May 27. On this date in 1980, the Universal House of Justice wrote regarding questions about "reasons for the delay in the translation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas."
The
institution of the Covenant has a direct bearing on the implementation
of the laws of the Kitab-i-Aqdas. This Book is the repository of the
basic laws for the Dispensation to be implemented gradually in
accordance with the guidance given by God through those infallible
Institutions which lie at the heart of the Covenant.
Indeed,
one of those Institutions, the Universal House of Justice, has been
given by Bahá'u'lláh the task not only of applying the laws but of
supplementing them and of making laws on all matters not explicitly
covered in the Sacred Text. An English
translation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas was made by Dr. Earl E. Elder and Dr.
William McE. Miller, two men who were Presbyterian missionaries in
Persia and have long been strongly antagonistic to the Faith. A great
many of the statements that they make about its history are based on the
assertions of Covenant-breakers or opponents of the Faith-rather like a
history of Christianity based primarily on statements by enemies of
Jesus Christ. Dr. Miller, for example, places great reliance on a
document called the "Nuqtatu'l-Kaf," which is, in fact, spurious, as is
fully demonstrated by the Hand of the Cause Hasan Balyuzi in his book
Edward Granville Browne and the Bahá'í Faith. (See Edward Granville
Browne, pp. 62-88.) The Nuqtatul-Kaf - Arabic for "The Point of Kaf"
(the letter K)-is a short chronicle of events of the Babi Faith
originally written by Haji Mirza Jani, a merchant from Kashan who was
martyred in 1852. Mr. Balyuzi explains that it was later tampered with
and was denounced as a forgery by Mirza Abu'-Fadl, the preeminent Bahá'í
scholar of the East during the Faith's Heroic Age. The Nuqtatu'l-Kaf
presents a distorted history of the l3dbi Faith and its doctrines.
The
reasons for the delay in the translation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas are given
in the introduction to the Synopsis and Codification.
(Synopsis and Codification, a book published by the Universal House of
Justice in 1973 that contains those passages of the Kitab-i-Aqdas that
had been translated into English by Shoghi Effendi and a codification of
the contents of the Kitab-i-Aqdas and the "Questions and Answers" with
explanatory notes. An annotated English translation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas
was published by the Universal House of Justice at Naw-Ruz 1993.) The
Kitab-i-Aqdas itself is the kernel of a vast structure of Bahá'í law
that will have to come into being in the years and centuries ahead as
the unity of mankind is established and develops. Thus to properly
understand the contents of that Book one should also read many other
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh relating to them, as well as the interpretations
of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Guardian, and realize that great
areas of detail have been left by Bahá'u'lláh for the Universal House
of Justice to fill in and to vary in accordance with the needs of a
developing society. For example: The law of divorce in the
Aqdas seems to apply only to a husband divorcing his wife, and not vice
versa. 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Guardian have made it quite clear that the
principle enunciated by Bahá'u'lláh in the Kitab-i-Aqdas applies equally
to men and women, and the law has always been implemented in this way.
Such elucidations are one of the specific functions intended by
Bahá'u'lláh for the authoritative Interpreter. The Kitab-i-Aqdas appears to allow bigamy.
This is explained in Note 17 on page 59 of the Synopsis and
Codification: "The text of the Kitab-i-Aqdas upholds monogamy, but as it
appears also to permit bigamy, the Guardian was asked for a
clarification, and in reply his secretary wrote on his behalf.
