# The Life of Shoghi Effendi

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Helen Danesh, The Life of Shoghi Effendi, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> The Life of Shoghi Effendi
> 
> Helen Danesh
> John Danesh
> Amelia Danesh
> published in Studying the Writings of Shoghi Effendied. M. Bergsmo
> 
> Oxford: George Ronald, 1991
> 
> All the complex problems of the great statesmen of the world are as child's
> play in comparison with the great problems of this youth, before whom are the
> problems of the entire world. He is a youth of twenty-six, left by the will of
> the Master as the Guardian of the Cause. No one can form any conception of his
> difficulties, which are overwhelming. ... He is indeed young in face, form and
> manner, yet his heart is the center of the world today. The character and
> spirit divine scintillate from him today. He alone can today save the world
> and make true civilization.
> 
> - Mr. Mountfort Mills,
> 1922[1]
> 
> In 1844, a twenty-five year old merchant opened the Heroic Age of the
> Bahá'í Faith. The brief ministry of The Báb marked the
> beginning of "the most glorious" yet "the most turbulent" period of
> Bahá'í history.[2] He had
> founded a Faith fueled on "the creative interaction between crisis and
> victory".[3] Seventy-seven years later,
> another youth, a twenty-four year old student, was called upon to lead the
> Bahá'í world into its next stage - the Formative Age. Shoghi
> Effendi's ministry as the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith began in
> 1921, after a thirty year period of Bahá'í history which he said
> would be remembered as a time of "tragedies and triumphs ... so intertwined".[4] The story of his own life as the Guardian -
> like the story of the growth of the Faith which he guided for thirty-six years
> - continued as "a series of pulsations, of alternating crises and triumphs"
> leading the Faith "ever nearer to its divinely appointed destiny".[5]
> 
> Born in `Akká in March 1897, Shoghi Effendi was related to The
> Báb through his father, Mírzá Hádí
> Shírází, and to Bahá'u'lláh through
> his mother, Díyá'íyyih Khánum, the eldest
> daughter of `Abdu'l-Bahá - thereby "flourishing from the Twin Holy
> Trees".[6] From the early years of his life,
> Shoghi Effendi was greatly influenced by his grandfather. `Abdu'l-Bahá
> provided much of Shoghi Effendi's initial spiritual training: Shoghi Effendi
> would pray at every dawn for one hour in his grandfather's room and learned
> numerous prayers which `Abdu'l-Bahá encouraged him to chant. It was
> also `Abdu'l-Bahá who insisted that the appellation given to the child
> should be "Shoghi Effendi", ("Effendi" signifies "Sir"), rather than simply
> "Shoghi", as a mark of respect towards him.
> 
> From his early years, Shoghi Effendi was introduced to the world of suffering
> and danger which his grandfather had inherited as the Centre of
> Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant. As a young boy, he was aware of
> Sultán `Abdu'l-Hamíd's desire to banish `Abdu'l-Bahá to
> the torrid deserts of North Africa where He was expected to perish. At the
> same time, the treachery of the Covenant-breakers in the Holy Land reached a
> point where the Master felt compelled to warn his young grandson against
> drinking coffee in the homes of any of the Bahá'ís in the fear
> that he would be poisoned. At the age of fifteen, however, Shoghi Effendi was
> forced to drink from the bitter cup of sorrow which the machinations of
> Covenant-breakers would continue to fill for the rest of his life. At this
> young age, he was denied the opportunity to travel to North America with his
> grandfather on what was to become a historic journey. One member of the party
> accompanying `Abdu'l-Bahá to the West, later to become a
> Covenant-breaker, conspired with Italian health officials in Naples, and
> falsely claimed that the boy's eyes were diseased. Shoghi Effendi was
> heartbroken.
> 
> Shoghi Effendi found separation from his family very difficult during the
> years of his schooling. First attending a Jesuit school in Haifa, then
> boarding at another Catholic school in Beirut, Shoghi Effendi later attended
> the Syrian Protestant College (later known as the American University in
> Beirut) for his final years of high school and first years of university. He
> found little happiness in school or university life other than in leading the
> activities of the Bahá'í students studying in Beirut, and in his
> vacations in Haifa spent with `Abdu'l-Bahá. During his studies, he
> dedicated himself to mastering English - adding this language to the Arabic,
> French, Persian, and Turkish languages in which he was already fluent - so that
> he could translate the letters of `Abdu'l-Bahá and serve as His
> secretary.
> 
> In 1918, Shoghi Effendi obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the American
> University in Beirut. From 1918 to 1920, during perhaps the happiest years of
> his life, Shoghi Effendi was the constant companion and secretary of
> `Abdu'l-Bahá, and accompanied his grandfather on official functions
> where he met, among others, the British Military Governor of Haifa and Sir
> Edmund Allenby, the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied forces in Palestine.
> 
> In the spring of 1920, Shoghi Effendi went up to Balliol College, Oxford, to
> pursue his post-graduate studies. Among the subjects which he studied were
> political science, social and industrial questions, logic, and English economic
> history since 1688. He often presented papers, both to Bahá'í
> communities in England and to the various societies of Oxford University,
> relating economic and historical themes to the Bahá'í teachings.
