The Secret Plan Of Shoghi Effendi To End The Guardianship With His Ministry

Editor's note: Shoghi Effendi served as Guardian of the Baha'i Faith from 1921 to 1957.

Abstract
One of the greatest, if not the greatest, achievement of Shoghi Effendi may be ending the institution of the Guardianship with his ministry. Even after over half century, his carefully planned, multi-decade effort continues to "play" observers and critics who portray its components as failings. Thus, he has yet to receive full credit for his complete success in achieving his objective. Imagine if he had failed and there was a "Guardian" poking around possibly throwing monkey wrenches into the workings of the present Universal House of Justice (UHJ). This article presents two competing theories: (1) success of the secret plan of Shoghi Effendi versus (2) failure of Shoghi Effendi as Guardian of the Baha'i Faith.

The Guardian Failure Theory
Over many decades, critics of the Baha'i Faith and Shoghi Effendi have repeatedly cited aspects of his Guardianship said to indicate major failings. Key points include: (1) he apparently left no Will which could have designated a successor, (2) he had no children who might have been eligible to be Guardian and (3) he expelled from the Baha'i community all relatives who might be eligible to be Guardian.

These critics cite writings of Baha'u'llah, founder of the Baha'i Faith, and 'Abdul-Baha, its leader from 1892 to 1921, describing the importance of the institution of the Guardianship. Further, Shoghi Effendi himself quoted these writings. In brief, the critics allege that Shoghi Effendi failed big time -- not providing for a successor Guardian after his passing in 1957. These so-called failures have been used by critics to question the validity or integrity of the Baha'i Faith as a legitmate world religion. For example, some say that there would not be proper "checks and balances" without the co-existence of two institutions: a Guardian and the UHJ.

As far as the author knows, those attacking Shoghi Effendi have not considered and answered two obvious quesions.

First, why would Shoghi Effendi blunder on issues of apparent paramount importance while, in all else, he exhibited outstanding ability to carry out major projects successfully? The so-called failures of Shoghi Effendi are totally inconsistent with his entire ministry as Guardian, in which plans were carefully crafted and executed with meticulous care for detail, whether in Baha'i World Centre development, in meeting with pilgrims to the World Centre, in translation and publication of numerous Baha'i writings, books, letters and other content, in a series of multi-year plans to guide and prepare the Baha'i world for the first UHJ election, partly illustrated in a map he drew in 1952 (below), or in so much more.

Second, why this particular set of three so-called failures listed above, instead of some more random set of blunders? The answer to this never asked question may be that this set of blunders often cited by critics are interrelated. And what would be the odds of that given the diversity of his projects conducted successfully over more than three decades? What was the common theme, the overall goal?

The Secret Plan Theory
All of these supposed failings were most probably components in a multi-decade plan of Shoghi Effend to end the Guardianship with his ministry.

Perhaps Shoghi realized early on that a "checks and balances" between a Guardian and the UHJ would not work. He then hatched a plan to end the Guardianship after the groundwork for electing the UHJ was in place. My theory may be more logical and a more parsimonious account of the facts. This secret plan theory addresses and answers the two questions posed above concerning the now discredited "Shoghi goofed" theory.

Shoghi Effendi was no doubt aware that he would be criticized for these so-called failures (no will, etc), but this would clearly be a trivial consideration compared to the importance of the goal of ending the Guardianship with his ministry. At least as far as we know, dead people don't hear the living saying, "Nuts, he left no Will". Some of the criticism he no doubt anticipated would focus on apparent conflict with writings he himself quoted about the role of the Guardianship. But this had to be part of the plan -- namely, the part of the plan that it must be kept secret. That is, consider that his plan might well be compromised if he did not quote writings on the importance of the Guardianship, which of course was key to successfully achieving the objective to end it prior to the election of the UHJ.

Although Shoghi Effendi left no Will, he reportedly left detailed instructions to key assistants (known as "Hands of the Cause") concerning conducting the first election of the UHJ in 1963.

If the so-called failures were simply part of another of his plans -- a secret one, then everything makes sense. Of course, such a plan would have to be secret; it obviously could not be published in Star of the West, Baha'i News or elsewhere. But now, after some six decades from the first election of the UHJ and the end of a currently occupied Guardianship, this article reveals the previously unknown secret plan of the one and only Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, Shoghi Effendi.

Meanwhile, the "Shoghi goofing off and messing things up" theory may, in some sense, support the very essence of Shoghi's plan, namely that if a Guardian could be such a failure per that theory, eventually some future "Guardian" could do the same thing -- end the institution. Fortunately, Shoghi was 100% successful, eliminating this possibility.

In sum, the objective was to use his ministry as the transition from one-person leadership to group (House of Justice) leadership -- perhaps the greatest advance in social organization in the history of mankind -- leaving behind for ever the pecking-order, hierarchical model used in the animal kingdom and by as yet uninlighted human groups.

Postscript
Meanwhile, members of the Baha'i Faith have generally ignored the critics of Shoghi Effendi.

I mentioned the "secret plan" idea to a fellow Baha'i in an email and was delighted to learn that he had never considered the "secret plan" as I described it in some 45 years as a Baha'i. Until several weeks ago, I, also, had never considered it ... and I became a Baha'i before the first UHJ election in 1963. Perhaps almost all Baha'is have been unaware of the magnificent secret plan of Shoghi Effendi. If so, this article may both expose his plan so he can receive credit for its success and debunk the idea that some key actions by Shoghi Effendi, or lack thereof, were merely random, unrelated blunders.

Baha'is may have little logical basis to question the details of his plan. If Shoghi Effendi had behaved differently in any of these details, the plan might well have been in peril. For example, no matter what quote of Baha'u'llah or 'Abdul-Baha one might cite, the fact remains that Shoghi Effendi won; history records he was 100% successful. There was one and only one Guardian --Shoghi Effendi-- and the UHJ exists.

Historians might be able to analyze the plan's components and deduce how early in Shoghi Effendi's ministry this plan to end the Guardianship was conceived and launched.

© 2023 James J Keene