WHAT IS FREE BAHA'I FAITH

  THE FREE BAHA'I FAITH ?

 

INDEX

1-FREE BAHA'IFAITH'S TEACHINGS
A-Social teachings of the Free Bahai Faith:
B-Spiritual teachings the Free Bahai Faith:

2-FREE BAHA'I LAWS

3- A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FREE BAHA'I FAITH
A-Shayk Ahmad-i-Asai and Siyyid Kazim-i-Rashti:
B- The Bab:
C-Baha'u'llah:
D-Abdul-Baha:
E-Ruth White and Zimmer Hermann

4-COVENANT OF BAHAULLAH

5- PRESENT POSITION  

 

What is the FREE BAHA'I FAITH ?

1-FREE BAHA'I FAITH'S TEACHINGS

A-Social teachings of the Free Bahai Faith:

1. The elimination of prejudice.
2. The equality of men and women.
3. Spiritual solution of economic problems.
4. The oneness of all the world's great religions.
5. Universal compulsory education.
6. Independent investigation of the truth.
7. The establishment of a world government, based on principles of collective security and international justice.
8. The harmony of science and religion.
9. The oneness of humanity.
10. A universal auxiliary language and script.
11. A universal system of currency, weights, and measures.
12. The Oneness of God. 

B-Spiritual teachings the Free Bahai Faith:

1. Progressive Revelation - God has progressively revealed His attributes through a series of Manifestations or Prophets including Adam, Krishna, Buddha, Muhammad, Christ, Zoroaster, Moses, the Bab, and Baha'u'llah.

  2. God is an unknowable essence, but His attributes are made known by following the Manifestation of His attributes for our Day.

3. The Manifestation of God's attributes in our time is Baha'u'llah.
4. Prayer is obligatory.
5. Work done is a spirit of service to mankind is the highest form of prayer.
6. Study of the Writings of Baha'u''lah leads to spiritual development.
7. One should prefer his neighbor above himself.
8. Strict adherence to the Covenant of Baha'u'llah and Abdul-Baha's
9. Participation in Free Baha'i community life.

2- FREE BAHA'I LAWS:

1. Free Baha'is should have the permission of both sets of parents, and a Baha'i Marriage.
2. Free Baha'is should say an obligatory prayer at least once a day as prescribed in the Kitab-i-Aqdas.
3. Free Baha'is should be buried within an hours journey from the place of death and have a Baha'i funeral.
4. Gambling is forbidden.
5. The use of intoxicating drinks and drugs is strictly forbidden.
6. Free Baha'is should teach others about their faith.
7. Religion and politics are different.
8. Free Bahais love the entire world; to love humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and universal brotherhood.

 

3-A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FAITH

A-Shayk Ahmad-i-Asai and Siyyid Kazim-i-Rashti:
The first of two teachers who began to teach that a new dispensation was about to dawn, and a new Manifestation about to appear. They taught further that He would bring the entire world together under one banner. 

B-The Bab:
In 1844, the Bab (meaning, the Gate) announced to Mulla Husayn, a follower of Siyyid Kazim-i-Rashti, that He, the Bab, was a Manifestation of God, the Promised Herald of "Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest". The Bab was thrown into prison and moved to two different prisons during a short time. His followers were killed and tortured by the government. Finally, the Bab Himself was executed in the public square of Tabriz.

C-Baha'u'llah:

Baha'u'llah (meaning, Glory of God) was a follower of the Bab. After the death of the Bab, Baha'u'llah in 1853 was thrown in to the Dark Pit of Teheran, and while imprisoned there received the Revelation from God as to the start of His Mission. After release and banishment to Baghdad, Baha'u'llah for a time went into a self-imposed exile into the mountains. The Babi community was more and more degenerated and leaderless. Even though the Bab had appointed a figurehead in Mirza Yahya, the half-brother of Baha'u'llah, the real leadership had always revolved around Him. Finally the community sought Him out and begged Him to return. In 1863, Baha'u'llah publically announced His assumption of the mantle of Prophethood, and declared Himself to be the Promised One of the Bab and all the world's religions. After this He was banished to Constantanople, then Adreianople, and finally to the Holy Land, and the prison city of Akka. There he spent 35 years as a prisoner, and wrote great many volumes of His Scriptures for this dispensation. Toward the end of his life, he was made a prisoner under house arrest in mansion of Bahji. There He passed away in 1892.

