June 12. On this date in 1958, the Hands of the Cause of God in the Holy Land released a "Statement regarding the Guardianship."

 

June 12. On this date in 1958, the Hands of the Cause of God in the Holy Land released a "Statement regarding the Guardianship."

Statement regarding the Guardianship

June 12, 1958

It has come to our attention that there is amongst the believers discussion regarding the Guardianshipwhich exceeds the statement made by the united body of the Chief Stewards of the Faith, the Hands of the Cause, which they issued from Bahji last November after nine days of deep and heart-searching consultation following hours of supplication in the Holy Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh.

We therefore, acting on behalf of the Hands of the Faith, wish once again to call the attention of all the friends to the words in that Proclamation: "It was likewise certified that the beloved Guardian had left no heir. The Aghsan (branches) one and all are either dead or have been declared violators of the Covenantby the Guardian for their faithlessness to the Master's Will and Testament and their hostility to him named first Guardianin that Sacred Document. The first effect of the realization that no successor to Shoghi Effendi could have been appointed by him was to plunge the Hands of the Cause into the very abyss of despair."

The American Hands of the Faith have expressed this same thought very clearly in a message prepared for a series of teaching conferences held in the United States earlier this year.

"Shoghi Effendi appointed no successor in his own lifetime because he himself had no natural heir and because no member of the Holy Family qualified. The Master's Testament is the sole authority controlling the appointment of successive Guardians, and its specific provisions were scrupulously upheld by the Guardian in his non-appointment of a second Guardian. Since a successor could only be chosen and designated by Shoghi Effendi in his own lifetime, the friends must dismiss all hopeful expectation that a will appointing a second Guardian may later be found."

We call upon all the believers, for the sake of preserving the unity of our beloved Faith for which the Bab. was martyred, Bahá'u'lláh and the Master imprisoned, and for which the beloved Guardian so completely sacrificed himself, to concentrate on the thoughts expressed in the Proclamation, and to desist from all further speculation on the future development of the institutions of the Faith-speculation which can only give rise to those very differences of interpretation forbidden by Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and against which they repeatedly warned us.

Bahá'u'lláh has left the Divine System He conceived, the Master elaborated and the Guardian clarified, but the Divinely-guided scion of His house, Shoghi Effendi has, for reasons none of us can fathom, been lifted from the pattern. What he has left us is more than sufficient for us, the Community of the Most Great Name, to establish the first stages of that world-redeeming Order Bahá'u'lláh has given to mankind. Our sacred obligation is to fulfil our Guardian's wishes, his plans, and his most cherished hopes, leaving the over-all scheme of God to unfold as He sees fit, in His mysterious ways, in the days to come. Let us be confident that if we do our part He will never fail in His, and with this assurance go forward unitedly, courageously and with complete consecration.

Let us also rejoice with grateful hearts over the truly remarkable measure of Divine protection vouchsafed to us since the passing of our beloved Guardian, an unfailing sign that Shoghi Effendi's spirit is with us, guiding

HANDS OF THE CAUSE IN THE HOLY LAND