> As well as debating, Shoghi Effendi had a fondness for sports, especially
> tennis and Alpine climbing, and his single personal hobby was photography. It
> was also during his two years at Oxford that Shoghi Effendi developed an
> affinity for some aspects of British culture. From daily reading of the The
> Times of London to careful study of the historical works of Carlyle and
> Gibbon, the future Guardian kept meticulously abreast of world events and
> developed a masterly command of the English language. His aims in continuing
> his studies at Oxford were quite clear, as he wrote in a letter to an English
> believer in November 1921: "... I have been of late immersed in my work,
> revising many translations ... of Queen Victoria's Tablet which is replete with
> most vital and significant world counsels, so urgently needed by this sad and
> disillusioned world!"[7]
> 
> I
> 
> Shoghi Effendi's own world was shattered on 29 November 1921
> when he received news of `Abdu'l-Bahá's ascension. Shocked and
> grief-stricken, Shoghi Effendi made his way to the Holy Land. But even before
> his journey to Haifa and the realisation of his own weighty responsibilities,
> and despite his overwhelming sorrow, Shoghi Effendi wrote to a
> Bahá'í student in London expressing his vision of how even such a
> devastating blow as the passing of the Master would be converted into victory
> by the Bahá'ís:
> 
> The stir which is now aroused in the Bahá'í world is an impetus
> to this Cause and will awaken every faithful soul to shoulder the
> responsibilities which the Master has now placed upon every one of us.[8]
> 
> On 3 January 1922, the three Wills of `Abdu'l-Bahá, written at
> different times but forming one document addressed to Shoghi Effendi, were
> officially read. Shoghi Effendi, who had no foreknowledge of the institution
> of the Guardianship, and who, by his own account, was still suffering from "the
> pain, nay the anguish of His bereavement",[9]
> found that he was designated "the blest and sacred bough that hath branched out
> from the Twin Holy Trees", "the youthful branch branched from the two hallowed
> and sacred Lote-Trees", "the expounder of the words of God", and "the sign of
> God, the chosen branch, the guardian of the Cause of God, he unto whom all the
> Aghsán, the Afnán, the Hands of the Cause of God and His
> loved ones must turn".[10]
> 
> On 7 January 1922 Bahíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy
> Leaf, cabled the Bahá'ís of Iran telling them that Shoghi Effendi
> was the centre of the Cause; the Bahá'í community of the United
> States was cabled nine days later on 16 January 1922.
> 
> Through his first actions, Shoghi Effendi demonstrated the qualities of
> leadership which were to characterise his Guardianship. Emphasising "the
> remarkable revelations"[11] of
> `Abdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament in his early communications to
> the Bahá'ís of the world, Shoghi Effendi, neverthless, tried to
> draw attention away from his own personality by citing the least astounding of
> the passages of the Will referring to him as the appointed Guardian. From the
> outset, in a letter of December 1923, he set before the Bahá'í
> world their raison d'être:
> 
> Ours then is the duty and privilege to labour, by day, by night, amidst the
> storm and stress of these troublous days, that we may quicken the zeal of our
> fellow-man, rekindle their hopes, stimulate their interests, open their eyes to
> the true Faith of God and enlist their active support in the carrying out of
> our common task for the peace and regeneration of the world.[12]
> 
> In March 1922, in one of his earliest letters to the West, the Guardian also
> revealed pressing goals on his agenda by exhorting the Bahá'ís to
> teach, to expand their vision of their religion and to seize the opportunities
> of the hour by emulating the example of `Abdu'l-Bahá:
> 
> How great is the need at this moment when the promised outpourings of His
> grace are ready to be extended to every soul, for us all to form a broad vision
> of the mission of the Cause to mankind, and to do all in our power to spread it
> throughout the world. The eyes of the world, now that the sublime Personality
> of the Master has been removed from this visible plane, are turned with eager
> anticipation to us who are named after His name, and on whom rests primarily
> the responsibility to keep burning the torch that He has lit in this world.[13]
> 
> And having observed the life of the Master, Shoghi Effendi felt that his own
> personal suffering was inevitable if the Cause was to advance: "I know it is a
> road of suffering; I have to tread this road till the end; everything has to be
> done with suffering".[14]
> 
> The sufferings and problems of the Guardian began at once. On 30 January
> 1922, less than four weeks after the reading of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Will, a
> group of Covenant-breakers forcibly took possession of the keys of the Tomb of
> Bahá'u'lláh. Two weeks before, Shoghi Effendi received a cable
> from a staunch American Bahá'í who wrote that the "poison" of the
> Covenant-breakers "has penetrated deeply among the friends", and described the
> "great troubles and sorrows"[15] created by
> them in that community. The acts of the unfaithful were so abhorrent to Shoghi
> Effendi that he felt physically ill, as if "a thousand scorpions had bitten
> him".[16] Also during those first few weeks
> of his Guardianship, the Shí'ih Muslims of `Iráq had unlawfully
> seized a place ordained by Bahá'u'lláh as a centre of pilgrimage,
> the House of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád, thereby
> fulfilling Bahá'u'lláh's trenchant prediction that "it [the
> House] shall be so abased in the days to come as to cause tears to flow from
> every discerning eye".[17] Patronisingly
> referred to as "the Boy" by the local authorities in Haifa, Shoghi Effendi also
> found that some of the older Bahá'ís felt that the Universal
> House of Justice should be elected as soon as possible owing to his youth and
> inexperience.
