will and testament of shoghi effendi

It is extremely odd that Shoghi Effendi apparently left no will and testament (wasiya) considering it is a legal obligation of every Baha'i to have such a device. The Hands of the Cause of God searched in vain for it after his untimely passing. Is it possible that he did have a testament, that it was in front of the entire Baha'i world during his lifetime? A pilgrim note indicates such a possibility:

"The will of the Master is like a huge edifice, we must recede from it to properly grasp its import. "Even if I had time I could not do it," said Shoghi Effendi regarding elaborating on it. It must recede from us. The lapse of time and unfoldment of the Revelation will enable us to fully appreciate it. The words of the Guardian are as binding, have the same authority, as the words of the Bab, Baha'u'llah and the Master, but the stations are different. He considers he has written his testament, his statement, in "The Dispensation of Baha'u'llah." What he says about the Guardianship is binding on future Guardians. The Will of the Master is a third kind of covenant. Baha'u'llah's Will is the lesser covenant - (See under "Religion.")" pg. 45, Maxwell Pilgrim Notes, http://bahai-library.com/pilgrims/maxwell.notes.html accessed 7/28/2011

Which is confirmed at the Baha'i World Faith deepening site on their interpretation of the Covenant:

In this audio clip Hand of the Cause of God Mr. Dhikru’llah Khadem explains how Shoghi Effendi once told him that he considered “The Dispensation of Baha’u'llah” as his last Will and Testament.

(from www.bahaistudy.org) http://covenantstudy.org/questions/shoghi-effendi-will/ accessed 7/28/2011

This belief is also reflected by mainstream Baha'i World Faith academics such as Jack McLean:

"According to anecdotal reports, Shoghi Effendi Rabbaní (1897-1957), the former head and Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, considered the four-part treatise, The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh (1934), to be the ne plus ultra of his writings and his

last Will and Testament.[1] The Guardian describes “...the scope and purpose...” of this document as “...an exposition of the fundamental verities of the Faith.” [2] The exposition consists of four sections. Sections one to three define the “station” (maqám) of the Bahá’í Faith’s “Three Central Figures.”[3]

Part four elucidates the “political”[4] aspects of Bahá’í governance and supplies the ideological basis for Bahá’u’lláh’s new world order as an ideal type of theocracy. Shoghi Effendi wrote that part four should be considered as a “supplement” to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament.[5]"

Published in Lights of Irfan, Volume 9, pages 239-280 Wilmette, IL: Irfan Colloquia, 2008 http://bahai-library.com/mclean_dispensation_theology_word accessed 7/28/2011

Jack notes in note 5 that this is confirmed by former member of the UHJ:

“Indeed Shoghi Effendi had written that his “Dispensation” was to be considered as a “supplement” to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament.” Ali Nakhhjavani, “The Bahá’í Covenant,” Lights of ‘Irfán: Studies in the Principal Bahá’í Beliefs, Book 8, 308. For the Guardian’s original statement on the Dispensation as a “supplement” to the Will and Testament, see The Light of Divine Guidance, vol. 1, p. 65.

Read Shoghi Effendi Rabbani's "Dispensation of Baha'u'llah", version on Baha'i World Faith covenant study site.

"Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the World Order of Baha’u'llah would be mutilated and permanently deprived of that hereditary principle which, as Abdu’l-Baha has written, has been invariably upheld by the Law of God. “In all the Divine Dispensations,” He states, in a Tablet addressed to a follower of the Faith in Persia, “the eldest son hath been given extraordinary distinctions. Even the station of prophethood hath been his birthright.” Without such an institution the integrity of the Faith would be imperiled, and the stability of the entire fabric would be gravely endangered. Its prestige would suffer, the means required to enable it to take a long, an uninterrupted view over a series of generations would be completely lacking, and the necessary guidance to define the sphere of the legislative action of its elected representatives would be totally withdrawn." Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, Para. 104, Dispensation of Baha'u'llah

[ indicates the need for ongoing Guardianship, you cannot cite one instance where Shoghi ever indicates that there will only be one Guardian on earth, the opposite is the case, multiple Guardians going in a successive line. Secondly, it indicates that their must be a real familial connection to the Guardians, there are only two ways to become a member of a family, born into or adopted into it as seems to be the very real case of Mason Remey by Abdu'l-Baha. ]