That Shoghi Effendi outlined the initial functions of the International Bahá’í Council to which would be added further functions as it evolved through successive stages into an “officially recognized [International] Bahá’í Court, its transformation into a duly elected body and its efflorescence into the Universal House of Justice.”

That in this same Proclamation Shoghi Effendi had further eulogized the unprecedented import attached to the constitution of the International Bahá’í Council in stating: “Hail with thankful joyous heart at long last the constitution of the International Council which history will acclaim as the greatest event shedding luster upon the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation potentially unsurpassed by any enterprise undertaken since the inception of the Administrative Order on the morrow of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Ascension, ranking second only to the glorious immortal events associated with the Ministries of the Three Central Figures of the Faith...”

That in a message to the Bahá’í World, dated 2 March 1951 Shoghi Effendi identified Mason Remey as President and Amelia Collins as Vice-President of this “newly formed International Council” which, “through [its] contact with authorities” had been “designed to spread the fame, consolidate the foundations and widen the scope of influence emanating from the twin spiritual and administrative World Centers permanently fixed in the Holy Land...”

That perhaps the failure to recognize the import of his decision to form the International Bahá’í Council may be attributed or excused due to the fact that Shoghi Effendi had perforce retained this supreme Council in an inactive role during the remaining years of his ministry, for reasons that will be explained below, but notwithstanding, this did not alter the fact that it was undeniably the supreme administrative body, which, upon activation as a functioning institution, would rightfully assume jurisdiction over the National Assemblies to which the Proclamation had been addressed and would then clearly function as subordinate national bodies, to this International Council and in due course, when the International Council had attained the second stage of its development as the International Court,would exercise jurisdiction over “six national Bahá’í Courts located in “the chief cities of the Islamic East.” ( message of 8 October 1952).

That, undeniably, the International Bahá’í Council, as an EMBRYONIC institution, was a complete and perfect organism at its inception for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has stated that “the embryo possesses from the first all perfections . . . in one word, all the powers—but they are not visible and become so only by degrees” (P. 313, BWF). And, as this was now unquestionably the case with the embryonic Universal House of Justice, this institution therefore undeniably possessed, at its inception, pursuant to the explicit terms of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament, an irremovable “sacred head”who could be none other than the future Guardian of the Faith and a body of at least eight believers. And, further, it had been for this very reason that Shoghi Effendi had, out of necessity, retained the International Council in an inactive status under the Presidency of Mason Remey—the second Guardian-to-be, during the remaining years of his ministry and had only assigned tasks to its members, from time to time, on an individual basis, and additionally had designated Rúhíyyih Khánum as the “chosen liaison” between himself and the Council and had thus precluded, in this way, any semblance of assuming the Presidency himself which, in that case, would have required him to depose Mason Remey as its President.

That had the Hands perceived these facts, they would have realized why Shoghi Effendi had resorted to this wholly unexpected, yet valid manner, of appointing his successor as he had obviously foreseen correctly that by effecting the appointment of his successor in an indirect way he would effectively obscure from both the Hands and all of the believers, as well, that he had foreseen that his passing was near at hand which otherwise would not have been the case if the appointment had been made openly and, as a result, had imposed upon them a devastating shock. For, this would have been the result, had the believers realized that Mason Remey, who was not a young or even middle-aged believer, as they would have expected his successor to be, but who, despite being almost a quarter of a century older than Shoghi Effendi, would become his successor, this highly disquieting foreknowledge would have seriously interfered with and certainly impeded the successful achievement of the formidable tasks that would soon face them in fulfilling the goals of the Ten Year Global Crusade scheduled to commence at Ridván 1953.

That in a message, under date of 23 November 1951, Shoghi Effendi, referred to the Global Crusade conceived by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and projected the significantly active function that would then be exercised for the first time by the International Bahá’í Council, as he stated that this Crusade, scheduled to begin at Ridván, (21 April-2 May) 1953, would “embrace all the continents of the earth” and “will bring the Central Body [i. e. the International Bahá’í Council] directing these widely ramified operations into direct contact with all the National Assemblies of the Bahá’í world, which in varying degrees, will have to contribute their share to the world establishment of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, as prophesied by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and envisioned by Daniel,” and had again clearly predicted, in an indirect way, that for the International Council to assume this active role, his own passing would necessarily have to take place either prior to or during the Ten Year Crusade.

