Hossein Ali Nouri: “If the Baha’is are divided into two cults and each builds a house of justice and opposes the other, both are invalid.”
In its reality, Baha’ism has always been accompanied by branching, and this religion itself is a product of branching within Babism. With the death of each Baha’i leader, a new wave of new branching has emerged among the followers of this religion. Here is a brief information about how the Baha’i branches came about and the most important views:
آنچه در ادامه می خوانید
The first branch
The first experience of Baha’ism creed is the product of a severe dispute between Bahá’u’lláh’s two sons, Abbas and Muhammad Ali after his death. A dispute that severely shook the foundations of Abbas Effendi’s leadership. These two brothers were active against each other to the extent of killing, like their father and uncle. Although Abbas’ wing was in the minority at first, but with his serious efforts, he was able to change the course of events in his favor, and finally, despite his father’s will, he wrote a will to transfer the leadership of the Baha’is to Shoghi Effendi instead of Muhammad Ali. Muhammad In the first months after the death of Abdu’l-Bahá, Ali’s efforts to present himself as the next leader of the Baha’is was vain and he intended to apply pressure to achieve his goal by occupying Baha’u’llah’s tomb and to prevent Shoghi Effendi’s supporters from entering. He was also forced by the government to return the tomb key to Shoghi Efendi.
The second important branch among the Baha’is occurred in the early months of Shoghi Effendi’s presidency, during which Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, who was one of the Baha’i missionaries and the agent of Amrullah in America, raised a flag of opposition. Ahmad Sohrab, who was one of Abdu’l-Bahá’s secretaries in the years 1912 to 1919 A.D. (1291-1298 S.H.), considered Abdu’l-Bahá’s wills which were advised the Baha’is to obey Shoghi Effendi as fake and stated that after the death of Abbas Effendi, the Supreme Court should be formed accroding to the text of the Aqdas book and no one is allowed to consider himself as the guardian of the faith after Abdu’l-Bahá contrary to his text. This group, which had managed to attract the minds of some Baha’is with their preaching activities under the title of “New History Association” and “East and West Caravan” in different countries, faced strong opposition and rejection of Shoqi Effendi and it didn’t take long for them to leave the competition.
Orthodox Baha’is
The followers of Mason Remey, who were not able to lead the majority of Baha’is and settle in Haifa, moved their center to America and engaged in missionary activities among Baha’is under the leadership of Remey. After him, they accepted the leadership of Jules Barry Marangela (1918-2013 A.D.) (1297-1392 S.H.) and took the name “Orthodox Baha’is” as their title. Currently, an Iranian Baha’i named Nusratullah Bahrehmand (born in 1321 S.H.), who lives in Australia is the leader of the Orthodox Baha’is. The orthodox Baha’is were divided.
Viceroy Baha’is
Another division that took place among the Baha’is after Shoghi Effendi’s death was Rex King’s (1356 S.H.-1977 A.D.) division. Rex King denied that anyone, including Mason Reimi, had obtained the position of guardian of the cause and believed that according to the traditional interpretation of the Baha’i teachings, only one of the heirs of Baha’u’llah’s generation is worthy of obtaining the position of guardian of the divine cause; however, because Reimi had been appointed as the head of the Baha’i International council, he recognized him as a vicegerent and not as a guardian formally and introduced himself as the second vicegerent and prophesied that in the future a man from the generation of Bahá’u’lláh would rise and be the guardian of the cause. He named himself as the vicegerent of the guardian of the cause and his followers as “Orthodox Baha’is of the Viceroy”. After his death, four members of his family continued to propagate Rex’s ideas by forming the “Baha’i Education Association”.
Baha’is under the Covenant
Another Baha’i branch was the one that happened due to the help and propaganda of Leland Jensen. At first, he was one of the supporters of Amri Mason Remey. He was imprisoned for sexually assaulting a woman and he was able to attract some prisoners to the Baha’i faith in prison. Claiming for the Baha’i administrative order to be destroyed after Shoghi Effendi’s death, he claimed that God had chosen him to restore the Baha’i order. In 1973 A.D. (1352 S.H.) before Remey’s death, a group called “Baha’is under the terms of the covenant” was formed and it started preaching. When there was a difference between his disciples, some of them joined the leadership of another person named “Jacques Sokhumonian”. Sukomounian was one of the followers of Mason Remey and Barry Marangela who claimed for the guardian of the cause after branches occurred within the orthodox Baha’is and started working as one of the few claimants of the 4th guardian of the cause of the Baha’is.
