Chapter 7.
VII. SHOGHI EFFENDI IN THE FIRST FEW MONTHS AND YEARS AFTER
ABDUL BAHA'S DEATH
The time between Abdul
Baha's demise {November 28 1921) and Shoghi's return to Palestine (during the
first half of January, 1922) is filled with working out the first draft of the
alleged testament of Abdul Baha — From the end of March / beginning of April,
1922 until December 1922 Shoghi was in Europe. Here, the second draft of the
alleged testament of Abdul Baha is completed (in Oxford or London) - The work
of Dr. Esslemont is Influenced by Shoghi - The first edition of Baha'u'llah and
the New Era is a compromise - A further falsification by the Guardian: The
alleged "Last Major Tablet" of Abdul Baha: Protect the Cause that is
God's — In the Iron Age, the Bahais come under the brazen heel of the Guardian
— His fellow Persians heat up the opposition against him; thus, he has
credential letters and censorship brought against them - A 25-year old as the
Guardian of the Bahai Religion? - The initial years in Shoghi's later vision -
Shoghi assists in the attempt to monopolize the name of Bahai in a trial by the
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of the USA and Canada and by the
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahais of New York in New York against the Free
Bahais Sohrab/Chanler - Excommunication of half of the extended family of Abdul
Baha by Shoghi — Ruhi Afnan, the grandson of Abdul Baha and for many years
secretary to Shoghi Effendi, is the first to be ousted-Shoghi's
relationship to the Christian-Western world of today - Shoghi Effendi, the
"politician" - Shoghi and money - Shoghi in the light of his
environment - Opinions about Shoghi in the Bahai Administration's own
literature - Shoghi in London in 1957 and Abdul Baha in London in 1912: a
confrontationAfter the death of Abdul Baha on November 28, 1921, Shoghi
returned from England only in January and then in the company of his sister and
Lady Blomfield. Why did he come so late? Nothing was known about an examination
he was supposed to take. Certainly, there was no air traffic at that time.
However, Shoghi could have been back within eight days. As his wife later
wrote, he was supposed to have arrived very sick in Haifa due to sorrow over
the death of his grandfather, Abdul Baha. Whoever is so sad doesn't let many
weeks pass before he thinks about returning, but takes the express train to
Trieste, from there with the fast ships of Lloyd Triestino to Alexandria and
further with the train over the Suez Canal to Lydda and Haifa.The death of
Abdul Baha came as a surprise, because he had hardly ever been seriously ill
before. The alleged testament was not yet written at the time of his death,
because, as Johannes Haller says, "One does not falsify in advance."
Certainly Shoghi had read and studied Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli and also,
above all, the great forgeries of the early Middle Ages, the
"Constantinian Grant" and the "Pseudo-lsidorian Decrees",
that collection of law texts in which valid, forged and invalidated documents
were peacefully united. In addition, he might have carefully studied the Soviet
politics of that time, as Mrs. White also thinks. The concepts "Local
Spiritual Assembly" and "National Spiritual Assembly" of the then
rising Bahai Administration are only a mirror image of the "Local
Soviet" and "National Soviet" in which the amendment
"spiritual" must replace "religious". That the Russian word
"soviet" is equivalent to "assembly" or "council"
is generally recognized.Shoghi- however, was not officially familiar with these
studies. On the contrary, we find out completely different objectives."He
was ... studying at Oxford University in England in order to better prepare
himself to serve Abdul Baha as an interpreter, and to translate some of the
Bahai literature into English .. ." 152With
this, we must take into consideration that Shoghi studied a couple of years at
the American University in Beirut but did not receive a degree." 153 For acceptance in this school, an extensive knowledge of
the English language was necessary and this had to improve in the course of the
years. In 1919 Shoghi met with Dr. Esslemont and two Persians as translators of
Abdul Baha's Tablet "To the Central Organization for a Lasting Peace, The
Hague, Holland", which is only conceivable when one has a good command of
the English language.That the contents of the valid Will of Abdul Baha were
soon made known to Shoghi after the Master's death, we can take for
granted." 154
He was probably Informed by telegram about the most
essential provisions. Officiallythe reading of these last testamental
instructions of the Master was supposed to take place only after Shoghi's
return, which can also be proved. In any case, Shoghi had taken precautions for
the manipulation of the valid Testament.It was now his and his eventual back-up
men's task to assemble the long document of the alleged will of Abdul Baha. In
Oxford or in the anonymity of the library of the British Museum Shoghi could
have found what he wanted to combine with the valid Testament. Exactly when the
public reading of the Testament in Haifa was, is not known to us. That such a
reading actually took place we read in the "Sonne der Wahrheit",
1932, p. 123f., in a report which was written from the notes of Miss E.
Rosenberg.From the time of his return (the beginning of January, 1922) until
the reading of the typewritten translation of the fictitious Will of Abdul Baha
in New York (the middle of February, 1922), Shoghi had two to three weeks time
if we count fourteen days for mailing to the USA. It was clear to Shoghi that
this testament had to be immune against all attack. Perhaps doubts on certain
points occurred to him with the writing of the fictitious Will or the first
draft of the alleged testament did not seem sufficiently secure to him.
However, here In Haifa all the literature about the great falsifications of the
Middle Ages were not at his disposal.So Shoghi left Haifa again, probably at
the end of March. This we learn from a letter which the "Greatest Hoty
Leaf", the sister of Abdul Baha, wrote on April 8, 1922, "Since the
departure ... of our beloved Abdul Baha, Shoghi Effendi Is so deeply shaken
that he to seeking the needed rest in which he can contemplate the great task
left to him. In order to be able to do this, he left this land temporarily...
in his absence he has designated me as his representative." 155Fourteen days later
on Rizwan — thus, on April 21, 1922, Rouha Khanum, the third daughter of Abdul
Baha, communicated that Shoghi Effendi ". . . is recovering now from his
work, which was enormous.. ." Which "enormous work'' is meant here,
the author of the letter forgot to report. She would have saved us years of
work with her information! She speaks further of how Shoghi Effendi "felt the
necessity to withdraw in order to meditate in prayer on the magnificent and
serious task which is entrusted to him.. ." 156 It must have been clear to Shoghi that the alleged
testament of Abdul Baha would elicit both boundless astonishment and
unbelieving relection as well as piercing doubt and heavy resistance. This is
distinctly indicated In his letters written from the time of his acceptance of
the "Guardianship" and were passed on to us collected in book form,
first in Bahai Administration, then in World Order of Baha'u'llah and lastly In
The Promised Day is Come and The Advent of Divine Justice.What does Shoghi say
himself now about his renewed travel which has no relation at all to the office
of Guardian passed on to him in the alleged testament? In his first letter of
January 21, 1922, he recommends "the absolute shunning of whomsoever we
feel to be an enemy of the Cause. .." (Bahai Administration p. 16) This is
a new tone in the Bahai teachings and an absolute contradiction of Abdul Baha,
who showed trust to every man and tried by this means to win him. His second
letter of March 5, 1922 enjoins "constant .. . vigilance, lest ... the
very few who have been definitely pronounced by the Master as injurious to the
body of the cause, to make a breach in the Movement. . ." 157
In a further letter, published in German, Shoghi now gives a reason for his departure from Haifa: 158
"This servant... has been so stricken with grief and pain and so entangled in the troubles (created) by the enemies of the Cause of God, that I consider that my presence here, at such a time and in such an atmosphere is not in accordance with the fulfillment of my important and sacred duties." 159According to the above mentioned letter of the "Greatest Holy Leaf" of April 8. 1922, Shoghi's trip must have taken place rather hastily at the end of March or in the first days of April because only in May was Shoghi's explanation published. Shoghi's stand-in, the "Greatest Holy Leaf", also struck a similar note in a letter published in September, 1922 in the "Sonne der Wahrheit" (without date):" 160"A most serious obligation concerns every Bahai to defend the Holy Cause and to protect the stronghold of the belief from the attacks of the enemies ... so that no breach is made in the belief by the evil assaults of the enemies..."Then she still alludes to the few "violators of the covenant", who must be avoided by all the friends. Names were not mentioned and we would have been groping in the dark forever if Shoghi himself had not given an explanation one and a half years later, which confirms our suspicions quite clearly. Shoghi writes in a letter of November 14,1923, "The flames of sedition, so maliciously kindled In the past by those who have dared to flout His Will, are gone out for ever..." 161Because the alleged will of Abdul Baha was first made known after Shoghi's return from Europe, we hear now that the enemies of the cause are all those who raise doubts about the validity of this alleged will of Abdul Baha. It is gratifying to find out here that such heavy resistance is set against the alleged will right in the Orient from the beginning on. A few lines further, Shoghi speaks of the "agitation so violently renewed immediately after the passing of our Beloved . . ." 162
But this time they are completely different enemies; no longer the half-brothers of Abdul Baha, Mohammed Ali and Badi'u'llah but Abdul Baha's followers who mocked his alleged will. The members of the Persian colony in Haifa as well as the countless Akka and Haifa pilgrims from the Orient all knew the extended family of Abdul Baha much better than we in the distant West and therefore were much better informed about individual personalities such as Shoghi Effendi than we, thanks to the common Persian or Arabic language. Shoghi sees from the side of the Oriental believers a great danger approaching himself and the Bahai movement. In the light ol this, measures which Shoghi proposed in his second letter of March 5. 1922 had to be taken about "the matter of receiving Orientals and association with them .. ." (Bahai Administration, p. 24)Shoghi thinks of these security measures at the beginning of the Guardianship following the alleged testament of Abdul Baha: thus, three months after the Master's death. This 'Guardian etiquette' for association with Orientals was then later reduced to a simple formula: Only those Orientals who are able to present "proper credentials from a recognized Spiritual Assembly" may be received."163 The time in which these credential letters were introduced is significant: It is the second critical phase the Guardianship had to withstand, when Mrs. White published the results of the handwriting expert about the photocopies of the alleged testament of Abdul Baha in 1930.These credential letters must have proved to be the shield of the organization-true Bahais from those who still had the courage to think independently because in 1935 they were also introduced in the USA for Bahais who wanted to have contact with fellow believers in another city." 164After the previously mentioned letter of November 14, 1923, the series must be reported further. Nothing more is spoken of Shoghi's possible illness. His stand-in, the "Greatest Holy Leaf", writes (undated),"We hope that Shoghi Effendi will soon return after he has acquired spiritual power and insight, and that he will again take up his responsibility laden post with renewed zeal and faith." 165The same writer communicates on November 24, 1922,
