THIS BODY REIGNS INGLORIOUSLY, SHAMELESSLY AND IGNOBLY OVER THE WRECKAGE NEFARIOUSLY WROUGHT BY THE FORMER HANDS OF THE CAUSE OF THE DIVINELY-CONCEIVED ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER BEQUEATHED TO US BY ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ, DECLARING THIS ORDER NOW DEFUNCT AND THE GUARDIANSHIP OF THE FAITH ENDED FOR ALL TIME.

The body referred to above is the sans-Guardian and hence headless, illicitly formed and illegitimate Universal House of Justice, with its seat in Haifa, the election of which first took place at Ridván 1963.

The wreckage of the divinely-conceived Bahá’í Administrative Order and the man-made substitute organization over which this so-called Universal House of Justice now presides is the tragic result of the following inexcusable multiple failures on the part of the former Hands of the Cause ¹ immediately following the passing of Shoghi Effendi in their first conclave held in ‘Akká from 18-25 November, 1957.

• Failure, obviously, to retain an unshakeable faith in the indestructible and resistless Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh and in the divinely-conceived, sacred and immutable provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—the immortal "Child" of that Covenant—as undeniably attested to by the hasty, ill-considered and clearly erroneous decisions made by them during this conclave, in which they shamelessly overlooked or actually ignored the "historic" and "epoch-making" decisions, acts and pronouncements that had been made by Shoghi Effendi, particularly during the last seven years of his ministry, while unaware that the very convening of this conclave, in itself, constituted a deviation, at the very outset, from the terms of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will, as no such conclave is either called for or required under the terms of that sacred and immutable Document.

• Failure, evidently, to recall or recognize that Shoghi Effendi had stated in his writings that the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Most Holy Book of Bahá’u’lláh—the Kitab-i-Aqdás—should be considered as "inseparable parts of one complete unit" and therefore ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament was nothing less than a part of the explicit Holy Text whose immutable and immortal laws and provisions were destined to remain unaltered and inviolate for at least a full thousand years.

• Failure, obviously, to carefully review again the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that make it clear that the Guardian of the Faith is required to appoint his successor "in his own life-time" a failure, evidenced by the fact that they instituted a search for a conventional will and testament left by Shoghi Effendi appointing a successor and, and upon not finding such a document and without giving any consideration to the reason for this failure, forthwith, on the very first day of their deliberations, incredibly came to the conclusion that he had not appointed a successor and that the Guardianship of the Cause of God had already come to an end.

• Failure to recall that there were at least three other clear statements in the Writings, in addition to the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that definitely promise that there will always be a Center to whom the friends will be able to turn for interpretation of the Writings. Bahá’u’lláh reveals in The Kitáb-í-Iqán (pp.181-182) the following: "Those words uttered by the Luminaries of Truth must needs be pondered, and should their significance be not grasped, enlightenment should be sought from the Trustees of the depositories of Knowledge, that these may expound their meaning, and unravel their mystery. For it behooveth no man to interpret the holy words according to his own imperfect understanding, nor having found them contrary to his inclination and desires to reject and repudiate their truth." ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has stated: "If any differences of opinion may arise in those regions you must keep yourself entirely aloof and show forth love and kindness to all, saying it is better to refer to the ordained Center [of the Cause] all the affairs. Whatever He commands that very thing is acceptable and beloved." (BWF, p. 408) and in a Tablet addressed: "TO THE BELIEVERS OF GOD AND THE MAID-SERVANTS OF THE MERCIFUL OF THE BAHÁ’Í ASSEMBLIES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA" (BWF, p. 423) He states that should "two souls" . . . "quarrel" and "contend about a question of the Divine questions" and "Should there appear the least trace of controversy, they must remain silent, and both parties must continue their discussion no longer, but ask the reality of the question from the Interpreter. This is the irrefutable command!"

