Baha'i

?2166 ?

Baha'i Faith

? National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the U.S.
536 Sheridan Rd.
Wilmette, IL 60091

In Persia (present-day Iran), a predominantly Muslim country, the expectation of the coming of the Mahdi, the successor to Muhammad promised in Islamic writings, was strong. In this environment was born Mirza Ali Muhammad (1819-1850), a Shi'a Muslim who declared himself the Bab or gate through whom people would know about the advent of another messenger of God. Many people accepted the messianic claims of the Bab after his declaration in 1844, and Babism was founded. The initial enthusiasm of the movement quickly encountered fierce opposition. Persecution followed. In 1850, the Bab was martyred.

Two years later, one of the Babis (followers of the Bab) attempted to kill the Shah, and persecution led to further imprisonments of Babis. Among those thrown in jail was Mirza Husayn-Ali (1817-1892), who, while languishing in prison, came to understand himself as the Holy One whom the Bab predicted; however, he kept the revelation to himself for several years. In 1853 he and his family were exiled and left Tehran to Baghdad. During the next years, leadership of the Babi movement was in the hands of Mirza Yahya, Husayn-Ali's half brother, but gradually it shifted to Husayn-Ali because of Mirza Yahya's incompetence. In 1863 Husayn-Ali revealed to a few close associates and members of his family that he was the messenger that the Bab had anticipated. From that time an increasing number of Babis accepted Baha'u'llah (as Husayn-Ali was called) and became Baha'is.

Baha'u'llah moved from Baghdad to Adrianople (now Edirne), to the penal colony at Akka (now Acco) in present-day Israel. Arriving in Akka in 1868, he spent the remainder of his life there. While still under house arrest by the Turkish authorities, he produced his most important works, considered scripture by his followers.

Baha'u'llah was succeeded by the third major figure in Baha'i history, Abbas Effendi (1844-1921), known to the world by his religious name, Abdu'l-Baha (meaning servant of Baha). Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'u'llah's son, is considered the exemplar of the Baha'i teachings. He served Baha'u'llah until his death and later found himself confined by the Turkish authorities until the Revolution of the Young Turks in 1908 brought a gradual easing of restrictions. Abdu'l-Baha then turned his attention to the spread of the Baha'i religion and traveled to Europe and North America in that effort. Upon his death in 1921, Abdu'l-Baha was succeeded by Shoghi Effendi (1897-1957), his grandson, as guardian of the faith.

The Baha'i Faith was brought to America in 1892 by Ibrahim Kheiralla, though he later left the movement and founded a rival organization. Kheirella founded a Baha'i group in Chicago in 1894 and several others sprang up as a result of his efforts. The first convert was Thornton Chase, who joined the faith in 1894. The first United States Convention was held in 1907. In 1900, Agnes Baldwin Alexander encountered the Baha'i religion in Rome and took it to Hawaii. During 1912, Abdu'l-Baha spent eight months in the United States and laid the cornerstone of the Baha'i House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois. The temple took forty years to complete and was dedicated in 1953. The temple's structure demonstrated the significance of the number nine. As the largest whole number, nine is for Baha'is a symbol of culmination and unity. The Wilmette temple, like all Baha'i temples, is nine sided and capped with a dome.

The Baha'i teachings are contained in the writings of the Bab, Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha, considered scriptures, and in the writings of Shoghi Effendi which are considered infallible guidance. They teach the essential oneness of all revealed faiths, which have been given at different stages and ages. The Baha'i Faith is the crown and summation of the previous world faiths to date. While Baha'u'llahs revelation is the most recent, Baha'is believe that God will continue to send messengers in the future.

The Baha'i Faith teaches that God is, in essence, unknowable, though his word is known through his chosen messenger. This word is often summarized in thirteen principles: the independent search for truth, the oneness of the human race, the unity of religion, the condemnation of prejudice, the harmony of science and religion, the equality of the sexes, compulsory education, the adoption of a universal language, the abolition of extremes of wealth and poverty, a world court, work in the spirit of service as worship, justice and universal peace. Baha'i scriptures also stress the immortality and continuous progress of the soul. While these principles form a popular enumeration of Baha'i emphases, the scriptures contain reflections on a variety of other topics and concerns, many of equal importance.