"... that we have good news about the health of the beloved Shoghi Effendi. He thinks of the friends and we hope to see him here again soon." 166On December 17,1922, Shoghi writes, "Now that my long hours of rest and meditation are happily at an end, I turn my face with renewed hope and vigor to that vast continent . . ." The enemies of the belief are still here, however, and "in their impotent wrath and despair..." they may throw "apparent obstacles in this way." 167 In the winter and spring of 1923 Shoghi was In Haifa. In his only letter published in Germany of March 12, 1923, he speaks of the "evil machinations of the enemies of His Cause, the breakers of His
behests ...." and of protecting "at all times, the Temple of the Cause from the dart of the mischief-maker and the onslaught of the enemy..." 168This time, too, Shoghi did not stay long in Haifa. He was back hardly half a year when he was again In a foreign country, probably in Europe. One of his secretaries reports this in a letter dated August 5, 1923, according to which Shoghi Effendi had arrived for his summer vacation safe and sound. 169 Shoghi is first heard from again on November 14, 1923 in the previously mentioned letter about "the flames of sedition ... kindled .. . by those who have dared to flout His will . .." In this letter, Shoghi reviews the "unfortunate circumstances of ill-health and physical exhaustion that have attended the opening years of my career of service to the Cause..." 170There was nothing said previously in any reports about any kind of sickness or of "physical exhaustion". Indeed, how can Shoghi speak of "the last years of my service". From the previous quotations It is easy to see that Shoghi was not in Haifa from April to December, 1922, and had appointed a stand-in; also in 1923 he left in July at the latest and was heard from again only in November. Thus he was in the service of the Holy Cause practically only four months in 1922 and about seven months in 1923.Shoghi was thus active the rest of the time in "outside work". What did that really consist of? According to my opinion, the alleged will and testament of Abdul Baha had to be brought to completion safely under cover. The most important points of the alleged testament were certainly already covered in the first edition and had been read aloud in Haifa as well as in New York, Now was the time to work out the second draft edition in leisure. Earlier — namely from the death of Abdul Baha until the return of Shoghi — the latter had to work under pressure of time. This was now no longer necessary. The alleged testament was now laid on ice. Only three years after the first reading aloud of the fictitious Will and Testament of Abdul Baha did "old and recognized believers" receive a typewritten copy of it." 171 Because back then in February, 1922, no one had taken notes of the reading, not even the former journalist White, it would have been easy to present a somewhat altered text. Three years later, no one remembered the first draft any more, even less so when at the reading "no details whatsoever, or comments, upon the alleged Will were vouchsafed to the audience." 172 Thus, the space of time between December, 1921 and the summer of 1922 might have been set aside for the completion of the fictitious testament of Abdul Baha, with Oxford (or London) and Haifa being the place of production.Apart from the completion of the alleged will of Abdul Baha, the quarrel with the Englishman, Dr. Esslemont, over the printing of the above mentioned book may well have been one further important reason for his continued absence from Haifa.At this point, I would like to refer once more to the earlier mentioned statement of Shoghi where he identified the "flames of sedition" with the mockery of the alleged Will of Abdul Baha. Why are these rebels against the alleged Will of Abdul Baha "gone out for ever"? The warning at the end of the alleged Testament of Abdul Baha, "To none Is given the right to put forth his own opinion..." had not been of much use, the rebellion itself showed this. But Dr. Esslemont's work Baha'u'llah and the New Era, finally published in 1923 had contained an addition: The Last Will and Testament of Abdul Baha". I consider this fact the basis for Shoghi's being able to write the statement quoted above partially: "The flames of sedition, so maliciously kindled in the past by those who have dared to flout His will, are gone out for ever, and the fondest hopes of these evil plotters are now abandoned, doomed never to revive." (Bahai Administration p.51)One must acknowledge that Shoghi achieved a personal victory with this addition to Esslemont's book. With it, this book, viewed by the Bahai Administration as the best presentation of the Bahai Cause, became just as double-tracked as the Testament itself. One can easily believe that the alleged testament received these contradictions from the forger, because Dr. Esslemont refused to make any cuts after the time of Abdul Baha. Dr. Esslemont had revised the manuscript of his book In repeated conversations during a visit In Haifa with Abdul Baha in the winter of 1919/20 and then let it be translated into Persian so that Abdul Baha could read it and possibly propose further improvements. It was not the Master's fate, however, to proofread the complete work. The completed manuscript was gone over carefully by a committee of the National Bahai Spiritual Assembly of England whidh approved its publication. Shoghi also read the whole manuscript in English and gave it his "cordial approval". Ha also proposed improvements in the translation of the original Persian sources, which Esslemont "gladly adopted".Shoghi and Dr. Esslemont knew each other from this earlier stay in Haifa. They had also met at that time as translators of Abdul Baha's Tablet 'To the Central Organization for a Durable Peace, The Hague, Holland", together with two other Persian Bahai friends.Shoghi certainly visited Dr. Esslemont during his eight month absence from Haifa in 1922 and tried to convince him to accept an excerpt about the alleged "Will and Testament of Abdul Baha" in the last chapter of his book. Interesting points, such as the "Right of God" —thus, the donations to the Guardian as well as his "bodyguard" — or the prohibition of the expression of personal opinion concerning the Testament quoted in the previous excerpt as well as the verdict of damnation for all who do not believe inthe Guardian - all are missing in this excerpt. In their place, an excerpt is contained in the first English edition In 1923 and in 1927 in German, which is seen as a massive argument against the alleged testament: "Baha'u'llah further arranged that after the death of Abdul Baha an International Spiritual Assembly (Baytu'l-Adl), representative of all Bahais throughout the world, should be appointed to take charge of the affairs of the Cause, to control and coordinate all its activities, prevent divisions and schisms, and preserve the teachings from corruption and misrepresentation. Moreover, Baha'u'llah expressly forbade interpretation of the teachings by anyone but Abdul Baha, and after him the International Baytu'l-Adl. In the Book of Akdas he declared that all explanations or Interpretations of the sacred texts contrary to the obvious sense thereof are forbidden. In a "thousand or thousands of years" another Manifestation will appear, under the shadow of Baha'u'llah, with clear proofs of His Mission, but until then the words of Baha'ullah and Abdul Baha and the decision of the International Baytu'l-Adl constitute the authorities to which all believers must turn for guidance." 173In the second Improved German edition (without date of publication) as well as in the third from 1948 and the fourth from 1963, these extremely important sentences are missing. The reasons for the changes are given in the foreword to the second improved German edition, namely "that the author's views, some of them written prior to 1921, no longer on certain aspects of the subject correspond to the evolutionary character of the Faith ... Unavoidably, a few errors of fact had entered Ms text..." 174Considering the fact that these above mentioned sentences were a slap in the face to the alleged testament, there was nothing else left to the American National Spiritual Assembly but to strike out these statements "under the advice and approval of Shoghi Effendi". These omissions are a classic example of a biassed historical account; thus, of how historical facts are altered to be of better service to the interests of a small group; that's the Guardian and highest functionaries of the Bahai Administration. Whether Shoghi had already tried, to remove these above quoted sentences when he was absent from Palestine from March or April until December 1922, we can only guess. Because Shoghi had specialized on the completion of testaments, as we have indicated, we cannot accept the fact that he overlooked these sentences, although he had given his acceptance tor the publication of the first edition.The fact that the alleged testament represents exactly the opposite of the above mentioned orders of Baha'u'llah in the time after Abdul Baha might not have occurred to so clever a man as Esslemont. Pilate's question, "What is the truth?", one could put forward again here. Had not the editor also written the sentence that a Bahai "needs to be a fearless seeker after truth . .." 175Whether this double-lracked presentation — first edition in 1923 after the death of Abdul Baha an international spiritual assembly, the so-called Baytu'l-Adl '" and at the end of the book: Last Will and Testament of (the alleged) Abdul Baha with Guardian and Guardianship177 — whether these mutually exclusive excerpts represent a compromise struck between the Guardian and Dr. Esslemont is accepted as relatively certain. The editor took this knowledge with him to his early grave. In any case we find the author two years later in Haifa by the side of the Guardian where he was "his most important co-worker". This collaboration lasted only a short time, because Esslemont was called away by death at the end of 1925, thus after a good year.The statement in the testament that Shoghi is the "expounder of the words of God" also contradicts the above mentioned presentation that "Baha'u'llah expressly forbade interpretation of the teachings by anyone but Abdul Baha, and after him the International Baytu'l-Adl . . ." Abdul Baha's next sentence is still remarkably to be found, in the later editions; and deals, in my opinion, directly with Shoghi Effendi: "One of the enemies of the Cause is he who endeavours to interpret the words of Baha'u'llah and thereby colours the meaning according to his capacity, and collects around him a following, forming a different sect, promoting his own station, and making a division in the Cause." 178During the same time; that is, in the first months after the death of the Master, another falsification of the Guardian arose. This further falsification was fabricated in order to prepare the Bahai world, thus the followers of Abdul Baha, for the shocking language of the alleged Will and Testament of the Master and to have a proof of the means of expression which he never made use of attributed to Abdu! Baha: Protect the Cause of God... with the subtitle Last Major Tablet of Abdut Baha to His friends in the East and West.179This alleged last tablet of Abdul Baha surely had the simultaneous goal of counteracting the massive criticism of the alleged testament of Abdul Baha, which we in the West hardly knew about. This alleged "Last Major Tablet of Abdul Baha" is completely in the spirit of the alleged "Will of Abdul Baha"; however, not in that of the historical Abdul Baha. When it says in the end, "Turn away from the prejudice of others and of slander...", Shoghi speaks for himself. In this alleged tablet of Abdul Baha we have before us a mirror-image of the resistance with which the Bahai friends of the East, the Persians above all, opposed the alleged Guardian Shoghi.
