Was Abdul Baha's "Will and Testament" produced to the general public after His death? Or, was it known to have existed before His death? Answered by Eric S.
I don't think it was known to have existed before his death. If it was, then at least the part appointing Shoghi Effendi as "Guardian" was unknown, because even Shoghi himself wrote that he had no idea before Abdul-Baha died that he would be given any position in the faith except possibly the ceremonial convener of the Universal House of Justice.
Bahiyyih Khanum played a big role in persuading Bahais to accept the will and its appointment of Shoghi Effendi to Guardianship. In fact, for a couple of years after Abdul-Baha died, Bahiyyih was running the faith and seen as its temporary head (at least among those who had rejected Mirza Muhammad Ali). She was the biggest champion of the appointment of Shoghi, and remained highly influential even after he returned to the Holy Land to assume the mantle of Guardianship following his years of vacationing in Switzerland after his nervous breakdown.
If the will was forged, I suppose one would have to consider Bahiyyih Khanum as one of the logical suspects for who might have done the forging -- as shocking as that thought may be -- since she actually was leading the (non-Unitarian) Bahais at the time of Abdul-Baha's death and continued to do so for a long time.
She had the power and thus the opportunity.
Eric S.
Picture Source : http://bahai-library.com/books/bahiyyih.khanum/
Eric you are great! This was really informative.
ReplyDeleteEric Stetson, as usual, is wrong. According to the account provided by Mirza Badi'ullah's memoirs (see here, http://www.bayanic.com/notes/memoirs/memoirs.html) the will and testament of Abbas Effendi was forged by none other than Shoghi Effendi's own mother, i.e. Abbas Effendi's daughter.
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