D-Abdul-Baha:
Abdul-Baha, was appointed by Baha'u'llah in His own lifetime, to be the appointed interpreter of the Writings, and the Center of His Covenant. To Him all Baha'is to turn for guidance and to remain undivided. Abdul-Baha accepted His father's prophethood at the age of 9 years, and spent His life imprisoned with Baha'u'llah. With the Young Turk revolution Abdul-Baha was freed, and in 1912 He went on a worldwide teaching trip, in Europe and London, and to America. He passed away in 1921.

E-Ruth White and Zimmer Hermann

These were the two divinely guided teachers who came to the conclusion that the position of guardianship which Shoghi Effendi, grandson of Abdul Baha, claimed for himself the position of Guardianship based on FRAUDULENT will of Abdul Baha. Shoghi Effendi changed the most unpolitical religion in the world to a political religion, ignoring the sayings of Abdul Baha that "This religion could not be compressed into an Organisation. Shoghi built up an administration where the spirit of the Religion of Bahaullah and Abdul Baha was completely missing. He became for himself a world dictator a power hungry person who excommunicated all the members of the Abdul Baha's family including his own parents.

He abrogated the most important principle of the Bahai Faith "Independent investigation of the Truth" and called the followers of the Bahai Faith as "Harmful Elements", as "Enemies" or as "Crazy".

4-COVENANT OF BAHAULLAH

The promised one of Bahaullah will appear after one thousand or thousands of years. This is the Covenant which Bahaullah made...in case of differences, Abdul Baha must be consulted.....After Abdul Baha whenever the Universal House of Justice is organised, it will ward of differences.

 
5- PRESENT POSITION

Today free Bahais are residing in different parts of the world like Germany, Russia, Israel, India, Iran, Dubai Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Although few in number they are busy carrying out the teachings of Bahaullah and Abdul Baha, hoping one day the True "House of Justice will" be formed which will ward off any differences.

A FRAUDULENT TESTAMENT Part-10

Chapter 11.

 

XI. HUMANITY RENEWED BY RELIGION CREATES A NEW SOCIETY AS A
FOUNDATION FOR A NEW WORLD.

Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha have brought into relief a new man, and a new world order resulting therefrom. "For If the charactar of mankind be not changed, the futility of God's universal Manifestations would be apparent." ³⁰⁵ Here the teachings of the founders of the Bahai religion and the teachings of Jesus meet. Kurt Hutten is completely right in saying that a better future is only possible "if the Bahai religion and the men in it can move .. . pulling up the roots of selfseeking, of jealousy, of greediness, of the quest for power etc. out of the hearts of men. A sound world order presupposes sound men."³⁰⁶ The Bab, Baha'u'llah, and Abdul Baha, were the models of these sound men In our time, as Mohammed and Jesus were in their times. And this model was so strong that at the burial of Abdul Baha in Haifa on the slope of Carmel (1921) with the believers, approximately 10,000 Mohammedans, Christians, and Jews followed his casket and "consoled each other". His personality made It possible to tear down all barriers between religions and confessions. His life was tha realization of the teachings of Baha'u'llah united with those of Jesus and Mohammed. Without the realization of the teachings of this Manifestation the world has no chance to have a better future. But if the Will of God penetrates through his prophets into the hearts of men and changes them, then we have the basis capable of forming a New World, which men will easily accomplish with the teachings of Baha'u'llah, which in the meantime will have become intellectual public property.