Work is held as a necessity for all and is considered a form of worship. However, regular weekly gatherings featuring prayer and the readings from the sacred writings are held. There are an annual fasting period and eight holy days commemorating various events in the lives of the founders. March 21 is also a holy day, celebrated as New Year's Day. Besides the temple at Wilmette, six others have been built around the world.

After Shoghi Effendi's death, leadership of the faith passed to the Universal House of Justice, an international body headquartered in Haifa, Israel. The Universal House of Justice administers the affairs of the worldwide Baha'i community. It may enact laws and ordinances not expressly stated in the sacred Baha'i texts, but may not offer interpretation of scripture. Members of the Universal House of Justice are elected every five years at an international convention composed of the members of the National Spiritual Assemblies, which have been formed in most countries of the world. National Spiritual Assemblies are elected annually at the National Baha'i Convention. From its offices in Wilmette, Illinois, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States has charge of the national administrative affairs of the faith, including the management of the Baha'i Publishing Trust. Members elect local spiritual assemblies wherever there are at least nine Baha'is. There are no clergy.

The world center of the Baha'i Faith is in Haifa, Israel, where the Bab's shrine is located and Abdu'l-Baha is buried. The National Assembly in England is one of the oldest, having been established in 1923. The British publishing house of George Ronald is a major publisher of English-language Baha'i books widely circulated in the United States.

Membership: In 2001 it was reported that approximately 145,000 Baha'is resided in the United States. There were approximately 1,200 local spiritual assemblies. Worldwide there are more than 5 million Baha'is in close to 12,000 spiritual assemblies in more than 230 countries of the the world. There were 182 National Spiritual Assemblies as of April 2001.

Periodicals: World Order. • Brilliant Star.

Sources:

Balyuzi, H. M. Abdu'l-Baha. London: George Ronald, 1971.

——. Baha'u'llah, The King of Glory. Oxford: George Ronald, 1980.

Miller, William McElwee. The Baha'i Faith. South Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1974.

Perkins, Mary, and Philip Hainsworth. The Baha'i Faith. London: Ward Lock Educational, 1980.

Whitehead, O. Z. Some Early Baha'is of the West. Oxford: George Ronald, 1976.

?2167 ?

Faith of God

(Defunct)

The Faith of God grew out of the work of Jamshid Maani, a Persian prophet known to the public as simply "The Man," a title used to signify the coming of maturity to humanity and that the real station of man is a spiritual station. The Man announced his mission in 1963 in Israel and then Iran. He began to gather followers in various nations around the world to the Faith of God. The Faith emerged following the death of Shoghi Effendi, the guardian of the Baha'i World Faith, and the failure of another guardian to emerge as his successor. Among the early converts to The Man's cause was John Carre, a lifelong Baha'i, who traveled extensively on his behalf and organized the House of Mankind, the administrative aspect of the Faith, in several countries.

The Man continued the Baha'i belief in progressive revelation to mankind through the various mediators or teachers from Zoroaster to Baha'u'llah, and sees himself as the latest in this series. Evolution is also a key notion. The universe and its various parts are in continuous evolution. The universe is alive. The culmination of material creation is man's moving toward spiritual man. This evolutionary process is part of a divine plan leading creation toward unity.

The overall evolution of humanity is toward perfection on all levels. This goal was the reason for all the prophets. Their teachings are one. All forms of worship are acceptable except those contrary to wisdom or detrimental to others. We must strive to give all persons the attributes of the saintly ones. The individual's progression is aided by thorough meditation and prayer but they must become effective in our thoughts and actions.

The House of Mankind was initially established in each of five areas of the world. Like the Baha'i Faith, there is no clergy. Pictured for the future was the development of the Universal Palace of Order, which will bring to realization the aspirations of mankind for the unity and oneness of government. The House of Mankind functioned for a period of approximately ten years in the United States from its headquarters in the residence of John Carre in Mariposa, California. However, during the 1970s, The Man lived with Carre for a number of months, during which time Carre came to know Maani personally and as a result withdrew his support. The movement, which had only several hundred members, ceased to exist in America soon after that action.

Sources:

Carre, John. An Island of Hope. Mariposa, CA: House of Light, 1975.

The Man [Jamshid Maani]. "Heaven". Mariposa, CA: John Carre, 1971.

——. Universal Order. Mariposa, CA: John Carre, 1971.