• Failure to comprehend the true meaning and implications of Shoghi Effendi’s designation of the Hands of the Cause as "the Chief Stewards of Bahá’u’lláh’s embryonic World Commonwealth," in the very last cablegram he dispatched to the Bahá’í World in October 1957, a month before his passing, a term which they then seized upon as one that had conferred upon them the authority to designate themselves, "the supreme body of the Bahá’í World Community." In reprehensively assuming this authority, they failed to consider the fact that Shoghi Effendi, in his reference to them as "Chief Stewards" had not referred to them as future Chief Stewards who would assume that appellation in the future but they were then, at the very time that he had penned his cablegram, the Chief Stewards serving under his direction as the living Guardian of the Faith and carrying out, as prescribed in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament, solely spiritual functions which completely excluded executive functions. Therefore, they should have realized that, as they had been designated Chief Stewards in the current embryonic World Commonwealth of Bahá’u’lláh, it was Shoghi Effendi’s intention that they as the Chief Stewards in that Commonwealth, would continue to be Chief Stewards and continue to perform the functions which that term implies, under the direction of a living Guardian of the Faith, during the course of the centuries to come as the embryonic Commonwealth of Bahá’u’lláh developed and ultimately attained maturity. Although the terms "steward" and "stewardship" have various meanings, if there had been any lingering doubt as to the meaning of this term, as used by Shoghi Effendi, they would have had to look no farther than his use of the term "stewardship" in the very last paragraph of his last cablegram of October 1957 to the Bahá’í World, when, in referring to those attending the first of the five Intercontinental Conferences to be held throughout the world to promote the Ten Year Global Crusade, he had identified them as "Chief Stewards" and had called upon, not only "each Hand of the Cause" but "the entire body of believers. . . their elected representatives, the members of the various Regional and National Spiritual Assemblies..." to "insure through a dazzling display of the qualities which must distinguish a worthy stewardship of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, the total and resounding success of these Conferences..." (emphasis added). It would have been clear from the foregoing that Shoghi Effendi had used this term to mean a condition of servitude to the Faith, and, in the light of this meaning, and as applied to the Hands, it denoted the profound and exemplary degree of their servitude to the Cause of God which had been recognized by Shoghi Effendi, and for which reason, they had been elevated to their station as Hands of the Cause. They should have then realized that, as Hands of the Cause, they were then and always will be obligated, under the terms of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will, "to diffuse the Divine Fragrances, to edify the souls of men, to promote learning, to improve the character of all men and to be at all times and under all conditions, sanctified and detached from earthly things"—"obligations" which obviously involve no executive functions whatsoever. And, finally, as further confirmation of the meaning of stewardship as used by Shoghi Effendi, they would only have had to note his reference to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in his book: God Passes By as the "steward of its glory."

  Moreover, and very significantly, as proof that it was not Shoghi Effendi’s intention that the Institution of the Hands of the Cause cease to exist with the passing of the last Hand whom he had appointed, was the fact that he had inserted the word "embryonic" in his reference to them as the "Chief Stewards of Bahá’u’lláh’s embryonic World Commonwealth." For when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explanation of the embryo is considered wherein He states that: "the embryo possesses from the first all perfections, such as the spirit, the mind... in one word, all the powers..." it becomes obvious that Shoghi Effendi envisaged that the Institution of the Hands, which was then, as he stated, only an embryonic organism, would continue to develop in the years that lay ahead, together and simultaneously with all of the other Institutions of the now embryonic Bahá’í Administrative Order, until attaining final maturity, the Hands, as the chief stewards of the "Commonwealth of Bahá’u’lláh" were able to exercise their full powers. The Hands should then have further realized that for this development and outcome to be eventually fully realized, it would be unquestionably necessary for a living Guardian to be present who would continue to exercise the essential and irreplaceable role assigned to him in the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as both "the Center of the Cause" and the "sacred head and distinguished member for life" of the Universal House of Justice.

• Failure to discover the unexpected, indirect, yet clear manner, in which Shoghi Effendi had faithfully appointed his successor "in his own life-time" as required under the terms of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament. They may have discovered this, had they taken the time to carefully review Shoghi Effendi’s pertinent acts, decisions, and messages, particularly during the last seven years of his ministry, and, in doing so, had not been blinded by their erroneous interpretation of the terms of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá which resulted in their holding the fallacious belief that these terms restricted the Guardian’s choice of a successor to male relatives of the blood line of Bahá’u’lláh, whom they had further incorrectly defined as Aghsán, a term which Shoghi Effendi had stated applied only to the "sons" of Bahá’u’lláh who, as contemporaries of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, would have long since died prior to the passing of Shoghi Effendi and therefore obviously would never have been available for consideration, much less appointment, as his successor.

