Administrative Order

For an introductory article, see https://www.bahai.org/beliefs/essential-relationships/administrative-order

• Elected ("rulers")
  • The Universal House of Justice
  • National Spiritual Assemblies
  • Regional Bahá'í Councils
  • Local Spiritual Assemblies
  • Committees (appointed, but a part of the "rulers"--the Assemblies)

• Appointed ("learned")
  • Guardianship
  • Custodians
  • Hands of the Cause of God
  • International Teaching Centre
  • Continental Boards of Counsellors
  • Auxiliary Board member
    • assistant to the Auxiliary Board member

Ancillary institutions

• Hazíratu'l-Quds, Committees, Library
• Huqúqu'lláh representatives

Topics

• Blending of three forms of government

Spiritual foundation of the Administrative Order

Bedrock of Administative Order is God's Purpose for humanity

"Let no one, while this System is still in its infancy, misconceive its character, belittle its significance, or misrepresent its purpose. The bedrock on which this Administrative Order is founded is God’s immutable Purpose for mankind in this day. ... Its consummation the advent of that golden millennium — the Day when the kingdoms of this world shall have become the Kingdom of God Himself, the Kingdom of Bahá’u’lláh."

(Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 156-157)

Spirit breathed by Bahá'u'lláh must incarnate itself in a visible Order in order to have an abiding influence

"Few will fail to recognize that the Spirit breathed by Bahá'u'lláh upon the world ... can never permeate and exercise an abiding influence upon mankind unless and until it incarnates itself in a visible Order, which would bear His name, wholly identify itself with His principles, and function in conformity with His laws."

(Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 19)

Bahá'u'lláh did not only imbue mankind with a Spirit but established institutions that are a pattern for future society and agency for unification of the world

"Bahá’u’lláh ... has not only imbued mankind with a new and regenerating Spirit. He has not merely enunciated certain universal principles, or propounded a particular philosophy, however potent, sound and universal these may be. In addition to these He, as well as Άbdu'l-Bahá after Him, has, unlike the Dispensations of the past, clearly and specifically laid down a set of Laws, established definite institutions, and provided for the essentials of a Divine Economy. These are destined to be a pattern for future society, a supreme instrument for the establishment of the Most Great Peace, and the one agency for the unification of the world, and the proclamation of the reign of righteousness and justice upon the earth."

(Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 19)

Uniqueness of the Administrative Order

Humanity's ordered life revolutionized through this unique System

"The world’s equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind’s ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System — the like of which mortal eyes have never witnessed."

(Bahá’u’lláh, quoted by Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 146)

Administrative Order fundamentally different from anything that any Prophet has previously established

"[T]his Administrative Order is fundamentally different from anything that any Prophet has previously established, inasmuch as Bahá’u’lláh has Himself revealed its principles, established its institutions, appointed the person to interpret His Word and conferred the necessary authority on the body designed to supplement and apply His legislative ordinances. Therein lies the secret of its strength, its fundamental distinction and the guarantee against disintegration and schism. Nowhere in the sacred scriptures of any of the world’s religious systems, nor even in the writings of the Inaugurator of the Bábí Dispensation, do we find any provisions establishing a covenant or providing for an administrative order that can compare in scope and authority with those that lie at the very basis of the Bahá’í Dispensation."

(Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 145)

The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, the pattern of which is the Bahá'í Administrative Order, is without precedent in human history

"The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh is the divinely ordained system for which nations and peoples so desperately search. Hailed by the Báb in the Persian Bayán, its foundational features prescribed by Bahá'u'lláh himself, this Order is without precedent in human history for its standard of justice and its commitment to the practical realization of the oneness of mankind, as well as for its capacity to promote change and the advancement of world civilization. It provides the means by which the Divine Will illumines the path of human progress and guides the eventual establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.

"Throughout the entire planet the devoted followers of Bahá'u'lláh are labouring to develop further the Bahá'í Administrative Order described by the Guardian “not only as the nucleus but the very pattern of the New World Order”, thus setting the foundation for a world civilization destined to yield its dazzling splendour in the centuries to come."

(Letter from the Universal House of Justice, dated March 25, 2007, to the Bahá'ís of the World)

The relationship between the Cause and Administration

The relationship of the Cause to the Administration is like that between the soul and body

"Regarding the relationship of the Cause to the Administration; the Bahá’í Faith, as the Guardian himself has repeatedly and emphatically stated, cannot be confined to a mere system of organization, however elaborate in its features and universal in its scope it may be. Organization is only a means to the realization of its aims and ideals, and not an end in itself. To divorce the two, however, would be to mutilate the Cause itself, as they stand inseparably bound to each other, in very much the same relationship existing between the soul and body in the world of human existence.

(Letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, dated April 19, 1939, to an individual believer, in Lights of Guidance, no. 6)

Should not consider the Administration as an aim in itself, but has the purpose of spiritual and moral development

"The friends should always be on their guard lest they consider the Administration as an aim in itself and fail to grasp the spiritual and moral development which is its purpose to achieve."

(Letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, dated July 25, 1933 to an individual believer)

The Administrative Order is the framework and channel for the outflowing spirit

"Our guiding light is the Message of Bahá’u’lláh. The administrative order is the strong framework within which we work and the channel for the outflowing of the spirit into the world."

(Letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice, dated June 12, 1984, to an individual believer, in Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986: The Third Epoch of the Formative Age, par. 397.4)

From Lights of Guidance (to categorize)

Established First in America--Not American Production

"The Administrative Order of the Cause, though first established in America, copied as a model by other national Bahá'í communities, is not an American production, but is a universal system based on the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. It is not simply by coincidence however that it was first initiated and perfected by the American believers."

(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, October 29, 1938: Dawn of a New Day, p. 202, in Lights of Guidance, no. 1)

American believers have championed and were establishing administrative order

"...The administrative order which lies embedded in the Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, and which the American believers have championed and are now establishing, should, under no circumstances, be identified with the principles underlying present-day democracies. Nor is it identical with any purely aristocratic or autocratic form of government. The objectionable features inherent in each of these political systems are entirely avoided. It blends, as no system of human polity has as yet achieved, those salutary truths and beneficial elements which constitute the valuable contributions which each of these forms of government have made to society in the past...."

(Postscript written by the Guardian to a letter written on his behalf to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, November 18, 1933: The National Spiritual Assembly, p. 26, in Lights of Guidance, no. 2)

See also

• Government