September 5. On this date in 1990, Emeric Sala, one of the first nine members of the NSA of Canada, died. In 1947, he received a letter from Shoghi Effendi stating "future Guardians: they cannot "abrogate" the interpretations of former Guardians, as this would imply not only lack of guidance but mistakes in making them; however they can elaborate and elucidate former interpretations, and can certainly abrogate some former ruling laid down as a temporary necessity by a former Guardian."

 

September 5. On this date in 1990, Emeric Sala, one of the first nine members of the NSA of Canada, died. In 1947, he received a letter from Shoghi Effendi stating "future Guardians: they cannot "abrogate" the interpretations of former Guardians, as this would imply not only lack of guidance but mistakes in making them; however they can elaborate and elucidate former interpretations, and can certainly abrogate some former ruling laid down as a temporary necessity by a former Guardian."

Emeric Sala was born on November 12, 1906 in the small Hungarian village of Havas Dombrovica, which roughly translates as “snowed-in village.” He was the first of four children born to a Jewish lumber inspector and his wife. His parents later moved to Herrmannstadt in Sibenbuergen, now Sibiu in Romania, where he spent his school years.

After the First World War and still in his teens, he made his way to Hamburg, where he landed a job as a ship’s helper and set sail for the west coast of Africa. The ship returned to Hamburg and then sailed for Montréal, where he arrived in 1927.

In addition to his native Hungarian, Sala spoke Romanian, some German, French and Italian, but he did not speak a word of English. Learning the language became his obsession. Rather than simply reading books, he wanted to hear people talk, so he attended every free lecture he could find. He was especially intrigued by one public meeting at which May Maxwell talked about the Bahá’í Faith; this led to his enrolment as a Bahá’í in 1929. He was a founding member of the first Canadian Bahá’í Youth Group in Montréal. They held classes, and attendance soon reached about 60. It was the first organized Bahá’í class for youth in the Western Hemisphere. He soon met his future wife, Rosemary Gillies, whom he married in 1934.

The English language, once his handicap, now became his strength. He established a small import business and travelled coast to coast, giving talks on the Bahá’í Faith wherever and whenever he could. In 1937, at the encouragement of May Maxwell, he extended a European business trip to include Haifa, where he had the privilege of spending an evening alone with Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith. Upon his return, Emeric Sala and Siegfried Schopflocher together purchased the first Canadian Bahá’í property at Beaulac, in the Laurentians, north of Montréal, where the country’s first Bahá’í summer and winter schools were held.

In 1945, as the world emerged from World War II, Sala published This Earth One Country. Both Emeric and Rosemary Sala were elected to the first National Spiritual Assembly of Canada in 1948, and they continued to serve until 1953. That year, they responded to Shoghi Effendi’s call for Bahá’ís to arise to serve humanity around the world. Sala transferred his business to his brother, and the couple sold their charming home on the banks of the St. Lawrence River in St. Lambert, Quebec, planning to settle in the Comoro Islands, off the east coast of Africa.

Despite their plans, the French authorities refused to grant them permission to reside in the Comoro Islands, so Shoghi Effendi asked them to settle in Zululand instead. There, they befriended many Africans, who came to refer to Rosemary Sala as “our mother”. Rosemary founded school libraries and organized shipments of books from North America. After returning to Canada briefly in the late 1960s, the couple left for Guadalajara, Mexico, and then travelled extensively throughout Central America.

Rosemary Sala died in Mexico on 24 January 1980. Emeric Sala continued to serve in Mexico and later remarried. His second wife, Donya Knox, became a Bahá’í, and together they travelled throughout America, China, India and Europe.

Emeric Sala died on September 5, 1990, a few weeks after his wife’s death.

On February 19, 1947, a letter addressed on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to Emeric Sala, stated "future Guardians: they cannot "abrogate" the interpretations of former Guardians, as this would imply not only lack of guidance but mistakes in making them; however they can elaborate and elucidate former interpretations, and can certainly abrogate some former ruling laid down as a temporary necessity by a former Guardian."

