Part Four

Nakhjavani has written:

“Regarding the timing of the election of the Universal House of Justice we see in its letter mentioned above, dated 9 March 1965, the manner in which Shoghi Effendi foreshadowed the election of the Universal House of Justice: “The Guardian had given the Baha’i World explicit and detailed plans covering the period until Ridvan 1963, the end of the Ten Year Crusade. From that point onward, unless the Faith were to be endangered, further divine guidance was essential”. The rightness of the time was further confirmed by references in Shoghi Effendi’s letters to the Ten Year Crusade being followed by other plans under the direction of the Universal House of Justice. One such reference is the following passage from a letter addressed to the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles on 25th February 1951, concerning its Two Year Plan which immediately preceded the Ten Year Crusade: “On the success of this enterprise, unprecedented in its scope, unique in its character and immense in its spiritual potentialities, must depend the initiation, at a later period in the Formative Age of the Faith of undertakings embracing within their range all National Assemblies functioning throughout the Baha’i World…. undertakings constituting in themselves a prelude to the launching of worldwide enterprises destined to be embarked upon, in future epochs of that same Age, by the Universal House of Justice, that will symbolize the unity and co-ordinate and unify the activities of these National Assemblies.” (UD 261) There can be no doubt that the “undertakings embracing within their range all National Assemblies functioning throughout the Baha’i World” mentioned in the above passage of the Guardian, certainly refer to the plans that Shoghi Effendi gave to each of the twelve National Assemblies which he described as the Generals of the Ten Year Plan. With the stipulation made in Paragraph 42 of the Kitab-i-Aqdas, as well as with such statements, as quoted above, it would be, in my opinion, totally untenable to maintain that Shoghi Effendi was not aware that his passing would occur sometime during the Ten Year Crusade. If therefore he did not appoint a second Guardian as his Successor, and if he did not write a Will and Testament in the traditional way, would it not be entirely logical to conclude that lack of action in these matters was a conscious act on his part?”

Comment:

It is interesting that in the above passage Nakhjavani who is a major participant in the violation of the Covenant has retreated from the original position of the violating Hands which was based on a denial of the fact that the first Guardian foresaw that his passing would take place during the Ten Year Crusade, and he is now admitting to this fact which has been emphasized by the beloved Guardian in many of his messages during the last forty years. I remember when the chief inquisitor of the bogus UHJ in Australia (so-called Continental Counselor) came to talk to me in response to the question I had raised as to why, despite the clear indication in the Will and Testament of Abdu’l Baha of the necessity for the continuation of the Guardianship throughout the entire Dispensation of Baha’u’llah and the obligation imposed on every Guardian by the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Baha ‘“to appoint in his own life-time him that shall become his successor, that differences may not arise after his passing” they claimed that Shoghi Effendi had not appointed a successor and the Guardianship had therefore ended with his passing. If that had been Shoghi Effendi’s intention how did they explain that Shoghi Effendi not only had never said, written or alluded in any way, or at any time, to such a possibility but had, on the contrary, clearly projected the enduring continuation of the Guardianship in the following words::

“In this Dispensation, divine guidance flows on to us in this world after the Prophet’s ascension, through first the Master, and then the Guardians.”

(Shoghi Effendi, Directives from the Guardian, p. 34)

Also, Shoghi Effendi wrote:

“Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the World Order of Baha’u’llah would be mutilated and permanently deprived of that hereditary principle… Without such an institution the integrity of the Faith would be imperilled, and the stability of the entire fabric would be gravely endangered. Its prestige would suffer, the means required to enable it to take a long, an uninterrupted view over a series of generations would be completely lacking, and the necessary guidance to define the sphere of the legislative action of its elected representatives would be totally withdrawn.”

