6.   Allegations against Mirza Muhammad Ali

6.5  Alleged Badiullah’s Renunciation of Mirza Muhammad Ali
In his further notes on Bahai literature in the Materials for the Study of the BÂBi Religion, P.197, item 17 Prof. Browne writes : "A printed Persian tract of 57 PP. without title, date or place of publication, in which Mirza Badiullah the son of Baha, renounces his allegiance to his brother Muhammad Ali and declares his acceptance of the claims of his half-brother Abbas Effendi, Abdul-Baha. This happened in Spring of 1903 when I was in Cairo, but the tract in question was only communicated to me on October 1910, by M. Hipobyte Dreyfus ……At the end of the seal of Mirza Badiullah, and a manuscript note in Persian stating that the original document written and sealed by his is extant and available."

Footnote 1 by Prof. Browne in the same page :- "I posses brief renunciations in the same sense signed by Mirza Badiullah and Mirza Sayyid Ali Afnan [i.e. Baha's son-in-law], respectively, both dated February 4, 1903."
I have not seen these publications and I cannot say whether the "Printed tract in Persian" is an embellished version of the "brief renunciation" referred to by Prof. Browne in the footnote.
In his will and testament Sir Abbas Effendi alludes to Mirza Muhammad Ali "tampering out the Book" on the strength of Mirza Badiullah's "written statement, penned in his own handwriting & bearing his seal: which does not appear as annex to the printed copy of the Will and Testament:

« سبحان الله میرزا بدیع الله بعد از آنکه به خط خویش نقض این شخص را اعلان نمود و تحریف کتاب او را اعران کرد چون ایمان و پیمان و متابعت عهد و میثاق را موافق اجرای هوای نفسانی خویش نیافت پشیمان شد و اظهار ندامت کرد و در سّر خواست که اوراق مطبوع خویش را جمع نماید و با مرکز نقض مؤانست جست و حوادث خانه و اندرون را یومیاً به او میرساند ودر این فسادهای اخیر مدخل کلی دارد. الحمدالله امود منتظم شده بود و یاران قدری راحت شده بودند از روزیکه دوباره داخل ماشد فساد دوباره از سرگرفت و بعضی اطوار و تحریکات فساده او در ورق مخصوص مرقوم میگردد. مقصود این است که یاران عهد و پیمان بیدار باشند که مبادا بعد از این مظلوم این شخص محرک رخنه نماید و سراً القای شبهاد و فساد کند و بکلی امرالله از ریشه براندازد البته صد البته از معاشرت از او احتراز نمائید و دقت نمائید و متوجه باشید و جستجو وتفحص نمائید که اگر نص را سراً و جبراً با او ادنی مناسبتی آن شخص را از میان خودتان خارج کنید زیرا فساد و فتیق میشود. ای احباء الهی به جان بکوشید تا امرالله را از هجوم نفوس غیر مخلصه محافظه نمائید زیرا چنین نفوسی سبب میشوند که جمیع امور مستقیمه معوج میگردد و مساعی خیریه بر عکس نتیجه میدهد. »

Mirza Muhammad Ali, in his own Will and testament, dismisses the allegation as "devoid of foundation" and challenges Sir Abbas Effendi to substantiate the allegation by production of the "Book" or the "tablet" alleged to have been tampered with.
Counter-charges of tampering with Baha's holy text are preferred against Sir Abbas Effendi by Mirza Jawad in his Historical Epitome, incorporated in the Materials for the Study of the BÂBi Religion by Prof. Browne, PP. 83-84.

In his Will and Testament Sir Abbas Effendi refers to Mirza Badiullah's "seditious instigations set down in a special sheet," which does not appear as an annex in the printed copy of Sir Abbas Effendi's Testament.
Sir Abbas Effendi warns his followers "to shun this alert and active worker of mischief lest he cause a breach and extirpate the cause of God."
In the absence of documentary evidence - production of which is on the footnote, to sift and assort all statements with a view to eliciting the truth, all these allegations would appear to savour of tendentious propaganda intended to pillory Mirza Muhammad Ali & Mirza Badiullah and thereby to bolster up the illegal status of Shoghi Effendi.

Mirza Badiullah was the youngest and favourite son of Baha. He was present in Baha's audience. In the presence of Mirza Badiullah, Baha reprimanded Sir Abbas Effendi for his subservience to his wife lady Munira in the furtherance of her private ends. Her ulterior motive was "to cause mischief and to create guardianship" or executionship" in her issue, to quote Baha. Sir Abbas Effendi's and Lady Munira's underhand activates are sensationalised in Mirza Badiullah's memoirs on the authority of none other person than Baha himself. These memoirs will be noted in due course.
Under Baha's Will and Testament, Sir Abbas Effendi was the first successor in-office, to be succeeded by Mirza Muhammad Ali, whose authority was dormant so long as the former endured. Under the terms of the Will it was incumbent on all to give defuse and de-facto recognition to Sir Abbas Effendi. Even Mirza Muhammad Ali could not withhold his recognition.
Mirza Badiullah regarded himself at full behest to associate with both or either of them. This association did not necessarily imply a recognition as Mirza Muhammad Ali's authority, during Sir Abbas Effendi's lifetime, was dormant. In fact there was worthy to renounce.
Mirza Badiullah's criticism was not directed against the person of Sir Abbas Effendi, Baha's vicegerent, but against his abuse of authority in the exercise of the function of his office. Sir Abbas Effendi assumed the title of the "Centre of the Covenant", which in the opinion of the opposite camp, is a self-assumed and unauthorised title, as it is exclusive to "God alone, Baha". - Materials for the Study of the BÂBi Religion by Prof. Browne, P. 111.
As an adherent of Baha's Will and Testament, Mirza Badiullah considered an infraction of any its provisions as "violation", as stopped to Sir Abbas Effendi, according to Mirza Badiullah, who regarded non-compliance with his "bidding" as "violation" or "Covenant-Breaking".

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