In this decision, made with undue haste but a few days after his passing, and on the basis of a patently false premise, the Hands, (with a single notable exception) demonstrated a lamentable and shocking loss of faith in the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh and in the immutability of the sacred, and divinely-conceived Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá that Shoghi Effendi had repeatedly emphasized in his writings should be considered an expression of the Will of Bahá'u'lláh, as well, even referring to it as "their Will," (W.O.B. p.22), a Document which, therefore, would remain in force as long as the Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh itself endured. This Will clearly provides for an unbroken line of Guardians of the Cause of God, each appointed by his predecessor "in his own life-time" and who, as "the Center of the Cause," the sole interpreter of Bahá'í holy Writ and "the sacred head for life of the Universal House of Justice," are called upon to exercise these unique, irreplaceable and essential functions in the Bahá'í Administrative Order. In their unpardonable abandonment of the Guardianship that would bring about the demise of their own institution, upon the death of the last Hand of the Cause appointed by Shoghi Effendi, these now errant Hands, in effect, had shamelessly abrogated the major provisions of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá that Shoghi Effendi had further equated in its sacredness and immutability with Bahá'u'lláh's Most Holy Book, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, in further stating that these two Documents: "are not only complementary, but that they mutually confirm one another and are inseparable parts of one complete unit." (W.O.B. p.4).
Having thus in their faithlessness incredibly abandoned the Guardianship, and decreed their own ultimate demise, these fallen Hands then set about establishing a substitute organization of their own making....
Joel B. Marangella
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