Message from the Guardian 

•  INTRODUCTION

This new article prepared by the Third Guardian, Joel B. Marangella, has taken a somewhat different approach from those he has written before in the hope of attracting the attention of heterodox Baha'i believers who are sufficiently open-minded to read its contents and discover the extent to which they have been led astray from the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh by their leaders who have, in effect, declared major provisions of the sacred, divinely-conceived and immortal Will and Testament of "The Center of the Covenant" null and void and yet, notwithstanding, suffer from the delusion that the World Order of Baha'u'llah can be established in all of its glory and perfection. While this article, of necessity, covers much ground that has been covered in other articles written by the third Guardian for the benefit of those readers who may not have read those articles, it contains certain new observations not previously covered.

THE ULTIMATE DELUSION 

That a man-made, obviously fallible, sans-Guardian and hence an illegitimate and illicitly formed Universal House of Justice, foisted upon the Bahá’í World by the former Hands of the Cause, following the passing of Shoghi Effendi in 1957, who had faithlessly concluded that the Guardianship had come to an end and who then, in place of the Twin Institutions delineated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His divinely-conceived, sacred and immortal Will and Testament, had substituted this single, headless body of their own making, and, notwithstanding its obvious incompleteness, its headless deformity and its shameless assumption of functions clearly contrary to the provisions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sacred Mandate, would still be able to successfully establish the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh—the long-prayed for, long-awaited and promised “Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven.”

Those Hands, with a single notable exception, as well as the present day believers who have blindly followed them in the delusion described above, are obviously unaware of or have ignored the following passage in the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:

“The legislative body must reinforce the executive, the executive must aid and assist the legislative body so that through the close union and harmony of these two forces, the foundation of fairness and justice may become firm and strong, that all the regions of the world may become even as Paradise itself.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá —the “perfect Architect” of the Bahá’í Administrative Order—has in accordance with the principle He enunciated above provided for a clear separation of powers in establishing the Twin Institutions of the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice under the terms of His Will and Testament wherein the “Guardian of the Cause of God,” as the “Center of the Cause,” exercises Executive powers in the Faith and the Universal House of Justice, as the supreme legislative Organ, exclusively exercises legislative powers.  However, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has endowed the Guardians of the Faith with the sole right of interpretation of Bahá’í Holy Writ, He has assigned them a dual role as the irreplaceable “sacred head and distinguished member for life” of that supreme legislative body.  In this capacity, as Shoghi Effendi has emphasized, they are “bound to insist upon a reconsideration of any enactment he conscientiously believes to conflict with the meaning” or “depart from the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh’s revealed utterances.”  

The Hands, in their faithless abandonment of the Guardianship, had forgotten or chosen to ignore the words of Shoghi Effendi in The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah, in which he has discussed the relationship between these “twin institutions” of the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice, and had pointed out that: “Neither can, nor will ever, infringe upon the sacred and prescribed domain of the other,” and had further amplified this fact in stating: “Neither will seek to curtail the specific and undoubted authority with which both have been divinely invested.”   

In the world outside of the Faith, the fallacy of establishing a single institution that combines both executive and legislative functions, such as the Hands have established in their sans-Guardian, illegitimate and so-called Universal House of Justice, has been recognized and accordingly the national constitutions of every democratic country and constitutional monarchy in the world have invariably provided for separate executive and legislative authorities at the highest level (even most, if not all dictatorial regimes, also establishing a legislative body in some form, albeit with limited powers).  

Every Bahá’í who has read the writings of Shoghi Effendi in the “Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh” will have noted that he has referred to the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as “the Child of the Covenant—the Heir of both the Originator and Interpreter of the Law of God”  and that, in view of this spiritual relationship, this sacred and divinely-conceived Document is to be regarded, not only as the Will of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá but that of Bahá’u’lláh, as well, and therefore, as Shoghi Effendi has emphasized, should actually be considered as “their Will.”  Would such a divinely-conceived Document become null and void thirty-six years after the inception of the Administrative Order to which it gave birth? 

