Bitter and spiteful attitudes within Baha'u'llah's own family

Sadly, I cannot do justice in providing a fair description of this religion, whose aim it is to unify the world, without taking note of the bitter and spiteful attitudes within Baha'u'llah's own family. One of Baha'u'llah's daughters challenged Shoghi Effendi's authority in court, but she was unsuccessful, partially because some of her key witnesses died, as Shoghi Effendi gleefully reported (Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Baha'i World: 1950-57 [Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1971], p. 25). He communicated messages of delight whenever a tragedy struck anyone who opposed him (ibid., pp. 24-25, 54-55, 87-88). Toward the end of Shoghi Effendi's administration, there were few members of Baha'u'llah's extended family left who were not Covenant Breakers. Baha'u'llah had three wives (Asiyih, Fatimih and Gawhar). Of those, the second, Fatimih, was the mother of Muhammad Ali, who had opposed Abdul Baha. She and all of her offspring were declared to be Covenant Breakers for this and other reasons. Gawhar had one daughter, Furughiyyih, who, along with her husband, Siyyid Ali Afnan, was critical of Abdul Baha, thus qualifying her for expulsion. Asiyih Khanum had three children who survived into adulthood, but the daughter, Bahiyyih Khanum, chose lifelong celibacy, and the younger son, Mirza Mihdi, died of a fall when he was only twenty-two years old. That left Abdul Baha.

Abdul Baha had four daughters, of whom one, Munavvar Khanum, had no children, and the other two, Tuba Khanum and Ruha Khanum, earned the title of Covenant Breakers because they supported their children in various actions that were construed as defiance of Shoghi Effendi. All of Tuba's and Ruha's children, Shoghi Effendi's cousins, were stamped as Covenant Breakers. So, that left Shoghi Effendi's mother, Diya'iyyih Khanum, and her offspring. Shoghi Effendi had two sisters and two brothers. The sisters both married sons of the ostracized Furughiyyih and her husband, Siyyid Ali Afnan, thus giving cause for them to have to vacate the community, and the brothers, Husayn and Riad, were far from Shoghi Effendi's standards as well. He said of Husayn that he was "faithless" and guilty of "dishonorable conduct," and he referred to Riad as "treacherous" and "despicable," which clearly put them into the category of Covenant Breakers. In short, among the descendants of Baha'u'llah of Shoghi Effendi's generation, the great-grandchildren of Baha'u'llah, there was only one person who was not a Covenant Breaker, and that was Shoghi Effendi (ibid., p. 16).

Nonetheless, Shoghi Effendi won his lawsuits to the effect that he was the authorized leader of the Baha'i World Faith. All the various Covenant Breakers had to sign over all communal property in Iran, Iraq and Israel to his organization, and were expelled from Israel (ibid., p. 124).

-Neighboring Faiths - A Christian Introduction to World Religions (Winfried Corduan)