> 
> Distressed but undaunted, Shoghi Effendi, like a seasoned commander-in-chief,
> summoned his field marshals from the world over to gather in Haifa for
> consultation in March 1922. The group was represented by outstanding
> Bahá'ís from America, Burma, England, France, Germany, and Iran.
> The essence of the consultation, according to the diary of a visitor in Haifa
> at the time, was "that before the Universal House of Justice can be established
> the Local and National Houses must be functioning in those countries where
> there are Bahá'ís".[18] Shoghi
> Effendi had begun to lay the foundation for the rise of the Administrative
> Order.
> 
> Following an eight month withdrawal to the mountains of Switzerland where
> Shoghi Effendi had gone to gain "health, strength, self-confidence and
> spiritual energy",[19] and during which time
> he led a spartan life, on some days walking for more than forty kilometres over
> Alpine passes and climbing mountains for sixteen hours without rest, the
> Guardian returned to Haifa on 15 December 1922 to relieve his great-aunt,
> Bahíyyih Khánum, of the leadership responsibilities which
> she had so faithfully executed during his absence. An immediate and ongoing
> problem which was to drain energy from him from the rest of his life was coping
> with the flood of world-wide correspondence. Shoghi Effendi decided that the
> maintenance of his correspondence with individual Bahá'ís around
> the world as well as with the assemblies was essential for the protection and
> growth of the Cause. The legacy of the Guardian's ceaseless guidance and
> inspiration is some 26,000 letters and thousands of cables to individual
> believers, groups and Bahá'í institutions - writings which will
> always remain indispensable for the deliberations of the Universal House of
> Justice.
> 
> II
> 
> The opening years of Shoghi Effendi's Guardianship established
> the pattern of crisis and victory which would come to characterize both the
> course of the rest of his life and the development of the Bahá'í
> Faith, two dramas which had become inextricably interwoven. In a span of six
> months from November 1925 to April 1926, the Guardian was confronted with three
> major crises. The first was the news from `Iráq that the Court of
> Appeals had given its verdict in favour of the Shí'ih Muslims to take
> possession of the House of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdád.
> In response, Shoghi Effendi mobilized the Bahá'í world, and
> called on the believers of nineteen countries and regions, to cable and write,
> individually and collectively, their protest to the British High Commissioner
> in `Iráq and King Feisal. During this battle, Shoghi Effendi grieved
> the personal loss of "the warmest of friends, a trusted counsellor, an
> indefatigable collaborator, a lovable companion"[20] when Hand of the Cause of God, Dr. John Esslemont, died
> while serving as the Guardian's secretary in Haifa. The third blow to the
> Guardian came in April 1926, when Shoghi Effendi received the news of the
> vicious murders of the Bahá'ís of Jahrum, Iran, which the British
> Counsel of Shíráz described as "thirteen adult Bahá'ís
> [sic] and one babe of fifteen months being bludgeoned and stabbed and hacked to
> death in their houses and the streets".[21]
> The extent to which Shoghi Effendi was personally affected by this news is
> suggested by his cable messages, "horrified sudden calamity", and "deeply
> afflicted".[22] Nevertheless, he orchestrated
> a carefully calculated international publicity campaign, directing assemblies
> around the world to give "full publicity to these reports in their respective
> newspapers".[23] During every crisis, the
> Guardian always looked to find a path toward victory: "I feel that with
> patience, tact, courage and resource we can utilize this development to further
> the interests and extend the influence of the Cause".[24]
> 
> Many of the victories won during the first years of the Guardianship
> were in the arena of teaching. As early as 1923-24, in language now associated
> with the thrilling days of the World Crusade, Shoghi Effendi summoned the
> Bahá'ís to arise and proclaim Bahá'u'lláh's
> teachings:
> 
> ... let us arise to teach His Cause with righteousness, conviction,
> understanding and vigor. Let this be the paramount and most urgent duty of
> every Bahá'í. Let us make it the dominating passion of our life.
> Let us scatter to the uttermost corners of the earth.[25]
> 
> Those who responded became immortalised, and achieved astonishing results.
> The incomparable Martha Root, designated by the Guardian as the foremost Hand
> of the Cause of God of the first Bahá'í century and the "first
> finest fruit"[26] of the Formative Age,
> travelled the world at least four times over, and presented the
> Bahá'í teachings to, among many others, Queen Marie of Romania,
> who became the first crowned head to embrace the Faith. On 4 May 1923, less
> than a month after the tragic massacre of Jahrum, the Toronto Daily Star
> published a highly appreciative statement made by the Queen on the
> Bahá'í Faith.