Furthermore, Shoghi Effendi has equated the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in its sacredness and immutability, with Bahá’u’lláh’s Most Holy Book, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, in stating that these two “sacred documents” are “not only complementary” but “they mutually confirm one another and are inseparable parts of one complete unit.”   In view of that statement, it should be crystal clear that the terms of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will are as immutable and as inviolate as the laws of Bahá’u’lláh in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, and are accordingly destined to endure and remain unchanged as long as the Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh endures.   Moreover, Shoghi Effendi has consistently and repeatedly emphasized in his writings the essentiality and indispensability of the institution of the Guardianship to the establishment of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. 

In the light of the sacredness and immutability of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as emphasized by Shoghi Effendi in the above quoted statements, it is incomprehensible that the Hands of the Cause, the last contingent of whom had been appointed by Shoghi Effendi in the very last cablegram he dispatched to the Bahá’í World in October 1957, would have not only completely ignored these writings during the conclave they convened in ‘Akká, following Shoghi Effendi’s passing in London, England on 4 November 1957 but would have revealed, as well, their appalling and inexcusable ignorance of the provisions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament.  For, if they had remembered these immutable provisions, they would have asked themselves why they had found it necessary to convene a conclave, not called for in that Document, and find themselves assembled in a gathering in ‘Akka, some two weeks following his passing, for the purpose of determining who Shoghi Effendi had appointed as his successor, when the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá makes it “incumbent” upon the Guardian “to appoint in his own life-time him that shall become his successor that differences may not arise after his passing” insuring thereby that the identity of his successor is clearly made known to the Bahá’í World prior to his passing and not afterwards in a testamentary document.  If, indeed, this question had occurred to the Hands, they then should have certainly realized that they, as well as the Bahá’í World at large, had unquestionably overlooked some act, decision or pronouncement that Shoghi Effendi had made during his ministry in which he had identified his successor and whose identity, if it had been recognized at the time, would have precluded the convening of this uncalled for and illegitimate gathering in which they now found themselves.  Certainly, they should have entertained no doubt that Shoghi Effendi would have faithfully and explicitly complied with the terms of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament and therefore his successor should actually be in their very midst, although he had not as yet been recognized (which was actually, in fact, the very case).  But none of these questions obviously occurred to them as attested by the following events that took place and the decisions made by the Hands during their ill-fated conclave in ‘Akka. 

Tragically, for the future of the Faith, the very first act taken by the twenty-six Hands, (Corinne True being absent), on the first day of their illegitimate conclave was to delegate a group of nine of their fellow-Hands to search the files of Shoghi Effendi for a will and testament naming his successor which, of course, they did not find.  According to the Dairy of Mason Remey, titled, “Daily Observations” his fellow-Hands on the following day, which was actually the first day to be devoted to consultation, but prior to any consultation actually taking place, Dr. Muhajir, at the very outset, incredibly proposed that, as no will and testament had been left by Shoghi Effendi, the Guardianship should forthwith be declared “Badah” (a Persian term meaning that God had changed His mind about the continuation of the Guardianship) and that the Institution of the Guardianship should be forever ended.  This incredulous proposal at the very beginning of the conclave was then surprisingly immediately endorsed by Rúhíyyih Khánum, the widow of Shoghi Effendi, (whose writings over the years had emphasized the absolute essentiality and indispensability of the Institution of the Guardianship) as well as by the nine other Persian Hands and then subsequently endorsed by the remaining sixteen Hands, (Mason Remey, not openly voicing an objection at the time, only in the interest of preserving unity and therefore subsequently signing the Proclamation issued by the Hands, as  fully explained in his Dairy).¹  

Accordingly, in the Proclamation that the Hands issued to the Bahá’í World at the close of their conclave on 25 November 1857 they “certified that Shoghi Effendi had left no Will and Testament . . . had left no heir” and stated that “no successor to Shoghi Effendi could have been appointed by him” because as they erroneously reasoned: “The Aghsán (branches) one and all are either dead or have been declared violators of the Covenant by the Guardian.”   

