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Bahá'í Administration
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Pages 134-137
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Letter of May 27, 1927.
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1 |
To the members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of
the United States and Canada:
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Dearly-beloved co-workers:
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Your communications dated April 15th and May 6th and 9th
have been received, with their enclosures, and carefully perused.
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The Declaration of Trust, the provisions of which you have so
splendidly conceived, and formulated with such assiduous care,
marks yet another milestone on the road of progress along which
you are patiently and determinedly advancing. Clear and concise
in its wording, sound in principle, and complete in its affirmations
of the fundamentals of Bahá'í administration, it stands in its final
form as a worthy and faithful exposition of the constitutional basis
of Bahá'í communities in every land, foreshadowing the final
emergence of the world Bahá'í Commonwealth of the future. This
document, when correlated and combined with the set of by-laws
which I trust are soon forthcoming, will serve as a pattern to every
National Bahá'í Assembly, be it in the East or in the West, which
aspires to conform, pending the formation of the First Universal
House of Justice, with the spirit and letter of the world-order
ushered in by Bahá'u'lláh.
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I eagerly await the receipt of the complete set of the contemplated
by-laws, the purpose of which should be to supplement the
provisions, clarify the purpose, and explain more fully the working
of the principle underlying the above-mentioned Declaration. I
shall, after having given it my close and personal consideration,
transmit it to you, in order that you may submit it to the local
Spiritual Assemblies, who in turn will endeavor to secure its final
ratification by the body of the recognized believers throughout the
United States and Canada. I would urge you to insert the Text
of the Declaration, the complete set of the by-laws, and the accompanying
Indenture of Trust, all combined, in the next issue of
the Bahá'í Year Book, that sympathizers and believers alike in every
land may obtain a clear and correct vision of the preliminary framework
of that complete system of world administration implicit in
the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh.
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6 |
In connection with the best and most practical methods of procedure
to be adopted for the election of Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies,
I feel that in view of the fact that definite and detailed regulations
defining the manner and character of Bahá'í elections have neither
been expressly revealed by Bahá'u'lláh nor laid down in the Will
and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá, it devolves upon the members of
the Universal House of Justice to formulate and apply such system
of laws as would be in conformity with the essentials and
requisites expressly provided by the Author and Interpreter of the
Faith for the conduct of Bahá'í administration. I have consequently
refrained from establishing a settled and uniform procedure for
the election of the Assemblies of the East and the West, leaving
them free to pursue their own methods of procedure which in most
cases had been instituted and practiced during the last two decades
of the life of `Abdu'l-Bahá.
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The general practice prevailing throughout the East is the one
based upon the principle of plurality rather than absolute majority,
whereby those candidates that have obtained the highest number of
votes, irrespective of the fact whether they command an absolute
majority of the votes cast or not, are automatically and definitely
elected. It has been felt, with no little justification, that this method,
admittedly disadvantageous in its disregard of the principle that
requires that each elected member must secure a majority of the
votes cast, does away on the other hand with the more serious
disadvantage of restricting the freedom of the elector who, unhampered
and unconstrained by electoral necessities, is called upon to
vote for none but those whom prayer and reflection have inspired
him to uphold. Moreover, the practice of nomination, so detrimental
to the atmosphere of a silent and prayerful election, is viewed
with mistrust inasmuch as it gives the right to the majority of a
body that, in itself under the present circumstances, often constitutes
a minority of all the elected delegates, to deny that God-given right
of every elector to vote only in favor of those who he is conscientiously
convinced are the most worthy candidates. Should this
simple system be provisionally adopted, it would safeguard the
spiritual principle of the unfettered freedom of the voter, who will
thus preserve intact the sanctity of the choice he first made. It
would avoid the inconvenience of securing advance nominations
from absent delegates, and the impracticality of associating them
with the assembled electors in the subsequent ballots that are often
required to meet the exigencies of majority vote.
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I would recommend these observations to your earnest consideration,
and whatever decision you arrive at, all local Assemblies and
individual believers, I am certain, will uphold, for their spiritual
obligation and privilege is not only to consult freely and frequently
with the National Spiritual Assembly, but to uphold as well with
confidence and cheerfulness whatever is the considered verdict of
their national representatives.
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Wishing you success from all my heart,
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I am, your true brother,
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SHOGHI.
Haifa, Palestine,
May 27, 1927.
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