In a further letter, published in German, Shoghi now gives a reason for his departure from Haifa: 158
"This servant... has been so stricken with grief and pain and so entangled in the troubles (created) by the enemies of the Cause of God, that I consider that my presence here, at such a time and in such an atmosphere is not in accordance with the fulfillment of my important and sacred duties." 159According to the above mentioned letter of the "Greatest Holy Leaf" of April 8. 1922, Shoghi's trip must have taken place rather hastily at the end of March or in the first days of April because only in May was Shoghi's explanation published. Shoghi's stand-in, the "Greatest Holy Leaf", also struck a similar note in a letter published in September, 1922 in the "Sonne der Wahrheit" (without date):" 160"A most serious obligation concerns every Bahai to defend the Holy Cause and to protect the stronghold of the belief from the attacks of the enemies ... so that no breach is made in the belief by the evil assaults of the enemies..."Then she still alludes to the few "violators of the covenant", who must be avoided by all the friends. Names were not mentioned and we would have been groping in the dark forever if Shoghi himself had not given an explanation one and a half years later, which confirms our suspicions quite clearly. Shoghi writes in a letter of November 14,1923, "The flames of sedition, so maliciously kindled In the past by those who have dared to flout His Will, are gone out for ever..." 161Because the alleged will of Abdul Baha was first made known after Shoghi's return from Europe, we hear now that the enemies of the cause are all those who raise doubts about the validity of this alleged will of Abdul Baha. It is gratifying to find out here that such heavy resistance is set against the alleged will right in the Orient from the beginning on. A few lines further, Shoghi speaks of the "agitation so violently renewed immediately after the passing of our Beloved . . ." 162
But this time they are completely different enemies; no longer the half-brothers of Abdul Baha, Mohammed Ali and Badi'u'llah but Abdul Baha's followers who mocked his alleged will. The members of the Persian colony in Haifa as well as the countless Akka and Haifa pilgrims from the Orient all knew the extended family of Abdul Baha much better than we in the distant West and therefore were much better informed about individual personalities such as Shoghi Effendi than we, thanks to the common Persian or Arabic language. Shoghi sees from the side of the Oriental believers a great danger approaching himself and the Bahai movement. In the light ol this, measures which Shoghi proposed in his second letter of March 5. 1922 had to be taken about "the matter of receiving Orientals and association with them .. ." (Bahai Administration, p. 24)Shoghi thinks of these security measures at the beginning of the Guardianship following the alleged testament of Abdul Baha: thus, three months after the Master's death. This 'Guardian etiquette' for association with Orientals was then later reduced to a simple formula: Only those Orientals who are able to present "proper credentials from a recognized Spiritual Assembly" may be received."163 The time in which these credential letters were introduced is significant: It is the second critical phase the Guardianship had to withstand, when Mrs. White published the results of the handwriting expert about the photocopies of the alleged testament of Abdul Baha in 1930.These credential letters must have proved to be the shield of the organization-true Bahais from those who still had the courage to think independently because in 1935 they were also introduced in the USA for Bahais who wanted to have contact with fellow believers in another city." 164After the previously mentioned letter of November 14, 1923, the series must be reported further. Nothing more is spoken of Shoghi's possible illness. His stand-in, the "Greatest Holy Leaf", writes (undated),"We hope that Shoghi Effendi will soon return after he has acquired spiritual power and insight, and that he will again take up his responsibility laden post with renewed zeal and faith." 165The same writer communicates on November 24, 1922,
"... that we have good news about the health of the beloved Shoghi Effendi. He thinks of the friends and we hope to see him here again soon." 166On December 17,1922, Shoghi writes, "Now that my long hours of rest and meditation are happily at an end, I turn my face with renewed hope and vigor to that vast continent . . ." The enemies of the belief are still here, however, and "in their impotent wrath and despair..." they may throw "apparent obstacles in this way." 167 In the winter and spring of 1923 Shoghi was In Haifa. In his only letter published in Germany of March 12, 1923, he speaks of the "evil machinations of the enemies of His Cause, the breakers of His
behests ...." and of protecting "at all times, the Temple of the Cause from the dart of the mischief-maker and the onslaught of the enemy..." 168This time, too, Shoghi did not stay long in Haifa. He was back hardly half a year when he was again In a foreign country, probably in Europe. One of his secretaries reports this in a letter dated August 5, 1923, according to which Shoghi Effendi had arrived for his summer vacation safe and sound. 169 Shoghi is first heard from again on November 14, 1923 in the previously mentioned letter about "the flames of sedition ... kindled .. . by those who have dared to flout His will . .." In this letter, Shoghi reviews the "unfortunate circumstances of ill-health and physical exhaustion that have attended the opening years of my career of service to the Cause..." 170There was nothing said previously in any reports about any kind of sickness or of "physical exhaustion". Indeed, how can Shoghi speak of "the last years of my service". From the previous quotations It is easy to see that Shoghi was not in Haifa from April to December, 1922, and had appointed a stand-in; also in 1923 he left in July at the latest and was heard from again only in November. Thus he was in the service of the Holy Cause practically only four months in 1922 and about seven months in 1923.Shoghi was thus active the rest of the time in "outside work". What did that really consist of? According to my opinion, the alleged will and testament of Abdul Baha had to be brought to completion safely under cover. The most important points of the alleged testament were certainly already covered in the first edition and had been read aloud in Haifa as well as in New York, Now was the time to work out the second draft edition in leisure. Earlier — namely from the death of Abdul Baha until the return of Shoghi — the latter had to work under pressure of time. This was now no longer necessary. The alleged testament was now laid on ice. Only three years after the first reading aloud of the fictitious Will and Testament of Abdul Baha did "old and recognized believers" receive a typewritten copy of it." 171 Because back then in February, 1922, no one had taken notes of the reading, not even the former journalist White, it would have been easy to present a somewhat altered text. Three years later, no one remembered the first draft any more, even less so when at the reading "no details whatsoever, or comments, upon the alleged Will were vouchsafed to the audience." 172 Thus, the space of time between December, 1921 and the summer of 1922 might have been set aside for the completion of the fictitious testament of Abdul Baha, with Oxford (or London) and Haifa being the place of production.Apart from the completion of the alleged will of Abdul Baha, the quarrel with the Englishman, Dr. Esslemont, over the printing of the above mentioned book may well have been one further important reason for his continued absence from Haifa.At this point, I would like to refer once more to the earlier mentioned statement of Shoghi where he identified the "flames of sedition" with the mockery of the alleged Will of Abdul Baha. Why are these rebels against the alleged Will of Abdul Baha "gone out for ever"? The warning at the end of the alleged Testament of Abdul Baha, "To none Is given the right to put forth his own opinion..." had not been of much use, the rebellion itself showed this. But Dr. Esslemont's work Baha'u'llah and the New Era, finally published in 1923 had contained an addition: The Last Will and Testament of Abdul Baha". I consider this fact the basis for Shoghi's being able to write the statement quoted above partially: "The flames of sedition, so maliciously kindled in the past by those who have dared to flout His will, are gone out for ever, and the fondest hopes of these evil plotters are now abandoned, doomed never to revive." (Bahai Administration p.51)One must acknowledge that Shoghi achieved a personal victory with this addition to Esslemont's book. With it, this book, viewed by the Bahai Administration as the best presentation of the Bahai Cause, became just as double-tracked as the Testament itself. One can easily believe that the alleged testament received these contradictions from the forger, because Dr. Esslemont refused to make any cuts after the time of Abdul Baha. Dr. Esslemont had revised the manuscript of his book In repeated conversations during a visit In Haifa with Abdul Baha in the winter of 1919/20 and then let it be translated into Persian so that Abdul Baha could read it and possibly propose further improvements. It was not the Master's fate, however, to proofread the complete work. The completed manuscript was gone over carefully by a committee of the National Bahai Spiritual Assembly of England whidh approved its publication. Shoghi also read the whole manuscript in English and gave it his "cordial approval". Ha also proposed improvements in the translation of the original Persian sources, which Esslemont "gladly adopted".Shoghi and Dr. Esslemont knew each other from this earlier stay in Haifa. They had also met at that time as translators of Abdul Baha's Tablet 'To the Central Organization for a Durable Peace, The Hague, Holland", together with two other Persian Bahai friends.Shoghi certainly visited Dr. Esslemont during his eight month absence from Haifa in 1922 and tried to convince him to accept an excerpt about the alleged "Will and Testament of Abdul Baha" in the last chapter of his book. Interesting points, such as the "Right of God" —thus, the donations to the Guardian as well as his "bodyguard" — or the prohibition of the expression of personal opinion concerning the Testament quoted in the previous excerpt as well as the verdict of damnation for all who do not believe inthe Guardian - all are missing in this excerpt. In their place, an excerpt is contained in the first English edition In 1923 and in 1927 in German, which is seen as a massive argument against the alleged testament: "Baha'u'llah further arranged that after the death of Abdul Baha an International Spiritual Assembly (Baytu'l-Adl), representative of all Bahais throughout the world, should be appointed to take charge of the affairs of the Cause, to control and coordinate all its activities, prevent divisions and schisms, and preserve the teachings from corruption and misrepresentation. Moreover, Baha'u'llah expressly forbade interpretation of the teachings by anyone but Abdul Baha, and after him the International Baytu'l-Adl. In the Book of Akdas he declared that all explanations or Interpretations of the sacred texts contrary to the obvious sense thereof are forbidden. In a "thousand or thousands of years" another Manifestation will appear, under the shadow of Baha'u'llah, with clear proofs of His Mission, but until then the words of Baha'ullah and Abdul Baha and the decision of the International Baytu'l-Adl constitute the authorities to which all believers must turn for guidance." 173In the second Improved German edition (without date of publication) as well as in the third from 1948 and the fourth from 1963, these extremely important sentences are missing. The reasons for the changes are given in the foreword to the second improved German edition, namely "that the author's views, some of them written prior to 1921, no longer on certain aspects of the subject correspond to the evolutionary character of the Faith ... Unavoidably, a few errors of fact had entered Ms text..." 174Considering the fact that these above mentioned sentences were a slap in the face to the alleged testament, there was nothing else left to the American National Spiritual Assembly but to strike out these statements "under the advice and approval of Shoghi Effendi". These omissions are a classic example of a biassed historical account; thus, of how historical facts are altered to be of better service to the interests of a small group; that's the Guardian and highest functionaries of the Bahai Administration. Whether Shoghi had already tried, to remove these above quoted sentences when he was absent from Palestine from March or April until December 1922, we can only guess. Because Shoghi had specialized on the completion of testaments, as we have indicated, we cannot accept the fact that he overlooked these sentences, although he had given his acceptance tor the publication of the first edition.The fact that the alleged testament represents exactly the opposite of the above mentioned orders of Baha'u'llah in the time after Abdul Baha might not have occurred to so clever a man as Esslemont. Pilate's question, "What is the truth?", one could put forward again here. Had not the editor also written the sentence that a Bahai "needs to be a fearless seeker after truth . .." 175Whether this double-lracked presentation — first edition in 1923 after the death of Abdul Baha an international spiritual assembly, the so-called Baytu'l-Adl '" and at the end of the book: Last Will and Testament of (the alleged) Abdul Baha with Guardian and Guardianship177 — whether these mutually exclusive excerpts represent a compromise struck between the Guardian and Dr. Esslemont is accepted as relatively certain. The editor took this knowledge with him to his early grave. In any case we find the author two years later in Haifa by the side of the Guardian where he was "his most important co-worker". This collaboration lasted only a short time, because Esslemont was called away by death at the end of 1925, thus after a good year.The statement in the testament that Shoghi is the "expounder of the words of God" also contradicts the above mentioned presentation that "Baha'u'llah expressly forbade interpretation of the teachings by anyone but Abdul Baha, and after him the International Baytu'l-Adl . . ." Abdul Baha's next sentence is still remarkably to be found, in the later editions; and deals, in my opinion, directly with Shoghi Effendi: "One of the enemies of the Cause is he who endeavours to interpret the words of Baha'u'llah and thereby colours the meaning according to his capacity, and collects around him a following, forming a different sect, promoting his own station, and making a division in the Cause." 178During the same time; that is, in the first months after the death of the Master, another falsification of the Guardian arose. This further falsification was fabricated in order to prepare the Bahai world, thus the followers of Abdul Baha, for the shocking language of the alleged Will and Testament of the Master and to have a proof of the means of expression which he never made use of attributed to Abdu! Baha: Protect the Cause of God... with the subtitle Last Major Tablet of Abdut Baha to His friends in the East and West.179This alleged last tablet of Abdul Baha surely had the simultaneous goal of counteracting the massive criticism of the alleged testament of Abdul Baha, which we in the West hardly knew about. This alleged "Last Major Tablet of Abdul Baha" is completely in the spirit of the alleged "Will of Abdul Baha"; however, not in that of the historical Abdul Baha. When it says in the end, "Turn away from the prejudice of others and of slander...", Shoghi speaks for himself. In this alleged tablet of Abdul Baha we have before us a mirror-image of the resistance with which the Bahai friends of the East, the Persians above all, opposed the alleged Guardian Shoghi.
