# Shoghi Effendi on the Book of Certitude

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Ugo Giachery, Shoghi Effendi on the Book of Certitude, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Shoghi Effendi on the Book of Certitude
> 
> Ugo Giachery
> published in Shoghi Effendi: Recollections pp. 149-150
> 
> Oxford: George Ronald, 1973
> 
> Before proceeding to the momentous decision of building the
> new International Archives,* I should like to mention an episode
> which further demonstrates the eager interest of Shoghi Effendi
> in collecting information and facts pertaining to the Sacred
> Writings and the history of the Cause. One evening, as I entered
> the dining-room, the Guardian was already seated at his
> place at the table, his face shining with an inner jubilation which he
> could neither control nor conceal. At his side, upon the table, stood a
> small bundle, an object wrapped in a coloured silk handkerchief,
> typical of the East and of Iran in particular. As soon as we were all
> seated and attentive, even before dinner was served, he said that a
> pilgrim had that day arrived from Tihrán, bringing with him one
> of the most precious documents to be placed in the archives. He
> untied the handkerchief and with great reverence lifted out a
> manuscript in book form, and, placing it in a position that every
> one could see, added that it contained two original Tablets in the
> handwriting of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. One was the Íqán and the other
> was a Tablet the name of which I do not now remember.
> 
> These manuscripts, Shoghi Effendi stated, were transcribed by
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá in His beautiful calligraphy, when He was about
> eighteen years old, and bore some additions in the Hand of
> Bahá'u'lláh, insertions which He had written on the margins of
> many pages in reviewing the manuscripts. Shoghi Effendi had
> never before seen the original of the Íqán and was deeply astonished
> to discover that the phrase he had chosen from this book and
> placed on the title page of his translation of Nabíl's Narrative, The
> Dawn-Breakers, was an after-reflection of Bahá'u'lláh's, written
> by Himself, on the margin of one page. The phrase in question is
> the one starting: 'I stand, life in hand, ready; that perchance...'**
> 
> The Guardian, that evening, was not only astonished but overjoyed
> as well, because he was conscious that through a mysterious
> process he had been inspired to adopt that phrase as an eternal
> testimonial to Bahá'u'lláh's yearning to sacrifice His life for the
> Báb, the Primal Point. All of us who were seated at the table were
> awed and profoundly stirred, and I, in particular, felt that the
> existence of a spiritual link between our Guardian and the invisible
> world of God was something that no one should ever
> doubt.
> 
> * This content not yet online; see Chapter 14 in the table of contents at giachery_shoghi_effendi_recollections [-J.W., 2012]
> 
> ** Kitáb-i-Íqán , p. 161 (Brit. ed.), p. 252 (U.S. ed.). See DB for the translation here used, which appears on the title page.
> 
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> Views10002 views since posted 2001; last edit 2012;
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> — *Shoghi Effendi on the Book of Certitude (Used by permission of the curator)*