Hand of the Cause of God Nosrat Bahremand has penned an extensive critique of an article by Ali Nakhjavan, [Part 1] [Part 2] who has taken various of the Holy Bahá'í Writings out of context to justify the continuation of the Haifa posture that their Administrative Order, sans-guardian, is valid.
An overall consideration for anyone to account for when writing about the Faith in any manner, is the fact that humans in this realm are completely dependant upon God whether they realize it or not. We are all eventually accountable to God. At the extreme, we have all known friends who question whether there is a God or not, and whether the act of worship is a complete waste of time; a mere ritual. Even those souls are at the complete mercy of a loving God. They prosper on this plane and some of them seem to surpass others of us in accomplishments. And so it is with all who write for or about the Faith as well. At the extreme in this example, some are opposed to there ever being another guardian, and others follow the Institution of the Guardianship. Each position has adherents with very strong feelings that God is completely in their corner. It seems such a mystery.
For any who have studied and practice any sort of religious activity, there is usually one thing that is constant; the belief in an afterlife. There is a heaven for all those who practice their religion, although even their heaven may appear different than that expected by others in many cases. The general agreement among the various versions of a heaven is that it affords a better life than we have here, with more goodness and happiness for all who attain. We can agree on that much.
And then there is the matter of some who would alter God’s Word to more closely fit the pattern they follow in their worship practices. Most who do that are completely confident of what they do, and do not look beyond the reality of their own definitions. In the case of Christian worshipers, among the many different interpretations of the Gospel, they all feel comfortable with whatever it is they have determined to be the “right path.” And perhaps rightly so, since their actions coincide with many others, and even their own family members, for justification of their position. It has been 2,000 years since Christ walked the earth, and generations of belief patterns have established a certain “numbness” to the overall picture.
One of the human faculties that allows anyone complete satisfaction in their particular manner of worship is a little thing we call ego. The inner voice of each of us either approves or disapproves of every action we take. It is much more likely that our inner egos approve rather than disapprove of our actions because of the script established for us during our formative years at the hand of a mother or father; a basis for the overwhelming approval is that grand pappy and his grand pappy acted similarly and since the family tree has done so well for years and years, there is no need to deviate from that established pattern. Remember what Christ had to say about the sins of the father being passed on to the offspring?
So if one considers carefully, there is an established human pattern, aided by the ego, that yields the same types of results over and over again, so far as the things that humans do with their lives. A primary intention of Bahá'u'lláh’s Revelation was to break the old patterns, and require humans to study and learn for themselves, regardless of what the accepted knowledge of the day was. Bahá'u'lláh revealed His Message, wrote countless Words to promoted its Teachings, established for its longevity through the establishment of a unique Administrative Order, and did this at a time when human capacity had been infused with a God-given capability to understand and use this new power.
Bahá'u'lláh did not release a “mission impossible.“ However, the Revelation He released did require the diligent thought of all who encountered it in order that they could withstand its Mighty Power. The Bahá'í Faith is not a slam dunk situation. It is not a once saved always saved phenomena such as some of the Christian Denominations avow. The Bahá'í Faith requires its independent investigation by each and every individual who meets its sweet call, and then requires an attitude of independent investigation and pursuit
during the remainder of that person’s life, regardless of any external forces to the contrary.
The Bahá'í Faith is not a cake walk.
Ali Nakhjavan, in his article, attempts to justify something that has already been thoroughly discussed by noted figures within the Faith, such as its Originator, the Center of its Covenant, and its First Guardian. A reading of all of the Writings of those Holy individuals within the context of all of their accumulated Writings determines a different conclusion than what Nakhjavan has reached in his discussion. To the casual observer, that would seem odd. Here we have a Revelation with clearly noted guidelines, guidelines
that were actually penned by the Manifestation and his appointed Heirs. This is in contrast to the lack of written instructions penned by His Holiness the Christ. In fact, Bahá'u'lláh took it a step further, and His Holy Lineage outlined the means of a living interpreter of His Word throughout the entire 1,000 year tenure of His Dispensation. What could be more clear than Bahá'u'lláh’s intention that His appointed interpreters,
the guardians, handle any required explanations for the believers, rather than someone such as the non-guardian Nakhjavan and those among the heterodox Bahá'ís who follow the same pattern?
Now, getting back to my observation, an observation that down through the centuries humans have followed the patterns of their ancestors, based in part upon the urgings of their own egos. Those egos have developed a comfort zone for them, one in which the expectation of the next life is one of goodness, based upon the following of certain established patterns established within their own families, based upon that family’s
understanding of God. Even those who would say that they are the only Bahá'ís in their family, the first one,are caught up in the ego-formed patterns of parental pattern in determining how they approach all things.
This is where we were when Bahá'u'lláh presented his Message of change, and this is generally where we are as humans some 140 odd years later. In spite of Bahá'u'lláh’s Message, there has been very little to no change at all in the traditional manner that humans approach religious activity, and that unfortunately includes the Bahá'í Faith. The pattern of following a personality or a congregation of thought continues, in spite of the admonishment of the Central figures that each individual should investigate for herself, and decide the direction to take. Although there are no “clergy” in the Bahá'í Faith, a cadre of faux clergy are demanding of their followers complete obedience to them, regardless of what the Holy Writings direct.
As Bahá'ís we are expected to understand what Bahá'u'lláh had in mind, and to attempt to live in a manner which begins to pull away from at least a part of the superstitious meanderings of our forefathers. We are expected to effect a change in humans along the lines of Bahá'u'lláh’s Message. Through the careful perusal of the Holy Writings and God’s Grace, we may be able to begin to break the superstitious patterns. Not so, Ali Nakhjavan and those who follow his bent. Those individuals are using the very words that Bahá'u'lláh intended for the enlightenment of the human soul, twisting their intent, and presenting them in order to convince others to continue following a false and corrupt interpretation of the very perfection of the Bahá'í Message! Who do they think they are kidding? For certain, they are not kidding God!
Do they not understand that God’s world is what it is. Nothing more nor less than that. God’s world was determined countless eons before Nakhjavan walked this earth, and will continue as such after he is departed from it, unchanged from God‘s original and perfect Plan. Should Nakhjavan’s ideas be completely off-base so far as Bahá'u'lláh’s intentions are concerned, and I believe they are, he will have jousted with windmills in this world, and face a most likely less-than-satisfying tenure in the next. And the important thing for humans is that he will have contributed nothing toward changing the overall Plan of the Bahá'í Faith. That Plan was established long before any of us, and will continue unchanged for ever and evermore.
We mortals can have no influence whatsoever upon the changing or modification of God’s Plan either here nor in the next world. All we can hope for is to be in alignment with that Plan as best we can while on this plane. We have the good fortune of having Bahá'u'lláh’s clear intentions, requiring no interpretation from mere mortals, to gain access to that alignment. Beyond that, it is all in the Hands of God.
By Hand of the Cause of God David Maxwell
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