Abdu'l-Baha's Covenant
"After Abdul-Baha--whenever the Universal House of Justice is organized
it will ward off differences."
www.reformbahai.org/Covenant.htm
In 1922 this Address Upon the Covenant, delivered by Abdu'l-Baha on June
19, 1912, was suppressed from appearing in The Promulgation
of Universal Peace, though it was "approved" and published in this
pamphlet on November 12, 1912* for the celebration of the Birth
of Baha'u'llah. It was clearly felt to be important enough at the time to
be almost immediately published, unlike the majority of
Abdu'l-Baha's addresses that year, yet it was quietly put aside, just
after Abdu'l-Baha's passing, when editing the text of The
Promulation of Universal Peace. Evidently, it contradicted too much the
new theocratic interpretation. In it Abdu'l-Baha briefly
highlights the various covenants of God with humanity, with each
Manifestation alluding to His successor. Abdu'l-Baha makes no
mention of a guardian or His "appointing" anyone, least of all Shoghi
Effendi.
Paradoxically, contrasted with His other statements that the Bahai
Movement could not be "organized," Abdu'l-Baha clearly indicates
some type of organization leading to a Universal House of Justice, but
nowhere did He ever suggest Bahai assemblies should become
the oppressive and tyrannical "administration" known today for destroying
innumerable marriages and families through excommunication
and shunning and intruding into virtually every aspect of the life and
conscience of the individual.
It was such statements and publications as this address that led Mirza
Ahmad Sohrab to remark on "the fact that Abdul Baha had never
in speech or writing given the slightest indication that there would be a
successor to himself. On the contrary, a number of
addresses delivered by him on various occasions had made the opposite
impression. Consequently , it took several years before a
section of the Bahais could adjust themselves to the new situation" (The
Will and Testament of Abdul Baha, An Analysis, 1944 61).
Ruth White was one of the early believers who was not about to forget such
statements by Abdu'l-Baha and courageously fought to
preserve the actual Covenant, as taught by Abdu'l-Baha, versus the
fraudulent will and testament passed off on the community by the
family of Shoghi Effendi. Neither could some thousands of other early
believers "adjust," and many left or were driven out during
the next few decades (Abdul Baha's Questioned Will and Testament, 1946
11).
Abdu'l-Baha's conception of the Covenant is not at all like the fanatical,
oppressive one imposed by Shoghi Effendi and propped up
by "administrators" who believed they knew better than Abdul-Baha, such as
Horace Holley and Charles Mason Remey, both of whom were
quick not only to "adjust," but zealously supported and promoted the
"appointee" of the spurious will and testament, who delegated
authority in return back to them. Abdu'l-Baha clearly never conceived of
any successor other than eventually an elected, democratic
Universal House of Justice, one definitely without an hereditary guardian
analogous to a Shiite imam or a Sunni caliphate.
Abdu'l-Baha knew all too well what social oppression and upheavals those
systems of organization had led to, which is one reason He
always emphasized spiritual democracy, not tyranny.
One of the typical tactics used to suppress and discredit such public,
printed statements by Abdu'l-Baha was and is to claim that
the original Persian transcript has not survived, it's only a "pilgrim's
note," hearsay, and so on. Similarly, tactics of slander
and shunning were unleashed relentlessly against Ruth White, Mirza Ahmad
Sohrab, Julie Chanler, and anyone able to think and reflect
independently for themselves about Abdu'l-Baha's actual Covenant, which
contains not the slightest suggestion of a so-called
guardian:
"After Abdul-Baha--whenever the Universal House of Justice is organized
it will ward off differences."
Had the purported will and testament been written, as alleged, by
Abdu'l-Baha in three sections between 1901 and 1908, when Shoghi
Effendi was between four and eight years old, yet to prove himself worthy,
despite subsequent attempts to cast him as a prodigy,
Abdu'l-Baha would have known the contents of his own will and testament in
1912, as he delivered this address. However, the three
different hands that Dr. C. Answorth Mitchell attested actually wrote the
fraudulent document, not a one of which was Abdu'l-Baha's,
had not yet named Shoghi Effendi. One should also recall Abdu'l-Baha's
remarks on His own brother's unworthiness to lead the Baha'i
community. It is not credible that Abu'l-Baha would have taken such a
chance on a four-year-old boy, even a family member.
Whether from a rational or spiritual view, given the overwhelming weight
of evidence against the authenticity of the purported will
and testament, the burden of proof resides with those Bahai denominations
that claim its legitimacy, as Ruth White and other Bahais
have stated for decades. It is evident in Ruth White's documents deposited
with the Library of Congress that Shoghi Effendi and / or
others persuaded or bribed the Palestine officials to put the matter
aside, common practice especially in the third world of the
time. Similarly, Shoghi Effendi instructed the nsa to do nothing to
antagonize Ruth White and to avoid the issue, as she relates in
her books. Ruth White perceptively made a crucial observation a long time
ago: The chief beneficiary of a fraudulent, unprobated or
independently verified will and testament, Shoghi Effendi,TRANSLATES it,
if not after writing it or participating in its creation,
and then claims it's authentic.
On all counts, the will and testament is a fraudulent document, and Shoghi
Effendi knew it would never stand up to further scrutiny,
as it didn't with Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell, an unimpeachable authority
still highly regarded in professional forensic circles.
