Note: the letter to Queen Victoria was written from Akká (Ottoman Syria), after the division from the Azalis. Earlier tablets to leaders were written in Adrianople (Edirne) after his declaration of He Whom God Shall Manifest.
Her reply to the letter is said to have stated:
If this is of God, it will endure; if not, no harm will come of it. |
The one cause implies not just one faith but one administrative order. There would be National Spiritual Assemblies, as there are for the faith. The Universal House of Justice (UHJ) is the supreme democratic centralist body, meaning a system where each layer elects the next up, and the UHJ has total power downwards. It consists of nine men (and only men). It should have existed from the time of Baha'u'lláh to Victoria, but it only began in 1963. This was six years after the death of the first and last Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi, who died in 1963. Shoghi Effendi (who was appointed by the Last Will and Testament of Abdul Baha, the Exemplar or Centre of the Covenant, who had been appointed by Baha'u'lláh, the Manifestation of God) did not leave a last Will and Testament so, with too many covenant breakers in the close family, the family guardianship failed. After a leadership crisis and competing claims, the UHJ finally came into being and it now runs the Administrative Order of the Faith.
(First three paragraphs after Momen, 1997, 121-122, from Baha'u'lláh, 1972, 31-5, my modernising; last paragraph after Perkins, Hainsworth, 1980, 27, from Baha'u'lláh, 1978, 254, my modernising)
(First three paragraphs : Momen, 1997, 121-122, from Baha'u'lláh, 1972, 31-5, last paragraph: Perkins, Hainsworth, 1980, 27, from Baha'u'lláh, 1978, 254.)
Baha'u'lláh [Mirzá Husayn 'Ali] (1972), The Proclamation of Báha'u'lláh to the Kings and Leaders of the World, Haifa: Bahá'i World Centre, in Momen, M. (1997), A Short Introduction
Baha'u'lláh [Mirzá Husayn 'Ali] (1972), Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'lláh, UK: Bahá'i Publishing Trust.
Cole, J. R. I. (nd), Baha'u'llah's Tablets to the Rulers, [Online], World Wide Web, URL: http://bahai-library.com/encyclopedia/kings.html (last accessed: 23:12 11/10/04).
Momen, M. (1997), A Short Introduction to the Bahá'i Faith, Oxford: Oneworld.
Perkins, M., Hainsworth, P. (1980), The Bahá'i Faith, London: Ward Lock Educational.
About the Letter or Tablet (Extracts) of Baha'u'lláh to Queen Victoria
Adrian Worsfold
Pluralist - Liberal and Thoughtful