The Covenant of Baha'u'llah
by Adib Taherzadeh
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chapter 29 | start page | single page | chapter 31 |  |
Chapter 30
Rebellion in the East against the Guardian
The ministry of Shoghi Effendi was characterized on the one hand by the release of the enormous spiritual forces which resulted in the building of the institutions of the Administrative Order and the achievement of momentous victories unprecedented in the annals of the Faith, and on the other hand by the anguish, tribulation and untold suffering which he endured at the hands of the enemies of the Faith, both from within and without, throughout the thirty-six years of the Guardianship. These two contrasting aspects of his ministry — one the superb achievements of the Cause, the other, the cruel pains he underwent — are inseparable parts of his life, and thus portray the enormous pressures which were brought to bear upon him during each and every day of his ministry.One of the titles of Bahá'u'lláh is the Wronged One of the World, and this title could well be applied to Shoghi Effendi too, for he suffered in silence the torments inflicted on him by those who were closest to him. Whereas Bahá'u'lláh's main enemies had been the divines of Islam and the despotic monarchs of Persia and Turkey, the main adversaries of Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi were the Covenant-breakers. Abdu'l-Bahá, unlike Shoghi Effendi, did not always remain silent when sufferings were heaped upon Him. In His writings and public appearances He disclosed the evil-doings of the Covenant-breakers and thus frustrated their wicked schemes to some extent. But Shoghi Effendi acted differently; he did not follow Abdu'l-Bahá's pattern of life as a public figure. He concentrated on his work of directing the affairs of the Cause and building the institutions of the Faith mainly through correspondence. In so doing, he privately endured the onslaught of the enemies from within with resignation and forbearance.
We recall that towards the end of Abdu'l-Bahá's ministry, the band of old Covenant-breakers had to curtail their ignoble activities and retire into their dens as a result of the unprecedented progress of the Faith in the east and the west as well as the magnetic personality of Master which had subdued their vigour. But when the Master was succeeded by Shoghi Effendi, they re-appeared on the scene and took advantage of the intense shock of the passing of Abdu'l-Bahá which caused the Guardian's illness and necessitated his temporary departure from the Holy Land. With renewed energy, these unfaithful men and women unleashed their attacks on the Cause of God and its youthful leader.
We have already seen how in the early days of Shoghi Effendi's ministry, this infamous band of old Covenant-breakers, led by Mirza Muhammad-'Ali, made a fierce assault on the sacred institutions of the Faith including the seizure, by Mirza Badi'u'llah, of the keys of the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh from its faithful custodian. As the years went by, they intensified their opposition to Shoghi Effendi and were subsequently strengthened when most members of Abdu'l-Bahá's family joined them. Hand in hand, they rose up against the Guardian of the Cause of God and fought him with all their venom and hatred until the end of his life.
The opposition to the Guardian was not limited to Covenant-breakers residing in the Holy Land. Several believers raised their heads in violation of the Covenant in other parts of the world and began their onslaught against him from the early days of his ministry. One of the age-old factors which led certain believers to violate the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh was their ambition and pride in wanting to become leaders of the community and obtain important positions in the Cause. The truth, however, is that the Bahá'à community has no leaders as such, and those who are elected or appointed to an administrative office are expected to be servants of the Cause — those who will manifest the qualities of self-effacement, humility and detachment from the things of this world. An inherent characteristic of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh is that it does not harbour egotistical personalities. Its watchword is the servitude which was so exemplified by Abdu'l-Bahá in His life. His supplication to God was to give Him 'to drink from the chalice of selflessness' and to make Him as 'dust' in the pathway of the loved ones of God.
Considering the exalted attribute of 'servitude' which must govern the activities of the friends, as exemplified by Abdu'l-Bahá, it is not surprising to witness the eventual downfall of those who, either through their folly or their ambition and pride, tried with all their power to introduce into the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh the concepts of leadership and dominance, and to create the cult of personality within its ranks. These people in their struggle for power brought about severe crises in the community; they violated the Covenant, rose up against Shoghi Effendi and, in the end, tragically destroyed themselves .