• Failure, obviously, to recall that Shoghi Effendi had explained that the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had been conceived in a "mystic intercourse" between the minds of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and accordingly should actually be viewed as a divinely-conceived co-authored Document and nothing less than "Their Will" and the "Child of the Covenant." Nor did they seem to realize that, in concluding that the Guardianship of the Cause of God had ended, they were in effect, declaring that the most important provisions of this sacred Document, although a part of the explicit Holy Text, had already become null and void only thirty-six years after the inception of the Administrative Order (i.e., with the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1921).

• Failure, inexplicably, to appreciate the significance attached to the one and only Proclamation Shoghi Effendi had issued during his ministry on 9 January, 1951 (or even to recognize the fact that he had issued a Proclamation, perhaps because it had been dispatched in cablegram form, although it was the only cablegram he had ever dispatched which opened with the words "Proclaim") in which he had proclaimed his "weighty epoch making decision" to form the "first International Bahá’í Council" and had acclaimed "this historic decision" as the "most significant milestone in the evolution of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh." Or did they consider the fact that he had waited thirty years since the inception of his ministry (i.e. since the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá) for the time to be ripe to "at long last" proclaim this "weighty epoch-making decision" and that this was one of the important reasons why he had hailed in such superlative terms and "with thankful and joyous heart at long last the constitution of the International Council which history will acclaim as the greatest event shedding lustre upon the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation potentially unsurpassed by any enterprise undertaken since the inception of the Administrative Order of the Faith on the morrow of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Ascension . . ."

• Failure to realize that Shoghi Effendi had actually brought the Universal House of Justice into being, albeit in its embryonic form, in his Proclamation or consider that he had been induced to make this "epoch making decision" in the light of certain recent important developments ² that he had enumerated, among which were the "maturity of nine vigorously functioning national administrative institutions throughout the Bahá’í World"—institutions which, as subordinate national administrative bodies to the International Bahá’í Council, would necessarily come under its direction, once the Council became an actively functioning body, as projected in Shoghi Effendi’s message of 23 November, 1951, as discussed in detail below.

• Failure to perceive the tremendously significant import of Shoghi Effendi’s appointment of the President of the International Bahá’í Council and the further significance of his careful retention of the Council in a non-functioning status during the remaining years of his ministry, by assigning tasks only to individual members of the Council and, further to insure that the Council remained inactive and would never be construed to be under his direction, as a functioning body, he had even appointed a "chosen liaison" between himself and the Council, as announced in his message of 8 March, 1952.

• Failure, inevitably, as a result of their incredulous, inexcusable lack of any re-examination of the acts or writings of Shoghi Effendi to note a message which he had dispatched of supreme and unprecedented importance to them and to all of the believers, who, like them, had not perceived its import either at the time of its release or during the remaining years of his ministry. This highly prophetic message, dated 23 November, 1951, foretold, albeit indirectly, and in such a manner that it had obscured from the believers, the unthinkable prospect that his own passing would take place before the expiration of the Ten Year Global Crusade in 1963. Shoghi Effendi did this by stating that the International Bahá’í Council—referred to by him, for the first time, as "The Central Body"—would be "directing" the "operations" of the National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the world in achieving the goals of the Ten Year Global Crusade. For the International Council to assume the responsibility of directing these subordinate national administrative bodies, it necessarily would have to emerge from its inactive stage in which it had been carefully retained to date (as previously outlined) and assume, for the first time, an actively functioning role with its appointed President, Mason Remey, presiding. As Shoghi Effendi had pointed out in this message that this previously inactive body—the embryonic Universal House of Justice—was now to be brought into active life as a fully functioning Institution exercising jurisdiction over the National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the world as they prosecuted the goals of the Ten Year Global Crusade he had indirectly predicted that his own passing would take place well before the end of that Crusade, (in fact, taking place at its mid-point in November 1957) as only the Guardian permanently presides over the Universal House of Justice. A perusal of the following extract from this momentous message will reveal what the Hands should have perceived as an undeniable proof of the continuation of the Guardianship:

