January 19. On this date in 1935, Shoghi Effendi wrote "...according to the explicit text of the Aqdas, capital punishment is permitted, but also an alternative has been definitely provided whereby the rigours of such a condemnation can be seriously mitigated. Bahá'u'lláh has given us a choice, and has, therefore, left us free to use our own discretion within certain limitations imposed by His law."
In 1973 a "Synopsis and Codification" of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the central book of the Bahá'í Faith written by Bahá'u'lláh, was published in English by the Universal House of Justice, with 21 passages of the Aqdas that had already been translated into English by Shoghi Effendi with additional terse lists of laws and ordinances contained in the book outside of any contextual prose.
The Aqdas was only officially translated into English in 1992, by which time other translations, such as one by the Royal Asiatic Society, were becoming increasingly available through dissemination via the internet. My personal opinion is that the material in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas is so objectionable that the Bahá'í authoritieswished to shield Western believers from its contents, as they do from Bahá'u'lláh's other works by not providing translations.
...according to the explicit text of the Aqdas, capital punishment is permitted, but also an alternative has been definitely provided whereby the rigours of such a condemnation can be seriously mitigated. Bahá'u'lláh has given us a choice, and has, therefore, left us free to use our own discretion within certain limitations imposed by His law. [Footnote: The alternative is life imprisonment.]
(From a letter dated 19 January 1935 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer)
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