7 May 1980
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Germany
Dear Baha'i friends,
The Universal House of Justice has received your letter of
14 April 1980 enclosing the copy of that part of page 15 of the issue of the
Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung for 14 March 1980, on which the letter from
Francesco Ficicchia was published.
The House of Justice feels that the best course is to ignore
this disgraceful attack on the Faith, rather than to make any rebuttal. Your
Assembly should, however, be prepared to answer any inquiries that you may
receive as a result of this article, whether from Baha'is or non-Baha'is. To
assist you in this, we enclose extracts from a letter written on behalf of the
Universal House of Justice, which touch on matters raised by Mr Ficicchia. You
are also, no doubt, aware that a Russian translation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas by A.
G. Tumansky was published in 1899. A translation of the complete text into
English, made by two former Presbyterian missionaries in Iran, was published by
The Royal Asiatic Society in 1961; it is accompanied by highly prejudiced and
misleading footnotes and introduction, and the inadequacy of the translation
itself is immediately apparent to anyone who compares passages with those that
Shoghi Effendi translated. The existence of these two published translations,
however, demonstrates the falsity of Ficicchia's statement that no complete
translation exists. A far clearer understanding of the contents of the Most
Holy Book, however, than given by either translation, is presented in the
Synopsis and Codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas which gives not only the laws of
the Aqdas themselves, but also includes the elucidations given by Baha'u'llah
Himself in the "Questions and Answers," and contains many explanatory
annotations provided by the House of Justice.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
Department of the Secretariat
(‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986’)
27 May 1980
Extracts from a Reply Written on Behalf of the Universal House of Justice to Questions about the Kitab-I-Aqdas
The institution of the Covenant has a direct bearing on the implementation of the laws of the Kitab-i-Aqdas. This Book is the repository of the basic laws for the Dispensation to be implemented gradually in accordance with the guidance given by God through those infallible Institutions which lie at the heart of the Covenant. Indeed, one of those Institutions, the Universal House of Justice, has been given by Baha'u'llah the task not only of applying the laws but of supplementing them and of making laws on all matters not explicitly covered in the Sacred Text. An English translation of the Kitab-i- Aqdas was made by Dr Earl E. Elder and Dr William McE. Miller, two men who were Presbyterian missionaries in Persia and have long been strongly antagonistic to the Faith. A great many of the statements that they make about its history are based on the assertions of Covenant-breakers or opponents of the Faith -- rather like a history of Christianity based primarily on statements by enemies of Jesus Christ. Dr Miller, for example, places great reliance on a document called the "Nuqtatu'l-Kaf," which is, in fact, spurious, as is fully demonstrated by the Hand of the Cause Hasan Balyuzi in his book Edward Granville Browne and the Baha'i Faith.
The reasons for the delay in the translation of the Kitab-i-Aqdas are given in the introduction to the Synopsis and Codification. The Kitab-i-Aqdas itself is the kernel of a vast structure of Baha'i law that will have to come into being in the years and centuries ahead as the unity of mankind is established and develops. Thus to properly understand the contents of that Book one should also read many other Tablets of Baha'u'llah relating to them, as well as the interpretations of 'Abdu'l-Baha and the Guardian, and realize that great areas of detail have been left by Baha'u'llah for the Universal House of Justice to fill in and to vary in accordance with the needs of a developing society. For example:
1. The law of divorce in the Aqdas seems to apply only to a husband divorcing his wife, and not vice versa. 'Abdu'l-Baha and the Guardian have made it quite clear that the principle enunciated by Baha'u'llah in the Kitab-i-Aqdas applies equally to men and women, and the law has always been implemented in this way. Such elucidations are one of the specific functions intended by Baha'u'llah for the authoritative Interpreter.