> 
> These victories were followed by disappointments and tragedies. In April
> 1930, the intended pilgrimage of Queen Marie and her daughter, so eagerly
> anticipated by the Guardian, was prevented by what she called "mean and
> spiteful"[27] advisers. In July 1932, the
> Guardian bewailed "the sudden removal of my chief sustainer, my most
> affectionate comforter, the joy and inspiration of my life, ... the
> well-beloved and treasured Remnant of Bahá'u'lláh",[28] when the Greatest Holy Leaf passed away.
> It was Bahíyyih Khánum who had been his protector,
> adviser, and comforter since the passing of the Master. With her no longer
> beside him, he emptied his heart:
> 
> Bear thou this my message to `Abdu'l-Bahá, thine exalted and
> divinely-appointed Brother: If the Cause for which Bahá'u'lláh
> toiled and labored, for which Thou didst suffer years of agonizing sorrow, for
> the sake of which streams of sacred blood have flowed, should in days to come,
> encounter storms more severe than those it has already weathered, do Thou
> continue to overshadow, with Thine all-encompassing care and wisdom, Thy frail,
> Thy unworthy appointed child.[29]
> 
> Five years later, in a simple ceremony held in Bahíyyih Khánum's
> room, the Guardian married Mary Maxwell, whom he gave the title
> Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum, and presented
> her with the ring which his departed great-aunt had given him. Even in
> marriage, Shoghi Effendi's life was linked to the development of the Faith, as
> he cabled the rejoicing Bahá'ís of North America in late March
> 1937:
> 
> Institution Guardianship, head cornerstone Administrative Order Cause
> Bahá'u'lláh, already ennobled through its organic connection with
> Persons of Twin Founders of Bahá'í Faith, is now further
> reinforced through direct association with West and particularly with American
> believers, whose spiritual destiny is to usher in World Order
> Bahá'u'lláh. For my part desire congratulate community American
> believers on acquisition tie vitally binding them to so weighty an organ of
> their Faith.[30]
> 
> In 1952, Rúhíyyih Rabbani was elevated to the rank of Hand of
> Cause of God, and in a message to the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada,
> her homeland, the Guardian provided a glimpse of the remarkable bond between
> her and the sign of God on earth, when he designated her as "my helpmate, my
> shield in warding off the darts of Covenant-breakers and my tireless
> collaborator in the arduous tasks I shoulder".[31]
> 
> III
> 
> The development of the World Centre of the Bahá'í Faith will
> always be identified with the work of the Guardian. From the beginning of his
> ministry, Shoghi Effendi personally welcomed a steady flow of pilgrims; he
> inspired them, shared with them news of the progress of the Cause, and
> sometimes offered them his advice, as when he remarked to a young pilgrim who
> had asked him about marriage: "Don't wait too long and don't wait for someone
> to fall from the sky!"[32] As early as 9
> April 1922, Shoghi Effendi ordered work to be commenced on the new Western
> Pilgrim House; less than two weeks later, on the first day of Ridván,
> the Shrines of both The Báb and Bahá'u'lláh were
> electrically illuminated for the first time. Within a few years, Shoghi
> Effendi had, to the astonishment of many of the locals, planted lawns on the
> properties of these Shrines; these were the first lawns to be grown in
> Palestine on a large scale. With no help and no advice, he laid out his superb
> gardens in Bahjí and Haifa, every measurement being his own. A great
> aficionado of art and architecture, especially of the Greek and Gothic
> varieties, the Guardian fixed the style of the Shrine of The Báb through
> his instructions to the architect, his father-in-law and confidant, and Hand of
> the Cause of God, William Sutherland Maxwell. Shoghi Effendi also set the
> design for the International Archives building, and personally created the
> appearances of the interiors of the Mansion of Bahá'u'lláh, the
> House of `Abbúd, and the Mansion at Mazra`ih.
> 
> In the midst of obstacles, anxiety, material and financial problems, and the
> terrorism and civil war which accompanied the creation of the state of Israel,
> Shoghi Effendi was developing "the heart and nerve-center of a world-embracing
> Faith"[33] and bringing closer to fulfillment
> the promises of Bahá'u'lláh in the Tablet of Carmel. During his
> ministry, the Guardian increased by fiftyfold - to almost 500,000 square
> meters of land - the area of property under Bahá'í ownership in
> the Holy Land. In December 1939, Shoghi Effendi reunited the sister, brother,
> mother, and wife of `Abdu'l-Bahá by transferring their remains to "one
> spot" which, in a cable to America, he said was to: "constitute focal centre
> Bahá'í Administrative Institutions at Faith's World Centre".[34] From the first day of his ministry, the
> Guardian's greatest concern in the Holy Land was to secure and safeguard the
> Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh and the buildings and lands adjoining it.