Reading backwards from a fraudulent document is one of the tactics
regularly used by its beneficiaries, e.g., Shoghi Effendi, his
family, and now the denominations that depend on it. It is difficult for
Baha'is committed to, and raised in, the theocratic vision
to recognize the truth--but it's right there in black and white and won't
go away, decade after decade.
If anything, this Address by Abdu'l-Baha is one of the "smoking-guns" that
Ruth White and other early Bahais were not about to
forget, now come again to light, preserving Abdu'l-Baha's vision of a
universal, moderate, spiritual democracy, one based on a
separation of church and state, instead of tyranny.
* Also published in Star of the West, November 23, 1913, p. 238. See Ruth
White, Appendix to Abdu'l-Baha and the Promised Age, 1929,
and her comments on this passage, bottom of the first page. Also, Star of
the West, Vol. VII, No. 15. p. 139: "When the Universal
House of Justice is organized...." Cf. Mahmoud's Diary and Afroukhteh's
Memoires.
Download Facsimile of Abdu'l-Baha's Covenant in PDF 2 megs. 1912. (print)
Text Copy Below
Address upon the Covenant by Abdu'l-Baha
New York City, June 19th, 1912.
Translated by Dr. Ameen U. Fareed.
Parentheses supplied.
Tomorrow I wish to go to Montclair [New Jersey]. Today is the last day in
which we gather together with you to say farewell to you.
Therefore, I wish to expound for you an important question, and that
question concerns The Covenant.
In former cycles no distinct Covenant had been made in writing by the
Supreme Pen; no distinct personage had been appointed to be
the Standard differentiating falsehood from truth, so that whatsoever he
was to say was to stand as truth and that which he
repudiated was to be known as falsehood. At most, His Holiness Jesus
Christ gave only an intimation, a symbol, and that was but an
indication of the solidity of Peter's faith. When he mentioned his faith,
His Holiness said, "Thou art Peter"- which means rock-"and
upon this rock will I build my church." This was a sanction of Peter's
faith; it was not indicative of his (Peter) being the
expounder of the Book, but was a confirmation of Peter's faith.
But in this dispensation of the Blessed Beauty, (Baha'u'llah) among its
distinctions is that He did not leave people in perplexity.
He entered into a covenant and testament with the people. He appointed a
Center of the Covenant. He wrote with His own pen and
revealed it in the Kitab-el-Akdas, the Book of Laws, the Book of the
Covenant, appointing him (Abdu'l-Baha) the Expounder of the
Book. You must ask him Abdu'l-Baha) regarding the meanings of the texts of
the verses. Whatsoever he says is correct. Outside of
this, in numerous tablets He (Baha'u'llah) has explicitly recorded it,
with clear, sufficient, valid and forceful statements. In the
tablet of The Branch He explicitly states, "Whatsoever The Branch says is
right, or correct; and every person must obey The Branch
with his life, with his heart, with his tongue. Without his will not a
word shall anyone utter." This is an explicit text of the
Blessed Beauty. So there is no rescue left for anybody. No soul shall, of
himself, speak anything. Whatsoever his (Abdu'l-Baha's)
tongue utters, whatsoever his pen records, that is correct; according to
the explicit text of Baha'u'llah in the tablet of The
Branch.
His Holiness Abraham covenanted with regard to Moses. His Holiness Moses
was the Promised One of Abraham, and He, Moses, covenanted
with regard to His Holiness Christ, saying that Christ was the Promised
One. His Holiness Christ covenanted with regard to His
Holiness "The Paraclete," which means His Holiness Mohammed. His Holiness
Mohammed covenanted as regards The Bab, whom He called,
"My Promised One," His Holiness The Bab, in all His books, in all His
epistles, explicitly covenanted with regard to the Blessed
Beauty, Baha'u'llah--that Baha'u'llah was the Promised One of His Holiness
The Bab. His Holiness Baha'u'llah covenanted, not that I
(Abdu'l-Baha) am the Promised One, but that Abdu'l-Baha is the Expounder
of the Book and The Center of His Covenant, and that the
Promised One of Baha'u'llah will appear after one thousand or thousands of
years. This is the Covenant which Baha'u'llah made. If a
person shall deviate, he is not acceptable at the Threshold of
Baha'u'llah. In case of difference-Abdu'l-Baha must be consulted.
They must revolve around his good pleasure. After Abdu'l-Baha-whenever the
Universal House of Justice is organized it will ward off
differences.
Now I pray for you that GOD may aid you, may confirm you, may appoint you
for His service; that He may suffer you to be as radiant
candles; that He may accept you in His Kingdom; that He may make you the
cause of the spread of the light of Baha'u'llah in these
countries, and that the teachings of Baha'u'llah may be spread broadcast.
I pray for you, and I am pleased with all of you, each one, one by one;
and I pray that GOD may aid and confirm you. From Montclair
I will come back to you. New York is favored, I go away and I come back to
it. The friends in New York must appreciate this. At
present, farewell to you!
Published November the Twelfth,
nineteen hundred and twelve.
The ninety-fifth anniversary of the birth
of Baha'u'llah.
The Bahai Assembly of Washington, D.C.
Download Facsimile of Abdu'l-Baha's Covenant in PDF 2 megs. 1912. (print)
Compare: Dr. C. (Charles) Ainsworth Mitchell - Certified Copy from the
Library of Congress
Report on the Writing Shown on the Photographs of the Alleged Will of
Abdu'l-Baha. 1930.
--
The Reform Bahai Faith
95 Theses - On Bahai Liberty - Articles
www.ReformBahai.org
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