Covenant-breaker

Covenant-Breaking is a term used by Bahá'ís to refer to heresy. Being declared a Covenant-breaker by the head of the Faith is somewhat equivalent to Cherem in Judaism, Excommunication in Christianity and Takfir in Islamic law, i.e. Bahá'ís avoid association with them, even if the Covenant–breaker is a family member.

Covenant-breaking does not refer to attacks from those who are not Bahá'ís or who have left the Bahá'í Faith out of disagreement with its tenets but rather is in reference to internal campaigns of opposition whereby the Covenant-breaker is seen to be as one who is challenging the internal succession of the Faith and thereby causing internal division, sure as by claiming or supporting an alternate succession of authority.

The term was originally used in the Writings of the Bahá'í Faith to refer to someone who was a Bahá'í and who then chose to oppose Bahá'u'lláh. After the passing of Bahá'u'lláh, it became opposition to the appointed Interpreter of the Faith, `Abdu'l-Bahá. In `Abdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament [1] He appointed Shoghi Effendi as the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith and called for the eventual election of the Universal House of Justice, and defined in the same manner opposition to them as Covenant-Breaking. `Abdu'l-Bahá advised all Bahá'ís to shun anyone opposing the Covenant: "...one of the greatest and most fundamental principles of the Cause of God is to shun and avoid entirely the Covenant-breakers, for they will utterly destroy the Cause of God, exterminate His Law and render of no account all efforts exerted in the past." [2]

The large majority of Bahá'ís, who recognize the authority of the Hands of the Cause and later the Universal House of Justice first elected in Haifa in 1963 and who point to the possibility of a break in succession of future Guardians according to the Most Holy Book, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, believe that the same principle applies to those who have rejected their authority. Members of the Orthodox Bahai Faith and other dissenting groups (see minor Baha'i divisions) are therefore seen as Covenant-Breakers.

Members of the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith believe that authority should have passed from Shoghi Effendi to future Guardians (also referred to in the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá) and that it was the Hands, and later the Universal House of Justice, that broke the Covenant and see those who follow them as misled.