——. The Sun of the Word of the Man. Mariposa, CA: John Carre, 1971.

?2168 ?

Orthodox Baha'i Faith, National Baha'i Council of the United States

3111 Futura
Roswell, NM 88201

Members of the Orthodox Baha'i Faith, in contrast to most other Baha'is believe that the Baha'i Administrative Order remains unchanged with all of its administrative institutions intact since the death of Shoghi Effendi (1897-1957), the first Guardian of the Faith. The Baha'i Administrative Order was dictated in the Will and Testament of Abdu'l-Baha (1844-1921), the son of Baha'u'llah (1817-1892), the author of the Baha'i Revelation. This document was characterized by Shoghi Effendi as divinely conceived, coequal in sacredness and immutability to Baha'u'llah's most holy book, The Kitab-I-Agdas, and the charger of his world order. In his will, Abdu'l-Baha appointed Shoghi Effendi the first Guardian of the Baha'i Faith and stipulated that each Guardian appoint his successor "in his own lifetime." Under the terms of this document, the Guardian is the head of the Faith, the sole interpreter of Baha'i Holy Writ, and the sacred head of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme legislative body of the Baha'i Administrative Order.

Shoghi Effendi became the Guardian in 1921 following the death of Abdu'l-Baha. For the next thirty years he painstakingly developed the Baha'i Administrative Order at the local and national levels. Based upon the fact that there were then nine functioning national administrative institutions, he established the first International Baha'i Council, explaining that it was a temporary title given to what was to become the Universal House of Justice. Shoghi Effendi did not assume the presidency of the council. He appointed Charles Mason Remey, a leading American Baha'i who had been chosen by Abdu'l-Baha to design the Baha'i temple on Mount Carmel and who was the architect of other Baha'i temples. The council was never convened into a functioning body during Shoghi Effendi's lifetime, although he assigned tasks to individuals who had been appointed to it. Coincident to the passing of Shoghi Effendi in 1957, Remey became the functioning president of the council. It is the belief of the Orthodox Baha'is that president of the Universal House of Justice (i.e., the International Baha'i Council) and Guardian are synonymous terms, hence Remey became the second Guardian of the Faith. The majority of Baha'is refused to recognized the validity of the appointment and declared the office of the Guardian terminated.

Members of the National Baha'i Council state that Mason Remey elected to appoint his successor in the same manner that Shoghi Effendi had employed. He established the second International Baha'i Council and appointed as its president Joel B. Marangella. However, he reinforced the appointment in a letter addressed to Marangella, telling him to advise the Baha'is that he was the third guardian of the faith.

As it was impracticable for the second International Baha'i Council to function as a body, due to lack of support from national Baha'i administrative bodies, and as a majority of supporters of the Guardian were to be found in the United States, Marangella established a National Baha'i Bureau in New York City. The bureau, which moved to New Mexico in 1972, administered the affairs of the Faith in the United States on a provisional and limited basis.

In 1978, the bureau's functions were assumed and expanded by the local Baha'i council of Roswell, New Mexico, a body of nine believers designated by the third Guardian as the National Baha'i Council of the Orthodox Baha'is of the United States. The council was assigned national Baha'i administrative jurisdiction pending the formation of a national Baha'i council when circumstances permit.

The council, in addition to propagating the faith through various media such as newspapers and magazines, inserted open letters and appeals by the guardian in newspapers in the United States and foreign countries in order to convince Baha'is that Shoghi Effendi provided for the continuance of the guardian's office. In 1995 the third guardian established an Internet site at http://www.iinet.net.au/~guardian and in 1996 the Mother Baha'i Council established a site of its own at http://www.rt66.com/~obfusa/council.htm.

In 2000, the Guardian transferred the responsibilities for the direction of the faith in the United States to a provisional National Baha'i Council. As was the case with the Mother Baha'i Council, the new administrative unit of the Orthodox Baha'i Faith continues to declare aggressively that in terminating the Guardianship the other Baha'is have, in effect, negated the major provisions of The Will and Testament and hence are attempting to destroy the World Order of Baha'u'llah and are therefore in violation of the covenant.

Membership: Not reported.

Periodicals: Herald of the Covenant. • Friends in Touch. • Star of the Covenant (for Orthodox Baha'is only).