My thesis about the
resistance of the Persian Bahais is based on the following facts:
1. The Englishwoman Miss E.
Rosenberg, who was present at the opening of the Testament after Shoghi's
return in January 1922 gave to understand, "The surprise (over Shoghi's
appointment to Guardian) was initially great in Persia.'" 180
2 Following this alleged "Last Major Tablet of Abdul Baha" in the "Sonne der Wahrheit", Shoghi's letter was published, in which he writes, "This servant ... has been so stricken with grief and pain and so entangled in lhe troubles (created) by the enemies of the Cause of God . . .", that Shoghi left Haifa for around 8 months (Bahai Administration p. 25).
3 In the second letter after the death of
Abdul Baha and the beginning of his Guardian office, Shoghi writes about the
means of spreading the teachings, "such as . . . the matter of receiving
Orientals and association with them . . ," 181 From
these regulations of the Guardian etiquette for the receiving of and
association with Orientals, above all with the Persians, came the credential
letters which were introduced in the USA ten years later and which were
supposed to protect the recognized Bahais from those who only believed in Abdul
Baha.A comparison of the expression and word usage of the alleged "Last
Major Tablet of Abdul Baha" with his alleged "Will and
Testament" (The author regrets not having found the English version of
this Tablet in the English-American Bahai-literature)
Alleged
"Last Major Tablet
of Abdul Baha to His friends in the East and the West" "Protect the Cause of God" ("Behdtet die Gottessache", to be found only in German) 182 |
Alleged Will and Testament
of Abdul Baha,
Wilmette
1971
|
1. The instigators of rebellion p. 50
|
1. "as a mover of strife..." p. 25
|
2. Like wolves ...bloodhounds ...ravens of envy p. 50f
|
2. "held fast in the talons of ferocious lions, of ravening
wolves, of blood thirsty beasts.. ." p. 9
|
3 The hate and rancour of the nonbelievers increase p. 51
|
3. that "hate and rancour may vanish from the
world..." p. 14
|
4. instigates more and more rebellion and mischief p. 51
|
4. "this alert and active worker of mischief..." p. 21
"mischief-kindling leaflets..." p. 24 |
5. Seize the reins of revolt p. 51
|
5. "the flame of sedition..." p.25
"raise the standard of revolt.. " p.26 |
6a. The ugly viper uses its poisonous fangs and spreads Its
deadly poison p. 51
|
6. "but he poisoned therewith the life of this hapless one.
. ." p.
|
6b. in which the virus of prejudice and corruption is eating 183
|
|
7. untouched by this hate and this evil p. 51
|
7. "protect them ... from all ... hate and envy..."
p.9
how with hate and rebelliousness they have erred from Thy Testament.. ." p.17 |
8. cunning and deceitful are these snakes, these instigators of
evil p. 51
|
8. "with .. . falsehood and slander . ."p.18
|
9. sly in their craft and malice p. 51
|
9. "and have arisen intent upon
malice..." p.17 not to requite them for... their craft and their mischief..p.18 showed their malice. . ." p.9 |
10. Be on your guard and ever watchful p. 51
|
10. "be on your guard..." p. 21
"watch and examine . . ." p.21 |
11. Protact yourselves, do not let any soul secretly instigate a
disruption or incitement p. 51
|
11. "Beware lest ye approach this
man" p.21 "for he will surely cause disruption and mischief..." p.21 "they ... hurled their calumnies upon me..." p.17 |
12. be on your guard night and day p. 51
|
12. "... this wronged servant has spent his days and
nights..." p. 10
|
13. the nonbelievars take pains - .. to shake the foundations of
the Cause p. 51
|
13. "and subvert the very foundations... of the Cause
of God -.." p.25
|
14. Guard the Cause of God p. 51
|
14. "Guard ye the Cause of God ..." p.19
|
15. to kindle secretly discord and quarrels
p. 51 |
15. "have the utmost fear of
discord ..." p. 19 "Conflict and contention . .." p.13 |
16 inside they are ravening wolves p. 51
|
16. "ravening wolves..." p.9
|
Translated from the basic text (by Shoghi Effendi, Balliol
College, Oxford, England)
|
(In the "Selected Writings of Baha'u'llah and Abdul
Baha", compiled under the name Bahai World Faith, Wilmette 1971, there is
"The Master's Last Tablet To America", p. 429ff. I am convinced, that
this alleged "Last Tablet of Abdul Baha..." is likewise a
falsification. If I could find the English text of the "Last Major Tablet
of Abdul Baha To His Friends in the East and the West" anywhere, we have two
Last Tablets of the Master - author's statement.)Everyone who might muster the
courage to establish that Abdul Baha did not speak any such language by
critically hearing or reading the alleged testament of Abdul Baha is supposed
to be reassured by this falsification. It is very easily possible that some
critics from the ranks of the Oriental Bahais, the Persians above all, came
with these arguments. The Western Bahais were, however, protected from these
very appropriate remarks. Shoghi composed this alleged "Last Major
Tablet" then and introduced it into the Bahai publications. It is the same
pompous, hard and cold language as in Abdu! Baha's fictitious Testament with
words and attributes which are not in accordance with Abdul Baha's former manner
of expression and which stand in absolute contradiction to his general
attitude.The opposition in Europe and the USA slowly grew against that which,
according to the alleged last will of Abdul Baha takes the place of the Master.
In the "Sonne der Wahrheit" 1924, p. 70 an excerpt appears from the
notes which Mrs. Maxwell, Shoghi's future mother-in-law, made during her then
recent Haifa trip:"When the question was littered one day whether one has
to be subjected to the authority of the Spiritual Assembly, Shoghi Eftendi
said, ... This is not a matter of reason, but a matter of belief. Many of the
instructions and ordinances may appear to be unreasonable, but we must simply
have belief and faith in them, and the sign of belief is obedience ...
Obedience is the proof of belief, it is the result of belief. The friends must
bestow trust in the National Assembly and entrust to it their questions to be
answered and the necessary money'..."This logic had its effect.
Particularly the Stuttgart group around W. Herrigel, rejected these statements
as not being in accordance with the Bahai teachings. Because the opposition
against the Guardian was stiffening, these notes of Mrs. M. Maxwell were again
published two and a half years later in the "Sonne der Wahrheit", in
order to enforce this obedience against reason as a result of faith. 184Once
again Shoghi gives us personal news about the years when he was absent from
Haifa so often. On the occassion of the death of Hippolyte Dreyfus, Paris, he
wrote on December 21, 1928:
"and particularly amid the storm and stress that have agitated my life after Abdul Baha's passing.. ." 185No word of sickness, but practically an apology for his absence from Haifa. He was only there infrequently, spending the greater part of his time outside Palestine. And such a man is supposed to have been named by Abdul Baha as Guardian of the Bahai religion and Head of the House of Justice: a man who had not left his "storm and stress" period once and for all behind him, who was then an absolutely immature man? Abdul Baha had too good a knowledge of men for that! In the Lexikon fuer Theologie und Kirche Vol. I, column 1190 the reporter stated that the Bahai religion had "as Guardian, the twenty-five year old Shoghi Effendi". This short comment says enough for this writer! Has so young a man ever been chosen Pope by the Catholic bishops and cardinals in conclave? Have not the youngest presidents of the great nations been approximately twice as old as Shoghi, when he stepped up with the claim to be the "Guardian" of the Bahai Cause at twenty-five?The balancing act which Shoghi had accomplished in the first years after Abdul Baha's death on the basis of his alleged last will found its trace in correspondending expressions in his later letters. Thus he wrote about "the critical years following Abdul Baha's ascension" on December 21,1928 in the eulogy at the death of Dr. Hippolyte Dreyfus." 186With this he might have been thinking above all about the Orientals, his Persian countrymen, who "mocked His (the Master's) fast Will". The people of the West had not yet come so far. But when Ruth White's book about the "enemy of the Bahai religion" appeared in 1929, and the proof of the London handwriting expert that no line of the alleged testament showed the Characteristics of Abdul Baha's handwriting appeared in 1930, then it might have come rather close for him. Yet what fortune in misfortune — the majority of the Bahais didn't notice anything. His careful tactics were worthwhile and only the commentary with which he relieved his heart after passing the most dangerous point of his career witnesses how strongly he had to suffer under the fear of discovery of his falsification.In a letter of March 21, 1933 he writes of "the turbulent years following the revelation of so momentous a Document (the alleged testament ol Abdul Baha) . .." 187 In the same letter he speaks then two pages later of the "dark years immediately following Abdul Baha's ascension . . ."188Around this time his position was secured. Ruth White and Ahmad Sohrab were long excommunicated and a small part of the Stuttgart Bahais had separated themselves from the organization into the "Bahai World Union". The Bahais ran safely in the beaten track of the Administration. Shoghi had won hands down.The actions of a personality give an impressive picture of him, next to which even the most beautiful words stand out like only a pale haze. In this respect one year stands out especially from the others, the year 1941. In this year was the trial which the American Bahai organizalions under the energetic support of the Guardian led against the group of Free Bahais Sohrab — Chanler because of the use of the name "Bahai" for a bookshop, on posters and in newspaper announcements: first the case and then the appeal were lost and with the explicit reference to the rights of Americans in the Bill of Rights. The verdict of the New York Supreme Court was given in the accounts of the two newspapers, the "New York World Telegram" of April 1, 1941 and the "New York Herald Tribune" of April 2, 1941. and passed on in A. Sohrab's Broken Silence 1942, pages 196 and 197. The verdict in the court of appeals which the Bahai 0rganization lost exactly as before is given in the same book on page 258 in the reports of the "New York Law Journal", "New York World Telegram" and "New York Herald Tribune" in the issues of June 19 and 20, 1941. Judge Valente decided that the complaintant, the Spiritual Assembly of Bahai of USA and Canada plus that of New York, had no right to monopolize the name of a religion and thus to claim it for itself alone. The American Bahai Administration had the name "Bahai" patented for itself. The executive officer there had done this because he considered the word "Bahai" a phenomenon name. just as a car or cigarette brand name. The discovery of this evidence indicated to the free Bahai world what disorder existed in the minds of the Bahai Administration and that of the Guardian.This disgraceful behavior of the Bahai organization should not, however, stand alone. A couple of months later, from November 7, 1941 to January 1, 1942 a substantial part of the extended family of Abdul Baha was excommunicated by the Guardian. There is a great probability that a good cooperation had existed between the members of the family of Abdul Baha and Shoghi. And now suddenly, within the short time of seven weeks, the grandchildren of Abdu! Baha were excommunicated by Shoghi with their families and simultaneously their mothers, Abdul Baha's daughters.In the small work, The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah to the Kings and Leaders of the World (Bahai World Center Haifa, Israel, 1967), it says in the introduction, which is taken in part from Shoghi's writings (p.Xf.):"The unity of the human race ... implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which ... the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals ... are definitely and completely safeguarded."How "personal freedom" appears to Shoghi comes in the following reasons for the excommunications:
