The ideal was monogamy, but in special cases he permitted marrying two wives, and permitted divorce out of necessity. He also believed that Islamic law was only suitable for its time but not for his time, and therefore he changed its rituals. He only retained congregational prayer for funeral prayers, disdained Persian customs, favored bodily purity, and permitted his followers to do anything as long as it did not contradict human reason. He denounced the scholars of his time, describing them as sycophantic and hypocritical, hindering free will and its abrogation. He did not believe in political freedom, stating that the difference between a civilized human and an animal is that the civilized human restrains animalistic freedoms, and that freedoms lead only to chaos. It is better for people to live a life governed by established restrictions. When Baháʼu'lláh died, his leadership passed in 1892 to his son, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, who called himself ʻAbdu'l-Bahá or "the Greatest Branch." I met him during his travels to America at a hotel in Zeitoun, a suburb of Cairo, when I was a student at the School of Sharia Law, around 1910. I collected his conversations, and what struck me was the submission of his followers to him, a submission like that of the righteous to God. His conversation indicated broad knowledge and understanding of Islamic philosophy.