• Failure to perceive that the International Bahá’í Council—this "Nascent Institution"—although appointed by Shoghi Effendi as an embryonic body, had been a complete body from its very inception for, as mentioned previously, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has stated that "the embryo possesses from the first all perfections... all the powers" and, as such, this embryonic Council possessed a head—the President appointed by Shoghi Effendi—who would remain its irremovable head as it developed (similarly to all embryonic organisms) through its remaining successive and active stages, whereas the other eight members of the Council would, when reaching the third stage of its development as the "duly elected body," be elected by the National Spiritual Assemblies of the world. Initially assigned the limited functions he had described, the Council, following its emergence from the inactive stage, in which it had been carefully retained, would upon reaching its second stage of development as an "[International] Bahá’í Court" exercise jurisdiction over six National Bahá’í Courts to be established "in the chief cities of the Islamic East"—the establishment of this International Court in the Holy Land, being, as stated by Shoghi Effendi, an "essential prelude" to its final "efflorescence into the Universal House of Justice." Only then would this Institution finally be able to exercise the full plenitude of its powers, co-incident with the parallel development that will have taken place in the other institutions of the Administrative Order that will have necessarily seen the establishment of Local Houses of Justice.

• Failure to perceive that Shoghi Effendi had used the formation of the International Bahá’í Council as the instrument for the appointment of his successor "in his own life-time" whereas the "sacred head" of this Institution appointed by Shoghi Effendi was only the Guardian-to-be as long as the Council remained an inactively functioning body. This would not be the case, upon its activation, as the head of this Institution would then automatically become the second Guardian of the Faith—Guardianship and Presidency of the Universal House of Justice being synonymous terms—for which obvious reason Shoghi Effendi had never directed its President, Charles Mason Remey, to convene the Council as a functioning body during the remaining years of his ministry.

• Failure to further note that Shoghi Effendi, in his cablegram of 30 June, 1952, had further confirmed and emphasized that the International Bahá’í Council was, in fact, the Universal House of Justice in its embryonic form and not a temporary or provisional body (if any doubt should remain as to its status) wherein he stated: "At the World Center of the Faith, where, at long last, the machinery of its highest institutions has been erected, and around whose most holy shrines the supreme organs of its unfolding Order are in their embryonic form, unfolding." (emphasis added) The "highest institutions" and "supreme organs" of the Bahá’í Administrative Order referred to above could be none other than the Universal House of Justice and the Institution of the Hands of the Cause.

• Failure to realize that attainment of the final stage in the development of the International Bahá’í Council as the Universal House of Justice would only be achieved in the distant future (and certainly not by 1963 as they had planned) ³ when subordinate National Spiritual Assemblies would have similarly achieved, in their own parallel development, the status of National Houses of Justice, at which time all of the divinely-appointed institutions delineated in the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, would be able to fully function in the plenitude of their respective powers.

• Failure to consider the implications in his cablegram of 8 March, 1952 in which he announced again Mason Remey, as President and Amelia Collins as Vice President respectively of the International Bahá’í Council who had been originally identified as such in his cablegram of 2 March, 1951 and who, since then, had been elevated to the rank of Hands of the Cause in his cablegram of 24 December, 1951. His cablegram appointed Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas as Secretary General of the Council and provided him with two assistant secretaries, namely: Ethel Revell, as secretary for the West and Lotfullah Hakim, as secretary for the East, and identified Jessie Revell as the treasurer. Certainly it should have been obvious to the Hands that the designation of these officers further confirmed that the future functions and responsibilities of the International Council, as an actively functioning body, would be far more extensive than the originally limited functions that Shoghi Effendi had assigned to them in his Proclamation of 9 January, 1951 ⁴ and it should have been very clear that these increased functions were such as to require the services of these officers in the future relationships of the Council with its subordinate administrative Institutions throughout the Bahá’í World. Having apparently either failed to perceive these implications or having ignored them, as evidenced by their not permitting the Council to assume these more extensive functions, they appointed an illegitimate body, outside the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, which would completely usurp these functions and never permit the Council to assume the role planned for it by Shoghi Effendi, as specifically outlined in his message of 23 November, 1951. In fact, the two assistant secretaries of the Council never dispatched a letter to a body outside of Israel or the treasurer ever receive a contribution, to my knowledge.

• Failure to realize that the Hands had no authority to assume leadership of the Faith, with the passing of Shoghi Effendi, even believing as they did, that the Guardianship had ended, much less, to subordinate the Institution of the International Bahá’í Council to their own Institution, much less to the illegitimate body that they created from their own number, the details of which will be discussed below, whereas it should have been obvious, that it was the International Bahá’í Council, convened by its President as an actively functioning body, that should now have the sole authority to exercise administrative jurisdiction over National Spiritual Assemblies and direct their activities as clearly envisaged by Shoghi Effendi in his message of 23 November, 1951, as outlined above.