19 February 1947

To Emeric Sala

Dear Bahá'í Brother:

Your letters dated October 16th and December 19th, with enclosures, were both received, and our beloved Guardian regrets very much the unavoidable delay in answering you, caused by pressure of certain urgent matters that arose.

He feels that there must have been some misapprehension on your part of his statements regarding future Guardians: they cannot "abrogate" the interpretations of former Guardians, as this would imply not only lack of guidance but mistakes in making them; however they can elaborate and elucidate former interpretations, and can certainly abrogate some former ruling laid down as a temporary necessity by a former Guardian.

You asked his views about your statement on the Bahá'í Faith and Communism: frankly he feels that the less the friends discuss Communism, and the Faith in connection with it, the better these days, as the subject is a burning issue, and no matter how discreet we are we run the risk of being involved in this highly political issue.

He wishes you to know that he very deeply appreciates the innumerable services you and your dear wife render the Faith. Reports of your South American work have reached him, as well as your own report of your fifth western trip, and he is delighted to see the response you are getting from the public. Your book has, likewise, been a very useful addition to the teaching literature of the Faith in English, and you must rejoice to see the way God is blessing your labours for His Cause.

Tremendous work still remains to be done in Canada before the approaching election of its first National Spiritual Assembly ; he hopes you and Mrs. Sala will devote as much of your time to this field as you can.

Assuring you of his loving prayers on your behalf, and for the success of your services.

Yours with Bahá'í love,

R. Rabbani

P.S. Through Mr. Schopflocher he recently learned of your joint gift of a property to the Cause in Canada for a Summer School. This is much appreciated, and he hopes it will develop into a fine institution in the future!

May the Beloved, Whose Cause you are serving with such zeal, devotion and perseverance, reward you for your labours, guide every step you take in the path of service, and aid you to enrich the record of your meritorious and notable accomplishments,

Your true and grateful brother,

Shoghi

September 5. On this date in 1973, John Ferraby, a Hand of the Cause of God and from 1959 to 1963 one of the nine Custodians, died. He wrote All Things Made New, which is notable for the changes made from the original publication in 1957 to subsequent editions published after the death of Shoghi Effendi. For example, comparing the original 1957 edition to the 1987 edition, among the numerous alterations, is the replacement of his dedication of the book to "The First Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith" to simply "The Guardian." Other references to "the Guardian" have been replaced with "the Universal House of Justice."

 

September 5. On this date in 1973, John Ferraby, a Hand of the Cause of God and from 1959 to 1963 one of the nine Custodians, died. He wrote All Things Made New, which is notable for the changes made from the original publication in 1957 to subsequent editions published after the death of Shoghi Effendi. For example, comparing the original 1957 edition to the 1987 edition, among the numerous alterations, is the replacement of his dedication of the book to "The First Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith" to simply "The Guardian." Other references to "the Guardian" have been replaced with "the Universal House of Justice."

Born on January 9, 1914, in Southsea, England, into a Jewish family, he was educated at Malvern College and King's College, Cambridge. He became a Bahá'í in 1941 and was elected as secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly, which he remained until 1959. In October 1957, Ferraby was appointed a Hand of the Cause of God by Shoghi Effendi. From 1959 to 1963, he served as one of the nine Custodians at the Bahá'í World Centre.

In 1941 that he was told about the Faith by a non-Bahá’í. Wanting to know more, he found John Esslemont's book Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era in a public library. John Esslemont's book Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era remains an important text that has been used in Bahá'í missionary activity. However, from in its initial publication to later editions, Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era has been significantly edited, with references to Avarih removed in subsequent editions published after Avarih's apostasy from the Bahá'í Faith.

Ferraby was by then living in London, so he started to look for the Bahá’ís there, but he had difficulty in finding them because during the blitz, the Bahá’í Centre was empty most of the time. However, finally he found someone and after a couple of visits he wanted to be accepted as a member of the community. Almost imediately he began to work for the Faith, becoming in less then an year a member of the London Spiritual Assembly and of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles. In 1943 he married a fellow member of the National Assembly, Dorothy Cansdale.

