Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Bahá’í World, 1950-1957 (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1995), p. 41.
ibid., pp. 38-39.
Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, op. cit., p. 13.
Under the leadership of two of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s half brothers, Muḥammad ‘Alí and Badí‘u’lláh, together with a cousin, Majdi’d-Dín, the group of Covenant-breakers who had long occupied the Mansion at Bahjí after the death of Bahá’u’lláh carried on an unremitting campaign of attacks and machinations against both the Master and the Guardian. Under the British Mandate, they had been forced to evacuate the Mansion because of the neglect into which they had allowed it to fall, thus permitting the Guardian to restore the building and establish its status in the eyes of the civil authorities as a Holy Place. Subsequently, Shoghi Effendi secured from the newly established Israeli government recognition that the entire property had this privileged character, and an official order was issued, requiring the remaining Covenant-breakers to evacuate the unsightly building that they still occupied next to the Mansion. When their appeal to the Supreme Court against this judgement failed, the eviction order was executed, the building demolished at the Guardian’s instructions, and the last obstacle to the beautification of the property was successfully overcome.
Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, op. cit., p. 68.
Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, op. cit., pp. 19-20.
A full account of the role played by the Hands of the Cause during these critical years is provided by Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum, Ministry of the Custodians (Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre, 1997).
Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, op. cit., p. 148.
Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, op. cit., p. 20.
Universal House of Justice, Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986: The Third Epoch of the Formative Age (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1996), p. 14.