They had, in effect, shamelessly declared null and void the major provisions of a divinely-conceived, sacred and immutable Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, only thirty-six years after the inception of the Administrative Order to which it had given birth, and a Document that, as explained by Shoghi Effendi, had been actually co-authored by Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and therefore expressed "their Will." Moreover, Shoghi Effendi further emphasized the immutability and immortality of this divinely-conceived Document in stating that, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and the Will and Testament were "not only complementary," but " mutually confirm one another and are inseparable parts of one complete unit." As such, the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was therefore undeniably nothing less that a part of the explicit Holy Text, whose sacred and immutable provisions shall endure unchanged for at least a full thousand years.
They had inexcusably ignored or carelessly overlooked the fact that Shoghi Effendi had proclaimed on 9 January 1951 the appointment of the embryonic Universal House of Justice, with the provisional name of International Bahá’í Council, and had identified this "Nascent Institution" in this Proclamation as "this first embryonic International Institution and significantly had appointed Mason Remey the President thereof as the irremovable embryonic Head of this embryonic Institution which he had carefully retained as an inactively functioning body during the remaining years of his ministry, even appointing Rúhíyyih Khánum as his "chosen liaison" thereto, so that only upon his passing it could then be activated and become the instrumentality through which Mason Remey whose appointment he had made, as required "in his own life-time" would then automatically acceded to the Guardianship as his chosen successor, faithfully appointed in accordance with the terms of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá which stipulate that the Guardian of the Faith is the "sacred head" of this Institution.
They overlooked the future pre-eminent role that Shoghi Effendi had specifically projected for the International Bahá’í Council— referred to by him, in this instance, as "the Central Body"—in which he had stated that this body would be direcing the National Spiritual Assemblies of the world in the prosecution of their respective assigned goals during the Ten Year Global Crusade, scheduled to commence at Ridván 1953 (message of 23 November 1951)
They flagrantly usurped the rightful supreme role and functions of the International Bahá’í Council, as outlined above, which this body should have been permitted to automatically and rightfully assume upon the passing of Shoghi Effendi and established in its place an illegitimate and superfluous body comprised of nine Hands, completely outside the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, upon which they bestowed the concocted appellation: "Custodians of the Bahá’í World Faith"
By Joel B. Marangella
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