p.
12.)
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22
The Bahai Organization acts like Shoghi: It Ignores all attacks. On the other
hand it buys up the entire critical literature about the problem of the
Testament and its effects on the teachings of Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha,
published by believers in the Bahai teachings existing outside the
Organization. These publications are swept up from the American bookmarket,
whether new or second hand. Neither through recognized International
booksellers nor with the help of American friends is it possible to supply
oneself with such publications. Thus Ruth White's prediction has come true:
that the Bahai Organization would do everything to suppress the brochure of
Badi'u'-llah: "The Epistle to the Bahai World" and thus to
withhold It from future generations. That the same thing would happen with
her own writings is the logical consequence (See White, Bahai Religion, p.
127).
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22
"After the inferior work (of the Constantinian Grant) was discovered in
the fifteenth century, the incipient attempt to dispute the fact of the
falsification by the Papal Court and its disciples was finally given up as
hopeless." (H. Brunner, Das "Constitutum Constantini" in
'Festgabe fur Rudolf von Gneist, 1888, p. 3f.)
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23
From his study of the "Constantinian Grant" it became obvious to
the creator of the alleged Will end Testament of Abdul Baha that this
religious falsification was believed for about 1,000 years in the
Christian-Catholic community. Is not the statement of Mrs. Shoghi, "It
may take a thousand years to correctly appraise the implications of Abdul
Baha's Will and Testament. . ." (Ruhiyyih Khanum, Twenty-five Years
of the Guardianship, 1948, p. 26), is not this statement a proof of the
complicity of this woman in the spectacular falsification"?
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23
It was 1,000 years before the Catholic church gave up the claim of the
validity of the Constantinian Grant. "Since the middle of the nineteenth
century the contents of the Constantinian Grant have been considered
fraudulent by the Catholic party. (Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche, 1961,
Vol. VI, column 484.)
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24
After the death of Shoghi, who had no children and who had named no successor
for the Guardian dynasty, as defined by the alleged testament, the
"Guardianship" was abolished (1963) — but Shoghism has remained.
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24
The attitude of the Catholic church toward the fictitious grant until the
beginning of the 19th century: "Its outer form is invalid; the contents
of the marvelous Grant of Constantine is valid." (Realenzykiopaedie
fur protestantische Theologie, 1902, Vol. XI, p. 5.)
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|
25
What would have been the consequences for the fabricator of the
"Constantinian Grant" if he had been caught? H. Brunner concerns
himself with this problem in the above-mentioned essay according to Roman, Lombardian
and Frankish law. (H. Brunner, loc. cit., p. 34f.)
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In
contrast to the "Constantinian Grant", the falsification of Abdul
Baha's valid last will and testament brought no direct disadvantages for the
state or to the individual nations but it damaged the new religion itself. Is
it not a judgement of God if Shoghi does not have his last resting place
in the midst of his splendid gardens under the dome made of 12,000 or more
gilded tiles beside Abdul Baha and the Bab? Instead, his resting place is
beside that of Mr. X and Mrs. Y in one of the countless graveyards of London, one of the
world's largest cities. Whether Shoghi was fleeing the Asian flu or purchasing
furniture In London for his new archives is an irrelevance. And what does
Machiaveili, who may well be regarded as Shoghi's guide to power, have to say
about such a matter? "Among all men who are valued, the heads and founders
of the religions are the most highly valued. Unhonored and despicable, on the
other hand, are the destroyers of religion."
Our task,
however, is not to judge but to clarify and to present clearly. In the memory
of future generations, Shoghi Effendi will live long as the Judas Iscariot of
the Bahai Religion who betrayed the religion of Baha'u'llah for might and
money! With most of these contrasting points from the alleged Will and
Testament of Abdul Baha as well as with the statements quoted from the
different historical researchers who have dealt with the Constantinian Grant,
one is automatically reminded of words from "Tosca": "How the
pictures resemble one another!" Set this alongside Shoghi's small work. The
Promised Day Is Come which was published in 1943 in Wilmette, Illinois, USA. When we browse through this
paper we are stunned —it is a political tract, not a religious one. Here Shoghi
leads us to the sources of the alleged testament of Abdul Baha and shows us how
intensively he had studied medieval church history and the battle between
church and state, and how he had absorbed it when he writes, "Innocent III
who, during the eighteen years of his pontificate, raised and deposed the kings
and the emperors, whose interdicts deprived nations of the exercise of
Christian worship, at the feet of whose legate the King of England surrendered
his crown..." (Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day Is Come, 1967, p.
56). An earlier quoted German researcher wrote of this same pope, "The
worldly domination of the papacy over the whole earth proclaimed by Innocent
III is based on that Constantinian Grant..." (Luepke, loc. cit., p. 13)
Thereby every doubt that Shoghi diligently studied the "Constantinian
Grant" and used it as a basis for his inferior work of the alleged Will
and Tesfament of Abdul Baha may be eliminated. This fabrication fits the
situation after the death of Abdul Baha "like a key into a keyhole".
(Johannes Haller, dbs Papsttum, 1934, p. 407.)