In 1946 he became secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles, working at first in his spare time and from 1950 as full-time secretary. This work he continued, living in the National Hazíratu'l-Quds in London from December 1954, until he went to serve in the Holy Land at the end of 1959. During a good deal of the time he was also manager of the British Bahá’í Publishing Trust, as well as being an active teacher and committee member. From 1951 to 1956 he was busily involved in the work of the Africa Committee and during the opening of the various territories in Africa, at that time mostly colonies or protectorates, he attended to most of the government relationship, acting in his capacity of national secretary. He attended the first Intercontinental Conference, held in Kampala, Uganda, in 1958, as well as the successive Intercontinental Conferences which were held in Europe.

In January 1955, he made the Bahá'í pilgrimage. While in Haifa, Shoghi Effendi advised him to write his book All Things Made New. The book has been widely used, running to one edition of the British Isles and three in the United States. All Things Made New, which is notable for the changes made from the original publication in 1957 to subsequent editions published after the death of Shoghi Effendi. For example, comparing the original 1957 edition to the 1987 edition, among the numerous alterations, is the replacement of his dedication of the book to "The First Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith" to simply "The Guardian." Other references to "the Guardian" have been replaced with "the Universal House of Justice."

In 1957, Shoghi Effendi named Ferraby in the last group of Hands of the Cause. He carried a big share of the work and responsibility for the arrangements when Shoghi Effendi died and was buried in London. After that he took part in the gathering of the Hands of the Cause in Haifa and stayed on there for over three months to help. In December 1959, John went to live in Haifa as one of the Hands of the Cause resident in the Holy Land and remained there until Riḍván 1963. After that he returned to England and lived in Cambridge for the last ten years of his life, working for the first few years as one of the Hands of the Cause in the continent of Europe, dealing with their secretariat and traveling a good deal. Later it became no longer possible for him to serve in this way.

He died on September 5, 1973.

September 5. On this date in 1954, a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer stated that "Shoghi Effendi has never stated how far-reaching the effects of a future war will be, or what other catastrophes may accompany it or follow it. From our teachings we know humanity can and must be welded into some form of political unity--such as a World Federal State--through suffering as it seems only intense suffering is capable of rousing men to the spiritual efforts required. It seems clear to any thinking person that war will be the main cause of this degree of suffering."

 

September 5. On this date in 1954, a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer stated that "Shoghi Effendi has never stated how far-reaching the effects of a future war will be, or what other catastrophes may accompany it or follow it. From our teachings we know humanity can and must be welded into some form of political unity--such as a World Federal State--through suffering as it seems only intense suffering is capable of rousing men to the spiritual efforts required. It seems clear to any thinking person that war will be the main cause of this degree of suffering."

434. We Do Not Know How Far-Reaching the Catastrophe Will Be

"Shoghi Effendi has never stated how far-reaching the effects of a future war will be, or what other catastrophes may accompany it or follow it. From our teachings we know humanity can and must be welded into some form of political unity--such as a World Federal State--through suffering as it seems only intense suffering is capable of rousing men to the spiritual efforts required. It seems clear to any thinking person that war will be the main cause of this degree of suffering."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, September 5, 1954)

September 4. On this date in 1984, an individual wrote the Universal House of Justice seeking "further clarification about the qualitative difference between the Guardian’s prerogative of interpretation and the power of elucidation of the Universal House of Justice."

 

September 4. On this date in 1984, an individual wrote the Universal House of Justice seeking "further clarification about the qualitative difference between the Guardian’s prerogative of interpretation and the power of elucidation of the Universal House of Justice."

The Universal House of Justice Department of the Secretariat 25 October 1984

[To an individual]

Dear Bahá’í Friend,

The Universal House of Justice has received your letter dated 4 September 1984 in which you seek further clarification about the qualitative difference between the Guardian’s prerogative of interpretation and the power of elucidation of the Universal House of Justice, and raise questions about other aspects of the Teachings. We are directed to convey the following comments.

