It would, however, be helpful and instructive to bear in mind certain
basic principles with reference to the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha,
which, together with the Kitab-i-Aqdas, constitutes the chief depository
wherein are enshrined those priceless elements of that Divine
Civilization, the establishment of which is the primary mission of the
Baha'i Faith. A study of the provisions of these sacred documents will
reveal the close relationship that exists between them, as well as the
identity of purpose and method which they inculcate. Far from regarding
their specific provisions as incompatible and contradictory in spirit,
every fair-minded inquirer will readily admit that they are not only
complementary, but that they mutually confirm one another, and are
inseparable parts of one complete unit. A comparison of their contents
with the rest of Baha'i sacred Writings will similarly establish the
conformity of whatever they contain with the spirit as well as the letter
of the authenticated writings and sayings of Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha.
In fact, he who reads the Aqdas with care and diligence will not find it
hard to discover that the Most Holy Book itself anticipates in a number of
passages the institutions which 'Abdu'l-Baha ordains in His Will. By
leaving certain matters unspecified and unregulated in His Book of Laws,
Baha'u'llah seems to have deliberately left a gap in the general scheme of
Baha'i Dispensation, which the unequivocal provisions of the Master's Will
have filled. To attempt to divorce the one from the other, to insinuate
that the Teachings of Baha'u'llah have not been upheld, in their entirety
and with absolute integrity, by what 'Abdu'l-Baha has revealed in His
Will, is an unpardonable affront to the unswerving fidelity that has
characterized the life and labors of our beloved Master.
I will not attempt in the least to assert or demonstrate the authenticity
of the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha, for that in itself would betray
an apprehension on my part as to the unanimous confidence of the believers
in the genuineness of the last written wishes of our departed Master. I
will only confine my observations to those issues which may assist them to
appreciate the essential unity that underlies the spiritual, the
humanitarian, and the administrative principles enunciated by the Author
and the Interpreter of the Baha'i Faith.
I am at a loss to explain that strange mentality that inclines to uphold
as the sole criterion of the truth of the Baha'i Teachings what is
admittedly only an obscure and unauthenticated translation of an oral
statement made by 'Abdu'l-Baha, in defiance and total disregard of the
available text of all of His universally recognized writings. I truly
deplore the unfortunate distortions that have resulted in days past from
the incapacity of the interpreter to grasp the meaning of 'Abdu'l-Baha,
and from his incompetence to render adequately such truths as have been
revealed to him by the Master's statements. Much of the confusion that has
obscured the understanding of the believers should be attributed to this
double error involved in the inexact rendering of an only partially
understood statement. Not infrequently has the interpreter even failed to
convey the exact purport of the inquirer's specific questions, and, by his
deficiency of understanding and expression in conveying the answer of
'Abdu'l-Baha, has been responsible for reports wholly at variance with the
true spirit and purpose of the Cause. It was chiefly in view of the
misleading nature of the reports of the informal conversations of
'Abdu'l-Baha with visiting pilgrims, that I have insistently urged the
believers of the West to regard such statements as merely personal
impressions of the sayings of their Master, and to quote and consider as
authentic only such translations as are based upon the authenticated text
of His recorded utterances in the original tongue.
It should be remembered by every follower of the Cause that the system of
Baha'i administration is not an innovation imposed arbitrarily upon the
Baha'is of the world since the Master's passing, but derives its authority
from the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha, is specifically prescribed in
unnumbered Tablets, and rests in some of its essential features upon the
explicit provisions of the Kitab-i-Aqdas. It thus unifies and correlates
the principles separately laid down by Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, and
is indissolubly bound with the essential verities of the Faith. To
dissociate the administrative principles of the Cause from the purely
spiritual and humanitarian teachings would be tantamount to a mutilation
of the body of the Cause, a separation that can only result in the
disintegration of its component parts, and the extinction of the Faith
itself.