In declaring that Shoghi Effendi had been unable to appoint a successor, for the reason stated above, the Hands revealed their inexcusable ignorance of the fact that Shoghi Effendi had identified the Aghsán, as the Sons of Bahá’u’lláh only and therefore this designation applied only to the brothers of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and not to other male relatives from the blood line of Bahá’u’lláh as they obviously erroneously believed.  This being the case, the option that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá grants the Guardian in His Will and Testament to “choose another branch to succeed him,” in the event that his first born son does not possess the requisite spiritual qualities, is clearly not a reference by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to the Aghsán, who had long since died prior to, or during, the ministry of Shoghi Effendi and would therefore have never been available for consideration much less appointment as his successor.  The utter falsity of the claim made by the Hands that Shoghi Effendi had been unable to appoint a successor because no Aghsán had remained faithful to the Covenant is further exposed when a close examination is made of the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá which reflects the fact that the Aghsán had already been written off as unfaithful by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá before His own Ministry had ended when He penned Part Three of His Will and Testament.   For whereas ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in Part One of His Will and Testament, makes it “incumbent upon the members of the House of Justice, upon all the Aghsán the Afnán and the Hands of the Cause of God to show their obedience, submissiveness and subordination unto the guardian of the Cause of God,” in Part Three, which was written by Him at a later date, He conspicuously omits any reference to the Aghsán, at all, when He again enjoins fidelity to the Guardian of the Cause of God in the following words: “the Afnán, the Hands (pillars) of the Cause and the beloved of the Lord must obey him and turn unto him”  Therefore, it is crystal clear that the Aghsán were never in the picture at all when Shoghi Effendi made numerous references in his writings and messages to future Guardians and to the undeniable existence of the Guardianship in the future, such as may be found, for example, in his message, dispatched as late in his ministry as 27 November 1954, in which he informed the Bahá’í World of the pending construction on Mount Carmel of the “structure of the International Bahá’í Archives, designed by the Hand of the Cause, Mason Remey, President of the International Bahá’í Council,” and in which he stated that “The raising of this Edifice will in turn herald the construction in the course of successive epochs of the Formative Age of the Faith of several other structures which will serve as the administrative seats of such divinely-appointed institutions as the Guardianship, the Hands of the Cause [who could only be appointed by future Guardians] and the Universal House of Justice” (emphasis added). 