Samaullahi
In the early 1970s, when the followers of Mason Remey and the New Universal House of Justice were trying to sort out their internal divisions, an Iranian man named Jamshid Ma’ani called himself Sama Allah and claimed he was the new manifestation of God after Baha’u’llah and the mission of guiding the people has been entrusted to him! A number of Baha’is of Iranian descent living in Indonesia gathered around him and formed the first circle of Baha’is of Sama Allahi. In the meantime, an American named “John Carey” converted to him and wrote a book praising Jamshid Ma’ani and proving that he is the manifestation and the messenger of God in order to gather other Baha’is to Jamshid Manani. John Kerry invited Ma’ani to stay at his home in California to provide him with more publicity, but some time after his stay at his home, they had a disagreement and finally announced that Jamshid Ma’ani is neither a man of God nor His manifestation! He drove Ma’ani out of his home and ended all his cooperation with him, and thus the story of another Baha’i branches reached its final chapter.
Baha’i extract
John Carey whom we mentioned in the previous lines thought of establishing a new cult after separating from Jamshid Ma’ani. The members of this cult are waiting for the emergence of the third manifestation of God after the Bab and Baha. They call their cult the extract of Baha’i and believe that the current Universal House of Justice is not in harmony with Abdul Baha’s will and Shoghi Effendi’s teachings. Rather, it is made by people called the disciples of the cause who do not deserve to lead the Baha’i faith. They believe in the necessity of the existence of a guardian of the cause and consider his absence at the head of the Baha’i organization to be the cause for the fall of the legitimacy of the current Universal House of Justice.
Daheshi Baha’is
The Daheshians are some Baha’is living in Lebanon who believe that their leader Dr. Salem Dahesh Musa (1912-1984) (1291-1363 S.H.) is God’s messenger after Baha’u’llah and that he is the reincarnation of Ali Muhammad the Bab, just as Ali Muhammad the Bab called himself the Mahdi’s resurrection. They consider the reincarnation theory to be based on some of Ali Muhammad Bab’s works which were banned to be published by the Baha’i authorities.
In addition to being the main reason for the division among the Baha’is after him, Shoghi’s sterility was considered as another reason for the invalidity of this religion by the opponents because according to what Abdul Baha had written, in this religion, contrary to the religion of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, which has 12 imams and apostles and tribes who have been responsible for continuing the propagation of the religion after their Prophet, the number of guardians should be 24 people who will be from the generation of Shoghi Effendi. However, the Almighty God caused not only the number of guardians from Shoghi’s generation to not reach the mentioned number, but also the principle of continuity of guardianship in the descendants of Abdul Baha was destroyed.
Followers of five elderlies
This group of Baha’is who emphasize the leadership of Ali Muhammad Báb, Hussein Ali Baha, Abbas Abdul Baha and Shoghi Effendi believe that according to the teachings of Baha’u’llah and Abd ul Baha, the head of the Universal House of Justice should be an infallible guardian. As Abdul Baha pointed out, in the Baha’i faith, unlike Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, which had 12 imams, apostles, and tribes, 24 guardians take charge of the guardian of the faith out of which 18 people have already been named and introduced by Bab as Hayy letters and their number reaches 19 including Bab himself. The remaining 5 people were not introduced and considering that Shoghi Effendi did not leave any successor after himself, it is clear that the Baha’is should wait for these five people who will appear in the future. These five people are the ones that Baha’u’llah mentioned as the kings of the divine world.
Conclusion
There is a Persian proverb that goes, “The blind leading the blind.” This proverb shows the present day of the deviant cult of Baha’ism. Once upon a time, a person named Hossein Ali Nouri founded a cult deviated from all divine and monotheistic religions in every sense that claimed for being a source of pure teachings for people and is a summary of religions. Nevertheless after a while Hossein Ali Nouri’s sons insulted each other over his succession!!! Intra-sectarian differences continued and continue to this day among his companions and now there are more than 8 Baha’i cults in the world and in different countries. It has been more than 150 years since the beginning of the establishment of this cult and it has suffered so many disunities and divisions.
Now, it is worth pondering that even according to the orders and teachings of cult leaders such as Hossein Ali Nouri (Baha), if two cults are formed among the Baha’is and each builds a universal house of justice and opposes each other, both are invalid.
And according to another principle of this cult, under the title of “independent investigation of truth”, what is his/her duty if someone is really looking for the truth? Really, this case leads every true seeker and seeker of the truth to the absurdity of this cult; In the end, it should be said that moving away from monotheistic and divine religions, especially the holy religion of Islam, will result in deep ideological deviations.
Source:
Rahnamai, Hossein, Baha’i Knowledge Textbook, Gouy Publications, 4th edition, 1401 S.H., pp. 77-81
