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Summary
Some of Bahai books have been distorted and changed by Bahai administration during successive publications. One of these distorted books is "A Brief look at the Bahai Faith "by "Ahmad Yazdani". He is one the famous Bahai teachers and his book is one of the important Bahai books which have been used in their morality classes.
This documented article is about the perversion of this book and it is written by our dear friend "Saman Bahai".
The documents indicate that the "House of Justice" (which doesn’t anymore include a Guardian of the Cause) is going to remove all Bahai relics concerning with the subject of "the Guardianship".
In order to accomplish this goal," national assembly of Iran" distorted this book which used to emphasize "the Guardianship".
Key words: Guardian of the Cause, the book of "A Brief look at the Bahai Faith ", Ahmad Yazdani, House of Justice, perversion of relics and writings.
Introduction
In any school of thought, there are some motifs which cause the perversion of relics and writings:
1- Big mistakes and misconceptions which have been prevailed after a period of time.
2- Imperfections and deficiencies which should be complemented by other people in future.
3- Disconformities to requirements of the time which obligates the next leaders of the school to change it.
4- New situations which cause the Change in directions of the school.
5- The predictions about the future which has come to be not true for that school.
6- Next leaders' statesmanship which makes them to change the previous principles and texts according to their interests.
The book of "A Brief look at the Bahai Faith" was approved by "Bahai national publication committee" and published in 107 Badi (according to Bahai calendar) or 1329 A.H. (according to Islamic solar calendar).
Bahais were interested in this book and they were using it in their classes. so the first, second, and third publications of this book were finished soon.
This book was approved by "the Blessed Guardian of the Cause; the great Shoghi Effendi" three years before its publication in 104 Badi.
The first page of this book is as follows:
"It is taken from the Exalted epistle which was written in 13th of shahr-ul-ghodrat (month of power) in 104 Badi:
The Blessed Guardian of the Cause appreciated the book of "A Brief look at the Bahai Faith "by "Ahmad Yazdani" and said:
"Write that reading this book is very useful and we hope to fulfill our major goals by its publication…"
This book was not distorted until its third publication. It had some complements in its second and third publications which were about the telegraphs of Bahai progress in all around the world. These complements were added to the 8th and 9th chapters. Some parts of "tablet of Rezvan 105" also were added to the book in its third publication in which the meanings were not clear enough.
The book had a lot of perversions and deletions in next publications.
I'm going to compare the 3rd and 5th publications of this book in order to clarify the perversions.
This book contains 9 chapters in its original and undistorted copy:
Chapter1: A brief history of Bahai religion
Chapter 2: Social and spiritual teachings and principles
Chapter 3: Administrative order and the Bahai administration
Chapter 4: Religious laws and ordinances
Chapter 5: Glad tidings and reasoning
Chapter 6: The selected words and verses
Chapter 7: Some of the statements and witnesses
Chapter 8: Summary of propagation of Bahai Faith in the world
Chapter 9: Glossary of some of important Bahai books and relics
The distorted cases
One of Bahai teachings is as follows:
"Religion must be the cause of unity and love".
Mr. Yazdani explains this teaching by considering the reasons of disagreement in religions and meanwhile, he regards some of Baha'u'llah's writing and finally concludes:
"According to Blessed expressions of Exalted Baha'u'llah, there is no way for appearance of disagreement and minor beliefs in Bahai religion and the cause of unity and love between people is prepared in this religion."
Then, he expresses some of the Bahai teachings and explains 9 parts successively in the order of importance. I mention the first 2 here.
It should be mention that "national assembly of Iran" distorted or omitted these parts completely. I 'm going to compare the 3rd and 5th publications of this book which were published by the Bahai national spiritual assembly of Iran.
I'm considering the perversions in this article and request you to judge about it.
The first perversion
"A Brief look at the Bahai Faith ", p.31, line 3 (the original copy, 3rd publication, published in 107 Badi)
A- the Exalted Baha`u`llah implicated obviously to Exalted Abdul-baha as the center of covenant and interpreter of verses after the great legislator and the Exalted Abdul-baha implicated obviously to Exalted Shoghi Effendi as the Guardian of the Cause and also the successive guardians were appointed as the "Guardian of the Cause" and "permanent chairman of House of Justice". So unlike the previous religions, there is no discord between Bahai people in the case of guardianship and succession.