That, having significantly extolled in his Proclamation, the constitution of the “first International Institution” of the Faith—the embryonic Universal House of Justice—under the provisional name of International Bahá’í Council, on 9 January 1951, there remained for Shoghi Effendi to establish the other international institution of the Hands of the Cause as delineated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Will and Testament. Although he had previously named several Hands of the Cause posthumously, he now appointed the first living members of this Institution as he announced in a message, dated 24 December 1951, his appointment of the first contingent of twelve Hands of the Cause whose number included Mason Remey, and which would be followed by further appointments as time went on that would bring the total to twenty-seven living Hands of the Cause by the time of his passing.

That, as further undeniable evidence that should have dispelled any lingering doubt, that Shoghi Effendi had, in fact, established the Universal House of Justice, albeit in its embryonic form, he stated in a message, dated 30 June 1952, that: “At the World Center of the Faith, where, at long last, the machinery of its highest institutions has been erected, and around whose most holy shrines the supreme organs of its unfolding Order, are, in their embryonic form, unfolding . . . ”

That the claim made in the “Proclamation” issued by the Hands on 25 November 1957 at the conclusion of their conclave in Haifa, that “no successor to Shoghi Effendi could have been appointed by him” and that he “had left no Will and Testament” because “The Aghsán (branches) one and all are either dead of have been declared violators of the Covenant by the Guardian. . .” was clearly an erroneous statement, as previously discussed, and was either glaring evidence of their inexcusable lack of knowledge of the terms of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá or a nefarious and deliberately duplicitous attempt to misrepresent the qualifications prescribed in that Document for the one chosen by the Guardian as his successor, which enables him, in the absence of an eldest son with the requisite qualifications, to choose “another branch,” to succeed him, a term which they falsely claimed restricted the Guardian to the appointment of an Aghsán, ignoring the fact that this was patently untrue as Shoghi Effendi had identified this term to apply solely to the sons of Bahá’u’lláh, who, moreover, as they were apparently unaware, would due to their demise never be available for appointment and who, even prior to the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, had been guilty of infidelity to the Covenant and therefore had already been conspicuously omitted from His mention of those in Part Three of His Will and Testament who have been particularly enjoined to show fidelity to the Guardian of the Faith.

That the Hands, having failed to recognize that Shoghi Effendi had appointed his successor in faithful compliance with the terms of the Will and Testament, as explained above, and having thus further disregarded the indisputable fact that they lacked any authority whatsoever, under the provisions of that sacred Document, to direct the affairs of the Faith,illegitimately seized this authority upon his passing that had occurred, as he had foreseen during the Ten Year Crusade, and did not permit the International Bahá’í Council—as the embryonic Universal House of Justice and unquestionably the “supreme administrative institution” of the Faith, under Mason Remey’s Presidency—to assume its rightful authority and to exercise what would now have become an active role in its direction of the National Spiritual Assemblies of the world in their achievement of the goals of the Ten Year Global Crusade, then at its midpoint, as Shoghi Effendi had clearly envisaged and projected in his message of 23 November 1951.