Soon after Shoghi Effendi assumed the office of the Guardianship, and while there was widespread expectation among the Bahá'Ãs of the immediate establishment of the Universal House of Justice, some egotistical personalities longed to become members of that august institution. One such person in the East was Abdu'l-Husayn, entitled by Abdu'l-Bahá as Avarih (Wanderer). In the West it was Ahmad Sohrab. Both men were prominent teachers of the Faith in Persia and North America respectively, and both had one thing in common: a passionate love of leadership.
Avarih was a native of the village of Taft in the Province of Yazd. Before he embraced the Faith he was a Muslim clergyman. Soon after becoming a follower of Bahá'u'lláh he was recognized by the believers to be a man of learning and knowledge, and not long after that he became renowned as one of the erudite teachers of the Faith. For several years, he travelled around Persia, Iraq and Egypt, and became one of the most respected and famous Bahá'Ãs of the East as he employed his talents in teaching and writing for the Faith. Abdu'l-Bahá, who was fully aware of the vices and corrupt practices of this man, did not prevent him from serving the Cause, and as long as he acted faithfully in relation to the Faith, He encouraged him, praised his work, and wrote several Tablets in his honour.
However, from the beginning of his Bahá'à involvement, he displayed a pride and vanity which puzzled those Bahá'Ãs who were in close contact with him. They could not reconcile the quality and goodness of his service to the Cause with his egotistical behaviour, and were surprised when they came across some of his despicable habits such as smoking opium in secret, a practice that Bahá'u'lláh had strictly forbidden. However, the rank and file of the believers were drawn to him, and during the time when he was actively teaching the Faith and promoting its interests he became renowned among the Bahá'Ãs as the foremost teacher of the Cause in the community and the outstanding personality within its ranks.
Shortly after the passing of Abdu'l-Bahá, a number of prominent Bahá'Ãs from several countries were invited to go to the Holy Land in order that Shoghi Effendi might discuss the affairs of the Cause with them. Avarih was one of them, but he arrived late and so missed the discussions. However, he did have the opportunity to talk about various matters with Shoghi Effendi. One of the dreams entertained by Avarih was to become a member of the Universal House of Justice. He knew that if there were to be an election of this body, he would most likely be elected, as he was one of the foremost teachers of the Faith in Persia and well-known even in some communities in the West.
Avarih was an outright hypocrite who had endeared himself to the friends. This he did by writing letters, full of loving exhortation couched in moving language, which he used to disseminate among the believers in both the East and the West. He wrote one such letter in April 1923 addressed to the annual Convention of the Bahá'Ãs of the United States of America. Although he had no faith in Shoghi Effendi and was about to undermine his position as the Guardian of the Faith, yet he used to write to Bahá'à communities extolling his station in superlative terms and urged the friends to turn to him and remain steadfast in the Covenant.
Considering himself to be an erudite and knowledgeable Bahá'Ã, and regarding Shoghi Effendi as young and inexperienced, Avarih advised him in Haifa to arrange for the establishment of the Universal House of Justice at an early stage. Shoghi Effendi clearly explained to him that the election of that body had to wait until such time as local and national Spiritual Assemblies could be formed in various countries and were fully functioning. But Avarih was not satisfied with this explanation and was still determined to press his point of view.
After Avarih's short stay in the Holy Land, Shoghi Effendi advised him to proceed to England where he was to help the believers deepen their knowledge of the Faith. He arrived there some time in January 1923, and after a short stay he went to Egypt where he succeeded in publishing two volumes of the book[1] he had written on the history of the Faith. He achieved this aim with the help of certain believers early in September 1923.
[1 Kawakib'ud-Durriyyih (Brilliant Stars).]
During the few months that he remained in Cairo, he created dissension and disunity among the believers to such an extent that the Spiritual Assembly of Cairo complained to Shoghi Effendi. Thus he was again invited to go to the Holy Land. Avarih questioned the authenticity of the Will and Testament of Abdu'l-Bahá but was satisfied with it when he was shown the original copy in Abdu'l-Bahá's handwriting. He then met with the Greatest Holy Leaf and reiterated to her his opinion that Shoghi Effendi should be advised to call for the election of the Universal House of Justice. He is reported to have uttered a veiled threat that if his demand were not acted upon, he would have no choice but to arouse the Bahá'Ãs of Persia to rebel against the Guardian.