Unmindful as they were of these evidences and the fact that there was not the slightest evidence that Shoghi Effendi had ever alluded to or entertained the possibility in any of his writings that the Guardianship would be terminated, quite the contrary being the case, the Hands in this first conclave continued, in their headlong blindness to reduce to naught, however unwittingly, Shoghi Effendi’s crowning labours during the closing years of his ministry when he had erected “at long last” the highest institutions of the Faith at the World Center of the Faith.   If they had only taken the time to re-examine at least some of his “historic” and “epoch-making” messages to the Bahá’í world during the closing years of his ministry they would have perhaps grasped the significant implications to be found in his Proclamation of 9 January 1951 in which he had established the Universal House of Justice in its embryonic form under the provisional title of “International Bahá’í Council” and had referred to his “historic decision” to form this “first embryonic International Institution” as the “most significant milestone in the evolution of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh” and one “which history will acclaim as the greatest event shedding luster upon the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation potentially unsurpassed by any enterprise undertaken since the inception of the Administrative Order . . .”  If the Hands had retained any lingering doubt that Shoghi Effendi had, in fact, in appointing the International Bahá’í Council, brought into being the Universal House of Justice, albeit in its embryonic form, it would certainly have been dispelled if they had continued their research and had read his message of 30 June 1952 in which he stated: “At the World Center of the Faith where at long last the machinery of its highest institutions has been erected and around whose most holy shrines the supreme organs of its unfolding Order, are in their embryonic form unfolding . . .” They could not have failed to perceive that these “highest institutions” and “supreme organs” were unmistakably none other than the Universal House of Justice and the first contingent of twelve Hands of the Cause (both institutions  established by Shoghi Effendi in their embryonic form on 9 January and 24 December 1951 respectively).  And, if they had remembered that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had stated that “the embryo possesses from the first, all perfections . . . in one word all the powers—but they are not visible, and become so only by degrees” they might have then realized that Shoghi Effendi, in establishing the embryonic Universal House of Justice, had not established this institution as an incomplete and imperfect body without the Guardian as its “sacred head,” as required by the terms of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament.  And would they not have then inevitably asked themselves why it was that Shoghi Effendi had not assumed the Presidency of this Institution himself and had instead appointed Mason Remey as its President?  There obviously could not be two Guardians.  And, would they not have then perceived that this was the reason why Shoghi Effendi had not called for the activation of this embryonic body during the remaining years of his ministry, as attested by Mason Remey in his Dairy, in which he writes that Shoghi Effendi never instructed him to convene the Council under his presidency?  Having come this far in their research, would the Hands have not now come to the realization that, unless Shoghi Effendi were to depose Mason Remey as its President, the activation of the Council would have to necessarily await the passing of Shoghi Effendi?  And, further would it not now have become clear that only when that sad event inevitably took place would it be possible for the Council to assume its rightful role as the actively functioning supreme administrative body in the Bahá’í World?  The shocking realization would have then certainly dawned upon them that, in view of Mason Remey’s advanced age, if he were ever to assume the presidency of an actively functioning International Bahá’í Council, his assumption of that Office could not be far off.    The only unthinkable conclusion that could then be drawn was that Shoghi Effendi had actually foreseen and had predicted, in this indirect way, his own early passing. If they had undertaken a thorough review of Shoghi Effendi’s messages since he had appointed the International Bahá’í Council they would have further discovered in his message of 23 November 1951, the startling information that he had even clearly predicted the imminence of an early passing, again in an indirect way, indicating that it would take place sometime during the course of the Ten Year Global Crusade upon which the Bahá’í World was preparing to soon embark at Ridván 1953.  For he had stated in this message that the “Central Body”—a clear reference to the International Bahá’í Council—would be “directing” the “widely ramified operations” of the Ten Year Global Crusade and that this would then bring this body “into direct contact with all the National Assemblies of the Bahá’í world.”  The International Baha’i Council obviously could only assume this task when and if it became a fully active body under the Presidency of Mason Remey, at which time, in accordance with the clear intention of Shoghi Effendi, the Secretary General of the Council whom he had appointed in his message of 8 March 1952 (Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas) and his two assistant secretaries, whom he had also specifically appointed in this same message, (Dr. Hakim as secretary to handle correspondence with NSA’s in the East and Ethel Revell as secretary to handle correspondence with NSA’s in the West), would then be carrying out this correspondence with these Assemblies on behalf of the Council. ²   Shoghi Effendi had also appointed Jessie Revell as Treasurer of the Council but it is doubtful that she was ever permitted by the Custodian Hands to receive funds from the NSA’s or disburse any funds in this capacity.   This writer knows for a certainty that the NSA of France during the period between the passing of Shoghi Effendi in 1957 and its illegal dissolution in 1960, on order of the Custodian Hands, was never asked to contribute to a fund maintained by the Treasurer of the International Bahá’í Council. 