"A Brief look at the Bahai Faith ", p.31, line 17, (the distorted copy, published in 128 Badi)
A- the Exalted Baha`u`llah implicated obviously to Exalted Abdul-baha as the center of covenant and interpreter of verses after the great legislator and the Exalted Abdul-baha implicated obviously to Exalted Shoghi Effendi as the Guardian of the Cause.
The omitted parts:
…and also the successive guardians were appointed as the "Guardian of the Cause" and "permanent chairman of House of Justice". So unlike the previous religions, there is no discord between Bahai people in the case of guardianship and succession.
The second perversion:
"A Brief look at the Bahai Faith ", p.31, line 9 (the original copy, 3rd publication, published in 107 Badi)
B- All beliefs and religious duties should be turning back to the book and to the texts. If either individuals or spiritual assemblies have disagreement in inference of the texts or if they confront difficulties either in comprehension of the texts or in finding the truth of verses, they must refer to the Guardian of the Cause. His expressions will resolve the problems.
"A Brief look at the Bahai Faith ", p.31, line 17, (the distorted copy, published in 128 Badi)
B- All beliefs and religious duties should be turning back to the book and to the texts. If either individuals or spiritual assemblies have disagreement in inference of the texts or if they confront Difficulties either in comprehension of the texts or in finding the truth of verses, they must refer to the House of Justice. Their expressions which are evaluated by Bahai legislator will resolve the problems.
The distorted part:
The "Guardian of the Cause" has been changed to the" House of Justice" while the responsibility of the Guardian of the Cause as a settlement in divisions and disagreements has not been given to the House of justice in any Bahai text.
The third perversion:
Mr. Yazdani explains the principles of administrative order and the Bahai administration in the third chapter of his book.
Third chapter- the Administrative Order and the Bahai Administration:
"Administrative order consists of principles of Bahai Administration and organization which propagate the spiritual teachings in the world.
It is like a beautiful body in which the spiritual soul is revealed and it will brighten the human world.
The source of administrative principles is "The will and testament of Blessed Abdul-baha" in which Shoghi Effendi is appointed as the Guardian of the Cause, center of Covenant, leader of Bahai people and permanent chairmen of House of Justice.
These two administrative and spiritual centers i.e. "House of Justice" and "Guardian of the Cause" are solver of spiritual, administrative, social and economical problems of humanity and they are known as the pillars of Bahai religion.
Bahai administration is of three kinds: local, national, international or general."
"National assembly of Iran" distorted the third chapter as follows:
"Administrative order consists of principles of Bahai administration and organization which propagate the spiritual teachings in the world.
It is like a beautiful body in which the spiritual soul is revealed and it will brighten the human world.
Bahai administration is of three kinds: local, national, international or general."
The omitted parts:
…The source of administrative principles is "The will and testament of Blessed Abdul-baha" in which Shoghi Effendi is appointed as the Guardian of the Cause, center of Covenant, leader of Bahai people and permanent chairmen of House of Justice.
These two administrative and spiritual centers i.e. "House of Justice" and "Guardian of the Cause" is solver of spiritual, administrative, social and economical problems of humanity and they are known as pillars of Bahai religion.
Mr. Ahmad Yazdani explains Bahai teachings in various discussions by means of a profound knowledge he has about Bahai community under the leadership of Shoghi. (The first Guardian of the Cause)
He never hesitates about the permanent leadership of the guardian of cause in the House of justice, and since establishment of House of justice would be among the future plans of the Blessed Guardian (and this assembly will do his duties permanently under the leadership of the Guardian of the Cause), the successive presence of Guardians in the House of Justice would not be strange. That's why he implicated to the next Guardians of the Cause in different parts of his book as supporter and interpreter of divine texts.
"Ahmad Yazdani" can not imagine Bahai faith without interpreter of verses because the importance of "The will and Testament of Abdul-baha" and its significance for future planning of Bahais is to the extant that the belief in this interpreter, is taken into account as the belief of Bahai people in Guardianship of Shoghi in his time.
The fourth perversion:
"A Brief look at the Bahai Faith ", p.38 (the original copy, 3rd edition, published in 107 Badi)
"15- House of Justice and consultation:
There are two kinds of personal and aggregative affairs in Bahai religion:
1. Devotions, Percepts, Religious rights, Ethics, Spiritual principles and general guidelines of social, economical and teaching affairs which are entrusted to divine texts… and the Blessed Guardian of the Cause and the next Guardians are supporter, propagator and interpreter of divine texts…"
The national assembly of Iran has distorted the text as follows:
"A Brief look at the Bahai Faith ", p.41, (the distorted copy, published in 128 Badi)
"15- House of Justice and consultation:
There are two kinds of personal and aggregative affairs in Bahai religion:
1. Devotions, Percepts, Religious rights, Ethics, Spiritual principles and general guidelines of social, economical and teaching affairs which are entrusted to divine texts … and the Blessed Guardian of the Cause and in our time the Great House of Justice is supporter, propagator and interpreter of the ambiguous text and they will establish the law."