In the meantime, he wrote letters to the believers expressing his dissatisfaction with the way the affairs of the Cause were being conducted. When he arrived in Persia, he began propagating his misconceived ideas aimed at creating division among the friends there. In May 1924 the Spiritual Assembly of Tihran sought guidance from the Guardian as to how to deal with Avarih. The response was that the friends must be protected from his misguided intentions, and a few days later the Greatest Holy Leaf sent the following message to the Trustee of the Huququ'llah, Haji Abu'l-Hasan entitled Amin.
"The question of Avarih has surely come to your attention. In spite of the fact that last year, the first time that he visited this sacred Spot, he was shown the greatest kindness and love, and he was the object of every consideration and care, and everything was done to help him in every way; that when he left for Europe, as the reason for his visit was to teach the Faith, and he was favoured and praised by the Guardian, the friends in England showed him reverence to what was really an exaggerated degree, and received him with the warmest hospitality — that is, no one failed in showing him the utmost regard — still, when he returned to Cairo and busied himself with publishing his book, as it became apparent later on, he put the Assembly and the friends at odds, stirred up the mischief himself and then secretly wrote here and there that there was trouble in Cairo, and presented the situation so as to further his own ends.
"The beloved Guardian at once laid hold of every possible means to quiet the dissension in Cairo, but it proved impossible because Avarih, using all kinds of devices, prevented the reconciliation of the Assembly and the friends in that city. When the Guardian could endure this no longer and there was nothing more that he could do, with deep regret he left the Holy Land. His letter clearly shows how heavy was his heart.
"Later, Avarih left Egypt and came again to the Holy Land, and the interesting thing is that the moment he left, the misunderstandings among the friends in Cairo disappeared, and Bahá'à affairs went forward again in proper fashion, so that it became perfectly clear that he had been the cause of the disruption.
"From here, too, he began to send out letters, and it would only grieve you to tell of the falsehoods and calumnies they contained. In Beirut, too, his talks and his actions were the same, and he spread the word that, God forbid, there is dissension everywhere. Accordingly, in order to protect the Cause of God, a telegram was sent to Baghdad, citing these words of the Ancient Beauty — exalted be His glory: 'Place not your trust in every new arrival, and believe not every speaker.' As a result, when he reached Baghdad, and wished to stir up mischief there, the friends, with great dignity and firmness, restrained him, and avoided his company.
The point is that although such talk and such behaviour have no effect and no importance whatsoever, and do not merit our attention, still this disloyalty of his in these days of trial and sorrow is such that, unable to bear the situation any longer, this grieved and helpless one has felt obliged to set down a brief account of what actually took place." [30-1]
This clear violation of the Covenant isolated Avarih from the believers. Even his wife left him and refused to associate with him. Soon he changed his tactics and wrote a series of letters to various members of Abdu'l-Bahá's family saying that there had been misunderstandings and suggested that if Shoghi Effendi was willing to arrange an annual income for him, he would be willing to alter his attitude and stop his activities against the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh.
Covenant-breaking is a spiritual disease and those who are affected by it are victims of their own selfish ambitions. It is only through a real awakening of the soul and recognizing one's transgressions against God that a Covenant-breaker can find the urge to repent, and when the repentant is sincere, God will forgive his past and restore his spiritual health. Indeed, there were a number of Covenant-breakers who were forgiven in this way by Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.
However, in the several letters Avarih wrote asking for reinstatement there was no expression of repentance. When there was no positive response to his letters, he unveiled his satanic nature and wrote most abusive letters to Shoghi Effendi in which he used rude and offensive language and vowed to destroy the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh altogether. There was never among the Covenant-breakers during Shoghi Effendi's ministry a man so vile and hypocritical as he.