As you are aware, the Universal House of Justice has written three major messages which explain, among other things, the duties and functions shared by the Guardian and the Universal House of Justice, and those functions that are unique to each specific Institution. These messages are published in Wellspring of Guidance, pp. 44–56, and pp. 81–91, and in Messages of the Universal House of Justice: 1968–1973, pp. 37–44. In relation to their specific functions, Shoghi Effendi explained that “it is made indubitably clear and evident that the Guardian of the Faith has been made the Interpreter of the Word and that the Universal House of Justice has been invested with the function of legislating in matters not expressly revealed in the teachings.”

The use of the term “elucidation” by the Universal House of Justice and the process by which it is implemented are based on passages in the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá and statements in the writings of the Guardian. For example, in the Will and Testament, ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá states:

It is incumbent upon these members (of the Universal House of Justice) to … deliberate upon all problems which have caused difference, questions that are obscure and matters that are not expressly recorded in the Book . . . and bear upon daily transactions, . . . (p. 20)

Further, in response to a question raised by the American National Spiritual Assembly about the Universal Court of Arbitration, the Guardian in a letter dated 9 April 1923, defined such explanation as being in the domain of the Universal House of Justice and anticipated its function of elucidation:

… regarding the nature and scope of the Universal Court of Arbitration, this and other similar matters will have to be explained and elucidated by the Universal House of Justice, to which, according to the Master’s explicit Instructions, all important fundamental questions must be referred.… (Bahá’í Administration, p. 47)

In a letter dated 9 March 1965, the Universal House of Justice stresses the “profound difference” that exists between the “interpretations of the Guardian and the elucidations of the House of Justice in exercise of its function to ‘deliberate upon all problems which have caused difference, questions that are obscure, and matters that are not expressly recorded in the Book.’” (Wellspring of Guidance, p. 52) Among these is the outlining of such steps as are necessary to establish the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh on this earth. The elucidations of the Universal House of Justice stem from its legislative function, while the interpretations of the Guardian represent the true intent inherent in the Sacred Texts. The major distinction between the two functions is that legislation with its resultant outcome of elucidation is susceptible of amendment by the House of Justice itself, whereas the Guardian’s interpretation is a statement of truth which cannot be varied.

Shoghi Effendi has given categorical assurances that neither the Guardian nor the Universal House of Justice “can, nor will ever, infringe upon the sacred and prescribed domain of the other.” Therefore, the friends can be sure that the Universal House of Justice will not engage in interpreting the Holy Writings.…

With loving Bahá’í greetings,

Department of the Secretariat

September 4. On this date in 1982, the Universal House of Justice wrote a National Spiritual Assembly reminding that "In the 'Kitab-i-Aqdas' Bahá'u'lláh has stated: 'It is incumbent upon everyone to write his testament." When Shoghi Effendi died in London at the age of 60 from the Asian flu in London where he was shopping for furniture and ornaments for the International Archives building, he did not have a will.

 

September 4. On this date in 1982, the Universal House of Justice wrote a National Spiritual Assembly reminding that "In the 'Kitab-i-Aqdas' Bahá'u'lláh has stated: 'It is incumbent upon everyone to write his testament." When Shoghi Effendi died in London at the age of 60 from the Asian flu in London where he was shopping for furniture and ornaments for the International Archives building, he did not have a will.

630. Every Bahá'í is Encouraged to Make a Will and Testament

"In the 'Kitab-i-Aqdas' Bahá'u'lláh has stated: 'It is incumbent upon everyone to write his testament. It behooveth him to adorn its heading with the Most Great Name, to testify therein to the oneness of God as manifested in the Day-Spring of His revelation and to set forth such good deeds as he may wish to be realized, that these may stand as his testimony in the worlds of Revelation and of Creation and be as a treasure stored up with his Lord, the Protector, the Trusted One.'"

