Dear Bahá'í friends,
As the friends are already aware, one of the goals of the
Nine Year Plan is continued collation and classification of the Bahá'í Sacred
Scriptures, as well as the writings of Shoghi Effendi.
We have already pointed out to the friends on several
occasions that the application of Bahá'í laws, the elucidation and extension of
basic administrative principles, and the all-important function of legislating
on matters not explicitly recorded in our teachings are dependent upon a
careful study by the Universal House of Justice of the revealed and pertinent
words of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, as well as the illuminating
interpretations and directions of Shoghi Effendi.
Through the labours of the beloved Guardian himself, and the
collaboration of the National Spiritual Assembly of Persia, great strides have
already been taken to collate the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Even up to the present time, a special National Committee in Persia is
assiduously and regularly engaged in classifying the Holy Texts of the Founder
of our Faith, and the Centre of the Covenant in fulfilment of the goal of the
Nine Year Plan referred to above. The writings of the Guardian, however, apart
from his general communications already published, which consist to a large
extent of letters written by him or on his behalf to various National Spiritual
Assemblies, Local Spiritual Assemblies, groups of believers and individual
Bahá'ís, have only been partly collated. Although many National Spiritual
Assemblies and individual believers have already sent the originals or copies
of their letters from the Guardian to the Holy Land, and quite a number of
these have been published at different times in Bahá'í News and other news
bulletins, it is our confirmed opinion that there are many such letters that
have still not been shared with us which may contain a new application of a
principle, an already enunciated guideline rephrased to apply in a new
situation, a further elucidation of a Bahá'í law, a fresh light thrown on a
many-sided issue or some wise counsel in a personal problem.
Your National Spiritual Assembly is requested, therefore, to
check carefully first in its own archives or files of correspondence with the
Guardian, for any letters addressed to its body or to its subsidiary
institutions, written by Shoghi Effendi or on his behalf, and not yet forwarded
to the Holy Land. At the end of this letter we indicate the number and
description of Shoghi Effendi's letters falling into this category and
pertaining to your area, which we have in our archival files, so that you need
to take action in sending us only the text of letters not included in this
listing.
You are also requested to appeal to the friends under your
jurisdiction, calling on those who were privileged to have received letters
from the Guardian but have not as yet sent their texts to the Holy Land to take
immediate steps to do so. In assisting the friends and your National Spiritual
Assembly in carrying out this important project we offer the following points
for your consideration:
- Recipients of letters from the Guardian have the inherent right of deciding to keep the letters themselves, or to have them preserved for the future in their families. To assist the Universal House of Justice, however, in its efforts to study and compile the letters of the Guardian, the friends are urged to provide, for dispatch to the Holy Land, photostatic copies of their communications from the Guardian if they wish to keep the originals themselves.
- If they are not in a position to provide such copies, they should kindly allow National Spiritual Assemblies to undertake this project on our behalf.
- If facilities for obtaining clear photostatic or Xerox copies are not available in any area, National Spiritual Assemblies are requested to make carefully typed or hand-written copies of such letters, with a certification on behalf of the National Spiritual Assembly concerned that the copies are true and exact.
With loving Bahá'í greetings,
The Universal House of Justice
(‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963 to
1986’)