Because Baha'u'llah makes no mention of the Institution of the Guardianship by name in His Writings; and because even those references in His Writings to a hereditary successor are limited to "Him Who hath branched from this mighty Stock", "Him Who hath branched from this Ancient Root," and "the Aghsan"; Shoghi Effendi needed to spend some time explaining to the friends that the Institution of the Guardianship was rooted in Baha'u'llah's original intentions for His World Order, and was not an innovation brought into being by the Master.
In fact, this was the very first subject addressed by Shoghi Effendi in the first of his World Order letters: The "validity of institutions that stand inextricably interwoven with the Faith of Baha'u'llah," "institutions which stand at the very basis of the World Order ushered in by Baha'u'llah." (WOB 3) The Guardian then explains, in his magnificent way, the inter-relationship between the Most Holy Book and the Master's Will; and that Baha'u'llah "deliberately left a gap" which the Master's Will fills. (WOB 4). Though Baha'u'llah "anticipates" these institutions they are "unspecified" in the Aqdas. Then the Guardian uses two crucial words to specify that the institutions specified in the Master's Will were not "an innovation" brought about after the Master's passing, but had their origins in the Mind of Baha'u'llah Himself: "Divorced" and "mutilated". The Guardian states that to *divorce* "what Abdu'l-Baha has revealed in His Will" from "the Teachings of Baha'u'llah" would be "an unpardonable affront" to the Master's fidelity to Baha'u'llah. (WOB 3) The Guardian also states that "the system of Baha'i administration is not an innovation" but is derived from the Will and from the Most Holy Book. To dissociate this administration from the rest of the Teachings brought by Baha'u'llah would be, he states, tantamount to a *mutilation* of the body of the Cause. (WOB 4) So Shoghi Effendi took the time to explain with perfect clarity that the Guardianship was not something separate from Baha'u'llah's original plan. The Guardian restates and elaborates this point, in his most massively misunderstood statement, in the "Dispensation": "Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the World Order of Baha'u'llah would be mutilated..." (WOB 148) This is not a statement about what would happen if the Guardian died without a successor. Read it in context (WOB 147 ff.) It is a statement that builds on what the Guardian had written in his first World Order letter, quoted above: The Institution of the Guardianship is rooted in "the general scheme of Baha'i Dispensation" (WOB 4) brought by Baha'u'llah; and to "divorce" it from Baha'u'llah's original intent would be a "mutilation of the body of the Cause." (WOB 5 and 148). With the interpretive guidance of the Guardian, we were able to see those allusions in Baha'u'llah's Writings to this sacred institution. In support of the primacy of the hereditary Guardianship, Shoghi Effendi also quotes from a Tablet of the Master concerning intestate succession to emphasize the importance of the hereditary office of the Guardianship: "...In all the divine Dispensations the eldest son hath been given extraordinary distinctions. Even the station of prophethood hath been his birthright..." The full Tablet can be read at http://bahai-library.com/?file=abdulbaha_inheritance_bwc.html Though the subject of the Tablet was inheritance, Shoghi Effendi applies it to the sacred institution of the Guardianship. In like manner, though the subject of Paragraph 42 of the Aqdas is the wakf, the "endowments dedicated to charity," the contents have reference to the institution of the Guardianship, and to the all-important matter of the succession after the Manifestation. Brent __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:archive@mail-archive.com To unsubscribe, send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, use subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