---

305.  Baha'ullah, The Book of Certitude, 1970, p. 240 f.
306.  Deutaches Allgemeines Sonntagsblatt". Nr. 43, October, 1968

Chapter 12.
 
EPILOGUE

The single reaction of the Bahai Administration to the preceding text might be that they promote me to the status of "enemy of the Bahai religion" without presenting a single proof for this. In 1964 I was recognized in the (private) "Bahai Nachrichten", of October 16, Vol. 12 as a "covenant-breaker" because I had independently spoken in smaller and larger cities in southern and northern Germany about "the Return of Christ" in Baha'u'llah. In this connection I had only made the remark about the Bahai Organization that we should "come to an understanding". At that time, I myself still believed In a "modus vivendi" with the "recognized Bahais" until I was labelled as above. I could not be excommunicated, because I had never belonged to the Bahai Organization, as I was a member of the former Welt-Union-Bahai and the group around Wilhelm Herrigel. Now I was in the best company, namely in that of Ruth White and Ahmad Sohrab. The latter was designated at his death in 1958 as an "unyielding enemy of the organization", Mrs. White twenty years earlier as a "besotted woman", despite the fact that these two had been excellent fighters for the Cause of Baha'ullah and Abdul Baha. From this moment on I read Sohrab's Broken Silence and Ruth White's Abdul Baha's Questioned Will and Testament 1946 as well as Shoghi's publications and the totally modern Bahai literature. Because my mind would no longer be so manageable, as I grew older and the service as teacher left one with too little time and strength to be able to pursue these not-so-simple questions intensively, I took advantage of the first opportunity to retire.

Exactly at this time, a popular scientific book came into my hands: G. Prause's "Niemand hat Kolumbus ausgelacht", 1966, (No One Had The Last Laugh Over Columbus) in which "the forgeries and legends of history were set right". A page of this book was devoted to the "Constantinian Grant", and this strengthened my Intention to study this old falsification somewhat more closely.

With this I came to the not at all surprising conclusion of a great similarity between the two falsifications. By intensive reading of the alleged testament of Abdul Baha and the simultaneous study of Shoghi's God Passes By I came upon several similar turns of speech. As I systematically opened these up and categorized them, I obtained the Interesting list of almost Identical linguistic phrases.

My brochure published In 1950 Die Wlederkunft Christi, von der die Prophezeiungen sprechen... (The Return of Christ, of Which the Prophecies Speak...), proves that I am no enemy of the Bahai Cause. In it, I took pains to point out the historical bonds between the religion of Christ and the Bahai religion in the nineteenth century. The former member of the "National Spiritual Assembly of Bahai in Germany and Austria" and member of the "Spiritual Assembly of Bahais of Stuttgart", A. Spieth, a colleague, whom I did not know personally at all, assured me In a letter that this representation of the Bahai teachings was "in order". The problem of the alleged testament of Abdul Baha, of the Guardianship and of the Bahai organization were not broached by me at all. After more than eight years' absence in the army and as a POW, I returned home only in 1948 and ended my brochure with the death of Abdul Baha in 1921. The difference in time was too small and — what is still more determining — the necessary literature was not available at that time.

So to whomever now still maintains that I am an enemy of the Bahai religion, I would like to say that in 1937 shortly after the prohibition of the Bahai religion by the Gestapo,  I attempted to request the removal of this ban with the leader of the SS Heinrich Himmler, Boss of the Gestapo in Berlin. In order to lend greater pressure to my written attempt, I went myself to Berlin during my summer vacation in order to speak to the one in charge of the Gestapo. He asked me only one question, "Who gave you the money to travel to Berlin?" When I told him the truth, that I had worked overtime to furnish the money for it, he wanted to know nothing else. Because he could not permit the non-organization Bahais a lifting of the ban of assembly for reasons of principles, I asked him lastly about a time for a renewed discussion about a possible lifting of the ban. He told me I should come back in two years; that would have been in August, 1939. However, there was war in the air by that time, so I did not return to Berlin. My Bahai friends had warned me in 1937 not to travel to Berlin with the words, "You will be put into a concentration camp!" I had only replied to that, "Then I will just be put in a concentration camp."

