Ministry of the Custodians

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The Ministry of the Custodians, 1957 - 1963.

On November 4, 1957, the Guardian and Head of the Bahá’í Faith, Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, died unexpectedly in London. In the absence of any surviving member of the family of Bahá’u’lláh eligible for this highest office, the Guardian had not been in a position to name a successor, and the Bahá’í community found itself bereft not only of the individual on whom its affections were chiefly fixed, but also of its leader. Responsibility for coordinating the efforts of the last twenty-six National Spiritual Assemblies around the world fell on the shoulders of the Hands of the Cause of God, who had been described a short time earlier as the "Chief Stewards of Bahá’u’lláh's embryonic world commonwealth." As the Universal House of Justice, elected at Riḍván in 1963, subsequently declared: "the entire history of religion shows no comparable record of such strict self-discipline, such absolute loyalty, and such complete self-abnegation by the leaders of a religion, finding themselves suddenly deprived of their divinely inspired guide."

The broad outline of the sequence of events by which the Hand of the Cause ensured the election of the Universal House of Justice has long been available in various Bahá’í publications. Until now, however, the detailed documentation of this turning point in Bahá’í history has been accessible to the public only in part, through the publication in successive volumes of The Bahá’í World of the major statements issued by successive conclaves of the Hands of the Cause. The entire historical record has been brought together by Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khanum, widow of the Guardian, "chosen liaison" between him and the International Bahá’í Council, and herself a leading figure among the Hands of the Cause. The volume comprises all of the statements issued by the successive conclaves of the Hands and various messages from the Hands in the Holy Land to National Spiritual Assemblies, conventions, and conferences around the world. It contains, as well, the greater part of the highly important communications between the group of Hands selected by their colleagues to administer the day-to-day work of the Faith in the Holy Land and those members of the Institution residing in other parts of the world. Supplementing these key documents are the text of related cables and other communications received from National Spiritual Assemblies at particularly critical moments in the period under review.

Although deprived of the guidance of its appointed Guardian, the Bahá’í world was aware that authoritative guidance was also assured by Bahá’u’lláh's own pen to the second of the two central institutions of the Faith, the Universal House of Justice, whose establishment was called for in His Writings. This institution, however, did not yet exist. It was the Hands of the Cause who first fully understood the essential facts of the situation facing the Bahá’í world at the end of 1957, and communicated them to their fellow believers: the ten-year-long teaching plan, which was by then approaching its midway point, had been designed to bring into existence the remaining number of National Spiritual Assemblies necessary for the election of this Supreme Body and would, in the meantime, serve as the authoritative guidance required for the community's collective activities. Galvanized by the urgency of the crisis facing the Faith, the Hands of the Cause embarked on a program of intense activity. Several among them were appointed to serve as Custodians of the Faith at the World Centre, responding to queries on the basis of the existing guidance of the Sacred Writings and the directives of Shoghi Effendi. Members of the Institution traveled tirelessly throughout the world, encouraging their fellow Bahá’ís, clarifying the needs of the work, and providing an inspiring example of the kind of personal dedication that could alone achieve the demanding goals of the Plan. By April 1963, these efforts had achieved their purpose: the required number of National Spiritual Assemblies had been established, and their members prepared in turn to elect the membership of the Institution conceived by Bahá’u’lláh and assured of His unerring guidance.

At this point, the Hands of the Cause took the step that the House of Justice was later to describe as an act of self-abnegation without precedent in religious history. In their message of 5 November 1961 calling for a Convention in the Holy Land for the first election of the Universal House of Justice, they said: "All male voting members throughout the Bahá’í world are eligible for election to the Universal House of Justice. The Hands of the Cause do not limit the freedom of the electors. However, as they have been given the explicit duties of guarding over the security and ensuring the propagation of the Faith, they ask the electors to leave them free at this time to discharge their duties. When that supreme and infallible Body has been elected it will decide on all matters concerning its membership." It was a request that the Convention faithfully honored.

This compendium of the Custodian' papers benefits enormously from both a preface and an introduction written by Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khanum herself. The former sets the publication in its historical context. The latter provides a fascinating and all too brief review of the events of the tumultuous six years covered by the compilation, a period during which the Custodians guided the affairs of the Cause entrusted to them through a most critical period of its long history. We are helped to follow the process of consultation captured in the documents, by which the Hands of the Cause were able to reach a common understanding of the unprecedented challenge suddenly thrust upon them in the very depth of their private grief. We benefit from intimate glimpses of the struggle of the various conclaves to find th resources that the unfinished work of the Ten Year Crusade demanded - indeed, to find the resources needed for the maintenance and functioning of the Institution of the Hands itself. In one lengthy paragraph, no less moving because of its dispassionate tone and objective description of events, Rúhíyyih Khanum summarizes the Hands' response to the crisis created by the attempt of one of their number, Charles Mason Remey, to seize control of the Faith by declaring himself the "second Guardian." Equally cogent is her description of the imaginative and resourceful campaign orchestrated by the Custodians to defend the Moroccan Bahá’í community, several members of which found themselves facing sentences of death or long imprisonment because of religious persecution.

Already indebted to Rúhíyyih Khanum for her matchless study of the life of Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’ís everywhere will feel a sense of immense gratitude for the integrity of purpose and painstaking effort that make The Ministry of the Custodians an enduring contribution to Bahá’í scholarship.

References

• The Universal House of Justice (1993). The Bahá’í World - An International Record 1992-1993. Haifa, Israel: World Centre Publications.