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to a National Spiritual Assembly, September 4, 1982)

Shoghi Effendi died having violated Bahá'u'lláh's command in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas that "Unto everyone hath been enjoined the writing of a will." Having no children of his own and having declared every living male descendant of Bahá'u'lláh a Covenant-breaker, Shoghi Effendi left no eligible candidates for the office of Guardian, posing a serious problem given his assertion that "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." He had furthermore stated in The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh that

Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh would be mutilated and permanently deprived of that hereditary principle which, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has written, has been invariably upheld by the Law of God. “In all the Divine Dispensations,” He states, in a Tablet addressed to a follower of the Faith in Persia, “the eldest son hath been given extraordinary distinctions. Even the station of prophethood hath been his birthright.” Without such an institution the integrity of the Faith would be imperiled, 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.

It is worth reading and reflecting on how Shoghi Effendi describes in God Passes By the misfortunes, illnesses, and deaths of those individuals he had declared Covenant-breakers...

Mohammad Ali Bahai's brother, Mírzá Ḍíya’u’lláh, died prematurely; Mírzá Áqá Ján, his dupe, followed that same brother, three years later, to the grave; and Mírzá Badí’u’lláh, his chief accomplice, betrayed his cause, published a signed denunciation of his evil acts, but rejoined him again, only to be alienated from him in consequence of the scandalous behavior of his own daughter. Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí’s half-sister, Furúghíyyih, died of cancer, whilst her husband, Siyyid ‘Alí, passed away from a heart attack before his sons could reach him, the eldest being subsequently stricken in the prime of life, by the same malady. Muḥammad-Javád-i-Qazvíní, a notorious Covenant-breaker, perished miserably. Shu‘á’u’lláh who, as witnessed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Will, had counted on the murder of the Center of the Covenant, and who had been despatched to the United States by his father to join forces with Ibráhím Khayru’lláh, returned crestfallen and empty-handed from his inglorious mission. Jamál-i-Burújirdí, Mírzá Muḥammad-‘Alí’s ablest lieutenant in Persia, fell a prey to a fatal and loathsome disease; Siyyid Mihdíy-i-Dahájí, who, betraying ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, joined the Covenant-breakers, died in obscurity and poverty, followed by his wife and his two sons; Mírzá Ḥusayn-‘Alíy-i-Jahrúmí, Mírzá Ḥusayn-i-Shírázíy-i-Khurṭúmí and Ḥájí Muḥammad-Ḥusayn-i-Káshání, who represented the arch-breaker of the Covenant in Persia, India and Egypt, failed utterly in their missions; whilst the greedy and conceited Ibráhím-i-Khayru’lláh, who had chosen to uphold the banner of his rebellion in America for no less than twenty years, and who had the temerity to denounce, in writing, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, His “false teachings, His misrepresentations of Bahaism, His dissimulation,” and to stigmatize His visit to America as “a death-blow” to the “Cause of God,” met his death soon after he had uttered these denunciations, utterly abandoned and despised by the entire body of the members of a community, whose founders he himself had converted to the Faith, and in the very land that bore witness to the multiplying evidences of the established ascendancy of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Whose authority he had, in his later years, vowed to uproot.

As to those who had openly espoused the cause of this arch-breaker of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant Mohammad Ali Bahai, or who had secretly sympathized with him, whilst outwardly supporting ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, some eventually repented and were forgiven; others became disillusioned and lost their faith entirely; a few apostatized, whilst the rest dwindled away, leaving him in the end, except for a handful of his relatives, alone and unsupported. Surviving ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by almost twenty years, he who had so audaciously affirmed to His face that he had no assurance he might outlive Him, lived long enough to witness the utter bankruptcy of his cause, leading meanwhile a wretched existence within the walls of a Mansion that had once housed a crowd of his supporters; was denied by the civil authorities, as a result of the crisis he had after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing foolishly precipitated, the official custody of his Father’s Tomb; was compelled, a few years later, to vacate that same Mansion, which, through his flagrant neglect, had fallen into a dilapidated condition; was stricken with paralysis which crippled half his body; lay bedridden in pain for months before he died; and was buried according to Muslim rites, in the immediate vicinity of a local Muslim shrine, his grave remaining until the present day devoid of even a tombstone—a pitiful reminder of the hollowness of the claims he had advanced, of the depths of infamy to which he had sunk, and of the severity of the retribution his acts had so richly merited.