Covenant-breakers usually oppose the Centre of the Faith, but most of them have claimed to be believers in Bahá'u'lláh. However, in this case Avarih rebelled against the Faith itself. This he did despite the fact that he had spent more than two decades teaching the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh and had published voluminous writings declaring its truth and testifying to the authenticity of the message of its Founder. He joined hands with the Muslim clergy and Christian missionaries in attacking the Faith in Persia. He disseminated far and wide a series of his despicable publications against the Faith. In foul language, he attacked every aspect of the Faith, misrepresented its aims, and uttered slanders about its Central Figures whom he attacked in most distasteful terms. 'The volumes', Shoghi Effendi writes, 'which a shameless apostate composed and disseminated ... in his brazen efforts not only to disrupt that Order [Administrative Order] but to undermine the very Faith which had conceived it proved ... abortive.'" [30-2]
In one of his letters to the Bahá'Ãs of Persia who had completely ignored the activities of this ignoble man, Shoghi Effendi referred to Avarih as a dead body which the surging ocean of the Cause of God had cast upon its shores and thus cleansed itself from its pollution. A few years later, Shoghi Effendi introduced the episode of Avarih to the Bahá'Ãs of the West in these words:
"To the Honoured Members of the Bahá'à National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the West.
My dear fellow-workers:
"With feelings of burning indignation I find myself impelled to acquaint you with various events that have recently transpired in Persia. Though in their immediate effect these happenings may prove gravely disquieting to the followers of the Faith in Persia and elsewhere, yet they cannot but eventually contribute to the strengthening and purification of the Cause we steadfastly love and serve.
"I refer to the treacherous conduct of a professed adherent of the teaching of Bahá'u'lláh, by the name of Abdu'l-Husayn Avarih, hitherto regarded as a respected teacher of the Cause, and not unknown by a few of its followers in Europe. Of a nature and character whom those who have learned to know him well have never ceased to despise, even in the brightest days of his public career in the Cause, he has of late been driven by the force of circumstances which his shortsightedness has gravely miscalculated to throw off the mask which for so many years hid his hideous self.
"The sudden removal of the commanding personality of our beloved Abdu'l-Bahá; the confused consternation that seized His followers in the years immediately succeeding His passing; the reputation which to superficial eyes he had acquired by his travels in Europe; the success attending his voluminous compilation of the history of the Cause — these and other circumstances emboldened him to launch a campaign of insinuation and fraud aiming at the eventual overthrow of the institutions expressly provided by Bahá'u'lláh. He saw clearly his chance in the complete disruption of the Cause to capture the allegiance if not of the whole world-wide Bahá'à community of at least a considerable section of its followers in the East.
"No sooner had his evil whisperings reached the ears of the loyal and vigilant followers of Bahá'u'lláh, than they arose with overwhelming force and unhesitating determination to denounce him as a dangerous enemy seeking to undermine the faith and sap the loyalty of the adherents of the Cause of God. Shunned by the entire body of the believers, abandoned by his life-long and most intimate friends, deserted by his wife, separated from his only child, refused admittance into even his own home, denied of the profit he hoped to derive from the sale and circulation of his book, he found to his utter amazement and remorse his best hopes irretrievably shattered.
Forsaken and bankrupt, and in desperate rage, he now with startling audacity sought to expose to friend and foe, the futility and hollowness which he attributed to the Cause, thereby revealing the depths of his own degradation and folly. He has with bitter hatred conspired with the fanatical clergy and the orthodox members of foreign Missions in Tihran, allied himself with every hostile element in the Capital, directed with fiendish subtlety his appeal to the highest dignitaries of the State and sought by every method to secure financial assistance for the furtherance of his aim.
"Not content with an infamous denunciation of the originality and efficacy of the teachings and principles of the Cause, not satisfied with a rejection of the authenticity of the Will and Testament of Abdu'l-Bahá, he has dared to attack the exalted person of the Author and Founder of the Faith, and to impute to its Forerunner and true Exemplar the vilest motives and most incredible intentions.