To whoever further maintains that I am an enemy of the Bahai Religion, I would like to ask one last question: What have you done to get the Bahai religion on the right track? The employees paid by the Bahai Administration, the Hands of the Cause, the secretaries or publishers of all the periodicals are not addressed here. They all sing the song of the one who pays them! Ruth White paid for her critical works herself, Ahmad Sohrab published his criticism of the development of the Bahai religion himself only after the disgraceful trial against him and his employer Mrs. Chanler, who offered her complete means to give the Bahai religion a better start in the USA. Whether my presentation leads the Bahai religion out of its blind alley, I cannot say. Such great organizalions have their own laws, even if there were not "twenty million Bahais" in the world, but perhaps only two million.


Chapter 13.


PRINTS BY PHOTOCOPY - MIMEOGRAPH

As I have already mentioned elsewhere, the Bahai Administration has found it useful to allow critical literature from the Free Bahai group to disappear. Should you not find the books of Ruth White or Ahmad Sohrab in public libraries, prints by photocopy-mimeograph can be forwarded when an enclosure of a postal reply-coupon or Its equivalent in stamps and your exact address are added. Prints:

1. What Mrs. White has to say about the destiny of her check for $US 500.- made out to Abdul Baha (Abbas Effendi) (p. 204f.).

2. Photocopy of this check with the signature of its casher Sh. Effendi, the later Guardian Shoghi (Effendi) Rabbani. (between p. 204 and p. 205).

3. The report of the handwriting expert Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell, Colleague of the British Museum in London and publisher of the periodical "The Analyst", about the comparison of the photocopies of the authentic handwriting investigations of Abdul Baha of June 3, 1930 in Ruth White, Abdul Baha's Alleged Will is Fraudulent, an appendix to The Bahai Religion and its enemy... 1930, Rutland, Vermont, p. 14-17.

4.The verdicts printed in American newspapers about the trial by the National Spiritual Assembly of Bahai in the USA and Canada as well as the Spiritual Assembly of Bahai of New York in New York against the New History Society (Free Bahais) under  Mrs. Julie Chanler and Ahmad Sohrab, former secretary to Abdul Baha from 1912-1919. The Bahai Administration lost the first case. Published verdict in "New York Herald Tribune" of April 2, 1941 and in "New York World Telegram" of April 1, 1941. The Bahai Administration also lost the appeal. Published verdict in the "New York World Telegram" of June 19, 1941, in "New York Herald Tribune" of June 20, 1941, and in the "New York Law Journal" of June 19, 1941. The photocopies come from Sohrab, Broken Silence, New York 1942, p. 196, 197 and p. 258.

5. The excommunication of half of the extended family of Abdul Baha by Shoghi Effendi in telegrams of the Guardian of November and December 1941 with his reasons,  taken from Sohrab, Abdul Baha's Grandson (Ruhi Afnan) New York, 1943, pp. 22-29.

6. Brochure Die Wiederkunft Christi, von der die Prophezeiun-gen sprechen..." by Hermann Zimmer, Waiblingen, 1950.

Chapter 14.

 