> In 1957, his goal was finally fully achieved, when the Supreme Court of Israel
> ordered the eviction of the Covenant-breakers who had occupied the buildings
> adjacent to the Shrine. Shoghi Effendi's second great concern was the Shrine
> of The Báb. By 1953, in a space of less than six years, the Guardian
> had transformed, what he called in 1947, "a homely building with a
> fortress-like appearance"[35] into the "Queen
> of Carmel".[36] In 1957, "the first stately
> Edifice"[37] of the Ark, the International
> Archives Building, was completed. Three years before, Shoghi Effendi predicted
> that the erection of this building was a step "destined to usher in the
> establishment of the World Administrative Centre of the Faith on Mt. Carmel -
> the Ark referred to by Bahá'u'lláh in the closing passages of His
> Tablet of Carmel".[38] The
> Bahá'ís of this generation witnessed the realisation of part of
> this remarkable vision when the Universal House of Justice occupied its
> permanent seat on Mount Carmel in 1983.
> 
> IV
> 
> The translations and writings of Shoghi Effendi, although they
> will receive more detailed attention in other parts of this book, cannot be
> separated from the rest of the work or life of the Guardian. Indeed, one of
> the first acts of his ministry was to begin circulating translations of the
> prayers and Tablets of the Master. From 1922 to 1944, Shoghi Effendi
> translated numerous passages from the "epistles, exhortations, commentaries,
> apologies, dissertations, prophecies, prayers, odes" and "specific Tablets"[39] of Bahá'u'lláh, as well as
> many passages from the Writings of The Báb and `Abdu'l-Bahá. In
> March 1923, he sent the Bahá'ís of America his revised
> translation of The Hidden Words of Bahá'u'lláh; in April,
> he shared with them various passages of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (The
> Most Holy Book). By the end of the first decade of the Guardianship, he
> had also completed the translations of two major books:
> Bahá'u'lláh's Kitáb-i-Iqán (The Book of
> Certitude) and Nabíl's Narrative. In 1935, Shoghi Effendi
> translated what he called "a selection of the most characteristic and hitherto
> unpublished passages from the outstanding works of the Author of the
> Bahá'í Revelation",[40]
> published under the title Gleanings from the Writings of
> Bahá'u'lláh. The translation and publication of its
> complementary volume, Prayers and Meditations by
> Bahá'u'lláh, followed in 1936-7. The fifth and final book
> which Shoghi Effendi rendered into English was also the last major work of
> Bahá'u'lláh, the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf,
> translated during the winter of 1939-40.
> 
> From 1929 to 1941, Shoghi Effendi wrote a number of long letters addressed to
> the Bahá'ís of the West. Seven of these letters, conceived
> during the years of 1929-1936, have been compiled under the title The World
> Order of Bahá'u'lláh. Written on the eve of the Second World
> War, The Advent of Divine Justice was a letter specifically addressed to
> the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada. The Promised Day
> Is Come appeared in 1941. It was a letter of over one hundred pages which
> explained that "the retributory calamity" that had overtaken mankind was
> primarily due to its having ignored for a hundred years the Message of
> Bahá'u'lláh. Then, in 1944, after two years of preparation and
> writing, during which time the Guardian read at least two hundred volumes of
> works written on the Faith in both English and Persian, by both
> Bahá'ís and non-Bahá'ís, Shoghi Effendi's
> monumental Centennial Review of Bábí and Bahá'í
> history, God Passes By, was presented as a gift to the
> Bahá'ís of the western world. Written during the turbulent days
> of World War II when, for instance, a fighter plane crashed less than 100
> metres away from the Guardian's room, this book was perhaps Shoghi Effendi's
> greatest labour of love. Like most of his writings, it was written in the
> Persian style of composition, with the Guardian speaking aloud and committing
> his words to paper at the same time. Like many of his other English writings,
> the manuscript of God Passes By was sent to Hand of the Cause of God
> George Townshend, who was not only greatly admired by the Guardian for his
> knowledge and command of the English language, but who also provided the title
> for this work. In addition, the Guardian acted as Editor-in-Chief of the first
> twelve volumes of The Bahá'í World, and wrote extensively
> in Persian, including a short one hundred year history of the
> Bahá'í Faith. While the praise of no one can do justice to the
> majesty, power, and precision of Shoghi Effendi's expression, the comments of
> Sir E. Denison Ross, the well-known Orientalist from the University of London,
> who called the Guardian's command of English "perfect" and even asserted that
> his "English style ... could not be bettered",[41] suggest the magnitude of Shoghi Effendi's literary
> achievement.
