Covenant-breaker
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A Covenant-breaker or the act of Covenant-breaking is a term used by Bahá'ís to refer to a particular form of heresy. Being declared a Covenant-breaker by the head of the Faith is somewhat equivalent to Cherem in Judaism, Excommunication in Christianity and Takfir in Islamic law, i.e. Bahá'ís avoid association with them, even if the Covenant–breaker is a family member. The authority to declare a Bahá'í a Covenant-breaker resides soley with the head of the Bahá'í Faith, which since 1963 has been the (elected) Universal House of Justice, situated in Haifa, Israel.
Covenant-breaking does not refer to attacks from those who are not Bahá'ís or who have left the Bahá'í Faith out of disagreement with its tenets. Rather is in reference to internal campaigns of opposition whereby the Covenant-breaker is seen to be as one who is challenging the internal succession of the Faith and thereby causing internal division, or by claiming or supporting an alternate succession of authority or administrative structure.
The term 'Covenant-breaker' or, in Arabic 'naqidin', was first used by `Abdu'l-Bahá to describe the partisans of his brother Mírzá Muhammad `Alí, who challenged his leadership. However, Bahá'ís also commonly regard Azali Babis (or as they were later called, Bayanis) as covenant-breakers, since Baha'u'llah's brother Subh-i-Azal challenged his claim to be the awaited Manifestion of God and was determined to retain leadership of the Babi community, the overwhelming majority of whom accepted Baha'u'llah and became Bahá'ís.
In `Abdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament, He appointed Shoghi Effendi as the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith and called for the eventual election of the Universal House of Justice, and defined in the same manner opposition to them as Covenant-Breaking. `Abdu'l-Bahá advised all Bahá'ís to shun anyone opposing the Covenant: "...one of the greatest and most fundamental principles of the Cause of God is to shun and avoid entirely the Covenant-breakers, for they will utterly destroy the Cause of God, exterminate His Law and render of no account all efforts exerted in the past." [1] (http://bahai-library.com/?file=abdulbaha_will_testament.html#2par13)
While most Covenant-breakers are involved in schismatic groups, that is not always the case. For example, a Bahá'í who refuses to shun Covenant-breakers is at risk of being named one. One article [2] (http://bahai-library.com/?file=momen_encyclopedia_covenant), originally written for the Bahá'í Encyclopedia, characterized Covenant-breakers that have emerged in the course of Bahá'í history as belonging to one of four categories:
- Leadership challenge. These are persons who disputed the authority and legitimacy of the head of the religion and advanced claims either for themselves or for another. The main examples of these are Azal, Mírzá Muhammad `Alí, and Remey.
- Dissidence. Those who disagree with the policies and actions of the head of the religion without, however, advancing an alternative claim for leadership. This group consisted mostly of opponents of the Bahá'í administration such as Ruth White, Ahmad Sohrab, and Hermann Zimmer.
- Disobedience. Those who disobeyed a direct instruction from the head of the religion. Often the instruction was to cease to associate with a Covenant-breaker. Examples of this type include most of the descendants of `Abdu'l-Bahá during Shoghi Effendi's time.
- Apostates who maliciously attack the Bahá'í Faith. Examples include Ávárih and Níkú.
Most of the currently active schismatic groups regarded as Covenant-breakers by Bahá'ís resulted from the claims of Charles Mason Remey to the Guardianship in 1960. The largest of these was the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith, who accepted Joel Marangella as the Third Guardian. Orthodox Bahá'ís and believed that authority should have passed from Shoghi Effendi to future Guardians (also referred to in the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá) and that it was the Hands, and later the Universal House of Justice, that broke the Covenant and see those who follow them as misled. (This obviously ignores the fact that `Abdu'l-Bahá and the Baha'i scriptures explicitly stated that Guardians had to be lineal descendants of Baha'u'llah.)
The large majority of Bahá'ís recognized the authority of the Hands of the Cause and later the Universal House of Justice first elected in Haifa in [[1963] since Shoghi Effendi died without issue, and all descendents of Baha'u'llah who would have been eligible for the Guardianship had earlier been declared Covenant-breakers.
There also existed a small number of "Free Bahá'ís" in Europe who accepted Ruth White and Hermann Zimmer's claim that the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha' was a forgery. This claim is rejected by mainstream Bahá'ís as well, and these groups were regarded as "covenant-breakers."
In fact, the Baha'i scriptures are quite explicit about the Covenant of Baha'u'llah (which comprises an entire volume of such scripture and is called the "Book of the Coveanant" or "Kitab-i-Ahd." By definition, a Baha'i is anyone who accepts and endeavors to follow this Covenant, so these splinter groups are in fact not really "Baha'i" at all (though they may call themselves such).
Most of these splinter groups are already defunct, and those few still remaining are extremely small with only a few dozen individuals each.
| This article is related to: The Bahá'í Faith | edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Bahai&action=edit) |
| Central Figures: The Báb Bahá'u'lláh `Abdu'l-Bahá Shoghi Effendi | |
| Institutions: Universal House of Justice, Bahá'í House of Worship | |
| Individuals: Táhirih, List of Bahá'ís | |
| Holy Cities Haifa, Shiraz, Baghdad, Akko | |
| Topics: Kitáb-i-Íqán, Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Qiblih, Bahá'í calendar | |