Re: 1000 years
gpoirier (gpoirier@acca.nmsu.edu)
Mon, Mar 6 1995 17:44:49 GMT
It is my recollection that Shoghi Effendi interpreted the passage in
Baha'u'llah's Hidden Words where He said that He did not reveal the
"Letter A," the third letter of His name. My recollection is that the
proper interpretation of this passage is that Baha'u'llah did not reveal
everything He knew and could have revealed.
Permit me to be frank, because I think the subject calls for it. There is
nothing more specific in Baha'i literature, perhaps in all of religious
literature, than the subject of the Covenant. Some of the Baha'i Writings
are enclosed in symbols. However, in the last passage of the Gleanings
Baha'u'llah says that this subject - to whom we should turn for guidance
after His passing -- is explicit. Likewise, in the Promulgation of
Universal Peace, in the Last Tablet to America (in Baha'i World Faith) and
in His Last Will and Testament, Abdu'l-Baha is most explicit and emphatic
about to whom we should turn -- the Guardian and the Universal House of
Justice, and whoever turns to anyone else is in manifest error. We know
from Shoghi Effendi's "Dispensation of Baha'u'llah" that there will be no
Manifestations of God after Baha'u'llah for a full 1,000 years, each year
composed of 19 months of 19 days each, and, as Baha'u'llah explains, with
"year" having its commonly understood meaning.
I think we do ourselves an injustice by applying the principle of
"independent investigation of truth" in areas where the leaders of the
Faith -- the authors of this principle -- have DIScouraged it. So in the
name of "open-mindedness" we throw aside the emphatic guidance, the most
central principle left to us, by the Manifestation of God and His
Successor 'Abdu'l-Baha.
The claim that a third letter would be revealed sounds to me like the
claims of those who would usurp the rightful position of the Universal
House of Justice. I believe, and have found through my own experience,
that an element in certitude is closing other doors. I look to the House
of Justice, because that's what Baha'u'llah left for us.
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gpoirier@acca.nmsu.edu