> 
> V
> 
> Another dimension of Shoghi Effendi's life as the Guardian was
> his careful cultivation of the external relations of the Bahá'í
> Community, both in the Holy Land and elsewhere. These efforts eventually
> resulted in the recognition of the World Centre as the historic heart of the
> Bahá'í Faith, and entitled the Bahá'í Community to
> the same rights as other Faiths in the Holy Land, and in some cases, special
> rights. In December 1922, only four days after returning to Haifa from
> Switzerland, Shoghi Effendi, in an act indicative of the wisdom and courtesy
> with which he discharged all his duties, wired the High Commissioner for
> Palestine in Jerusalem, extending him "best wishes and kind regards"[42] and reaffirming his own position as the
> world leader of the Bahá'í Faith. Two months later the Governors
> of `Akká and Haifa ruled in favour of returning the keys of the Tomb of
> Bahá'u'lláh to the legitimate Bahá'í keeper of the
> Shrine. Shoghi Effendi fostered these types of contacts throughout his
> Guardianship, holding interviews, for example, with the Prime Minister of
> Israel David Ben Gurion in January 1949 and the President of Israel Ben Zvi in
> April 1954. The Guardian was also a frequent and generous contributor to
> charities in Haifa for the poor and distressed, donating over $10,000 to the
> municipality of Haifa for the poor of all denominations from 1940 to 1952.
> 
> Internationally, Shoghi Effendi maintained contact with a number of people and
> organizations of prominence, despite his overwhelming workload. In addition to
> Queen Marie, the Guardian corresponded with, among others, Grand Duke Alexander
> of Russia, Princess Kadria of Egypt, Princess Marina of Greece, Lord Lamington,
> and Professor Norman Bentwich. He sent personal messages to the Universal
> Congress of Esperantists from 1927 to 1931, and accorded the highest priority
> to the attainment by the Bahá'í Community of non-governmental
> status at the United Nations in 1947. In fact, one of the twenty-seven
> objectives of the World Crusade which the Guardian listed in 1953 was the
> reinforcement of the ties binding the Bahá'í World Community to
> the United Nations. These ties may well have been responsible in part for the
> pressure which the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag
> Hammarskjöld, exerted on the government of Iran to halt the wave of
> violent persecutions of Bahá'ís in 1955.
> 
> VI
> 
> As well as the beautiful World Centre, the matchless
> translations, the vast writings, and the great prestige and recognition which
> the Guardian left the Bahá'í world, Shoghi Effendi bequeathed to
> all of humankind a model of community and world organisation which will shape
> human affairs for at least the next 1,000 years: the Bahá'í
> Administrative Order. According to Shoghi Effendi, "the Charter which called
> into being, outlined the features and set in motion the processes" of the
> Administrative Order was "none other than the Will and Testament of
> `Abdu'l-Bahá".[43] While
> `Abdu'l-Bahá was designated by Shoghi Effendi as "the great Architect"
> of this Order - an Order "unique in the annals of the world's religious
> systems"[44] - it was the Guardian who not
> only supervised and planned its construction, but who also used the
> Administrative Order as a channel to carry out the Divine Plan of
> `Abdu'l-Bahá. It was Shoghi Effendi who, for instance, detailed the
> responsibilities, powers and processes for annual election of local and
> national Assemblies, called for the setting-up of local and national
> Bahá'í Funds, and established the institution of the Auxiliary
> Board. He established the International Bahá'í Council in 1951,
> the forerunner of the Universal House of Justice, and appointed three
> contingents of Hands of the Cause of God, "the Chief Stewards of
> Bahá'u'lláh's embryonic World Commonwealth".[45] Indeed, throughout his writings, Shoghi Effendi
> repeatedly stated that the ultimate destiny of the Administrative Order was "to
> evolve into the Bahá'í World Commonwealth", the last of
> successive stages through which the Faith must pass in the course of its
> evolution towards the Golden Age[46]; in the
> meantime, teaching, according to the Guardian, was "the fundamental purpose" of
> Bahá'í administration.
> 
> Once the bedrock of the Administrative Order was established - a necessary
> precondition for the "efficient and systematic prosecution" of the Divine Plan
> - Shoghi Effendi was able to launch the great teaching campaigns envisioned in
> `Abdu'l-Bahá's charter for the world-wide expansion of the Faith, The
> Tablets of the Divine Plan. The Bahá'í community of America,
> which Shoghi Effendi called, "the cradle of the Administrative Order",[47] was the chief trustee of this Plan. By
> 1925, forty-three local Assemblies had been formed in North America, and
> several national Assemblies had been formed or were in the process of
> formation, including, Britain, formed in 1923, Germany and Austria (1923),
> India and Burma (1923), Egypt (1924), the United States and Canada (1925),
> `Iráq (1931), Australia and New Zealand (1934), and Iran (1934).
> Through the American Bahá'í community, Shoghi Effendi established
> the "charter"[48] for all national Assemblies
> by means of the 1927 Bahá'í National Constitution, and the
> "pattern"[49] for all local Assemblies by
> means of the By-Laws of the Spiritual Assembly of New York, drafted in 1931.
> By 1936, ten national Assemblies and 139 local Assemblies existed throughout
> the world. The Guardian considered the bedrock finally laid. The time for
> launching the Divine Plan, "the weightiest spiritual enterprise launched in
> recorded history",[50] had come.
> 
> VII
> 
> The last twenty years of Shoghi Effendi's life were
> characterised by systematic teaching plans which he first assigned to America,
> and later assigned to other communities as well. The first (1937-1944) and
> second (1946-1953) American Seven Year Plans established the Faith in all of
> the states and provinces of the United States and Canada, created new national
> Assemblies in Canada and in Central and South America, and established the
> Faith in each of twenty Latin American republics. At the same time, the
> Bahá'ís of other countries, most notably Britain, Canada, Egypt,
> India, Pakistan and Burma, and Iran, inspired by the Guardian's call to vie
> with one another in spreading the teachings, began their own teaching plans.
