Guardian (Baháʼí Faith)


The Guardian is a hereditary office of the Baháʼí Faith that is first mentioned in the Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. Shoghi Effendi was named as the first Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith, and future Guardians were to be appointed from among the male descendants of Baháʼu'lláh. However, since Shoghi Effendi died without having named a successor Guardian, no person could be named to fulfill the position after his death on November 4, 1957, and he remains the only individual acknowledged as Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith, but his guidance remains in the written record of his many writings.

Background

Being ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's eldest grandson, the first son of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's eldest daughter Ḍíyáʼíyyih Khánum, Shoghi Effendi had a special relationship with his grandfather. Zia Baghdadi, a contemporary Baháʼí, relates that when Shoghi Effendi was only five years of age, he pestered his grandfather to write a Tablet for him, which ʻAbdu'l-Bahá obliged.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's family physician, a German doctor who later became a Baháʼí, would relate that in 1910, when Shoghi Effendi was thirteen years old, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá named him his successor, referring to him as his "future Elisha." Shoghi Effendi remained close to his grandfather during his years as a student, first at the LaSallian in Haifa and later as a boarder in Beirut, first at a Catholic school and later at the Syrian Protestant College. Shoghi Effendi was to accompany his grandfather on his journeys to the West but was unable to proceed after port authorities in Naples prevented Shoghi Effendi from continuing due to illness. At the end of World War I, after he had received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Beirut, Shoghi Effendi spent nearly two years of constant companionship with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá before proceeding to Oxford to further his studies and improve his English.
At the time of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death in Acre on November 28, 1921, Shoghi Effendi was a twenty-four-year-old student enrolled at Balliol College, Oxford. Upon reading the telegram announcing ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death, in the home of Wellesley Tudor Pole who was Secretary of the London Local Spiritual Assembly, Shoghi Effendi passed out. After spending a few days with John Esslemont, Shoghi Effendi left England on December 16, 1921, accompanied by Lady Blomfield and his sister Ruhangiz, and arrived in Haifa on December 29. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament, addressed to Shoghi Effendi, was read a few days after Shoghi Effendi's arrival in Haifa.

Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá

The Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was written by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá on three different occasions, and the text remains in three parts. In his Will ʻAbdu'l-Bahá addresses the Baháʼí Covenant and the role of Mírzá Muhammad ʻAlí as a Covenant-breaker; outlines the obligation and responsibilities of the Hands of the Cause of God; explains the election of the Universal House of Justice; and defines the institution of the Guardianship as a hereditary office with its essential function as Interpreter of the Baháʼí writings. Shoghi Effendi describes the Will, along with the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Tablets of the Divine Plan, and the Tablet of Carmel, as one of the charters of the Baháʼí Administrative Order.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's will provided a framework for the Guardian within the Baháʼí administration including:
Although in the Kitáb-i-ʻAhd Baháʼu'lláh designates Mírzá Muhammad ʻAlí as ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's successor, in his Will, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá reprimands his brother as "The Center of Sedition, the Prime Mover of mischief" and establishes the institution of the Guardianship, appointing Shoghi Effendi to this newly created office:

Shoghi Effendi writings on the Institution of the Guardianship

As Guardian, Shoghi Effendi held a new and distinct role. Building on the foundation that had been established in ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's will, Shoghi Effendi elaborated on the role of the Guardian in the developing Baháʼí Administrative Order in several works, including Baháʼí Administration and the World Order of Baháʼu'lláh, in the chapter entitled The Administrative Order.
In those works, Shoghi Effendi goes to great lengths to emphasize that the Guardianship is a distinct station from that of Manifestation or Center of the Covenant: Shoghi Effendi also was critical of Baháʼís referring to him as a holy personage, asking them not to celebrate his birthday or have his picture on display. Furthermore, he did not refer to his own personal role as an individual, but instead to the institution of the Guardianship. In his correspondences, Shoghi Effendi signed his letters to Baháʼís as "brother" and "co-worker," to the extent that even when addressing youth, he referred to himself as "Your True Brother." Instead, Shoghi Effendi goes to great lengths to emphasize the significance of the "Institution of Guardianship," which he calls the "head cornerstone of the Administrative Order of the Cause of Baháʼu'lláh,"
In his writings, Shoghi Effendi delineates a distinct separation of powers between the "twin pillars that support this mighty Administrative Structure—the institutions of the Guardianship and of the Universal House of Justice."

Rights of the Guardian

Although the Kitáb-i-Aqdas requires every Baháʼí to have a will, Shoghi Effendi did not have one when he died unexpectedly of Asian Flu on November 4, 1957 in London, England. Shoghi Effendi did not have any children and had not designated a successor Guardian. With all living male descendants of Baháʼu'lláh having been declared Covenant-breakers by either ʻAbdu'l-Bahá or Shoghi Effendi, no suitable qualifying candidates remained for appointment to the office of Guardian.
On November 19, 1957, nine of the Hands of the Cause issued an "Official Statement" after searching through Shogi Effendi's personal effects in Haifa, Israel, affirming that "the safe and desk have been opened and searched and the non existence of a Will and Testament executed by Shoghi Effendi was definitely established." A subsequent "Unanimous Proclamation of the 27 Hands of the Cause of God" on November 25 confirmed that Shoghi Effendi had died "without having appointed his successor." The Hands of the Cause unanimously voted it was impossible to legitimately recognize and assent to a successor. The Baháʼí community was in a situation not dealt with explicitly in the provisions of the Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. Furthermore, the Universal House of Justice had not yet been elected, which represented the only Baháʼí institution authorized to adjudicate on matters not covered by the religion's three central figures.
The Hands of the Cause of God elected from among their own nine individuals who would serve as Custodians to help lead the transition of the International Baháʼí Council, whose members had previously been appointed by Shoghi Effendi, into the Universal House of Justice, whose members are elected by all the members of each Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly in the world.
On April 8, 1960, Mason Remey one of the Hands of the Cause and president of the International Baháʼí Council, issued a written announcement claiming that he was the second Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith. He based his claim on the idea that by appointing him as President of the International Baháʼí Council, the embryonic form of the Universal House of Justice which would be led by the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi had in fact implicitly named him as the second Guardian. Mason Remey's claim was largely rejected with several notable exceptions, including five members of the National Spiritual Assembly of France led by Joel Marangella. The remaining 26 Hands of the Cause unanimously declared Remey and whoever followed him Covenant-breakers.
The Universal House of Justice later announced that it could not legislate to make possible the appointment of a successor Guardian to Shoghi Effendi. The Universal House of Justice also determined that it could not appoint any further Hands of the Cause, whose work is now carried out by other appointed institutions such as the Continental Counsellors and the Auxiliary Boards.