"He has most malignantly striven to revive the not unfamiliar accusation of representing the true lovers of Persia as the sworn enemies of every form of established authority in that land, the unrelenting disturbers of its peace, the chief obstacles to its unity and the determined wreckers of the venerated faith of Islam. By every artifice which a sordid and treacherous mind can devise he has sought in the pages of his book to strike terror in the heart of the confident believer, to sow the seeds of doubt in the mind of the well-disposed and friendly, to poison the thoughts of the indifferent and to reinforce the power of the assaulting weapon of the adversary .
"But, alas! he has laboured in vain, oblivious of the fact that all the pomp and powers of royalty, all the concerted efforts of the mightiest potentates of Islam, all the ingenious devices to which the cruellest torture-mongers of a cruel race have for well-nigh a century resorted, have proved one and all impotent to stem the tide of the beloved Faith or to extinguish its flame. Surely, if we read the history of this Cause aright, we cannot fail to observe that the East has already witnessed not a few of its sons, of wider experience, of a higher standing, of a greater influence, apostatize their faith, find themselves to their utter consternation lose whatsoever talent they possessed, recede swiftly into the shadows of oblivion and be heard of no more." [30-3]
Owing to his political activities, Avarih at one time fell into public disgrace, and at an advanced age was exiled by order of the government to the city of Yazd where he lived an ignominious life. Shoghi Effendi predicted that Avarih would live to a very old age in order to witness with his own eyes the progress of the Faith throughout the world. Indeed he lived to be about one hundred years of age, and witnessed the rising prestige of the Faith, the inauguration of the Holy Year in 1953, the completion of the superstructure of the Shrine of the Bab, the launching of the Ten Year Crusade and the convocation of several international conferences at which a host of teachers and pioneers arose to bring the Message of Bahá'u'lláh to many virgin territories and establish the institutions of His Faith all over the globe.
After Avarih died, Shoghi Effendi sent the following cable on 16 December 1953 to the Bahá'à world:
"Following the successive blows which fell with dramatic swiftness two years ago upon the ring-leaders of the fast dwindling band of old Covenant-breakers at the World Centre of the Faith, God's avenging hand struck down in the last two months, Avarih, Fareed and Falah, within the cradle of the Faith, North America and Turkey, who demonstrated in varying degrees, in the course of over thirty years, their faithlessness to Abdu'l-Bahá.
"The first of the above named will be condemned by posterity as being the most shameless, vicious, relentless apostate in the annals of the Faith, who, through ceaseless vitriolic attacks recorded in voluminous writings and close alliance with its traditional enemies, assiduously schemed to blacken its name and subvert the foundations of its institutions.
"The second, history will recognize as one of the most perfidious among the kinsmen and the interpreters of the Centre of the Covenant, who, driven by ungovernable cupidity, committed acts causing agonies of grief and distress to the beloved Master and culminating in open association with breakers of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant in the Holy Land.
"The third will be chiefly remembered for his pride, obstinacy and insatiable ambition impelling him to violate the spiritual and administrative precepts of the Faith.
"All three, however blinded by perversity, could not have failed to perceive, as their infamous careers approached their end, the futility of their opposition, the measure of their own loss and the degree of progress and consolidation of the triumphant administrative order so magnificently celebrated in the course of the festivities of the recently concluded Holy Year." [30-4]
'Ringleaders' mentioned in the above cable is a reference to Badi'u'llah, Shu'a'u'llah and Musa, the youngest brother and the two sons of the Arch-breaker of the Covenant respectively. Badi'u'llah died in 1950, following which Shoghi Effendi sent the following cable to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'Ãs of the United States about him and his two nephews.
Badi'u'llah, brother and chief lieutenant of archbreaker of divine Covenant, has miserably perished after sixty years' ceaseless, fruitless efforts to undermine the divinely-appointed Order, having witnessed within the last five months the deaths of his nephews Shoa and Musa, notorious standard-bearers of the rebellion associated with the name of their perfidious father." [30-5]
As to Fareed and Falah, whose names are included along with that of Avarih: they were two long-standing Covenant-breakers. Falah was a resident of Iskandarun, Turkey, a proud and arrogant man who misled a number of his relatives in that city, and remained unrepentant till the end of his life.
