"God as changing his mind"

These Baha'is, with international headquarters in Haifa, Israel, after not finding a will of Shoghi Effendi wherein he appointed a successor, were crushed in the realization that he had no sons and had declared all other believed qualified candidates as covenant-breakers.’ ‘They merely accepted what they believed to be the facts at issue. In spite of the essentiality of the guardianship in the faith in previous literature (prior to 1957, see my dissertation, pp. 339-342), these Baha'is believed there simply were no valid candidates available. So they spoke of God as changing his mind, using an Arabic word (BADA or BADAH) to describe the situation. BADA in Arabic means God changed his mind and, consequently, the living guardianship that had been so essential came to an end for these Baha'is.

(Baha'is in Exile, Vernon Elvin Johnson, Ph.D.)