Unfortunately and with dire consequences for the Faith, the Hands did not undertake even a cursory re-examination of any of the “historic” and “epoch-making” messages that Shoghi Effendi had dispatched during the closing years of his ministry, prior to reaching their hasty and fateful decision to end the Guardianship, based on a false interpretation of the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as discussed earlier, and therefore they remained completely oblivious of the momentous implications and significances that they might have otherwise perceived in these messages which would possibly have led to their recognition of Shoghi Effendi’s successor.  As a result, and in their blindness, and undue haste to end the Guardian ship, they not only ignored the role that Shoghi Effendi had clearly projected for the International Bahá’í Council, as the embryonic Universal House of Justice, but appointed a superfluous and illegitimate body of their own making, completely outside the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, comprised of nine Hands, to which they gave the pretentious title: “Custodians of the Bahá’í World Faith.”  This counterfeit body then  shamelessly usurped the functions that Shoghi Effendi had clearly projected for the International Bahá’í Council, in the message quoted above, and incredibly went so far as to subordinate this “first embryonic International Institution” and this “Nascent Institution” to their own illicitly established and undeniably illegitimate and superfluous body of Custodian Hands

The Hands further unbelievably and shamelessly stated in their Proclamation that this body of Custodian Hands would  “exercise . . . all such functions, rights and powers in succession to the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith” (“rights” which, if the above statement is taken at face value, even includes interpretation of Bahá’í Holy Writ) and moreover, in a letter, dated 2 December 1957, addressed to all National Spiritual Assemblies, requested that this body be specifically recognized in written replies to this request “as the supreme body in the Cause.”  Yet, this spurious and allegedly acquired supremacy would be short-lived as it was announced it would come to an end in less than six years time when it would be replaced by a prematurely elected and equally illegitimate sans-Guardian Universal House of Justice at Ridván 1963 which, although minus the Guardian of the Faith presiding as its “sacred head,” and, although undeniably not the institution delineated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Will and Testament, the believers would notwithstanding then be called upon to accept as a legitimate replacement for the former illicitly formed “supreme body” of Custodian Hands and to incredibly now believe, in turn, that this patently bogus elected body, calling itself the Universal House of Justice, was nothing less, in their words, than: “that Supreme body upon which infallibility as the Master’s Tablet assures us, is divinely conferred.”  Could there be any greater delusion than this?  Upon the illicit establishment of this so-called Universal House of Justice at Ridván 1963, the Custodian Hands then issued a final Declaration on 7 June 1963, stating that “we hereby release all the said functions, rights and powers which were conferred upon us under the said Declaration of November 25^th, 1957 . . . and we declare that all the said functions, rights and powers now devolve rightfully and in full accordance with the Sacred Writings of the Bahá’í Faith upon the Universal House of Justice.”  (certainly a flagrantly disingenuous statement as it will be observed that, as they could not state that the transfer  of these functions, rights and powers had been made in accordance with the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, they cleverly endeavoured to disguise this fact by stating that these functions, rights and powers had now rightfully devolved upon the UHJ in full accordance with the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh).  It may be further noted that no exception is made to the transfer of these functions, rights and powers, that never had been actually possessed by them in the first place, such as the right to interpret the revealed Writings, a right which, among several others, is undeniably conferred solely upon the Guardian of the Faith in the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. 

The shameless corruption by the Hands of the Cause of the divinely-conceived “Administrative Order which the master-hand of its perfect Architect” had fashioned and bequeathed to us as “the Charter of the new World Order” and their repudiation, in effect, of the major provisions of the divinely-conceived Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that Shoghi Effendi had extolled as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s “greatest legacy to posterity” and “the brightest emanation of His mind” was now complete.  For in their incomprehensible and diabolical folly the Hands had not only shamelessly declared, in their abandonment of the Guardianship, that the major provisions of this sacred and immortal Document had become null and void but they had, as well, repudiated all that Shoghi Effendi had written concerning this Will and Testament including its divine genesis, its unique character, the relationship of its Institutions to each other, its sacredness as the “Child of the Covenant” of Bahá’u’lláh and its role as the “Charter of the new World Order.”  It was as if Shoghi Effendi had never existed, and in spite of their declared eternal fidelity to him and their shameful betrayal of him, the believers were still incredibly expected to accept and support, as a valid and legitimate substitute, a man-made, sans-Guardian and thoroughly corrupted organization in which the highest institutions of the Administrative Order, as bequeathed to us and explicitly delineated by ‘Abdu-l’Bahá in His Will and Testament, no longer existed.   