"and particularly amid the storm and stress that have agitated my life after Abdul Baha's passing.. ." 185No word of sickness, but practically an apology for his absence from Haifa. He was only there infrequently, spending the greater part of his time outside Palestine. And such a man is supposed to have been named by Abdul Baha as Guardian of the Bahai religion and Head of the House of Justice: a man who had not left his "storm and stress" period once and for all behind him, who was then an absolutely immature man? Abdul Baha had too good a knowledge of men for that! In the Lexikon fuer Theologie und Kirche Vol. I, column 1190 the reporter stated that the Bahai religion had "as Guardian, the twenty-five year old Shoghi Effendi". This short comment says enough for this writer! Has so young a man ever been chosen Pope by the Catholic bishops and cardinals in conclave? Have not the youngest presidents of the great nations been approximately twice as old as Shoghi, when he stepped up with the claim to be the "Guardian" of the Bahai Cause at twenty-five?The balancing act which Shoghi had accomplished in the first years after Abdul Baha's death on the basis of his alleged last will found its trace in correspondending expressions in his later letters. Thus he wrote about "the critical years following Abdul Baha's ascension" on December 21,1928 in the eulogy at the death of Dr. Hippolyte Dreyfus." 186With this he might have been thinking above all about the Orientals, his Persian countrymen, who "mocked His (the Master's) fast Will". The people of the West had not yet come so far. But when Ruth White's book about the "enemy of the Bahai religion" appeared in 1929, and the proof of the London handwriting expert that no line of the alleged testament showed the Characteristics of Abdul Baha's handwriting appeared in 1930, then it might have come rather close for him. Yet what fortune in misfortune — the majority of the Bahais didn't notice anything. His careful tactics were worthwhile and only the commentary with which he relieved his heart after passing the most dangerous point of his career witnesses how strongly he had to suffer under the fear of discovery of his falsification.In a letter of March 21, 1933 he writes of "the turbulent years following the revelation of so momentous a Document (the alleged testament ol Abdul Baha) . .." 187 In the same letter he speaks then two pages later of the "dark years immediately following Abdul Baha's ascension . . ."188Around this time his position was secured. Ruth White and Ahmad Sohrab were long excommunicated and a small part of the Stuttgart Bahais had separated themselves from the organization into the "Bahai World Union". The Bahais ran safely in the beaten track of the Administration. Shoghi had won hands down.The actions of a personality give an impressive picture of him, next to which even the most beautiful words stand out like only a pale haze. In this respect one year stands out especially from the others, the year 1941. In this year was the trial which the American Bahai organizalions under the energetic support of the Guardian led against the group of Free Bahais Sohrab — Chanler because of the use of the name "Bahai" for a bookshop, on posters and in newspaper announcements: first the case and then the appeal were lost and with the explicit reference to the rights of Americans in the Bill of Rights. The verdict of the New York Supreme Court was given in the accounts of the two newspapers, the "New York World Telegram" of April 1, 1941 and the "New York Herald Tribune" of April 2, 1941. and passed on in A. Sohrab's Broken Silence 1942, pages 196 and 197. The verdict in the court of appeals which the Bahai 0rganization lost exactly as before is given in the same book on page 258 in the reports of the "New York Law Journal", "New York World Telegram" and "New York Herald Tribune" in the issues of June 19 and 20, 1941. Judge Valente decided that the complaintant, the Spiritual Assembly of Bahai of USA and Canada plus that of New York, had no right to monopolize the name of a religion and thus to claim it for itself alone. The American Bahai Administration had the name "Bahai" patented for itself. The executive officer there had done this because he considered the word "Bahai" a phenomenon name. just as a car or cigarette brand name. The discovery of this evidence indicated to the free Bahai world what disorder existed in the minds of the Bahai Administration and that of the Guardian.This disgraceful behavior of the Bahai organization should not, however, stand alone. A couple of months later, from November 7, 1941 to January 1, 1942 a substantial part of the extended family of Abdul Baha was excommunicated by the Guardian. There is a great probability that a good cooperation had existed between the members of the family of Abdul Baha and Shoghi. And now suddenly, within the short time of seven weeks, the grandchildren of Abdu! Baha were excommunicated by Shoghi with their families and simultaneously their mothers, Abdul Baha's daughters.In the small work, The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah to the Kings and Leaders of the World (Bahai World Center Haifa, Israel, 1967), it says in the introduction, which is taken in part from Shoghi's writings (p.Xf.):"The unity of the human race ... implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which ... the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals ... are definitely and completely safeguarded."How "personal freedom" appears to Shoghi comes in the following reasons for the excommunications:
Names of the Excommunicates
|
|
Second trip to the USA in 1935 without approval of the Guardian
|
Ruhi Afnan, Grandson of Abdul Baha, Secretary of the Guardian
from 1922-1936
|
Marriage without agreement of the Guardian
|
Zahra Khanum, Abdul Baha's granddaughter and wife of Ruhi Afnan
|
Married a covenant-breaker
|
Soraya Khanum, Abdul Baha's grand daughter and wife of Feyzi
Afnan, sister of Ruhi Afnan
|
Departed to England without approval of the Guardian
|
Foad Afnan, Abdul Baha's grandson, brother of Ruhi Afnan and
Soraya
|
Marriage without agreement of the Guardian brother
|
Mehr-Anglz Khanum, granddaughter of Abdul Baha, earlier Shoghi's
favorite sister
|
Seen as a so called "covenant-breaker"
|
Feyzi Afnan, Baha'u'llah's grandson
|
Indirectly excommunicated, probably because they have stuck with
their excommunicated children, which is absolutely forbidden; Touba Khanum,
second daughter of Abdul Baha (husband dead)
Rouha Khanum, third daughter of Abdul Baha and her husband, Mirza Jalal Shahid, son of the King of the Martyrs |
From the more distant relatives of Abdul Baha's extended
family were further excommunicated a sister or half sister of Abdul Baha:
Furighyyeh Khanum, Baha'u'llah's daughter and her husband Aga
Sayyed Ali Afnan. 189
|
After her death this daughter of Baha'u'llah was considered an "enemy" by Shoghi and was therefore still excommunicated. This fact gives the modern papal bulls their special appeal: The Guardian — not only the almighty Lord over all the living, as read in the alleged testament of Abdul Baha, but also over the dead -is really a superman. To this most repulsive order of the Guardian there is a parallel in the realm of Christianity: Around one and a half millenium after Christ's death the Archbishop Albrecht of Magdeburg and Mainz, papal commissioner for indulgences for Germany, sold letters of indulgences, even for the dead. Here it was business which would increase tremendously by this profiteering; there it was the demonstration of power, which was supposed to bring about a multiplication of its influence with the help of fear.188 The eldest daughter of Abdul Baha and her husband, Shoghi's parents, publicly distanced themselves from their daughter (and Shoghi's sister), by severely condemning the marriage of their daughter (without agreement of the Guardian brother) in a declaration. Therefore they must separate themselves totally from her, nay never visit her, not even in case of sickness, must be more removed from her than any kind of strangers, who could at least talk with her. No Bahai may speak with the excommunicated all bonds of family and friendship are destroyed! These excommunications cannot be attributed to the Bahai religion, but to the "Inimitable system" of the first and last Guardian Shoghi.191 So as a believer in the Bahai religion, but not at all with Shoghi's coloring, one is happy when he can read in an article about "Excommunication" in our Christian West: "Excommunication is steadily becoming a civil punishment which the authorities have no longer applied since tha Enlightenment and whose ecclesiastical use they forbid." .192 Only one neutral voice should be still brought out in answer to this group of excommunications, that of Rabbi Stephen Wise of the Free Synagogue in New York, President of the Jewish Institute for Religion and the American Jewish Congress. In a letter to Ahmad Sohrab he wrote, "As for excommunicating the members of the family of the founder of the movement, that is an act which is irreligion at its woret..." .193 Shoghi also brings up the same Rabbi Wise when he reports that Rabbi Wise belonged to "those men of eminence and learning who were moved ... to pay tribute not only to Abdul Baha Himself, but also to the Faith of Baha'u'llah..." .194 The reasons for the mentioned excommunications are threadbare and hairsplitting, so that every reader is immediately hit by the idea that these are only pretences which must serve to veil the real relationships. What, however, were the true reasons? Was it a palace revolution of a part of Abdul Baha's family under the leadership of Ruhl Afnan, who had been the trusted secretary of Shoghi for fourteen years and had enjoyed unlimited trust, because of the trial which the American Bahais, under the strong moral support of the Guardian, led against the Free Bahais Sohrab-Chanler and which heavily damaged the image of the Bahai religion? Or did it have to do with a new knowledge, a regret of Ruhi Afnan about the Testament whose alleged "reading" was 20 years earlier? Ruhi Afnan had protected Shoghi Effendi with his name in the matter of the supposed "reading" of the alleged testament of Abdul Baha five to six weeks before Shoghi's return..195 We are working on assumption and can only hope that the truth will still come out one day.Ruhi Afnan was a loyal servant of his master, the Guardian, who