'Regarding Bahá'í marriage: in the light of the Master's Tablet
interpreting the provision in the Aqdas on the subject of the plurality
of wives, it becomes evident that monogamy alone is permissible, since, as
'Abdu'l-Bahá states, bigamy is conditioned upon justice and as justice
is impossible, it follows that bigamy is not permissible, and monogamy
alone should be practiced."' This is an authoritative
interpretation, and as an interpretation states what is intended by the
original text, it is correct to say that the Kitab-i-Aqdas prohibits
plurality of wives. This method of
establishing monogamy as the law of the Faith is one example of the
process referred to in the introduction to the Synopsis and Codification whereby there is a progressive disclosure of the full meaning of the laws of the Faith as the Dispensation unfolds. The
punishments prescribed for theft, murder and arson are given only in
barest outline. It is explained in Note 42 on page 64 of the Synopsis
and Codification that these punishments are intended for a future
condition of society and will have to be supplemented and applied by the
Universal House of Justice. The punishment for theft, for example, says that for the third offense a mark must be placed on the thief's forehead
(nothing is said about branding), so that people will be warned of his
proclivities. All details of how the mark is to be applied, how long it
must be worn, on what conditions it may be removed, as well as the
seriousness of various degrees of theft have been left by Bahá'u'lláh
for the Universal House of Justice to decide when the law has to be
applied. Similarly, merely the fundamental principles of the punishments
for murder and arson are given in the Kitab-i-Aqdas. Willful murder is to be punished either by capital punishment or life imprisonment.
Such matters as degrees of offense and whether any extenuating
circumstances are to be taken into account, and which of the two
prescribed punishments is to be the norm are left to the Universal House
of Justice to decide in light of prevailing conditions when the law is
in operation. Arson, as you yourself can see from the newspapers, is
becoming an increasingly frequent offense-scarcely a day passes without
some building being burned or blown up, often causing agonizing death to
innocent people. Bahá'u'lláh prescribes that a person who burns a house intentionally is to be burned or imprisoned for life,
but again, the application of these punishments, the method of carrying
them out and the fixing of degrees of offense are left to the Universal
House of Justice. Obviously there is a tremendous difference in the
degree of the offense of a person who burns down an empty warehouse from
that of one who sets fire to a school full of children.
From
the above examples it should be clear why a translation of the
Kitab-i-Aqdas made without proper comprehensive footnotes referring to
other Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh which elucidate His laws as well as to
interpretations made by 'Abdu'l-Bahá and the Guardian, can give a very
misleading impression-quite apart from the problem of achieving a beauty
of style in the English which can approach that of the original, an
aspect in which the Elder-Miller translation falls woefully short.
Although
there is no explicit reference to the Guardianship in the
Kitab-i-Aqdas, the Synopsis and Codification lists "Anticipation of the
Institution of the Guardianship." On page 214 of God Passes By,
when summarizing the contents of the Aqdas, Shoghi Effendi states that
in it Bahá'u'lláh "anticipates by implication the institution of
Guardianship," and again, on page 147 of The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh
the Guardian refers to "the verses of the Kitab-i-Aqdas the implications
of which clearly anticipate the institution of the Guardianship." One
such implication is in the matter of Huqúqu'lláh [The Right of God; For
information on Huququ'llah, see the glossary. See also the letter dated 6
August 1984 (no. 404) introducing Huqúqu'lláh to the West] which is
ordained in the Kitab-i-Aqdas without provision being made for who is to
receive it; in His Will and Testament 'Abdu'l-Bahá fills this gap by
stating "It is to be offered through the Guardian of the Cause of God . .
." Other implications of this institution can be seen in the terms in
which 'Abdu'l-Bahá is appointed as the Successor of Bahá'u'lláh and the
Interpreter of His Teachings. The faithful are enjoined to turn their
faces towards the one whom "God hath purposed" and who "hath branched
from this Ancient Root" and are bidden to refer whatsoever they do not
understand in the Bahá'í writings to him who "hath branched from this
mighty Stock." Yet another can be seen in the provision of the Aqdas
concerning the disposition of international endowments a passage which
not only refers this matter to the Aghsan (male descendants of
Bahá'u'lláh) but also provides for what should happen should the line of
Aghsan end before the coming into being of the Universal House of
Justice.
Thus the "Anticipation of the
Institution of the Guardianship" is correctly included in the Synopsis
and Codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas.
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