And now the vast majority of believers, most of whom will have embraced the Faith subsequent to these fateful decisions made by the Hands of the Cause almost a half-century ago, certainly possess little or grossly distorted knowledge of the tragic facts surrounding the abandonment of the Guardianship and the blatant corruption of the Bahá’í Administrative Order by the Hands of the Cause following the passing of Shoghi Effendi.  They certainly are not aware how far they have been led astray from the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh.  Nor do they realize the extent to which they have been duped and, as a consequence, now suffer from the ultimate delusion that the Bahá’í organization to which they have declared their fealty, in which the Guardianship—the “Center of the Cause”— has been abandoned, a so-called Universal House of Justice minus its “sacred head” has been prematurely and illicitly elected and the institution of the Hands of the Cause has been eliminated—the three highest institutions of the Bahá’í Administrative Order as delineated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—a man-made, illegitimate and utterly deformed organization, can notwithstanding this inexcusable and blatant corruption, still establish, in all of its glory and divinely-conceived perfection Bahá’u’lláh’s “New World Order destined to embrace in the fullness of time the whole of mankind” and bring about the long- promised and long-awaited “Kingdom of God upon earth as it is in Heaven.”

Joel Bray Marangella
Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith 

ENDNOTES

1.   As Mason Remey has recounted in his Dairy titled, “Daily Observations,” he experienced a flash vision some twelve years prior to the passing of Shoghi Effendi in which he saw himself as the second Guardian of the Faith but had quickly put this out of his mind at the time.  Although he had been appointed President of the International Bahá’í Council by Shoghi Effendi some seven years prior to his passing, as the Council had not been activated as a functioning administrative institution under his presidency during the remaining years of Shoghi Effendi’s ministry, and he, together with the other Hands, had been busily engaged under Shoghi Effendi’s direction in international activities such as, for example, serving as his representatives at the Intercontinental conferences which had been held throughout the world as a prelude to inauguration of the Ten Year Global Crusade (in his case, serving as Shoghi Effendi’s representative at the Delhi conference), it had been possibly due to this fact and the contrasting inactivity of the Council that the tremendous significance and implications of his appointment as President of this institution several years in the past had been lost sight of and had not been fully realized by Mason Remey.   In the Proclamation that Shoghi Effendi dispatched to the Bahá’í World on 9 January, 1951, proclaiming the establishment of the International Bahá’í Council, he had significantly identified it as the “first embryonic International Institution,” and had outlined the several stages through which it would develop, finally terminating in its efflorescence as the Universal House of Justice. Keeping in mind ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s statement (p.313 BWF) in which He has explained that “the embryo possesses from the first all perfections,” it is obvious that the International Bahá’í Council was at the outset a complete body, and therefore, in fact, the Universal House of Justice in its embryonic form and Mason Remey, as the appointed irremovable embryonic head, appointed by Shoghi Effendi, was undeniably none other than the future Guardian-in-waiting, who was destined to accede to the Guardianship of the Faith upon  activation of the Council following Shoghi Effendi’s passing.  His appointment as Shoghi Effendi’ successor in this indirect and unexpected manner had not been foreseen by Mason Remey, much less by his fellow-Hands or the believers at large, as evidenced by the fact that the Hands had looked for a will and testament left by Shoghi Effendi on the first day of their conclave in ‘Akká.  This being the case, Mason Remey had obviously not been able to present any valid arguments to his fellow-Hands during this conclave proving his accession to the Guardianship or opposing their decision to declare the Guardianship ended.  He therefore went along with the decision, at the time in the interest of maintaining unity with his fellow-Hands.  But, as he points out in his Dairy, he asked the Hands to reconsider this decision in the second conclave held a year later and was ruled out of order.  Moreover, during the two year period that he remained in Haifa as one of the nine Custodian Hands, his Dairy reflects the fact that he strongly pleaded with his fellow-Hands, almost on a daily basis, to reconsider their adamant stand against the continuation of the Guardianship to which they turned a deaf ear and finally, after leaving Haifa in frustration and returning to the United States, he addressed several lengthy written appeals to all of the Hands in which he set forth brilliant arguments against their abandonment of the Guardianship, all to no avail.  Having failed to convince his fellow-Hands of their grievous error and having by this time perceived the undeniable connection between his presidency of the International Bahá’í Council and the Guardianship, he wrote his Proclamation as the second Guardian of the Faith and dispatched it to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States at Ridván, 1960, anticipating that they would further dispatch it to the other NSA’s throughout the world.  As this Assembly had received a highly denunciatory cable from the Custodian Hands in Haifa rejecting Mason Remey as the second Guardian of the Faith, the NSA of the United States then not only rejected Mason Remey but never distributed his Proclamation to the other NSA’s, with the result that the believers throughout the world remained in complete ignorance of the facts supporting Mason Remey’s accession to the Guardianship and such information as they may have subsequently received was grossly distorted.   The one exception to this development involved the NSA of France (the country where Mason Remey, as a student in Paris at the turn of the century, had first learned of the Faith from May Maxwell and had immediately embraced the Faith).  Mason Remey had fortunately sent a copy of his Proclamation to this NSA which carefully considered the validity of the arguments set forth in his Proclamation, restudied applicable writings and messages and following prayers and consultation found his accession to the Guardianship completely valid to which the undersigned, who was President of this NSA at the time can attest, and duly recognized him as the second Guardian of the Faith (a detailed report written by its secretary at the time being available for those who may be interested).