The distorted parts should be mentioned seriously:
1- "The next Guardians of the Cause" is omitted from the original text and changed to" and in our time, the great House of Justice". It should be mentioned that this book was written at the time of the Guardian of Cause and the House of justice had not been established at that time so there is no place for the adverb of "in our time" in the text!
2- The "House of Justice" would be the interpreter of the ambiguous texts. Which texts are really ambiguous up to a level that needs the interpretation of the House of Justice which doesn’t anymore include a Guardian of the Cause?
3- According to which text, House of Justice is responsible for interpretation of the texts? Don't the Bahai people have to ask this question from the House of Justice?
Meanwhile, according to their texts, just Abdul-baha, the Guardian of the Cause and in future the next successive Guardians of Cause will be interpreters of verses.
The fifth perversion:
Now, we're going to consider the third chapter and its perversion by the national assembly of Iran; the one which is working under the leadership of House of Justice which doesn’t anymore include a Guardian of the Cause.
Mr. Ahmad Yazdani explains the administrative order and the Bahai administration in the 3rd chapter:
"The source of administrative principles is "The Will and Testament of the Blessed Abdul-baha" in which Shoghi Effendi is appointed as the Guardian of the Cause, center of Covenant, leader of Bahai people and permanent chairmen of House of Justice. These two administrative and spiritual centers i.e. "House of Justice" and "Guardian of the Cause" are solver of spiritual, administrative, social and economical problems of humanity and they are known as pillars of Bahai religion." (p.53)
Then, he explains the administration in local, national and international levels.
According to the mentioned expressions, House of Justice is the center of Bahai administration and solves the spiritual, social, economical and official problems of society under the permanent leadership of the center of Covenant who is the Guardian of the Cause, so Guardianship is the main pillar of Bahai administration.
The mentioned paragraph was omitted in the distorted publication of the book.
The sixth perversion:
The writer of the book explains the basis of Bahai administrations in the 3rd chapter completely. He expresses that local assemblies should obey the national assemblies in their decisions and if they have any complain against the national assemblies they should do as follows:
The original text
"7- The local spiritual assemblies are under the leadership of national spiritual assemblies of the country and they should accomplish their programs and decisions. But, whenever a local assembly has a complaint against the decisions of the national assembly, they should refer to the Blessed Guardian of the Cause who is the great chairman of the House of Justice and they should ask his opinion about the problem." (p.56)
The mentioned text pointed to the Guardian of the Cause as the settlement in disagreements and the author believes that only the Guardian deserves this position because he is the Center of Covenant and nobody in Bahai religion share this position with him.
But national spiritual assembly of Iran distorted this part and entrusted this responsibility to the House of Justice which has neither a Guardian of the Cause nor a permanent chairman.
Now, notice the distorted paragraph:
The distorted text
"7- The local spiritual assemblies are under the leadership of national spiritual assemblies of the country and they should accomplish their programs and decisions. But, whenever a local assembly has complaint against the decisions of the national assembly, they can refer to House of Justice and ask their opinion about the problem". (p.63)
The seventh perversion
The author explains the establishment of national assembly according to Bahai administration:
"2- The number of Bahai attorneys in each country is determined by decision of the Guardian of the Cause. In Iraq and Egypt 19 people and in Iran 95 people were appointed as Bahai attorneys in these countries up to now. Iran is divided to 22 Bahai sections and 95 people are selected according to the number of Bahais in each section." (Third chapter, second part, p.59)
The mentioned paragraph was distorted as follows:
"2- The number of Bahai attorneys is determined by decision of House of Justice and it is 171 people in Iran up to now." (p.67)
Conclusion
Now, regarding this article which discussed about the great position of the Guardian of the Cause as permanent chairman of House of Justice, please answer these questions:
- Is national assembly of Iran attached to the great position of the Guardian of the Cause as the leader of Bahai people and has distorted the book because of this attachment?
- Is the artificial House of justice happy for the omission of Guardianship as its permanent chairman?
- Is the significance of Guardianship removed in Bahai faith by means of these perversions and can the usurpers continue their leadership in Bahai community?
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