That, wherever in the above statements the Hands have been criticized for their failings it should be understood that Mason Remey is exempted from this criticism. He had been summoned by Shoghi Effendi in 1950 to move to Haifa from his ancestral home in Washington D.C. and informed that henceforth he should make Haifa his permanent home and then during the remaining years of Shoghi Effendi’s ministry had, in further complementing his unsurpassed record of manifold and outstanding accomplishments for the Faith over half a century, prepared, as its architect, the design of the International Archives building now erected on Mount Carmel and before that, as the architect specifically chosen by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, had designed the Bahá’í Temple that will be erected in the future on Mount Carmel and, moreover, as the architect chosen by Shoghi Effendi, had designed the Bahá’í Temple that will, in the future, be built in Iran and had been the architect, as well, of the Bahá’í Temples already constructed in Sydney, Australia and in Kampala, Uganda. It was because of his residency in Haifa that he was one of the nine Hands that had been appointed by his fellow-Hands to the illegitimate body of the Custodians that assumed direction of the Faith following the passing of Shoghi Effendi. Not for one moment however did this mean that he had agreed with the conclusion that had been reached by them that the Guardianship had forever ended with the passing of Shoghi Effendi for his diary written under the title of “Daily Observations” provides stark evidence of his frequently voiced passionate appeals to his fellow-Custodians to reconsider their stand on the termination of the Guardianship, in addition to his several magnificently written appeals to all of his fellow-Hands setting forth his arguments as to why they were obliged to reconsider their stand against the continuation of the Guardianship, all of which had proved to be of no avail. Finally, thoroughly frustrated with the ineffectiveness of these efforts he left Haifa late in 1959 and returned to his previous ancestral home in Washington from which he dispatched his Proclamation, as the second Guardian of the Faith in May of 1960 addressed to “the Bahá’ís of the world through the annual convention of the Bahá’ís of the world through the annual convention of the ahá’ís of the United States of America assembled at Wilmette, Illinois [during] Ridván 117 [of the] Bahá’í Era” with the expectation that this National Spiritual Assembly would forthwith inform the other National Spiritual Assemblies throughout the world of this proclamation which unfortunately and tragically was never done and consequently the members of these assemblies were never given the opportunity to judge for themselves the validity of his accession to the Guardianship, the National Spiritual Assembly of France being the notable exception, only because it had directly received a copy of his Proclamation and upon due consideration and consultation had recognized his rightful accession to the Guardianship, and as a result been illicitly disbanded on orders from the body of Custodian Hands, who by this time had also, in their nefariously delusion, cast Mason Remey out of the now sans-Guardian Faith that they espoused.

That, had the Hands, on the other hand, permitted developments to unfold, as envisaged and projected by Shoghi Effendi, they, as well as the believers throughout the world, would certainly have perceived that, as only the Guardian of the Faith rightfully presides as the “sacred head” of the Universal House of Justice—provisionally named in its embryonic stage of development as the International Bahá’í Council—he had, in the appointment of Mason Remey as its President, undeniably and faithfully provided for the continuance of the Guardianship.

That, having faithlessly failed to perceive that Shoghi Effendi had appointed his successor they instead incredulously assumed they had been assigned authority over the Faith, on the basis that Shoghi Effendi had conferred upon them the appellation: “Chief Stewards of Bahá’u’lláh’s embryonic World Commonwealth” in the very last message he had issued to the Bahá’í World, in October of 1957, one month prior to his passing, oblivious of the fact that he had, instead, indirectly affirmed and had clearly implied that their recently established embryonic institution would continue to develop, together with all of the other embryonic institutions of the Administrative Order, until it, together with them, attained their destined maturity in that future Commonwealth, and which, as this maturity pertained to their institution, could obviously only be realized if a future living Guardian of the Faith and “Center of the Cause” was presiding over the Faith in that Commonwealth and able to appoint future Hands of the Cause.

That the Hands of the Faith failed on all counts to perceive that Shoghi Effendi had assured the continuance of the Guardianship and took it upon themselves, to appoint nine Hands from their own number to serve on a body they termed “the Custodians of the Bahá’í World Faith,” to which they subordinated the International Bahá’í Council, notwithstanding the fact that this was obviously an illegitimate body that had been established outside the provisions of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and yet, as they stated, had been authorized by the entire body of their fellow-Hands “to exercise—subject to such directions and decisions and as may given [by them] from time to time as the Chief Stewards of the Bahá’í World Faith—all such functions, rights and powers in succession to the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, His eminence the late Shoghi Effendi Rabbani. . . until such time as the Universal House of Justice, upon being duly established and elected in conformity with the Sacred Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, may otherwise determine.”

That, following a period of some six years during which the Custodian Hands directed the affairs of the Faith, they transferred their illicitly acquired authority and functions to an elected, equally illegitimate sans-Guardian Universal House of Justice which without the Guardian of the Faith presiding as its “sacred head” was obviously not the Institution prescribed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Will and Testament.

That, as Shoghi Effendi has stated in The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh: “The bedrock on which this Administrative Order is founded is God’s immutable Purpose for mankind in this day,” it is certain that the sans-Guardian and seriously flawed man-made administrative system that has been established by the leaders of the heterodox Bahá’ís, is unquestionably contrary to the Purpose of God and therefore cannot long survive whereas it is clear that the divinely-conceived, sacred and immortal Administrative Order bequeathed to the Bahá’í World by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in his Will and Testament shall ultimately be restored, triumph and flourish in all of its perfection.