UHJ Or The House of Shoghi Effendi?

MOHAMMED REZA ISFAHANI

 

This article is derived from the book of Kashful Heel by Abdul Husain Aayati. He lived amongst the Baha’is for 20 years and served them through these years. He was popularly known as \"Awareh\" which means the one who wandered about in love (of Bahaullah). After these years, he saw the corruptions of the Baha’is first hand, renounced the Baha’i Faith and finally reverted back to Islam. Thereafter he wrote the book \"Kashful Heel\" to reveal the true face and hypocrisy of the Baha’is. The life history of Awareh is full of interesting events and episodes.

One of the ploys which the Baha’is have used to hoodwink people is the introduction of ‘Universal House of Justice’ (UHJ). None of their ploys is more severe than this in deceiving people. Since the very beginning Baha’i authorities embedded this notion in the minds of their adherents that the affairs of Baha’is are managed through consultation. After the death of the sons of Bahaullah, this process would cease and thereafter it would be handed over to the UHJ.

Wherever Bahaullah went, he made it a point to convey that he and his sons and anyone who was related with them did not have any authority on the wealth of the people. All the income and collections however were routed to the UHJ on the pretext of serving the poor and orphans and for education etc. In this way Baha’is deceived their own people, masked their treachery and introduced UHJ in such a way that all foolish Baha’is not only believed in it, but also considered it as a firm basis of serving people.

Their craftiness and deceitfulness were so intense that they were able to even mislead some of the socialists. I (Awareh), saw several times that many socialists who heard the Baha’is neither criticised nor praised them. Baha’is accepted their silence as a mark of their approval for the acceptance of Baha’i Faith. Anyone with a little bit of understanding could easily see that this was only a way of ‘legally’ conning Bahais with the sole intention of collecting money for selfish use. While he stayed away from the working of the UHJ, he clearly placed Abdul Baha and his children in charge of it thereby ensuring a lifelong steady stream of income for his family.

In his will to Abbas Effendi, Bahaullah made Shoghi Effendi as the chief of the UHJ. He made him responsible for selecting or dismissing any member of UHJ and asked him to keep the same practice in his generation. They knew well that the actual purpose of UHJ was to make money and that could not be achieved so easily. Therefore, in order to extract money from people, Baha’is thought up innovative ways. They fixed the ‘Maalu’llah ‘(Huququllah) and said that it was the right of Shoghi Effendi and his children after him.

In order to protect themselves (since it was quite obvious), they refrained from making this announcement to smart people and restricted themselves to the masses who were any quote stupid and could not see through the deception of Baha’i authorities. This was the reason why Baha’i authorities insisted that the ‘Tablet of Will’ of Bahaullah should not be shown to people at large and that it should be shown only to the unintelligent (but sincere) Baha’is. In short, all the money earned through UHJ was at the disposal of Shoghi Effendi. Therefore we would not be wrong in saying that the UHJ means the ‘House of Shoghi Effendi’.

Baha’i authorities have adopted different ways in order to create a steady income for UHJ. Some of these are:

1) ‘Maalu’llah’ (Huququllah): Bahaullah has written in ‘Adams’ that “whosoever possess 100 mithqal of gold, he should give 90 mithqal of it to UHJ as ‘Maalu’llah (i.e. Maal-e-Bahaullah) for ‘Bahaullah’ who is the creator of heaven and the earth.

2) Inheritance: The Bab had set a method of dividing the inheritance of deceased. As per the Bab, the inheritance of the deceased was to be divided into seven parts. According to him, each part of the inheritance should be given to his wife, children, father, mother, brothers, sisters and teacher. However, Bahaullah, in page no 8 to 11 Aqdas, has interpreted this saying of Bab as follows: “If anyone dies and all his heirs are absent, then all those seven parts of inheritance should be given to ‘UHJ.’ In case only some of his heirs are available, for example if he has only children and a brother and all other heirs such as wife, mother, father, teacher, sisters are not available or have died, then their parts of inheritance would not be given to his children and brother. It would be given to the UHJ or to the ‘House of Shoghi Effendi’ or to his son Zoki Effendi who would come later.

3) One Third of Property: One third of the property should be allotted to UHJ.

4) Awqaaf (Endowments, gift, property: Whatever endowments, gifts etc. are received should be given to UHJ.

5) Treasures: This was not in Kitabe Aqdas but is available in the ‘Tablet of Abbas Effendi’ that if anything is found such as treasures, money etc. it should be given to the UHJ.

After the death of Abdul Baha, when they saw that there was no opposition from people, they exceeded their limits which proved that their only intention was to make use of public money and to restrict these powers only in the hands of the family of Abdul Baha. They moved on, making new rules and regulation in such a way that it was crystal clear for all the Baha’is that they have totally changed the entire structure which was existent at the time of Bahaullah and Abdul Baha. They said that it was mentioned in the ‘Tablet of Abdul Baha’ after his death that all the public properties, gifts or endowments received are the unconditional property of Shoghi Effendi and therefore should be given to him.

It is surprising that a man, who claimed that he was the care taker of orphans and everyone was equal to him, made his son (Abbas Effendi) and his grandson (Shoghi Effendi) as the leader of his followers and even restricted public properties in their hands! It is also surprising that all foolish Baha’is believed in him without any if and buts and how confident he was that people would not oppose him in future. It may be to this that Abbas Effendi, in his ‘Tablet of Wisaya’ had said that “Anyone who opposes his order should be kept away and any excuses from him should not be accepted”. This was the way through which he made his innocent followers to obey him blindly. 
Ref : Kashful Heel by Abdul Husayn Aayati (Aawarah) Pg 210.

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