To investigate the truth about anything, we must first obtain knowledge about it then use our reason to reach a verdict and conclusion. If a Baha’i wants to research his or her religion, there are three sources from which he or she can seek knowledge: First, former Baha’is who have denounced their faith or been shunned and labeled as covenant breakers, second, memories and statements from people who have witnessed the actions of the Baha’i leaders, and third, official Baha’i documents and sources. Is it possible for truth seeking Baha’is to investigate their faith from any of these three sources?

a- Covenant Breakers and Enemies of the Faith

As we showed in the previous excerpts, listening to the words of those that have refrained from becoming Baha’is or any of Bahā’u’llāh’s enemies has been strictly prohibited. Furthermore, as will be detailed in subsequent chapters, no form of socializing is allowed with covenant breakers. Thus any direct form of investigating the truth using this group of people is unfeasible.

Reading the books authored by covenant breakers—as a form of indirect investigation—is not advised. These people have unjustly been labeled by Shoghi as “haters of the light and sufferers of spiritual leprosy.” Books authored by the enemies of the faith are to be read only with the intention of refuting their charges:

It is better not to read books by Covenant-breakers because they are haters of the Light, sufferers from a spiritual leprosy, so to speak. But books by well-meaning yet unenlightened enemies of the Cause can be read so as to refute their charges.[1]

 Although Baha’is preach the Investigation of Truth, their laws prevent direct interaction with those who they deem as inappropriate sources. Any form of indirect investigation is also discouraged. These limitations are against the spirit of the principle of Seeking and Investigating the Truth, which the Baha’is preach with pride.

b- Unofficial Translations, Memoirs, Pilgrims’ Notes, and Unofficial Writings

Unauthorized materials, such as translations not yet approved by the UHJ, memoirs of people who have socialized with Baha’i figures, books that have not been authorized by the UHJ, pilgrims’ notes, and similar works are considered inappropriate for investigating the truth. Although Baha’is are allowed to read these books, any conclusion they reach using these sources is void and unacceptable if it is against the official UHJ stance.

What is more disturbing is that it doesn’t matter how reliable a pilgrim making a note is or how many different people have narrated what they have heard or seen from a Baha’i figure; these notes are simply labeled as hearsay that confer no authority:

The instructions of the Master and the Guardian make it very clear that Pilgrims’ notes are hearsay and cannot claim the authority and binding power of the Sacred Text . . . [sic] Moreover, the fact that the pilgrim writing of his experience is a reliable or well-known believer, or that the reported statement seems to be repeated in the notes of several pilgrims, does not in itself confer authority upon the pilgrim’s note in question.[2]

According to `Abdu’l-Bahā, these notes and memoirs should not be trusted and are a cause of confusion:

Thou has written concerning the pilgrims and pilgrims’ notes. Any narrative that is not authenticated by a Text should not be trusted. Narratives, even if true, cause confusion. For the people of Bahā, the Text, and only the Text, is authentic.[3]

If these sources are used to prove a point that is not in favor of the Baha’is, they are quickly labeled as unreliable and dismissed. Nevertheless, these writings are extensively used by Baha’is in their preaching’s and proselytizing materials. Such double standards make these notes useless for investigating the truth, for any conclusion based on them can simply be refuted on the basis of not being authoritative. Thus, from a Baha’i viewpoint, these sources cannot be used as a source for investigating the truth.

c- Baha’i Scripture

The only authoritative sources for investigating the truth in Baha’ism are books or translations published and distributed by the UHJ or institutions they have authorized. Shoghi says:

Bahā’u’llāh has made it clear enough that only those things that have been revealed in the form of Tablets have a binding power over the friends. Hearsays may be matters of interest but can in no way claim authority (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the United States Publishing Committee, December 29, 1931).[4]

How does one come by these books if they are needed for investigating the truth? There is no option but to use specific hand-picked documents that have been distributed by the Universal House of Justice. The rest of the Baha’i scripture is safeguarded in the Baha’i Archives in Haifa and other than a privileged few, no one has access to them. The following letter from the Universal House of Justice to an unnamed Baha’i shows the sheer amount of unpublished documents that are being safeguarded in these archives:

The Universal House of Justice Department of the Secretariat

Transmitted by email

6 June 2013

Dear Bahā’ī Friend,

Your email letter dated 3 April 2013 requesting statistics concerning the Sacred Texts has been received at the Bahā’ī World Centre and forwarded to the Research Department for study. That Department notes that the collection and collation of the Sacred Writings is an ongoing process, and the numbers are continually being revised. The estimates of the numbers of unique works can be given as follows:

    For Bahā’ullāh, nearly 20,000 unique works have been identified. Most of these Writings have been collected; however, 865 are known to have been revealed, but the texts are not available. Close to 15,000 of the collected works have been authenticated by the Archives Office to date.

    For the Bāb, over 2,000 unique works have been identified. Most of these Writings have been collected; however, 74 are known to have been revealed, but the texts are not available. Nearly 1,600 of the collected works have been authenticated.