> By the centenary of the mystic birth of Bahá'u'lláh's mission in
> the Síyáh-Chál of Tehran - the Holy Year of 1953 -
> and after the four great Intercontinental Teaching Conferences held in Kampala,
> Chicago, Stockholm, and New Delhi, the stage was set for what Shoghi Effendi
> called a "fate-laden, soul-stirring, decade-long, world-embracing Spiritual
> Crusade".51
> 
> The Ten Year Crusade crowned Shoghi Effendi's ministry and his life's work.
> Whereas in 1921, when Shoghi Effendi became the Guardian, thirty-five countries
> were opened to the Faith, on his passing in November 1957,
> Bahá'ís resided in 254 countries; indeed, during the first two
> years of the Global Crusade alone, the number of countries enrolled under the
> banner of Bahá'u'lláh almost doubled. By 1957,
> Bahá'í literature was translated into 237 languages - a sixfold
> increase in thirteen years. By the end of this Crusade, there were fifty-six
> national Assemblies, 4,566 local Assemblies, and Bahá'ís resided
> in 15,186 localties.
> 
> In the midst of these achievements, Shoghi Effendi continued to transform
> crisis into victory. After the Iranian authorities had seized the
> Bahá'í National Headquarters in Tehran in 1955 and twice
> desecrated the Holy House of The Báb, and therefore made it impossible
> to build the planned House of Worship in Iran, the Guardian called for the
> construction in Kampala, Uganda, of the "Mother Temple" of Africa as a "supreme
> consolation" to the "oppressed masses" of our "valiant brethren" in Iran, the
> Cradle of the Faith.[52] Like a general,
> seizing the opportunity of the moment in battle, Shoghi Effendi then announced
> in Ridván 1957 an "ambitious three-fold enterprise" to erect in
> "localities as far apart as Frankfurt, Sydney and Kampala" the "Mother Temples"
> of the European, Australian and African continents.[53] By the time Shoghi Effendi was drafting the momentous
> message of October 1957 in which he outlined plans for the midway point of the
> World Crusade, the crises created by those who opposed the Faith throughout his
> thirty-six year ministry seemed to have been finally converted into resounding
> victory.
> 
> Only hours after completing a map of the world displaying the victories to
> date of the World Crusade, the Guardian passed away in London on 4 November
> 1957. Rúhíyyih Rabbani sent the following cable to Haifa which
> was relayed to all National Assemblies:
> 
> Shoghi Effendi beloved of all hearts sacred trust given believers by Master
> passed away sudden heart attack in sleep following Asiatic flu. Urge believers
> remain steadfast cling institution Hands lovingly reared recently reinforced
> emphasized by beloved Guardian. Only oneness heart oneness purpose can
> befittingly testify loyalty all National Assemblies believers departed Guardian
> who sacrificed self utterly for service Faith.[54]
> 
> By leading the Bahá'í world to the middle of the Ten Year Global
> Crusade, Shoghi Effendi had guided this Army of Light further into the divinely
> propelled process which is destined to culminate in "the stage at which the
> light of God's triumphant Faith shining in all its power and glory will have
> suffused and enveloped the entire planet".[55]
> Such is the debt of the Bahá'ís of all time to their one,
> beloved Guardian - Shoghi Effendi.
> 
> Notes
> 
> [1] Mr. Mountford Mills spoke these words of
> Shoghi Effendi at the Fourteenth Annual Bahá'í Convention, 22
> April, in Chicago, as reported by Louis G. Gregory in Star of the West,
> Vol. 13, No. 4, p. 68.
> 
> [2] Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, 1970,
> p. 3.
> 
> [3] Message of the Universal House of Justice
> to all National Spiritual Assemblies, 27 October 1987.
> 
> [4] Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p.
> xv.
> 
> [5] Shoghi Effendi, cited by the Universal
> House of Justice in a letter to all National Spiritual Assemblies, 27 October
> 1987.
> 
> [6] `Abdu'l-Bahá, The Will and
> Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá, 1971, p. 3.
> 
> [7] Letter of Shoghi Effendi dated 22 November
> 1921 to one of the Bahá'ís of England, cited by R. Rabbani,
> The Priceless Pearl, p. 37.
> 
> [8] Undated letter of Shoghi Effendi to a
> Bahá'í student in London, cited in ibid., p. 41.
> 
> [9] Letter of Shoghi Effendi dated February
> 1922 to a Bahá'í, cited in ibid., p. 43.
> 
> [10] `Abdu'l-Bahá, The Will and
> Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá, pp. 3 and 11.
> 
> [11] Letter of Shoghi Effendi dated 2
> December 1923 to "the beloved brethren and sisters in Australia and New
> Zealand", in Letters from the Guardian to Australia and New Zealand
> 1923-1957, 1970, p. 1.
