We trace the origins of the Institution to Bahá’u’lláh Himself, Who designated four renowned promoters of His teachings as Hands of the Cause of God. In a period before the administrative system of the Faith was inaugurated, they became rallying points for the friends, as much because of the virtuous character of their personal lives as for their unceasing endeavours in proclaiming the Teachings and defending the Faith against its detractors. They remained resolute in such activities despite the severe persecution, including imprisonment in some instances, to which they were subjected by the authorities. These distinguished personages remained active during the ministry of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, Who, in 1899, instructed them to take steps to form the Local Spiritual Assembly of Tihrán, on which they all served. The focus of these first Hands on propagation and protection of the Faith, as well as their efforts to edify believers as to the importance of the new Laws, intimated even then the pattern of functioning the Institution would adopt at a later stage in the advancement of the Bahá’í community.
The Master did not Himself appoint Hands of the Cause, but referred to four believers posthumously as such. However, His Will and Testament confirmed the Institution and extended it by authorizing the Guardian of the Faith to appoint consecrated souls to it. At first, over a period of three decades, Shoghi Effendi named ten such souls posthumously; all were distinguished for the constancy, vigour and impact of their efforts to propagate the Cause and promote its best interests. The Guardian’s designation in December 1951 of twelve living believers as Hands of the Cause introduced the Bahá’í world to a wholly new dynamic in the operation of the Order of Bahá’u’lláh; through it the Hands exerted an unusual vitality during the Ten Year Crusade, particularly after the sudden passing of the Sign of God. His subsequent appointment of seven more in February 1952 and replacement thereafter of five of those deceased kept the number of living Hands at nineteen until less than a month before his departure, when in his last message to the Bahá’í world he identified an additional eight, bringing the total to twenty-seven. Shoghi Effendi’s description of them as the “Chief Stewards of Bahá’u’lláh’s embryonic World Commonwealth” prefigured the world-shaking reality of the unexpected responsibilities that would be thrust upon them on the morrow of his passing.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a message dated 26 November 2007 to the Bahá’ís of the World; online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Center)