ABBREVIATIONS OF BIBLIOGRAPHY

Shoghi Effendi
WOB	World Order of Bahau'llah	New York 1938
GPB	God Passes By	Wilmette 1970
Promised Day	The Promised Day Is Come	Wilmette 1967
Ruhiyyih Khanum
Guardianship	Twenty-Five Years of the Guardianship	Wilmette 1948
Passing	The Passing of Shoghi Effendi	London 1958
(Allegedly) Abdul Baha
W.& T.	Will and Testament of Abdul Baha	Wilmette 1971
Esslemont
New Era	Baha'u'llah and the New Era	1923/1970
Hofman
Commentary	A Commentary on the Will and Testament of Abdul Baha	Oxford 1955
White
Bahai Religion	The Bahai Religion and its Enemy the Bahai Organization	Rutland 1929
Ahmad Sohrab
Silence	Broken Silence	New York 1942
Grandson	Abdul Baha's Grandson (Ruhi Effendi Afnan)	New York 1943
Will	The Wll and Testament of Abdul Baha, an Analysis	New York 1944
Bahai Publishing Committee
Bahai	The Covenant and Administration German-Swiss Edition: Bahai, Das Bundnis und die Verwaltungsordnung	Switzerland 1959
RGG	Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Handworterbuch fur Theologie und Religionswissenschaften	1929/1959
"SdW"	Sonne der Wahrheit	Stuttgart 1921-1953
"BN"	Bahai Nachrichten

Chapter 15.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baha'u'llah
The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah, Haifa 1967
The Book of Certitude, Wilmette 1970
Three Tablets of Baha'u'llah, Chicago 1918   
The Seven Valleys, Translated by Ali Kuli Khan, Chicago 1906   
The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys, Translated by Ali Kuli Khan, New York 1936
L'Oeuvre de Baha'u'llah: Les Sept Valees du Voyage Vers Dieu.Traduction    Francaise par Hippolyte Dreyfus, Paris 1923   
Sieben Taler. Deutsch von Dr. Hermann Grossmann, Stuttgart 1950   
Sieben Taler - Vier Taler, Frankfurt 1963
Edward G. Browne  
A Traveller's Narrative, New York 1930

Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha    
Bahai Scriptures, New York 1928   
Bahai World Faith, Wilmette 1971 

Abdul Baha
The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Vol. I, Chicago 1922
The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Vol. II, Chicago 1925
Tablets I, New York 1930
Tablets II, Chicago 1919
An die Zentralorganisation  fur einen dauerhaften Frieden, Den Haag, 1919, Frankfurt/M.1948 und Frankfurt/M. 1968
Bahai Publishing Society    

Abdul Baha in London, Chicago 1921
(Allegedly) Abdul Baha - Will and Testament of Abdul Baha, Wilmette 1971
Alfred Diebold

Erlauterungen zum Testament Abdul Bahas, Stuttgart 1930, mim.
David Hofman   

A Commentary on the Will and Testament of Abdul Baha, Oxford 1955
Thornton Chase     

In Galilee, Chicago 1921
Bahai Revelation, German Translation 1925, Excerpt: "Zweck und Ziel der
Bahai-Offenbarung", Waiblingen 1962
Shoghi Effendi    

The World Order of Baha'u'llah, New York 1938
The Promised Day is Come, Wilmette 1967
The Advent of Divine Justice, Wilmette 1969
God Passes By, Wilmette 1970
Bahai Administration, Wilmette 1968   
Citadel of Faith, Wilmette 1970   
Messages to the Bahai World, Wilmette 1971   
The Faith of Balia'u'llah, Wilmette 1971
Der Bahai-Glaube -1844-1952, Frankfurt 1956
Messages To America, Wilmette 1947

Marcus Bach     
Shoghi Effendi, An Appreciation, New York 1958

Ruhiyyih Khanum    
Twenty-Five Years of the Guardianship, Wilmette 1946   
The Priceless Pearl, London 1969

Ruhiyyih/Ferraby
The Passing of Shoghi Effendi, London 1958

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of the United States     Declaration of Trust and By-Laws, Wilmette 1969

J. E. Esslemont   
Baha'u'llah and the New Era, London 1923   
Baha'u'llah and the New Era, Wilmette 1970   
Baha'u'llah und das Neue Zeitalter,   
Verlag des deutschen Bahai-Bundes, Stuttgart 1927
Baha'u'llah und das Neue Zeitalter, Stuttgart 1927
Baha'u'llah und das Neue Zeilalter, Frankfurt 1963
Baha'u'llah und Das Neua Zeitalter, Oberkalbach 1972

