EVENT FOLLOWING THE PASSING OF SHOGHI EFFENDI

The death of Shoghi Effendi occurred in London, following a very brief illness, and was a great surprise and shock to everyone. His funeral and burial were conducted immediately in London, in accordance with Baha'i law.
The Hands of the Cause assembled in conclave at the Bahji nine days following the passing. At the time the late Guardian's desk was opened and his papers searched for a will, but none was forthcoming. Hence the Hands appeared to have no direction to follow in the matter of his successor. This lack of specific guidance is the initial source of the grave difficulties to follow that eventually led to the formation of the Tarbiyat Baha'i Faith as a separate entity.
That the Hands expected to find a Will designating a successor is evidenced by an announcement in the Jerusalem Post for November 8, 1957, which said in part: "A successor to the Guardianship of the Baha'i Faith was nominated by the late Shoghi Effendi Rabbani in his will, and the name will be announced by the elders of the faith when they meet here (Haifa) within a few weeks..." However, the same paper on November 28 reports: "The 27 Hands of the Cause of the Baha'i Faith, who assembled at the world centre of the faith here, today announced that they have elected nine of their members to conduct and protect the affairs of the faith from the Centre ..." The nine hands were listed, and included Charles Mason Remey and Ruhiyyih Khanum Rabbani, the widow of Shoghi Effendi.
According to a report by Mason Remey, at the suggestion of Ruhiyyih Khanum and with no objection voiced by the other Hands in the assembly, no minutes were taken and no record kept of the deliberations at this Bahji Conclave. It would appear that three alternative scenarios are possible in the attempt to reconstruct events at and following the Conclave: 1) It is possible that Shoghi Effendi died intestate. On the evidence of his character and his strict adherence to the precepts and commands of Abdu'l-Baha and of Baha'u'llah, it seems highly improbable that Shoghi Effendi would have neglected such an important duty. 2) It is possible that Shoghi Effendi did in fact write a Will, but that it had been lost or destroyed prior to the search of his papers during the conclave. We have no evidence on this point, save to point out that he was meticulously careful about business details. 3) The only other alternative is the unpleasant one of assuming that a Will was indeed among his papers, but that it was suppressed, either secreted or intentionally destroyed, by those Hands who were conducting the search.
So the Hands of the Cause were faced with a dilemma. According to the Will and Testament, they can only exist as a body under the direction of the Guardian of the Cause of God, under his shadow and obeying his command. But there was no Guardian! By the nearly unanimous decision of the Hands present (24 out of 25), it was decided to declare the office of Guardian not only vacant, but badah. Mason Remey has explained that the Persians used the word badah to signify the failure of the promise of the Word of God as given by a Manifestation or Prophet. They say that even God changes His plan and intent at times and that we must accept this and act accordingly.
As Mason Remey has pointed out, the great danger in the doctrine of badah is that we humans, desiring to do something contrary to the Sacred Writings, may declare that the pertinent statements are badah, even though they are actually still valid. Indeed, on the face of it, badah is impossible if we accept the premise that the Word of God can only be promulgated to the world by one of God's Divine Manifestations. Hence anything contradicting the plan outlined by Baha'u'llah and filled out in detail by Abdu'l-Baha must be in error, at least until another Manifestation shall appear, which Baha'u'llah has assured us will not take place for a full thousand years.
Thus one must conclude that the institution of the Guardianship is still mandatory, and is only temporarily vacant. According to this view, the Guardianship is "in occultation",