Remarks: The council is one of three groups which continue the guardianship and recognize Mason Remey as the second guardian. Donald Harvey claims to have a letter from Remey appointing him to be the third guardian. In the United States, Harvey's followers are affiliated in the Remey Society. The third group, an offshoot of the Mother Council, is the Orthodox Baha'i Faith under the Regency.

Sources:

The Orthodox Baha'i Faith. Roswell, NM: Mother Baha'i Council of the United States, 1981.

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Orthodox Baha'i Faith under the Regency

? National House of Justice of the U.S. and Canada
Box 1424
Las Vegas, NM 87701

The Orthodox Baha'i Faith under the Regency is one of three organizations of former members of the Baha'i Faith who accepted the claims of Charles Mason Remey (see separate entry on Remey Society) to be the successor of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith who died in 1957. Remey claimed to be the Second Guardian. After Remey's death in 1974, Joel B. Marangella was one of two men who claimed to have been appointed by Remey as the Third Guardian. Marangella organized his followers as the Orthodox Baha'i Faith.

Among those appointed to a leadership role by Remey, Reginald B. (Rex) King accepted Marangella as the Third Guardian but later came to the conclusion that both Remey and Marangella had taken actions which were contrary to Baha'i law. He concluded that Remey, rather than being the Second Guardian, was but a regent who assumed control until such time as the Second Guardian appeared and took his rightful place. Upon reaching that conclusion, King withdrew from Marangella and claimed to be the Second Regent.

King died in 1977. In his will he appointed four members of his family–Eugene K. King, Ruth L. King, Theodore Q. King, and Thomas King–as the Council of Regents to succeed him. In 1993 Ruth L. King resigned from the Council of Regents. Maeny Whitaker was appointed to take her place. The Orthodox Baha'is follow the teaching of the Baha'i Faith, differing only in their rejection of the authority of the Universal House of Justice in favor of the Regency.

Membership: Not reported. There are an estimated several hundred Orthodox Baha'is in the United States.

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Remey Society

? Jacques Soqhomonian
Boite Postal 593
F-13491 Marseille Cedex 04, France

The Remey Society is one of three organizations of former members of the Baha'i Faith who accept Charles Mason Remey (1874-1974) as the Second Guardian of the Faith. Remey was a prominent Baha'i for many years. He authored a number of books, designed several Baha'i temples, and served as president of the International Baha'i Council. In 1951 he was one of nine people named by Shoghi Effendi as a hand of the cause.

In 1957 Shoghi Effendi died without having fathered a child, leaving a will, or naming a successor. Remey then joined with the other hands of the cause in proclaiming the formation of a Baha'i World Centre made up of nine hands of the cause to assume temporarily the function of the guardian. Remey was one of the nine. However, during the next few years, Remey dissented from the position of the other hands. He argued that the guardianship was a necessary feature of the structure of the faith. He also asserted that, as the president of the International Baha'i Council (a position assigned Remey by Shoghi Effendi), he was the only one in a position to become the Second Guardian. He waited two years for the hands to accept his position. Then, in 1959, he left Haifa, Israel, where the Baha'i Faith has its international headquarters, and came to the United States. In 1960 he issued a proclamation to the Baha'is of the World and circulated it at the annual gathering of the American Baha'is that year. He also issued a pamphlet, "A Last Appeal to the Hands of the Faith," asking them to abandon plans to elect members of the International House of Justice in 1961. The hands continued to reject his claims and expelled him from the faith.

Throughout the 1960s Remey insisted upon his right to be designated the Second Guardian. Finally, in 1968 he appointed the first five Elders of the Baha'i Epoch and announced the organization of his followers under the name The Orthodox Abha World Faith. He retired to Florence, Italy, and lived out the last decade of his life in virtual retirement.

After Remey's death in 1974, two men, Donald Harvey and Joel B. Marangella, both claimed that he had appointed them as the Third Guardian of the Faith. The Remey Society unites the American followers of Donald Harvey. The society was organized by Francis C. Spataro. Following Harvey's death in 1991, Jacques Soqhomonian became the new Guardian of the Faith.

Membership: In 1995 the society reported 400 members in the United States, 150 in Canada, and 200 in two European centers in Italy and France.

Periodicals: The Remey Letter.