Ruth White   
Abdul Baha and the Promised Age, New York 1927
The Bahai Religion and Its Enemy, The Bahai Organization, Rutland 1929
Abdul Baha's Alleged Will Is Fraudulent, Rutland 1930
Abdul Baha's Questioned Will And Testament, Beverly Hills 1946
Correspondence between lhe High Commissionerof Palestine and Ruth White
concerning the alleged Testament of Sir Abdul Baha Abbas, March 1932, German translation, Stuttgart, mimeographed

Ahmad Sohrab   
Abdul Baha In Egypt, New York 1929   
Broken Silence, New York 1942
Abdul Baha's Grandson (Ruhi Effendi Afnan), New York 1943
The Will and Testament of Abdul Baha, An Analysis, New York 1944

Bahai Publishing Committee    
Principles of the Bahai Faith, edited before 1939

Bahai Publishing Trust    
The Covenant and Administration, Wilmette 1971

William Sears    
Thief in the Night, London 1971

G. Townshend    
Christ and Baha'u'llah, Wilmette 1971
Lady Blomfield    
The Chosen Highway, Wilmette 1967
Hushmand Sabet   
Der gespaltene Himmel (The Divided Heaven),Stuttgart 1967

Hermann Grossmann
Das Bundnis Gottes in der Olfenbarungsreligion, Frankfurt 1956

G. Rosenkranz   
Die Bahai, Stuttgart 1949

Kurt Hutten   
Seher, Grubler, Enthusiasten, Stuttgart 1958

Hermann Zimmer   
Die Wiederkunft Christi, von der die Prophezeiungen sprechen ..., Waiblingen 1950      
"Sonne derW ahrheit", Organ des Deutschen Bahai-Bundes Stuttgart
"Bahai-Nachrichten des Nationalen Geistigen Rates dar Bahai in Deutschland"
"Deutsches Allgemeines Sonntagsblatt", Hannover
"Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", Frankfurt/M.
 "Stuttgarter Zeitung", Stuttgart
Ruhi Afnan, Sekretar Shoghi Effendis von 1922-1936, to Alfred Diebold, Letter of March 12, 1930
Alfred Diebold an die Bahai-Freunde, Letter of May 28, 1930, mimeographed
Adolf Spieth an Frau Luise Zimmer, Letter of  March 1955

Udo Schafer   
Die MiBverstandene Religion, Frankfurt/M. 1968 `   
Die Grundlagen der "Verwaltungsordnung" der Bahai, Heidelberg 1957, Dissertation

Rudolf Jockel   
Die Lehren der Bahai-Religion, Tubingen 1952, Dissertation

Oswald Spongier   
Untergang des Abendlandes, Vol. II, Munchen 1922

Rossler/Franz   
Sachworterbuch zur Deutschen Geschicihte, 1958

Johannes Haller    
Das Papsttum 1934/1950    
Nikolaus 1. und Pseudo-lsidor, 1936

Johannes DoIIinger   
Die Papstfabein des Mittelalters, 1890

Macchiavelli   
Fischer Bucherei 1956

Helmut Lupke   
Historische Falschungen als Werkzeug der Polltik, Berlin 1939

H. Brunner   
Das "Constitutum Constantini" in 'Festgabe fur R. v. Gneist' 1888

Max Buchner   
Die Areopagitika des Abtes Hilduin von St. Denis . . .   
Studien zur FalsChungstechnik am Vorabend der Entstehung der Pseudo-lsidorischen  Dekretalen. 1939

G. Prause   
Niemand hat Kolumbus ausgelacht, Dusseldorf 1966

F. v. Schiller   
"Wallensteins Tod" 1/3Martin Luthers sammtiiche Werke, Erlanger Ausgabe 1830, Vol. 25 -Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche, 1961
Realenzyklopadie fur Protestantische Theologie, 1902 .
Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Handworterbuch fur Theologie und Religionswissenschaften 1929/1959
The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English Oxford 1952
Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary 1971