Dr Amin Fareed was related to the Holy Family. His mother was the sister of Munirih Khanum, the wife of Abdu'l-Bahá. His father, Mirza Asadu'llah, a native of Isfahan, was charged by Abdu'l-Bahá with bringing the remains of the Bab to the Holy Land, a task which he performed successfully. Fareed's career consisted of a series of acts of treachery and despicable conduct. Although Abdu'l-Bahá paid every attention to his education and sent him to America where he studied at the University of Chicago and qualified as a medical doctor, he did not remain faithful to the Centre of the Covenant. He accompanied Abdu'l-Bahá to the United States, where he acted as His interpreter, but secretly he was engaged in activities which brought disgrace to the Faith. Knowing that Abdu'l-Bahá's policy in the West was that of not accepting financial contributions from the believers, he began to solicit funds clandestinely in the name of the Master and having stolen His seal, he used to issue receipts which carried the stamp of Abdu'l-Bahá on them. This, and other dishonourable conduct by Fareed, brought great sorrow to the heart of Abdu'l-Bahá in such wise that at times His body would be visibly trembling with rage. The Master eventually expelled Fareed from the community. He joined hands with the Covenant-breakers, and at the end destroyed his spiritual life and that of his father who, in spite of much service to the Cause, allied himself with his ignoble son.
Avarih, like all the other Covenant-breakers, utterly failed in his endeavours to arrest the progress of the Faith or dampen the zeal of its adherents. The only beneficial outcome of his rebellion was that a few unscrupulous and corrupted persons, who claimed allegiance to the Faith, gravitated around him. They too rebelled against the Covenant and were cast out of the Community of the Most Great Name, thereby cleansing it from the pollution of their evil influence.
One such person was the evil-minded Hasan-i-Niku, a close friend of Avarih. He was a teacher of the Faith who had spent some time in India and who visited Shoghi Effendi in Haifa at the end of 1923. He was an ambitious man who looked for leadership in the Bahá'à community, and when he did not find it he followed the same path as Avarih. He published three volumes in which he attacked the Faith most viciously, attributed appalling things to the Founders of the Faith, totally misrepresenting its tenets in a language full of bitterness, hate and falsehood. He was ignored by the believers, and his hopes of discrediting the Faith and breaking up the solidarity of its adherents were frustrated.
Another notorious Covenant-breaker in Persia who became a close associate of Avarih was Faydu'llah Subhi who for a number of years served the Master as His secretary. He was a vacillating person who on more than one occasion rebelled against the institutions of the Faith and each time repented, only to resume his opposition to the Cause again. Although he was brought up in a Bahá'à family, he fell victim to the influence of Avarih. His father tried hard to save him from his spiritual extinction, but he remained adamant and continued in his odious activities against the Cause. He sustained a prolonged campaign of shameful vilification not only against the Guardian but also against Bahá'u'lláh and Abdu'l-Bahá. At the height of his rebellion, he wrote a letter to Ayatu'llah Burujirdi, a high-ranking Muslim cleric, in which he repented of having taken part in Bahá'à activities in his earlier days. He used very offensive language against Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice in this letter which demonstrated the depraved character of this man, who remained in the abyss of ignominy and godlessness till the end of his life. All he left behind is the memory of his vile language and despicable conduct.
The defection of Avarih in Persia resulted in the expulsion from the Faith of a handful of unfaithful persons who were influenced by his propaganda. In the same way that all impurities are discharged at intervals from the body of man to keep it healthy, the process of expulsion of the Covenant-breakers had a cleansing effect upon the Bahá'Ãs of Persia. It invigorated the community and gave it the extra stimulus necessary to expand and consolidate the institutions of its divinely-ordained Administrative Order.
Another notorious Covenant-breaker who caused agitation among the Egyptian Bahá'Ãs was an Armenian by the name of Fa'iq who rebelled against Shoghi Effendi and tried to create an alternative organisation to the Administrative Order. He conceived the idea of establishing a 'Scientific Society' — an experiment which ended in utter failure. The friends dissociated themselves from him. He was left to his own devices, and thus deprived himself of the bounty of faith and died a Covenant-breaker.
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chapter 29 | start page | single page | chapter 31 | |
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