had identified himself with the decisions made by the Administration with regard to a number of the questions facing it. Moreover the two stood shoulder to shoulder on such issues. In addition lo the administrative red-tape in his letters — he was Shoghi's secretary from 1922-1936 - there are also many parts where he lets ring the universal philantropic ideas of the true Bahai religion "that warms the heart and comforts the soul" .196 And when he went in 1927 as Shoghi's replacement to the USA, he met with a warm wave of enthusiasm as Abdul Baha's only descendant who literally followed his footsteps and undertook the continuation of the work begun by Abdul Baha.In exactly one year's stay Ruhi Afnan won the unlimited comradeship of the Americans. Memories of the historical trip of the great Master over the North American continent were again awakened and were newly formed by his youthful grandson, who spoke with great warmth and eloquence about the universal ideas of the Bahai religion. This is shown in the official reports in "Bahai News" and in the Bahai magazine "Star of tha West" from August 1927 until July 1928.In 1935 Ruhi Afnan went a second time to the USA. According to the "Bahai News" of October 1935 .197 this took place "with the Guardian's approval". The reaction to this trip in the official organ of the Bahais was substantially smaller this time because Sohrab mentions only a few examples. Ruhi's activities as Shoghi's secretary as well as his work as an author published in the Bahai periodical go to meet their end. The last article, which Sohrab can prove came from the pen of Ruhi, is called "Religious Institutions and Religions". In this he wanted to give a philosophical basis for the administrative establishment of the Bahai religion. At the end of this article he mentions, "The administration of the Faith of Baha'u'llah is still In its infancy, It has to grow and mature, to fulfill its mission in the world; but after ages of activity and useful service It will become subject to corruption.".198 From this point on there was nothing more of Ruhi Afnan to be found in Bahai publications; it had been his swan song..199 The farseeing universality and liberality which are particular to the teachings of Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha and which Ruhi had kept safe in spite of his support of the Administration, might have played no small role in his removal. Probably the end of his activity as Shoghi's secretary, about which we know only that it ended in 1936, is also connected with this clear expression of opinion.When the "Hands of the Cause of God" in Europe wrote in a proclamation to the fifteen National Spiritual Assemblies in Europe that "this continent, — the cradle of Western culture — is back the farthest in the domain of teaching", this is a great tribute. By that the Europeans seem to remember what an unholy development was established on their continent 1200 years ago with the Constantinian forgery and do not want to experience its results once again. They do not want to move into spiritual concentration camps which the usually victorious Guardian of the Bahai religion intended for them.Western culture and civilization is all right for the Guardian when he takes his vacation, for example in Switzerland. He especially likes that. At home in Haifa the world does not look so rosy as the Swiss Alps in the sunset, and therefore he writes, "A world.,. entangled in the mesh of its accumulated falsities..., spiritually destitute, morally bankrupt, politically disrupted, socially convulsed, economically paralyzed, writhing, bleeding and breaking up beneath the avenging rod of God".200 We all are not able to praise our world. A couple of strong injections of that which Christ, which Mohammed, Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha wanted would do it some good. But does Shoghi himself live according to the commands of Christ, Mohammed, Baha'ullah or Abdul Baha? Is he himself not woven In the net of his own accumulated falsities as we have shown? Is this not the reason that he never, at any time, dared to meet Bahais eye to eye? His testament falsification is certainly the greatest falsification of the second millenium A. D. The professional historians will present this fact still more clearly. Is there anything that is "more spiritually destitute" than Shoghi's Administration, in which the Bahai religion has been degraded into a political party with a little religious coating? Is it not a "spiritual plundering", when the name "Bahai" has been patented by the Shoghi Administration in the USA as one protects market goods commercially? Is not Shoghi himself "morally bankrupt" when, with his agreement, a trial is brought against the free Bahais Ahmad Sohrab, the former secretary of Abdul Baha and Mrs. Julie Chanler because of the use of the name "Bahai" for their small Bahai bookshop on posters and in announcements? A greater "moral bankruptcy" of his so highly praised Administration than this one can hardly imagine! Is not his system "politically disorganized" from its beginning when he plays down the political order and sets in its place anarchy, as in the following statement:"The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish..." 201 Is not Shoghi's own world "socially shaken to pieces" when he himself in the driver's seat of power excommunicates half of the extended family of Abdul Baha within seven weeks, including one of the deceased sisters of the Master and her mate for absolutely unbelievable reasons?202 The world was not "economically pgralyzed" even in the war, when total production only served the national political demand for the annihilation of the respective enemy. Nothing more could be spoken at all about this "crippling' after the war because a constantly increasing economic boom reached the fullest measure, which no one had considered possible. Were not Shoghi himself and his Administration beneficiaries of this gigantically growing economic development? Only by the strongly swollen floods of contributions, gifts and endowments had the new religious buildings, the building of Bahai Assemblies and the acquisition of Bahai landmarks been possible.How impossible Shoghi's assertions in the political realm are, a last statement shows: "Nation building has come to an end."203 Twelve years after the staling of this sentence (1936), the former Mandate Palestine became, in 1948, the Independent state of Israel. In the course of the following years the colonies in Africa, together with many other former colonial areas, became free nations with seats and voices in the UN. The count of approximately sixty new states, since Shoghi's above quoted statement, might not be too high to comprehend. Moreover the Bahais quota in their new editions the absolutely untenable political statements of their "true brother Shoghi" !When one compares the relationship of the Master to money and that of Shoghi and the Bahai Administration to money, one also sees which direction the Bahai religion has taken. In the foreword to the collection of Abdul Baha's speeches which he gave In the USA, Howard McNutt writes,"Everywhere in his journeying throughout the United States Abdul Baha was received and welcomed in a spirit of love and reverence. Temples and churches of all denominations, synagogues, peace societies, religious groups and new thought centers opened their doors, pulpits and platforms willingly and without reservation to his message. He attended peace conferences at Lake Mohonk, visited the open forum at Green Acre on the Piscataqua,addressed large gatherings at Columbia and Leland Stanford Universities, spoke before scientific associations, socialistic bodies, ethical cults, welfare and charitable organizatlons, attended receptions and banquets in the mansions of the rich, visited the poor and lowly in their humble homes, carried the light of hope and uplift to darkened souls In Bowery Mission; — In brief, proclaimed his message and teachings universally to every degree and capacity of humankind with such pure and sincere motive that all heard him gladly and without prejudice or antagonism. Furthermore, his beneficent activity in the cause of God and loving service to mankind was without money and without price, for Abdul Baha in no instance accepted remuneration; — a most unusual precedent and a wholesome variation from the money-getting methods of other visitors from the Orient. On the contrary, it was hia custom to make liberal donations to needy churches and religious bodies, often assisting by generous gift and contribution societies and associations devoted to universal principles and ideals ... Under all circumstances Abdul Baha refused to accept money for himself or the cause he represented. When the Bahais of this country received word of his intended visit, the sum of eighteen thousand dollars was subscribed toward the expense of his journey. He was notified of this action and a part of the money forwarded to him by cable. He cabled in answer that the funds contributed by his friends could not be accepted, returned the money and instructed them to give their offering to the poor.
Briefly; — the visit of Abdul Baha to the United States was unique and characteristic of his high, holy mission, reflecting an unmistakable altruism of purpose and purity of motive." 204 If a man like Abdul Baha can finance this long trip to Europe and America and also present these donations which have just been mentioned, the means must have come from somewhere. Whether there was much saved from the former possessions of the family of Baha'u'llah is doubtful. Thus Abdul Baha had to receive contributions from his believers, as he is not supposed to have received compensation from the former Turkish government for the time of his imprisonment, which was hardly the case. In spite of his personal modesty and unpretentiousness, the necessary cost for the trip was very great. All the more impressive is this attitude of the Master.In the "Formative Age" of the Bahai religion, thus in the Shoghi Era, money played a much greater role. The entire relations were turned upside down from the time of Abdul Baha. Shoghi had certainly made many greater trips than Abdul Baha, yet he never stood with his followers and always played the mysterious stranger. But in reference to money we are acquainted with his very important sayings:"It is the sacred obligation of every conscientious and faithful servant of Baha'u'llah, who desires to see His Cause advance, to contribute freely and generously for the increase of that Fund." 205"The supply of funds, in support of the National Treasury, constitutes, at the present time, the life-blood of those nascent Institutions which you are laboring to erect... I am eagerly and prayerfully awaiting the news of an unprecedented expansion in so vital an organ of the administrative Order ol the Fait."206
We do not know the author of the following utterance concerning
the finances, because he was not mentioned. We find them in the "Bahai
Nachrichten" of November 4,1963 in the news from the USA, p. 12: "Can
we rightly comprehend the privilege that it is to he allowed to contribute to
the belief? One should indicate it as a privilege and not a duty, to give to
the belief..." "Sacrifice is the right word; everyone can give, but
our gifts as sacrifice is much more than customary giving."
