Abbas Effendi's Will & Testament
An Overview of the Will

 

1.   Introduction

1.3    An Overview of the Will
Disregarding its defects in law, and without arguing whether it was tampered with or not, Sir Abbas Will and Testament, with its title and date, will be noticed on its merits contained in its printed version, published by the Bahai Spiritual Assembly, Cairo, Egypt on Shawwal 27, A.H. 1342 (June 1, 1924).
The colophon in page 29 runs as follows:

« پس از استئذان و تصویب و اجازه محفل روحانی مصر و درگاه میرزا ابوالقاسم کاستانه شیرازی موفق به طبع گردید و مجانّا تقدیم خواهد شد. فی یوم المسائل من شهر المعضمة سنه 81 موافق 17 شوال سنه 1242 »
المحفلی الروحانی بهائی
قاهره

The cover which forms page one of the Will is intituled as follows:
“Epistle of Holy behest of His Holiness Abdul Baha.”
الواح و وصایای مبارکه حضرت عبدالبهاء
The title and the contents of the Will consists of several epistles which were written at different times. Support to lent to this view by Mirza Abd-al-Husayn Ayati surnamed Awara in his al-Kawakib-al-Durriyya, Vol. II, PP. 330-331, composed by him before his abjuration of Bahaism and return to the fold of Islam. The text runs as follows:

« الواح و وصایا »
« اما الواح و وصایا که از قلم حضرت عبدالبهاء صادر شده و صدور آن شروع شده است و در سالهای هزارو سیصد وبیست و چهار و بیست و پیج که حضرت شوقی افندی ده پانزده ساله بوده اند ... اما آنچه مسلم شده آن الواح و وصایا به مرور ایام و سنین تکمیل شده و این مسئله بعلاوه اینکه از نصایص مفهوم است بعلاوه جناب آقا سید یحیی اخوی حرم نیز چنین کردند که این الواح در پاکتی ممهور و ؟ بدست حرم بوده هر چندی طلب میفرمودند وو چیزی از مطالب لازم را امر قوم فرموده باز مختوم مینمودند و بتوسط حرم در صندوق مخصوص مکتوم میداشتند. »

The Will is in Persian, interjected with invocation in Arabic. The Will is made of the following four Epistles:
PageHeadingInitial or Signature
2-17He is GodA.A (Ayn Ayn first letters of Abdul Baha Abbas)
17nilA.A
17-24He is GodA.A
24-25He is God, the Witness, the All SufficingA.A
25-38nilAbdul Baha Abbas

For the purpose of this study, Sir Abbas Effendi’s Epistles of testamentary disposition will be referred to as Sir Abbas Effendi’s Will and Testament. In P. 11 Sir Abbas Effendi states that the document embodying his testamentary disposition was affected with humidity as it was kept intact and undisturbed as the Holy land was in a state of upheaval. The text runs as follows:

این ورقه مدتی در زیر زمین محفوظ بود رطوبت در آن تأثیر نموده چون بیرون آورده شد ملاحظه گردید که رطوبت بعضی مواقع تأثیر نموده و چون بقعة مبارکه در اشد انقلاب بود ورق به حال خود گذاشته شد.

In the Will Sir Abbas Effendi refers to himself as the Centre of the Covenant, a title to which strong exception is taken by the opposition camp on the grounds that the Centre of the Covenant is “god alone, Baha, who himself covenanted with himself before the creation of the heaven and the earth that man should worship none save god, as when he says ‘He took the Covenant at the time of the Dawn from those who believed that they should worship none but god.” Materials for the Study of the BÂBi Religion by Prof. Browne, P. 111.
قد اخذ المیثاقه ؟ ؟ من الذین آمنوا بالله ان لا یعبدو الا الله
In the Will members of the opposite camp are referred to as Violators of the Covenant or Covenant-Breakers, and Mirza Muhammad Ali, head of the opposite camp, is branded as the Centre of sedition or Focal Centre of hate, the Fallen Branch, to the accompaniment of some other epithets.

The Will contains:

  1. allegations against Subh-i-Azal
  2. allegations against Mirza Muhammad Ali
  3. allegations against Mirza Badiullah
  4. a provision for the appointment of Shoghi Effendi as the Guardian of the Cause of god and for succession of his lineal descendants; but no provision is made for succession in the event of Shoghi Effendi’s death without issue; and
  5. a provision for houses of justice, national and international

Certain documents purporting to be in support of the allegations preferred against Mirza Muhammad Ali and Mirza Badiullah and referred to in the Will as enclosures thereto do not appear in the printed copy of the Will. This defect is significant.
Excerpts from Sir Abbas Effendi’s Will appear in the Bahai World, Vol. II, April 1926 – April 1928, New York, PP. 98-99; PP. 81-89.

The several matters dealt with Sir Abbas Effendi’s Will will be noticed in the order in which they appear.


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