2.   As Shoghi Effendi had appointed a Secretary General of the International Bahá’í Council and two assistant secretaries, (Lotfullah Hakim to handle correspondence with NSA’s in the East and Ethel Revell for NSA’s in the West), it was Shoghi Effendi’s obvious intention that they would be performing these secretarial functions on behalf of the Council when it became the supreme actively functioning Bahá’í administrative body in the Faith, as projected by him in his message of 23 November 1951, at which time the International Council would then be directing the activities of its subordinate National Spiritual Assemblies in the execution of the respective goals they had been assigned, at some point, if not initially, during the Ten Year Global Crusade scheduled to commence at Ridván 1953.  Although the International Council could not become an active body as long as Shoghi Effendi lived, unless Shoghi Effendi were to depose Mason Remey and take over the Presidency himself, Shoghi Effendi did assign specific individual tasks to its members during his ministry (and as he did so they correctly identified themselves by the position on the Council to which they had been appointed).  For example, Mason Remey addressed two letters to the Bahá’í World identifying himself as President of the Council, one of which was countersigned by Leroy Ioas, as its Secretary General (published in the U.S. Bahá’í News), that provided a comprehensive account of developments in the Holy Land.  Also it is understood that Leroy Ioas and his assistant secretaries wrote letters on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, but were never written on behalf of the Council.  Following Shoghi Effendi’s passing the Hands did not permit the International Bahá’í Council to exercise any functions other than the originally assigned limited functions outlined by Shoghi Effendi in his Proclamation of 9 January 1951 and even appointed additional Hands to its membership.  Accordingly the Council was not only denied the performance of its rightful active role as the embryonic Universal House of Justice under the Presidency of Mason Remey but it was made subordinate to the illicit body of the nine Custodian Hands (a body completely dominated by Rúhíyyih Khánum, as recorded in Mason Remey’s Dairy).