Dear Doris,
It is funny that people always misunderstand this passage in the Will, even though Shoghi was clear in his explanation of this:
“The statement in the Will of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá does not imply that the Hands of the Cause of God have been given the authority to overrule the Guardian.’Abdu’l-Bahá could not have provided for a conflict of authority in the Faith. This is obvious, in view of His own words, which you will find on page 13 (p. 11 of 1944 U.S. edition) of the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “The mighty stronghold shall remain impregnable and safe through obedience to him who is the guardian of the Cause of God. It is incumbent upon…the Hands of the Cause of God to show their obedience, submissiveness and subordination unto the guardian of the Cause of God, to turn unto him and be lowly before him. He that opposeth him hath opposed the True One…etc.”
Baha’i News, February 1955
So, as far as my not “understanding” what the Aghsan is, if I am failing in this…maybe you could enlighten me seeing you seem to have a firm grasp on the meaning of the Covenant as you have thus far shown….
As far as the first born son, this is implicit in the Will and I don’t understand how people are able to read the W&T and not read these words:
“Thus, should the first-born of the Guardian of the Cause of God not manifest in himself the truth of the words:– “The child is the secret essence of its sire,” that is, should he not inherit of the spiritual within him (the Guardian of the Cause of God) and his glorious lineage not be matched with a goodly character, then must he,(the Guardian of the Cause of God) choose another branch to succeed him.”
(Abdu’l-Baha, The Will and Testament, p. 12)
This is the law of “primogeniture”, the inheritance goes to the first born son. In the case of Shoghi Effendi, he did not have any children so he is instructed in the W&T to “choose another branch”. “Branch” is translated as “Aghsan” which are the male heirs to Baha’u’llah. Mason Remey was Abdu’l-Baha’s Adopted son, everyone knew this including Shoghi Effendi so he chose Mason “another branch” whom he placed at the head of the IBC, which was the UHJ in its first stage of development. The reason people do not want to accept this “round about” way of Mason being appointed is not that they deny Mason, its that they don’t want God’s Plan as God’s Plan has always been contrary to the whims and wantings of people’s expectations.
Neal Chase Ben Joseph Aghsan is the Guardian, has been in the Plan since the beginning to be the Guardian and it will be people who have gone against this plan who will go down in history as having been on record, attacking, denying, rejecting, openly disputing with, and contending with the Guardian and the Divine Plan of God. I am not particular as to what I believe. I don’t care what other people think. I just want to know the truth and I don’t care what that means. If it means giving up family and friends or old ideas and concepts or belief systems than that’s what I’ll do. Sounds like some are just stuck in denial. If anything comes against their forms of belief, they deny it, giving false, unresearched and uneducated statements betraying their lack of understanding themselves. The Aghsan lineage of the male heirs of Baha’u’llah continues to this day and will continue for the next five hundred thousand years.
Victor