• Failure to realize, in view of the foregoing, that there was no justification whatsoever, for them to ignore the role and functions that rightfully should be exercised by the International Bahá’í Council, and to appoint a completely superfluous body of nine Hands, clearly outside the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that would not only usurp the authority and functions that rightfully belonged to the International Bahá’í Council but incredibly would even exercise the role and functions of the Guardian of the Faith. In their blind and blatant usurpation of authority, they appointed (and did not "elect" as they untruthfully stated in their Proclamation) a clearly illegitimate body, which they named: "Custodians of the Bahá’í World Faith" which they stated in their Proclamation of 25 November, 1957, issued at the end of their first conclave, would "exercise—subject to such directions and decisions as may be given from time to time by us as the Chief Stewards, of the Bahá’í World Faith: all such functions, rights and powers in succession to the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith."

• Failure to realize that future scholars of the Faith, would certainly be appalled to find that the divinely-conceived Administrative Order fashioned by "the master-hand of its perfect Architect," had been so blatantly corrupted by the Hands in their designation of three "supreme bodies" of the Faith; one being their own Institution of the Hands, as mentioned earlier, the members of which had been appointed by Shoghi Effendi, during the closing years of his ministry; the second, being the illegitimate body of nine Custodians of the Faith appointed (not elected) by the Hands from their own number, completely outside of the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and the third, nothing more than a headless body—their so-called Universal House of Justice—that they nevertheless pretended was the infallible body delineated in the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá over which the Guardian presides as its "sacred head." The illegitimacy of these three so-called "supreme bodies" two of which would exist simultaneously, will be noted in the following summation:

• Failure, finally and abjectly, to recognize and accept Mason Remey as the second Guardian of the Faith upon the receipt of his Proclamation at Ridván 1960 in which he presented a clear, perfectly logical and irrefutable explanation of the manner in which he had rightfully inherited the Guardianship on the basis of Shoghi Effendi’s appointment "in his own life-time" of him as his successor, an appointment which, although made in an indirect and veiled manner, to obscure from the believers the knowledge that his passing was imminent, had yet been made in faithful compliance with the terms of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

Related above is the sad, tragic and almost unbelievable account of the multiple inexcusable failures of the erstwhile Hands of the Cause (with a single exception) who had been elevated but recently by Shoghi Effendi to their rank in the Faith, and upon being severely tested with his passing, had failed to meet the test and had proved themselves unfaithful to the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh and to the sacred and immortal Child of that Covenant—the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as clearly shown in the above account. Having ignored, forgotten or failed to perceive the implications of most, if not all, of Shoghi Effendi’s significant messages to the Bahá’í World, as outlined above, it is glaringly evident that these Hands stand forever charged, incomprehensible as it may be, of blatant infidelity to his Guardianship and of a disgraceful and reprehensible betrayal of Shoghi Effendi. For they had blindly, rejected his chosen successor and destroyed the international institutions of the Faith, the final erection of which had represented the crowning achievement of his indefatigable labors during his 36-year ministry to faithfully accomplish the sacred Mandates bequeathed to us by the Founders of the Faith. These fallen Hands, as well as the members of their sans-Guardian and hence headless Universal House of Justice who have followed them in the abandonment of the Guardianship and the perpetration of this manifest violation of the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh, stand forever condemned for their perfidy and lack of faith in the indestructibility of the Covenant. These former Hands, as well as the members of the ill-conceived sans-Guardian organization they have created, and who have now joined them in their contemptible corruption of the divinely-conceived Administrative Order will certainly have failed to recall that Bahá’u’lláh, in the Tablet of the Holy Mariner, has clearly prophesied their perfidy, their infidelity, and their illicit and shameless usurpation of authority and functions that are not theirs, under the terms of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. This highly prophetic Tablet is preceded by the following significant foreword penned by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá of which they, as well as all of the believers who have been led astray by them, would do well to take note.

"Study the Tablet of the Holy Mariner that ye may know the truth, and consider that the Blessed Beauty hath fully foretold future events. Let them who perceive, take warning."

