Descendants of Covenant-breakers
Letters[edit]
Believers to avoid grand-child of (Arch-)Covenant-breaker as unlikely to have anything but prejudice against Bahá'u'lláh[edit]
"He noted the report of ... about her meeting with the grandchild of Subh-i Azal. He feels that the friends should as much as possible avoid her, as it is very unlikely she has anything but prejudice against Bahá'u'lláh, in view of her background."
- (On behalf of Shoghi Effendi, from a letter dated 24 October 1947 to a National Spiritual Assembly, in Non-association with Covenant-breakers (compilation), no. 11)
Baha'is not to associate with descendant of (Arch-)Covenant-breaker if detected slightest criticism of Faith; such people to be strenuously avoided[edit]
"No intelligent and loyal Bahá'í would associate with a descendant of Azal, if he traced the slightest breath of criticism of our Faith, in any aspect, from that person. In fact these people should be strenuously avoided as having an inherited spiritual disease -- the disease of Covenant-breaking! Certainly such matters should be brought to the attention of the Assembly or National Spiritual Assembly within whose jurisdiction they occur."
- (From letter dated 9 December 1948 to an individual believer, in Non-association with Covenant-breakers (compilation), no. 12)
For descendants of (Arch-)Covenant-breaker, it practically requires a miracle to overcome lifelong habit of wrong thought[edit]
"The friends are sometimes surprisingly naive and superficial in their approach to the subject of Covenant-breakers. They do not seem to understand that the descendants of Azal, with their mother's milk, drank hatred of Bahá'u'lláh, just as the descendants of Muhammad-Ali and his relatives have imbibed from babyhood a false concept of the Master. It takes practically a miracle to overcome this lifelong habit of wrong thought. Now, however, he has told the German believers to shun her."
- (From a letter dated 18 August 1949 written on behalf of the Guardian to a National Spiritual Assembly, in Non-association with Covenant-breakers (compilation), no. 14)
Children of Covenant-breakers still associating with parents probably infused with their spirt so should be avoided until Hands of the Cause ascertain they understood their parents' sin and dissociate[edit]
...children of Covenant-breakers, who have grown up with and still associate with their parents, are probably thoroughly infused with the Covenant-breaking spirit, and the friends must not associate with them until the Hands of the Cause have ascertained that these children have understood the sin of their parents and dissociated themselves from them.
- (From letter dated 5 February 1969 to an individual believer, in Non-association with Covenant-breakers (compilation), no. 16)
Descendants of Covenant-breakers who do not repudiate forebears and seek readmittance to Cause should be viewed with caution as may have received poison of Covenant-breaking[edit]
"It should be explained that descendants of Covenant-breakers who have not positively repudiated their forebears and sought readmittance to the Cause should be viewed with caution as they may well have received the poison of Covenant-breaking from their parents and would then have to be shunned by the friends."
- (From memorandum to the Hands of the Cause in the Holy Land dated 2 December 1971, in Non-association with Covenant-breakers (compilation), no. 17)
Danger in meeting children of Covenant-breakers is likelihood of having been strongly indoctrinated[edit]
"The danger of meeting with children of Covenant-breakers is that even although they may never have been declared Bahá'ís there is always the likelihood that they have been strongly indoctrinated by their parents with the poison of Covenant-breaking."
- (From a letter dated 9 June 1974 to an individual believer, in Non-association with Covenant-breakers (compilation), no. 18)
Bahá'í students going to school with children of Covenant-breakers to understand Bahá'ís must not choose them as friends and must avoid companionship (though not to make issue before the school and no hard-and-fast rule about not enrolling in or leaving school with such children unless truly not possible to adhere to guidelines)[edit]
"The Bahá'í students who go to schools which children of Covenant-breakers attend should be made, lovingly and wisely, to understand that as Bahá'ís they cannot and must not choose children of Covenant-breakers as their personal friends, without making the matter into an open issue before the school. Thus, there should be no hard and fast rule to the effect that no Bahá'í child should be enrolled in a school where children of Covenant-breakers are also enrolled, or that they should leave a school as soon as a child of a Covenant-breaker enters it. The important thing is to impress upon Bahá'í children that personal friendship and individual companionship with children of Covenant-breakers must be avoided. Should it be found that in a particular case the situation is such that the policy outlined above cannot be followed, then in such cases, which we hope can be kept to a minimum, it would be desirable for Bahá'í children to change schools."
- (From a memorandum dated 22 January 1976 to the International Teaching Centre, in Non-association with Covenant-breakers (compilation), no. 19)