(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u’llah, p. 148)

And up to the last moment of his life had he not emphasized the continuation of the Guardianship? She erroneously insisted that Shoghi Effendi had not foreseen his passing and that he had hoped he would have a son to be his successor. She repeated this outrageous mistaken belief at least in three of our meetings. On the other hand, Nakhjavani has admitted that the first Guardian was “aware that his passing would occur sometime during the Ten Year Crusade” but then wrongfully says that: “he did not appoint a second Guardian as his Successor” and erroneously claims: “that lack of action in these matters was a conscious act on his part. ” By craftily inferring negligence on the part of the first Guardian, Nakhjavani practically accuses him of not being faithful to the Covenant and obedient to the following precise commandment of Abdu’l-Baha in the Will and Testament: “It is incumbent upon the Guardian of the Cause of God to appoint in his own life-time him that shall become his successor.” Nakhjavani also shamelessly indirectly accuses the first Guardian of lying to the Baha’is. Now let’s examine the basis upon which Nakhjavani has reached such a disgraceful conclusion. First, he has quoted a paragraph from the bogus UHJ which reminds one of the acts of the Jews in erecting and worshipping the Golden Calf in the absence of Moses on Mount Sinai. How could Divine guidance flow through such a Golden Calf or any other man-made entity such as the dummy and bogus UHJ? Had not Shoghi Effendi been clear enough in saying: “In this Dispensation, divine guidance flows on to us in this world after the Prophet’s ascension, through first the Master, and then the Guardians”?

Had not the former Hands of the Cause, with a notable exception; been guilty of a violation of the Covenant from the moment they decided to end the Guardianship and had deprived thereby, not only themselves but those who blindly followed them, from further Divine guidance and had not this been the reason why they had failed to fulfil some of the most important goals of the Ten Year Global Crusade, such as the formation of six National Baha’i  Courts in six Islamic countries and their only goal had then been to encourage Baha’is to make more LSA’s and NSA’s to show some numbers?

Another interesting observation is that Nakhjavani, in his quotation of a section of the message of the first Guardian regarding the Two Year Plan given to the British NSA he has erased a ( , )  and replaced it with (….. ) which doesn’t appear to have been an innocent mistake, but what he tries to say up to the point that Shoghi Effendi knew that his death would take place during the Ten Year Crusade is correct but what he does not point out is that nowhere in his writings is there to be found any sign, word or suggestion that after his passing the Hands should appoint a body of nine Hands from their own number to take over direction of the Faith under the direction of his widow, Ruhiyyih Khanum, displace thereby the supreme role that now belonged rightfully to an actively functioning International Baha’i Council under the Presidency of the second Guardian of the Faith and arrogate unto itself the authority that belonged only to the Guardian they had in their faithlessness shamefully dethroned. Nakhjavani conveniently ignores the fact that in the context of the message he has quoted, his reference to the “Universal House of Justice” was to this body in its embryonic form, ibc. the International Baha’i Council. Moreover, in his later message of 23 November 1951, Shoghi Effendi had stated that the “Master Plan designed by Abdu’l-Baha [given the name “Ten-Year Global Crusade” by Shoghi Effendi] will embrace all the continents of the earth, and will bring the Central Body [i.e. the International Baha’i Council] directing these widely ramified operations into direct contact with all the National Assemblies of the Baha’i world …”

It is obvious that the former Hands did not have any authority over the NSA’s and the first Guardian made this very clear, in a message about the Ten Year Plan to the British NSA on 22 July 1954 where he stated:

“The National Spiritual Assembly is the body which is charged with the administrative responsibility of the tasks of the Ten Year Crusade. Neither the Hands of the Cause nor their Boards have administrative responsibilities in connection with this work.”

(Shoghi Effendi, The Unfolding Destiny of the British Baha’i Community, p. 340)

And in a letter dated 25 March 1957 to former Hand of the Cause Adelbert Muhlschlegel he explained that:

“The National Assembly is not obliged to follow the wish of the Hands It is also not the Body empowered to tell the Hands what to do; they can make suggestions to them.”

(Shoghi Effendi, The Light of Divine Guidance v II, p. 124)