It should be noted, that because Bahá'í law forbids the "transport the body of the deceased a greater distance than one hour’s journey from the city", Shoghi Effendi was buried at the New Southgate Cemetery in London, far from the Bahá'í holy shrines in Israel. Not far from his grave in Southgate, however, rests Shoghi Effendi's niece Maliheh Afnan, the artist daughter of Ruhangiz Afnan, who Shoghi Effendi had declared a Covenant-breaker for marrying the son of Siyyid Ali Afnan, who 'Abdu'l-Bahá had declared a Covenant-breaker.

September 4. On this date in 2005, the Universal House of Justice wrote a letter "concerning the source of a statement about 20,000 [Babi] martyrs" given that "Some historians think the number of early Babi/Bahá'í martyrs was not 20,000, as 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi mentioned numerous times, but 2,000 to 3,000."

 

September 4. On this date in 2005, the Universal House of Justice wrote a letter "concerning the source of a statement about 20,000 [Babi] martyrs" given that "Some historians think the number of early Babi/Bahá'í martyrs was not 20,000, as 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi mentioned numerous times, but 2,000 to 3,000."

September 4. On this date in 1981, a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States clarified "that the Spiritual Assemblies and individual believers are free to quote in their publications from any of the Writings of the three Central Figures of the Faith or from the writings of the beloved Guardian, whether in the original language or in translation, without obtaining clearance from the copyright holder... it does not change the existing requirements for individual believers to submit their works on the Faith for review before publication, neither does it relieve Spiritual Assemblies of their responsibility to protect the dignity of the Faith and uphold the proper standard of reverence in the use of its Sacred Scriptures

 

September 4. On this date in 1981, a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States clarified "that the Spiritual Assemblies and individual believers are free to quote in their publications from any of the Writings of the three Central Figures of the Faith or from the writings of the beloved Guardian, whether in the original language or in translation, without obtaining clearance from the copyright holder... it does not change the existing requirements for individual believers to submit their works on the Faith for review before publication, neither does it relieve Spiritual Assemblies of their responsibility to protect the dignity of the Faith and uphold the proper standard of reverence in the use of its Sacred Scriptures

363. Copyright Clearance on Sacred Writings Not Necessary for Assemblies and Bahá'í Believers

"The Universal House of Justice has been concerned of late to note an apparently growing impression among Spiritual Assemblies and individual believers in many parts of the world, that they must obtain copyright clearance before they may quote from the Sacred Texts of the Faith in any publication. It has now instructed us to make it clear that the Spiritual Assemblies and individual believers are free to quote in their publications from any of the Writings of the three Central Figures of the Faith or from the writings of the beloved Guardian, whether in the original language or in translation, without obtaining clearance from the copyright holder, unless the copyright holder in the case of a translation is an individual or is a non-Bahá'í institution. It is recognized that this ruling may endanger copyrights, but we feel that this is a risk that must be taken.

"The ruling is made to ensure that the Sacred Scriptures of our Faith and the writings of the beloved Guardian may be freely used by the believers; it does not change the existing requirements for individual believers to submit their works on the Faith for review before publication, neither does it relieve Spiritual Assemblies of their responsibility to protect the dignity of the Faith and uphold the proper standard of reverence in the use of its Sacred Scriptures. Thus, if any Assembly sees that one of the friends is making use of any of the Holy Texts in an unbefitting manner, it should remonstrate with him and, if necessary, require him to stop doing so."

(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, September 4, 1981)