Sources:

Remey, Charles Mason. The Baha'i Movement. Washington, DC: J. D. Milans & Sons, 1912.

——. Extracts from Daily Observations of the Baha'i Faith Made to the Hands of the Faith in the Holy Land. Privately published, 1961.

——. Observations of a Baha'i Traveller. Washington, DC: J. D. Milans & Sons, 1914.

Spataro, Francis C. Charles Mason Remey and the Baha'i Faith. New York: Carlton Press, 1987.

——. The Lion of God. Bellerose, NY: Remey Society, 1981.

——. The Rerum. Bellerose, NY: The Author, 1980.

?2171 ?

World Union of Universal Religion and Universal Peace

Current address not obtained for this edition.

In the years after the death of Abdu'l-Baha and the elevation of his grandson, Shoghi Effendi, to the leadership of the Baha'i Faith as the Guardian of the Faith, an American Baha'i, Ruth White, began to question Shoghi Effendi's authority. In her first book, Abdul Baha and the Promised Age (1926), she voiced her opposition to his attempts to develop the Baha'i organization by quoting Abdu'l-Baha to the effect that, "The Baha'i Movement is not an organization. You can never organize the Baha'i Cause." More importantly, she began to voice opposition to Shoghi Effendi's role as guardian, and in her 1929 work, The Bahai Religion and Its Enemy, the Bahai Organization, she attacked the authenticity of the Will and Testament of Abdul-Baha, the document upon which Effendi's authority rested.

Though she lectured widely throughout the United States, her only success in recruiting supporters came in Germany where the Baha'i World Union was founded by Wilhelm Herrigel and other Baha'is, who were described as friends of Abdul-Baha. The Baha'i World Union continued until 1937 when the German government outlawed the Baha'i Faith.

Simultaneously with White's attack upon Effendi, though separate from it, Ahmad Sohrab, a close friend of Abdu'l-Baha who had accompanied him on his American tour in 1912, and an American Baha'i, Julie Chandler (Mrs. Lewis Stuyvesant Chandler), formed an independent Baha'i network in New York City. They felt that Effendi's increasing efforts to organize the faith were counterproductive. They established the New History Society which offered lectures by Sohrab and other prominent guests (Albert Einstein addressed it on one occasion) and opened the Baha'i Bookshop. Members of the New History Society considered themselves participants in the Baha'i movement but separate from the organization headed by Effendi. In response, the Baha'i Faith brought suit against Sohrab, Chandler, and the New History Society seeking to prevent their use of the name "Baha'i." The court ruled against them, however, stating that no group of followers of a religion could monopolize the name of that religion or prevent other groups of followers from practicing their faith.

Like the Baha'i World Union, the New History Society found support in Europe and opened offices in Paris in the 1930s, and Sohrab became the major spokesperson for the society. He spoke frequently and authored a number of books, including Broken Silence, a response to the 1941 court case.

Ruth White and Ahmad Sohrab both died in 1958 and Julie Chandler in 1961. Since their deaths, their work and thought have been carried on by Hermann Zimmer of Stuttgart, West Germany. Zimmer had returned to Germany in 1948 after being released from a POW camp. He picked up the remnants of Herrigel's organization and formed the World Union for Universal Religion and Universal Peace. In 1950 he published Die Wiederkunft Christi in which he equated Baha'u'llah with Christ returned in his Second Advent. Though never a large organization, the World Union remains a rallying point for "Free Baha'is" around the world.

Membership: Not reported. Estimates suggest that only a few hundred "Free Baha'is" reside in the United States.

Sources:

The Baha'i Case against Mrs. Lewis Stuyvesant Chandler and Mirza Ahmad Sohrab. Wilmette, IL: National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'i of the United States and Canada, 1941.

Mirza Ahmad Sohrab. Broken Silence. New York: New History Foundation, 1942.

——. The Will and Testament of Abdul Baha: An Analysis. New York: New History Foundation, 1944.

White, Ruth. Abdul Baha and the Promised Age. New York, 1927.

——. Baha'i Religion and Its Enemy, the Baha'i Organization. Rutland, VT: Charles Tuttle, 1929.

Zimmer, Hermann. A Fraudulent Testament Devalues the Baha'i Religion into Political Shoghism. Stuttgart, Germany: World Union for Universal Religion and Universal Peace, 1973.