Those who study this prophetic Tablet will note that the future events foretold by Bahá’u’lláh were to take place in "the land of exile" and they pertain to those who "have desired to ascend unto that state which the Lord hath ordained to be above their stations . . . whereupon the burning meteor cast them out from them that abide in the Kingdom of His Presence." Then, most significantly, Bahá’u’lláh enjoined the future "guardian angels" to "Return them to their abode in the world below." Thus, it is clear that their fate is sealed and soon awaits them.

Joel Bray Marangella

Third Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith

1. My reference to the multiple failures of the Hands of the Cause exclude Mason Remey, as he actually never agreed with his fellow-Hands that the Guardianship of the Faith had forever ended. One has only to read his dairy titled: "Daily Observations," maintained during the years that he served as one of the Custodian Hands in Haifa, to note the recorded arguments he presented and the insistent pleadings he made to his fellow so-called Custodian Hands, almost on a daily basis, not to abandon the Guardianship, were all to no avail. Finally, frustrated with the futility of these efforts, he decided to leave Haifa permanently and return to the United States. From there he addressed three appeals to all of his fellow Hands setting forth valid and compelling arguments in support of the Covenant and reasons why they should not abandon the Guardianship, also to no avail. It was only then, for the first time, that he perceived, himself, the connection between his Presidency of the International Bahá’í Council and the Guardianship after which he issued his Proclamation at Ridván 1960. It should also be noted that Hand of the Cause, Hermann Grossmann, did not initially agree with his fellow Hands that the Guardianship had ended. This is known to be the case, as the undersigned had been appointed by the Hands in Europe as one of the body of nine Auxiliary Board members for propagation of the Faith and in that capacity had been specifically instructed by him to assure the believers in France with whom I came in contact that they should not consider that the Guardianship of the Faith had ended but should continue to have unwavering faith that somehow the Guardianship would eventually be restored. It was only subsequent to the Intercontinental Conference held in Frankfurt that he was strongly pressured by his fellow Hands to desist from any further promulgation of this view. To further insure that he did not exercise any possible influence on the believers in Europe concerning the continuation of the Guardianship the Hands decided to, in effect, banish him to South America. It was therefore surprising that he never accepted the Guardianship of Mason Remey.

2. The reasons cited by Shoghi Effendi in his Proclamation of 9 January, 1951 that induced him to make his "epoch-making" and "historic decision" to form the International Bahá’í Council were the following:

   1. "Fulfillment of the prophecies uttered by the Founder of the Faith and the Center of His Covenant culminating in the establishment of the Jewish State, signalizing the birth after the lapse of two thousand years of an independent nation in the Holy Land."

   2. "The swift unfoldment of the historic undertaking associated with the construction of the superstructure of the Báb’s Sepulcher on Mount Carmel."

   3. "The present adequate maturity of nine vigorously functioning national administrative institutions throughout the Bahá’í World."

3. Irrespective of the fact that the Hands were calling for the election of a sans-Guardian, and hence headless Universal House of Justice at Ridván 1963, which they nevertheless pretended was the institution delineated in the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, they ignored Shoghi Effendi’s Proclamation of 9 January, 1951 which specifically outlined the evolutionary stages of an International Court (stated by him to be an "essential prelude"), and a "duly elected body" through which the Council would develop before reaching its "efflorescence into the Universal House of Justice and its final fruition through the erection of manifold auxiliary institutions constituting the World Administrative Center...." It is clearly obvious therefore that the formation of this House of Justice was premature. This fact is further confirmed in the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wherein He states: "... it is utterly impossible to establish the House of Justice which is mentioned in the Book of Aqdas, nay rather it is impracticable and not to be thought of, that is for the time when the Cause is proclaimed and the Commands [of the Aqdas] have become effective. Therefore now is not the time for the House of Justice, which must be established by general election. Its mention is not permissible and its realization impossible." (p. 411 BWF) While, admittedly, progress in the Faith has now made it possible to mention the Universal House of Justice, as, indeed, it has been by Shoghi Effendi in his momentous cablegrams cited above, its establishment, as an institution that will be able to apply the Laws of the Aqdas, remains to be achieved in the distant future.

4. The "threefold function" with which Shoghi Effendi invested this "Nascent Institution" of the International Bahá’í Council in his Proclamation of 9 January, 1951 was: "first to forge link with the authorities of the newly emerged State; second, to assist me to discharge responsibilities involved in the erection of the mighty superstructure of the Báb’s Holy Shrine; third to conduct negotiations related to matters of personal status with civil authorities."