30 June 1980: To all National Spiritual Assemblies

PRESSURES ON BELEAGUERED FRIENDS OMINOUSLY INCREASING. IN ISSUE LE MONDE NO. 11009 TUESDAY 24 JUNE IN ARTICLE ABOUT IRAN BEGINNING FRONT PAGE ENDING SIXTH PAGE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS MADE "... LE VENERABLE AYATOLLAH (SADOUGHI) A INVITE FOULE DES FIDELES A 'CHASSER LES BAHAIS QUE VOUS CONNAISSEZ DE TOUTES LES ADMINISTRATIONS ET DE LES LIVRER AU PARQUET REVOLUTIONNAIRE.' LA PEUR S'EST EMPAREE DE LA COMMUNAUTE BAHAI (ENVIRON CINQUANTE MILLE PERSONNES) ET POUR CAUSE, LES PROPOS DE L'AYATOLLAH SADOUGHI ONT ETE REPRODUITS DANS LE QUOTIDIEN INGUILAB ISLAMI (ORGANE DU PRESIDENT BANI-SADR) LEUR DONNANT AINSI UNE DANGEREUSE PUBLICITE.  UNE VAGUE D'ARRESTATIONS DE BAHAIS A COMMENCE A DEFERLER DANS DEUX VILLES: A YAZD ET A CHIRAZ.

"DIMANCHE 22 JUIN, ETELAAT PUBLIE UN COMMUNIQUE DE L'ASSOCLATION ISLAMIQUE DES FONCTIONNAIRES DE L'ETAT EXIGEANT ENTRE AUTRES LE RENVOI DE TOUS LES EMPLOYES DES CONFESSIONS BAHAIES EN LEUR INTERDISANT DESORMAIS D'EXERCER TOUTES ACTIVITES REMUNEREES."[1]

SUCH PRONOUNCEMENTS AND COMMUNIQUES CAN BUT PROVOKE EASILY EXCITABLE PASSIONS LEAD TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES FATE INDIVIDUAL BAHA'IS INFLICT UPON MEMBERS OPPRESSED COMMUNITY UNTOLD SUFFERINGS PARTICULARLY ON OCCASION HOLY DAY CURRENT MONTH SHA'BAN AND MONTH RAMADAN ENDING MID- AUGUST. …[2]

Universal House of Justice

[1] The English translation of the quotation from Le Monde is as follows:  "... the venerable Ayatollah [Sadoughi] invited the mass of the faithful to 'hunt out the Baha'is throughout the public services and deliver them to the revolutionary prosecution department.' Fear has gripped the Baha'i community (about fifty thousand persons), and with good cause. The remarks of the Ayatollah Sadoughi have been reproduced in the daily paper Inguilab Islami (organ of President Bani-Sadr), thus giving them dangerous publicity. A wave of arrests of Baha'is has broken out in two cities: Yazd and Shiraz.

"Sunday, 22 June, Etelaat publishes a communique of the Islamic Association of Civil Servants requiring, among other things, the dismissal of all employees who are of the Baha'i religion, prohibiting them henceforth from practising any remunerated activity."

[2] The fifteenth day of the month of Sha'ban is believed to be the birthday of the Twelfth and Hidden Imam, who, according to, the teachings of Shi'ah Islam, was the last in the series of successors to the Prophet Muhammad.  There are two holy days during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting-the nineteenth, which commemorates the day the Imam Husayn was wounded on the battlefield of Karbila, and the twenty-first, which commemorates his death.

(‘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.

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’)