    For ‘Abdu’l-Bahā, over 30,000 unique works have been identified. All of these Writings have been collected and over 27,000 of them have been authenticated.

    For Shoghi Effendi, over 22,000 unique works have been identified. All of these documents have been collected and the majority of them have been authenticated.

It is estimated that approximately ten per cent of the documents described above are in photocopied form. A fraction of the total numbers of unique works have been published in the original languages or translated into Western languages. However, citing exact numbers would be misleading since much of the unpublished and untranslated material consists of day-to-day correspondence and personal guidance and encouragement, which is less likely to be of general interest. The World Centre is actively pursuing a publication programme for the as yet unpublished major works of the Central Figures of the Faith and Shoghi Effendi.

With loving Bahā’ī greetings,

Department of the Secretariat[5]

These documents are the most important source for investigating the truth for Baha’is and non-Baha’is alike. Why have these works not been published and why are researchers not granted access to them? The first excuse is “much of the unpublished and untranslated material consists of day-to-day correspondence and personal guidance and encouragement, which is less likely to be of general interest.” This is unacceptable. Would these works not be invaluable in following the first principle of seeking the truth? Surely there are many people out there who would love to read these works and would definitely receive guidance and insight from them. Is this not a disguise to withhold these Tablets from the public?

 The second excuse is “The World Centre is actively pursuing a publication programme for the as yet unpublished major works of the Central Figures of the Faith.” It goes without saying that the task of publishing such a large amount of articles and tablets is a very time consuming task and would require much money and manpower. Thus, one would expect these articles to be published sometime in the future[6] when these resources are supplied. Sixteen years ago (1998) Professor Juan Cole brought up some interesting points in this regard:

If translating and making available the writings of Bahā’u’llāh were in fact any sort of priority of the Universal House of Justice, they have enormous resources with which to do so. (Anyone who can spend $250 million[7] on building works has the money for other projects, as well). They have simply decided to expend their resources on other things. I once saw in a library a big set of books, The Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo in Bengali with English translations. Aurobindo was a 20th century Indian holy man. But his followers managed to get his *complete* collected works not only published but also translated, not long after his death. Aurobindo’s following is tiny and poor compared to that of the Bahā’īs. That only about 5% of Bahā’u’llāh’s works have been translated is not an unfortunate side effect of lack of resources in the Bahā’īs community. It is a deliberate decision to invest the money in things like monumental architecture instead.[8]

According to Professor Cole, the resources to distribute these works are available but the UHJ is deliberately diverting them elsewhere. Today, it has become clear that this is not the case. Rather, it is evident that the UHJ simply does not want to publish these works. Since at least 1993, most, if not all of these works had been digitized, typed, and placed in a database:

To assist the House of Justice in referring to the wealth of guidance and teachings contained in the Bahā’ī Writings, a computer database is used which contains descriptions of every Tablet and every letter of Shoghi Effendi, together with a typed copy of the text of each document. In the near future images of the original documents will also be stored in the computer, making it unnecessary to refer to the original items.[9]

If the UHJ had the slightest intention of distributing these writings, they could have easily placed the database on an internet server, or distributed it as a DVD. The UHJ simply does not want the public to have access to these files. What other explanation could there be for someone to hide the illuminating, enlightening, and guiding words of a claimant to Prophethood, but only distributing a few selected Tablets?

So how exactly are truth seekers supposed to investigate the truth and abandon imitations? They are prohibited from direct contact from those who have left Baha’ism or criticize it. They are discouraged from reading their writings because they are haters of light. Unauthorized pilgrim’s notes are considered unreliable, even if they are true. And on top of this all, the vast majority of the original Baha’i sources remained locked up in the Baha’i Archives. There are simply no remaining ways to investigate this religion in an unbiased manner. Ironically, the same creed that has prevents and discourages its followers from investigating the truth and deprives them of the means to do so, prides itself in being an advocate of investigating the truth.

[1] Helen Bassett Hornby, Lights of Guidance: A Bahā’ī Reference File (New Delhi: Bahā’ī Publishing Trust, 1983), chap. XII, no. 628.

[2] Helen Bassett Hornby, Lights of Guidance: A Bahā’ī Reference File, chap. XXXVIII, no. 1433.

[3] Helen Bassett Hornby, Lights of Guidance: A Bahā’ī Reference File, chap. XXXVIII, no. 1431.

[4] Helen Bassett Hornby, Lights of Guidance: A Bahā’ī Reference File, chap. XXXVIII, no. 1435.

[5] http://bahai-library.com/uhj_numbers_sacred_writings (retrieved 28/2/2014)

[6] As shown throughout this book, problematic matters are usually passed to the future in order to silence criticism. In many cases, this unspecified future has not materialized even decades after it was promised.

[7] He is referring to the cost of building the Baha’i World Center.

[8] http://bahai-library.com/uhj_lawh_huriyyih_cole

[9] This is a section of a pamphlet inserted in `Andalīb magazine, 12:48 (Fall 1993).