"To give exactly what one wants is not enough — the sacrifice is the touchstone for the measure of belief. We today can only give money, where many have given their lives. When we contribute, it does our souls good."As previously said, the spiritual father of these statements is not given; however, they could have originated from Shoghi. Especially the last statement leads us into remembrances ol schooldays in history and religion where we heard that according to monk Tetzel, the soul sprang "out of purgatory, when the money jingled in the cashbox". This huge spreading of business by encroachment on the dead is not referred to in the concept of the Bahai sacrifice. Therefore we read in the "Bahai Nachrichten" of January -March 1955, Number 11 page 8 in a letter of the Guardian's about "The American Bahais in the Time of World Peril" in an "Appeal for Dedication" among other things: "It is therefore imperative for the individual American believer, and particularly for the affluent, the independent, the comfort-loving and those obsessed by material pursuits, to step forward, and dedicate their resources, their time, their very lives to a Cause of such transcendance that no human eye can even dimly perceive its glory. Let them resolve, instantly and unhesitatingly, to place, each according to his circumstances, his share on the altar of Bahai sacrifice, lest, on a sudden, unforeseen calamities rob them of a considerable portion of the earthly things they have amassed..." (Shoghi Effendi, Citadel ol Faith, 1970, p. 131).From the more or less rich Americans — there are differences there as everywhere - Shoghi demanded that they "dedicate their resources, their time, their very lives ..." What was his most personal altitude toward this "Cause of such transcendence -.."? We find it exactly in black and white, but to be sure, only after his death. Shoghi used neither the great trips, for which his believers had given him the means, nor his time for the promotion of the Bahai religion. "As was the invariable custom of the beloved Guardian during his absence from Haifa, no contact was made with any Bahai.207 This statement gives not only the obviously bankrupt explanation of the "New World Order from Shoghi's Bahai Administration Laboratory, but also a first prize memorial epitaph for the "great Guardian"!This "appeal for Dedication" letter shows us not only that Shoghi was never in his whole life forced to work in order to be able to live; at the same time it completely betrays a scorn of work which has material worth, which is incomprehensible to normal men. When the work product is not bigger than what is absolutely necessary for survival, then there can be nothing left over for the immaterial values of life: nothing for art, science music or religion, values which make life seem livable to us I remember here that Abdul Baha carried out extensive land development in the last phase of WorldWar I in Tiberias (Palestine) the profits of which he magnanimously divided among the poorer population, and with which he prevented starvation. for these, his material efforts, which fulfilled his idealistic efforts in the best way he was then, in 1920, dubbed "Knight of the British Empire" one and a half years before his death.Shoghi had it easier. Ruth White describes in her second work (1929), how Shoghi cashed a check designated for Abdul Baha from Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence and Ruth White valued at five hundred dollars with his signature "Sh. Rabbani"; however, the money was not handed over to Abdul Baha, but he disappeared with it to Oxford."208 Here, at this juncture in the Bahai religion, twenty years after the death of Abdul Baha and following the excommunication of half of his extended family plus the almost incredible trial conducted by the National Spiritual Assembly against those able opponents within the imaginative and active Sohrab-Chanler group - this seems just the very moment to say something about the personality of the Guardian.Thousands and thousands got to know the "Center of the Covenant" and interpreter of Baha'u'llah's teachings following Abdul Baha's trip to Europe and the USA. These people were thrilled and fascinated by the radiation of this personality. As a young boy of nine in 1913, I experienced with the visit of Abdul Baha to Stuttgart what a feeling of happiness ran through his followers when they became acquainted with the "Master". When Thornton Chase, editor ol the excellent book The Bahai Revealation, visited Abdul Baha in Akka in April 1907; thus, still before the Revolution of the Young Turks, he reported later about it, "He (Abdul Baha) extends love to everyone; he draws near to them: ha invites them; he loves to serve them, even in little things. He demands no awe, no reverence, no separation ... no bar or restraint is there, but winsome love and attraction." 209The minister of Community Church, New York, Dr. G. Haynes Holmes wrote about his meeting with Abdul Baha, "I had previously met Abdul Baha on the occasion of his visit to this country, had sat close to him, taken his hand, and conversed with him in most informal and friendly fashion." The same pastor reports about his meeting with Shoghi Effendi, "I remember my astonishment when I was taken in the reception room, placed in the corner farthest removed from the door. Instructed that I must rise when Shoghi Effendi entered, and must under no circumstances approach his person . .. And here in Haifa I had to keep my distance, as though I were in the presence of some king or pope." 210 As a young man I had also attempted to come in contact with the successor to the personality who was met with such a wave of esteem. Visiting close relatives in Egypt In 1929, I made a detour on the return trip from Cairo out to Haifa, planning to return home from there. To my great disappointment I learned then that Shoghi was recuperating in Switzerland, and in Stuttgart no one knew anything about Shoghi Effendi's coming at all! (Translator's note: Stuttgart is in Southern Germany, approximately 100 miles from the German-Swiss border.) This was indeed not necessary because he did not come at all! And he never came to Stuttgart, nor to Frankfurt or Berlin, nor to Vienna or Budapest, not to Paris, London or New York!. That Shoghi visited many of these cities, incognito to be sure, is viewed as certain (Ruhiyyih Khanum, The priceless Pearl, 1969: "although Shoghi Effendi often travelled about Europe . . ." p. 58).Only once did his followers know exactly where he was: In the Swiss capital of Bern. Did Shoghi speak there about the universal aspects of Baha'u'llah's teachings, of the unity of mankind above all racial barriers, about the essential unity of religions? No! The alleged Guardian of the Bahai religion, the alleged interpreter of the teachings of Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha passed on such activities to the workers in the "vineyard of the Lord", to the employed, craftsmen, workers, housewives, officials, and the self-employed, who in their meager spare time applied their energy at the disposal of the Bahai religion. Hats off to all these courageous men and women, these pioneers who gave everything to realize the ideals of the Bahai religion' And again, hats off to their exertions, their self-denial, their religious zeal and not the least to their readiness to great financial sacrifice! They made use of every opportunity of association which would bring them one small step forward again. There were no such kinds of contact for the Guardian! Instead, he sought out a site for one of the next temples with the artistic background of snow and ice covered Alps and bought it personally - a rare honor for this place. The reporter is silent about contacts with Bahais or potential followers - but what contacts to clever dealers and sly land speculators! The "Bahai Nachrichten" could not have given us a sharper picture of the unknown "shadow" of lhe Bahai religion who had his administration-marionettes dance from Haifa. "Many of these sites are victories...", so it further says in the report about the land acquisition of the Guardian, because still other sites had been acquired. We give heartfelt thanks to the reporter for this sincerity. They are victories over the gullibility and the wallets of the followers, who have not yet noticed what kind of a corrupter has taken the place of the unforgotten Abdul Baha. Not once did Shoghi grace his "International Conferences" with his presence; however, still a few weeks before his death he summoned "the assembled company of the followers to get themselves ready as quickly as possible to assure the victory of these conferences. Thus he, Shoghi Effendi, calls on others to go out and proclaim Baha'u'llah's teachings, and he himself travels — at the cost of his followers - around the world and - is silent! What had Abdul Baha done when he attained freedom after the overthrow of Abdul Hamid and the victory of the Young Turks! With what energy the master, standing on the threshold of old age, took on himself the hardships of travel which were still substantial in that time; took up contacts in countless religions, confessions and religious leanings of all kinds in his many hundreds of speeches and lectures, in order to serve the cause of Baha'u'llah and simultaneously to be an example for all who stand for his father's teachings. If a further proof is necessary that the alleged testament is fraudulent, it is the fact that Shoghi travelled around the world without having the courage to come before his followers a single time to comment on the ideals of the Bahai religion.The whole tragedy of the Guardianship is revealed in a concentrated extract in the brochure The Passing of Shoghi Effendi. 1958, edited by his wife and the "Hand of the Cause", the Englishman Ferraby. Two and a half lines are devoted to "the glorious spiritual leadership"211' in a subordinate clause; however the main clause is concerned with the financial contributions of the belief, the temple, archives and garden planning and building in Chicago and Haifa. Altogether twenty-five lines are devoted to Shoghi's administrative activities. So the organization itself - not its critics - show how the spiritual-religious stands to the material-administrative, namely 2.5:25 or 1:10.The mammoth religious - ethical decline that is shown in the Bahai religion from Abdul Baha's departure until Shoghi's death finds its specific expression in the comment, "He was our Guardian, King of tha world".212 Here once again the fraudulent testament is affirmed as well as the position which the forger, namely Shoghi Effendi, made for himself: World Pope and World Emperor or, expressed in a modern way. Highest Religious and political Functionary in the World! His betrayal of the Bahai religion lies clear for all mankind to see: Here the Guardian, centered on might and money; there Abdul Baha, servant of God, "Father of the Poor".213 In October, 1957, Shoghi came with his wife to London by plane in order to buy inexpensive furnishings there for the recently built archives in Haifa, as she later reported.This was the second time that Shoghi was heard to be in a European city. Yet that was in the eulogy which his wife together with the Hand of the Cause, the Englishman Ferraby had written. The explanation for this strange man, who is supposed to be a "religious leader" 214 but whose leadership, however, only took place at his writing desk, was quoted earlier and is repeated here for a stronger impression: "As was the invariable custom of the beloved Guardian during his absence from Haifa, no contact was made with any Bahai."215 Shoghi Effendi is supposed to have been an embodiment of the "Sign of God on earth",216 a "Great Guardian"217. His contemporaries had no hint of these characteristics, these attributes belong much more to his grandfather Abdul Baha, the Master. In order to demonstrate the truth of this statement, to indicate the huge contrast between these two personalities, we quote Abdul Baha's hostess in London — the words of Lady Blomfield. who had written this later after the Master's stay in the same city in which Shoghi had not once associated with Bahais:"0, these pilgrims, these guests, these visitors! Remembering those days, our ears are filled with the sound of their footsteps -as they came from every country in the world! Every day, all day long, a constant stream, an interminable procession! Ministers and missionaries, Oriental scholars and occult students, practical men of affairs and mystics, Anglican, Catholics, and Nonconformists, Theosophists and Hindus, Christian Scientists and doctors of medicine, Muslims, Buddhists and Zoroastrians. There also called: politicians. Salvation Army soldiers, and other workers for human good, women suffragists, journalists, writers, poets and healers, dressmakers and great ladies, artists and artisans, poor workless people and prosperous merchants, members of the dramatic and musical world, these all came; and none were too lowly, nor too great, to receive the sympathetic consideration of this holy Messenger, Who was ever giving His life lor others' good" 218 Of the same period, a reporter writes, "As He (Abdul Baha) sat in the bow window in the afternoon sunshine. His arm round a very ragged but very happy little boy who had come lo ask Abdul Baha for sixpence for his money box and for his invalid ' mother.. ." 219 Here follows the description of Abdul Baha's visit in one of the poorest quarters of London: "A public meeting was held in one of the slums of the city, and all of Abdul Baha's love went out to these poor women and children. He spoke with one after the other and gave each of them a shilling . . . One day the doorbell rang. A hobo was outside . .. Abdul Baha sent Ahmad Sohrab out to bring the man inside. The hobo had come forty miles, after the wind had blown a piece of newspaper at his feet. He glanced at it and continued reading further about Abdul Baha. "Can this be true?" he asked himself. "I want to go to London and see for myself." He stayed a while with the master and Abdul Baha gave him money for a suit. Afterward he often came to the house and brought his friends along. Abdul Baha found him intelligent and enjoyed having him around. Sometimes he would have him sit next to Lady Blomfield in order to demonstrate his ideas about democracy, and Lady Blomfield graciously went along with it, so that she quickly gained the hoboes' favor."220 The speeches of Abdul Baha in London as well as the notes of part of the small private conversations with the Master were collected in a small volume with an introduction by Eric Hammond. In the closing lines we read there, "A profound impression remained in the minds and memories of all sorts and conditions of men and women ... Very greatly was Abdul Baha's sojourn in London appreciated; very greatly his departure regretted. He left behind him many, many friends. His love had kindled love. His heart had opened to the West and the Western heart had closed around this patriarchal presence from the East. His words had in them something that appealed not only to their immediate hearers, but to men and women generally." 221 Everyone who had the privilege of getting to know Abdul Baha makes it completely clear that Abdul Baha was a "religious leader". Thus we consider Abdul Baha to be like a Jesus of Nazareth, the "King of Kings". We also see this when the American professor Marcus Bach states in his appreciation of Shoghi after his visit in Haifa in 1955 that what Shoghi said to him in his private audience were "the words of a king", 222 he was deceived and we are convinced that Mr. Bach will change his mind about Shoghi Rabbani after reading our presentation. His opinion was greedily grabbed by the leadership of the Bahai Administration, to be sure, after Shoghi's death which soon followed and was developed further in the brochure "The Passing of Shoghi Effendi".There it reads, "He was our Guardian, King of the world".223 This attribute "King of the world" had been given to Emperor Napoleon III in Townshend's book Christ and Baha'u'llah, published in the year of Shoghi's death."224 This writer, a "Hand of the cause", referred to Baha'u'llah's appeal to this last French emperor in which it says. "He (God) . - - will set thee king over all that thereon the sun riseth."225 The conditions for this, however, were in the preceding sentence, "Arise thou to serve God and help His cause." Napoleon had not done this. Has Shoghi done it? Not at all, because his activities only seemed to be in the service of God and the Bahai Cause, in reality for his own cause.Who had to be honored by an assembly of Bahais in the international city of London for his humanitarian activities, Abdul Baha or Shoghi Effendi? Abdul Baha is almost no name any more at all to the great majority of Bahais today, so much greater a prince of the church is Shoghi, although this contact-shy man took extraordinarily great pains not to have association with his followers. Even the "Hands of the Cause" themselves are merely acquainted with their employer Shoghi. At the centennial celebration of the Bahais to the memory of Baha'u'llah's declaration as the manifestation of God of our time in Albert Hall in London, Abdul Baha (about whose activities in the service of the Bahai Cause in London his former hostess in this town, Lady Blomlield, spoke) was not honored, but Shoghi Effendi, whose scarcity of contact could not have been more strongly expressed than as "invariable custom of the beloved Guardian". At this meeting the old Persian Samandari, "Hand of the Cause" asked for a show of appreciation for the Guardian. The 6000 rose as one body from their seats in order to honor the Guardian who died in London. But who had proved himself to be the "religious leader" in London? It was Abdul Baha, while Shoghi Effendi distinguished himself as a shopper for cheap archives furniture! If London was a high point in the European trip of the Master, then we must maintain that this city of millions meant the lowest point for Shoghi: As the alleged successor of Abdul Baha isolated himself once and for all from the rest of mankind, so he had isolated himself from the founders of the Bahai religion in 1922 during his (probable) former stay in London which was proven in 1930 about him by the London handwriting expert. His spiritual death had passed by 35 years earlier than his physical death in London, 1957, when he forged in London (or Oxford) the second draft of the alleged last will of Abdul Baha.
