I was reading a website that was talking about Baha'i sects and putting forth an argument that the part of Abdul Baha's will that names Shoghi Effendi as the guardian of the faith is forged, because the concept of a guardian is never mentioned by Baha'ullah anywhere.
An interesting after thought is that Baha'ullah and Abdul Baha both wrote that the faith's authority was to be passed along to descendents of Baha'ullah to keep the faith unified. Shoghi Effendi had no children and he left no successor, meaning he ultimately failed in this criteria.
There's no doubt about the authenticity of Abdu'l-Baha's will:
- Ahmad Sohrab, who was Abdu'l-Baha's secretary and rebelled against Shoghi Effendi, nevertheless stated that it was all in Abdu'l-Baha's handwriting. He should know. See his
analysis of the Will (
http://www.h-net.org/~bahai/diglib/books/P-T/S/sohrab/WTAB011.gif )
- Abdu'l-Baha's handwriting was quite familiar to tens of thousands of Persian Bahais, and the Will was circulated to them in photostat - nobody has ever questioned that it is Abdu'l-Baha's handwriting, except for one English forensic expert who could not read the language, was not informed that the Will itself says its three parts were written at different times (so he thought it was written by 3 different people!), and who was given a sample of Abdu'l-Baha's handwriting which ended with Abdu'l-Baha's signature (some words he wrote in the flyleaf of a Bible), but the 'expert' did not even notice this, and used other specimen signatures that may not have been from Abdu'l-Baha at all. (see '
Mitchell's Mistake' )
- The Will was found in Abdu'l-Baha's own safe, still sealed.
- Its various provisions, except for the Guardianship, had already been outlined by Abdu'l-Baha in numerous talks and letters, going back at least to 1900 in the West, and maybe earlier in his letters to the East. This includes the 'harsh' sections, because Abdu'l-Baha's brother, Muhammad 'Ali, did not wait for Abdu'l-Baha to die before making his claims - his rebellion began soon after Baha'u'llah's death in 1892. Abdu'l-Baha kept the rebellion confidential as long as he could, but then Muhammad Ali started sending letters to the Persian Bahais denouncing Abdu'l-Baha, so Muhammad Ali had condemned himself by his own words. At that point the bulk of the Bahais turned their backs on Muhammad Ali, simply sending his letters to Abdu'l-Baha and not replying to them. This is the Bahai practice known as "shunning covenant-breakers:" not engaging with them means that the fruits of their ideas and morals will become clear over time, without the Bahais muddying the waters by mixing with them.
It's true that Baha'u'llah does not mention a Guardian, although he does mention a role of honour for the Aghsan, his male descendants, and in several places says that if one of them is not faithful, he is cut off. Baha'u'llah speaks extensively of the Houses of Justice, and of one elected Universal House of Justice. This is the system that governs the Bahai community today. As Abdu'l-Baha grew older, he could see that conditions were not right for this to be established, since the bulk of the Bahais in the East were living under persecution and the required "free and fair" Bahai elections could not be conducted. It might have been done in the West alone, but that would have produced a Universal House of Justice that was not a good reflection of the Bahai community around the world. He had obvious reasons for keeping the appointment of Shoghi Effendi as Guardian confidential: Shoghi Effendi was young, and if the existence of an office of Guardian was known, without naming its holder, it would have become a focus for dissension by ambitious people. So he didn't even tell Shoghi Effendi about it.
It's a bit misleading to speak of "Bahai sects" as if there existed competing models of the Bahai Faith. Naturally everyone can set up their own Bahai Faith if they want to, but these things come and go, and have never amounted to more than a handful of people at any one time. Baha'u'llah appointed Abdu'l-Baha in writing, Abdu'l-Baha appointed Shoghi Effendi in writing, and Baha'u'llah wrote the charter for the House of Justice and Abdu'l-Baha specified how it was to be elected, so the Bahai Faith is in the unique position among religions of having a leadership structure that is scripturally specified. And that makes it impossible for religious entrepreneurs to succeed with a competing system based on Bahai scripture.