> 
> [12] Ibid., pp. 1-2.
> 
> [13] Letter of Shoghi Effendi dated 5 March
> 1922 to the "dear Fellow-workers in the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh", in
> Unfolding Destiny, 1981, p. 3.
> 
> [14] Shoghi Effendi, cited in The
> Priceless Pearl, p. 45.
> 
> [15] Letter dated 18 January 1922 to Shoghi
> Effendi from an unnamed American Bahá'í, cited in ibid., p.
> 50.
> 
> [16] Ugo Giachery, Shoghi Effendi,
> 1973, p. 17.
> 
> [17] Bahá'u'llah, cited in God
> Passes By, p. 357.
> 
> [18] Diary of an American
> Bahá'í visiting Haifa in March 1922, cited in The Priceless
> Pearl, p. 56.
> 
> [19] Letter of Shoghi Effendi to the
> Bahá'ís of Persia, cited in ibid., p. 57.
> 
> [20] Shoghi Effendi, cited in ibid., p.
> 91.
> 
> [21] British Counsel Herbert Chick, cited in
> M. Momen (ed.), The Bábí and Bahá'í Religions,
> 1844-1944: Some Contemporary Western Accounts, 1981, p. 465.
> 
> [22] Cables of Shoghi Effendi dated 11 April
> and 7 May 1926 to Bahá'ís of Iran, cited in The Priceless
> Pearl, pp. 98-99.
> 
> [23] Letter of Shoghi Effendi dated 24 April
> 1926, cited in ibid., p. 98.
> 
> [24] Letter of Shoghi Effendi dated 21 May
> 1926, cited in ibid., p. 99.
> 
> [25] Letter of Shoghi Effendi dated 24
> November to the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, in
> Bahá'í Administration, 1974, p. 69.
> 
> [26] Cable of Shoghi Effendi dated September
> 1939 to Bahá'í world, in The Priceless Pearl, p. 106.
> 
> [27] Letter of Queen Marie to Martha Root
> dated 28 June 1931, cited in ibid., pp. 115-116.
> 
> [28] Letter of Shoghi Effendi dated 17 July
> 1932 to the United States and Canada, in Bahá'í
> Administration, p. 187.
> 
> [29] Ibid., pp. 195-196.
> 
> [30] Cable of Shoghi Effendi dated March 1937
> to the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada, cited in The
> Priceless Pearl, p. 152.
> 
> [31] Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual
> Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada, in Messages to Canada,
> 1965, p. 22.
> 
> [32] Shoghi Effendi, cited in The
> Priceless Pearl, p. 129.
> 
> [33] Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine
> Justice, New Delhi, pp. 3-4.
> 
> [34] Cable of Shoghi Effendi dated 5 December
> 1939 to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, cited in The
> Priceless Pearl, p. 261.
> 
> [35] Letter of Shoghi Effendi to the Haifa
> Local Building Town Planning Commission, 7 December 1947, cited in ibid., p.
> 240.
> 
> [36] Cable of Shoghi Effendi dated October
> 1953, in Messages to the Bahá'í World 1950-1957, 1971, p.
> 169.
> 
> [37] Cable of Shoghi Effendi dated April
> 1954, in ibid., p. 64.
> 
> [38] Ibid., p. 66.
> 
> [39] Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p.
> 137.
> 
> [40] Letter of Shoghi Effendi to Sir Herbert
> Samuel, cited in The Priceless Pearl, p. 218.
> 
> [41] Letter of Sir E. Denison Ross to Shoghi
> Effendi dated 27 April 1932, cited in ibid., p. 216.
> 
> [42] Cable of Shoghi Effendi to High
> Commissioner for Palestine in Jerusalem dated 19 December 1922, cited in ibid.,
> p. 70.
> 
> [43] Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p.
> 325.
> 
> [44] Ibid., p. 326.
> 
> [45] Cable of Shoghi Effendi dated October
> 1957 to the Bahá'í World, in Messages to the
> Bahá'í World, p. 127.
> 
> [46] Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By,
> pp. 325 and 364.
> 
> [47] Ibid., p. 329.
> 
> [48] Shoghi Effendi, cited in The
> Priceless Pearl, p. 302.
> 
> [49] Shoghi Effendi in a letter dated 27 May
> 1927 to the members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and
> Canada, in Bahá'í Administration, p. 135.
> 
> [50] Shoghi Effendi, cited in The
> Priceless Pearl, p. 383.
> 
> [52] Cablegram of Shoghi Effendi dated 23
> August 1955 to the Bahá'í world, in Messages to the
> Bahá'í World, p. 90.
> 
> [53] Message of Shoghi Effendi dated April
> 1957 to the Bahá'í world, ibid., pp. 111-112.
> 
> [54] Cable of R. Rabbani dated 4 November
> 1957, in The Priceless Pearl, p. 447.
> 
> [55] Second Message of Shoghi Effendi to the
> All-America Intercontinental Conference dated 4 May 1953, in Messages to the
> Bahá'í World, p. 155.
> 
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