PART SEVEN
152. Ruhiyyih
Khanum, Guardianship, p. 5
153. White, Abdul Baha's Questioned Will and Testament, 1946, p. 29 Sohrab, Grandson, 1943, p. 167
154. Letter from Ruhi Afnan to A. Diebold of March 12, 1930
155. "Sonne der Wahrheit". 1922, p. 52
156. "Sonne der Wahrheit", 1922, p. 91
157. Shoghi Etiendi, Bahai Administration, p. 18f.
158. "Sonne der Wahrheit", 1922, p. 52
159. Bahai Administration, circa May, 1922, (undated), p. 25
160. loc. cit., p. 102
161. Bahai Administration, p. 51
162. Bahai Administration, p. 51
163. "Bahai News" No. 52, p. 4f., 1931, cit. Sohrab, Silence, p. 427 '
164. "Bahai News" No. 95, p. 4, Oct., 1935. cit. Sohrab, Silence, p. 429
165. "Sonne der Wahrheit", September, 1922. p. 102
166. "Sonne dar Wahrheit", 1922, p. 165
167. Bahai Administration, p. 26
168. Bahai Administration, pp. 34 and 38
169. Sonne der Wahrheit" 1923, p. 110
170. Bahai Administration p. 51
171. White, loc. cit.. p. 10
172. White, loc. cit., p. 3
173. Ioc. cit., p. 118
174. Esslemont, New Era 1970, Preface to 1937 Edition, p. V
175. Esslemont, Ioc. cit. 1970, p. 73
176. Esslemont, 1923, loc. cit., p. 118
177. Esslemont, 1923, loc. cit., p. 200 ff
178. Star of the West, Vol. III. p. 8, cit. Esslemont 1923, loc. cit., p. 118
179. "Sonne der Wahrheit", June 1922, p. 50f. and 1932, p. 110 f
180. According to E. Rosenberg, The Testament ol Abdul Baha, "Sonne der Wahrheit" 1932, p. 123f.
181. Bahai Administration, p. 24
182. SdW 1922, p. 50 f and 1932, p.110
183. Shoghi Effendi, Promised Day, 1967, p. 15
184. "Sonne der Wahrheit" 1926. p. 178
185. Bahai Administration, p. 159
186. Bahai Administration, p. 158
187. World Order of Baha'u'llah 1938, p. 89
188. WOB. p. 91
189. A. Sohrab, Grandson 1943, p. 23 ff
190. Prause, Niemand hat Kolumbus ausgelacht, 1966, p.81
191. See "Bahai News", December 1941-January 1942, quoted by Sohrab, Abdul B.'s Grandson. 1943, p. 22ff.
192. RGG, Vol. II, p. 829
193. Sohrab. loc. cit., p. 16
194. GPB. p. 316
195. see letter of Ruhi Afnan to A. Diebold from March 12. 1930
196. Sohrab, loc. cit., p.80
197. Sohrab, loc. cit., p.151
198. "World Order", April 1936, cit. Sohrab, loc. cit., p. 159
199. Sohrab, loc. cit., p. 159
200. Shoghi Effendi, Promised Day, P. 15
201. Shoghi Effendi, quoted In New Era, 1970, p. 282
202. Sohrab, Grandson, p. 26 f.
203. Shoghi Effendi quoted in Esslemont, New Era, 1970, p. 282
204. Abdul Baha. The Promulgation ol Universal Peace, 1922, Introduction by Howard McNutt, p. If
205. Shoghi Effendi, Bahai Administration, p. 41 f.
206. Shoghi Effendi, Messages to America, 1947, p. 5
207. Ruhiyyih Khanum/John Ferraby, The Passing of Shoghi Effendi, 1958, p. 3
208. Ruth White, Bahai Religion, p. 204 with photocopy ol the endorsed check
209. Thornton Chase, In Galilee, 1921, p. 30
210. Sohrab, Grandson, 1943, p. 15f.
211. p. 2
212. p. 17
213. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 269
214. p. 6
215. Ruhiyyih Khanum/Ferraby, Passing, 1958, p. 3
216. loc. cit., p. 20
217. loc. cit., p. 21
218. Lady Blomfield, The Chosen Highway. 1967, p. 150f
219. GPB. p. 285
220. Quoted from Chase, Zweck und Ziel der Bahai-Offenbarung. Excerpt, Waiblingen
1962, Abdul Baha In London, p. 31 ff. retranslated
221. Abdul Baha in London, American Edition Chicago, 1921, p. Xlll f.
222. M. Bach, Shoghi Effendi, An Appreciation, New York, 1958, part 6
223. loc. cit., p. 17
224. Townshend, loc. cit., 1971, p. 82
225. Bahai World Centre, The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah, Haifa 1967, p. 18
153. White, Abdul Baha's Questioned Will and Testament, 1946, p. 29 Sohrab, Grandson, 1943, p. 167
154. Letter from Ruhi Afnan to A. Diebold of March 12, 1930
155. "Sonne der Wahrheit". 1922, p. 52
156. "Sonne der Wahrheit", 1922, p. 91
157. Shoghi Etiendi, Bahai Administration, p. 18f.
158. "Sonne der Wahrheit", 1922, p. 52
159. Bahai Administration, circa May, 1922, (undated), p. 25
160. loc. cit., p. 102
161. Bahai Administration, p. 51
162. Bahai Administration, p. 51
163. "Bahai News" No. 52, p. 4f., 1931, cit. Sohrab, Silence, p. 427 '
164. "Bahai News" No. 95, p. 4, Oct., 1935. cit. Sohrab, Silence, p. 429
165. "Sonne der Wahrheit", September, 1922. p. 102
166. "Sonne dar Wahrheit", 1922, p. 165
167. Bahai Administration, p. 26
168. Bahai Administration, pp. 34 and 38
169. Sonne der Wahrheit" 1923, p. 110
170. Bahai Administration p. 51
171. White, loc. cit.. p. 10
172. White, loc. cit., p. 3
173. Ioc. cit., p. 118
174. Esslemont, New Era 1970, Preface to 1937 Edition, p. V
175. Esslemont, Ioc. cit. 1970, p. 73
176. Esslemont, 1923, loc. cit., p. 118
177. Esslemont, 1923, loc. cit., p. 200 ff
178. Star of the West, Vol. III. p. 8, cit. Esslemont 1923, loc. cit., p. 118
179. "Sonne der Wahrheit", June 1922, p. 50f. and 1932, p. 110 f
180. According to E. Rosenberg, The Testament ol Abdul Baha, "Sonne der Wahrheit" 1932, p. 123f.
181. Bahai Administration, p. 24
182. SdW 1922, p. 50 f and 1932, p.110
183. Shoghi Effendi, Promised Day, 1967, p. 15
184. "Sonne der Wahrheit" 1926. p. 178
185. Bahai Administration, p. 159
186. Bahai Administration, p. 158
187. World Order of Baha'u'llah 1938, p. 89
188. WOB. p. 91
189. A. Sohrab, Grandson 1943, p. 23 ff
190. Prause, Niemand hat Kolumbus ausgelacht, 1966, p.81
191. See "Bahai News", December 1941-January 1942, quoted by Sohrab, Abdul B.'s Grandson. 1943, p. 22ff.
192. RGG, Vol. II, p. 829
193. Sohrab. loc. cit., p. 16
194. GPB. p. 316
195. see letter of Ruhi Afnan to A. Diebold from March 12. 1930
196. Sohrab, loc. cit., p.80
197. Sohrab, loc. cit., p.151
198. "World Order", April 1936, cit. Sohrab, loc. cit., p. 159
199. Sohrab, loc. cit., p. 159
200. Shoghi Effendi, Promised Day, P. 15
201. Shoghi Effendi, quoted In New Era, 1970, p. 282
202. Sohrab, Grandson, p. 26 f.
203. Shoghi Effendi quoted in Esslemont, New Era, 1970, p. 282
204. Abdul Baha. The Promulgation ol Universal Peace, 1922, Introduction by Howard McNutt, p. If
205. Shoghi Effendi, Bahai Administration, p. 41 f.
206. Shoghi Effendi, Messages to America, 1947, p. 5
207. Ruhiyyih Khanum/John Ferraby, The Passing of Shoghi Effendi, 1958, p. 3
208. Ruth White, Bahai Religion, p. 204 with photocopy ol the endorsed check
209. Thornton Chase, In Galilee, 1921, p. 30
210. Sohrab, Grandson, 1943, p. 15f.
211. p. 2
212. p. 17
213. Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 269
214. p. 6
215. Ruhiyyih Khanum/Ferraby, Passing, 1958, p. 3
216. loc. cit., p. 20
217. loc. cit., p. 21
218. Lady Blomfield, The Chosen Highway. 1967, p. 150f
219. GPB. p. 285
220. Quoted from Chase, Zweck und Ziel der Bahai-Offenbarung. Excerpt, Waiblingen
1962, Abdul Baha In London, p. 31 ff. retranslated
221. Abdul Baha in London, American Edition Chicago, 1921, p. Xlll f.
222. M. Bach, Shoghi Effendi, An Appreciation, New York, 1958, part 6
223. loc. cit., p. 17
224. Townshend, loc. cit., 1971, p. 82
225. Bahai World Centre, The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah, Haifa 1967, p. 18
