That the Spiritual Assemblies of today will be replaced in
time by the Houses of Justice, and are to all intents and purposes identical
and not separate bodies, is abundantly confirmed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself. He
has in fact in a Tablet addressed to the members of the first Chicago Spiritual
Assembly, the first elected Bahá’í body instituted in the United States,
referred to them as the members of the “House of Justice” for that city, and
has thus with His own pen established beyond any doubt the identity of the
present Bahá’í Spiritual Assemblies with the Houses of Justice referred to by
Bahá’u’lláh. For reasons which are not difficult to discover, it has been found
advisable to bestow upon the elected representatives of Bahá’í communities
throughout the world the temporary appellation of Spiritual Assemblies, a term
which, as the position and aims of the Bahá’í Faith are better understood and
more fully recognized, will gradually be superseded by the permanent and more
appropriate designation of House of Justice.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter
dated February 27, 1929, published in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)
