# Tribute to Shoghi Effendi, A

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

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> Foreword
> 
> The following address was delivered by  Amelia Collins, Hand of the Cause, Haifa, Israel, at the Intercontinental  Bahá'í Conference held in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, 
> July 25-29, 1958, which she attended as the chosen representative of Shoghi Effendi, late Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith.
> 
> How can I ever find words to bring you what is in my heart about our
> beloved Guardian! I feel we must each so fill ourselves at this time with
> his spirit and his wishes that it will carry us through the next five
> years of the glorious Crusade he initiated and enable us to consummate his
> every hope and wish. This, the fulfillment of his own Plan, is the living
> memorial we must build in his memory. When I first heard of the passing of
> 'Abdul-Baha I was a very young believer and after the provisions of His
> will became known, my whole heart and soul turned to that youthful Branch,
> appointed by Him to watch over and guide the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. How I
> prayed that God would help me to make him happy!
> 
> Guardian in Haifa. He was just a young man
> then, full of determination to carry forward the great work entrusted to
> his care He was so spontaneous, so trusting and loving and outgoing in the
> buoyancy of his beautiful heart Through the years we all watched with
> wonder and ever-deepening devotion to him and appreciation of his
> God-given gifts, the unfoldment of Bahá'u'lláh's Divine Order which he
> built up so patiently and wisely all over the world. But, oh friends, at
> what great cost to himself! 
> 
> In 1951, when the beloved Guardian called some of the friends to serve in
> Haifa, I began to learn of what he had passed through. His face was sad,
> one could see his very spirit had been heavily oppressed by the agony he
> went through for years during the period when the family pursued their own
> desires and finally abandoned the work of the Faith and their Guardian to
> go their own way. I can truthfully say that for a number of years we who
> served him at the World Center seldom saw him smile, and very often he
> poured out to us his woes and confided some of the things he had passed
> through. I do not know in any great detail the day to day afflictions of
> Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, but sometimes I wonder if they could have
> been any more heartbreaking than those of our beloved Shoghi Effendi. 
> 
> The Guardian had a profound and innate humility.  Whenever the Faith was
> involved, he was fiery in its defense, king-like in the loftiness of his
> bearing, the authority with which he spoke. But as a human being he was
> self-effacing, would brush aside our adulation and praise, turn everything
> we wished to shower on him towards the central figures of our Faith. We
> all know this characteristic of his, how he would never allow any
> photographs to be taken of himself, or give any of himself, but invariably
> encouraged the friends to place the Master's picture in their rooms; how
> he would not allow anyone to have his clothes or personal things lest they
> be regarded as relics; how he disliked any signs of personal
> worship-though he could never control what was in our hearts for him! 
> 
> The Master said: "O ye the faithful loved ones of 'Abdul-Baha! It is
> incumbent upon you to take the greatest care of Shoghi Effendi.... that no
> dust of despondency and sorrow may stain his radiant nature..." Neither
> his family, nor the people of the world, nor I am afraid we Bahá'ís,
> protected that radiant heart of Shoghi Effendi. 
> 
> After the years of sorrow and trial he went through with the family, after
> his final separation from them, there came a new joy and hope to our
> beloved Guardian. The rapid progress made in the attainment of so many of
> the goals of the World Crusade lifted him up. How can I ever describe to
> you his eyes when he would come over to the Pilgrim House and announce to
> us a new achievement; they sparkled with light and enthusiasm and his
> beautiful face would be all smiles. Often he would send over one of his
> maps and when it was spread out on the dining table, his finger, full of
> infinite strength, insistence and determination, would point out the new
> territory opened, the new Haziratu'l-Quds purchased, the new language
> translated, as the case might be. I feel it would be no exaggeration to
> say that it was the progress of the Ten Year Plan that gave him the
> encouragement to go on working so hard, for he was very tired. More than
> once he said during the last year of his life, that his ministry had
> lasted longer than that of either Bahá'u'lláh or 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and
> complained of the crushing burden, but none of us could foresee it
> presaged his release, that he was burned out with thirty-six years of
> struggle, of constant work, of sorrow and self-sacrifice. 
> 
> His conscientiousness was like a fire burning in him;  from his earliest
> childhood he showed the sensitive, noble, painstaking qualities that
> characterized him, and grew stronger as he matured and throughout his
> Guardianship. 
> 
> The friends should realize that Shoghi Effendi had no foreknowledge that
> he would be appointed the Successor of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. The shock of the
> Master's passing was followed by an even more terrible one - the shock of
> his own appointment as the "Sign of God." He grew in this supreme office,
> which we know was under the direct guidance of the Twin Manifestations of
> God, even as a tree grows to full maturity and bears goodly fruits, but at
> such a cost to himself of sacrifice that no one will ever properly
> estimate. 
> 
> Let us review for a moment, however briefly, some of the services Shoghi
> Effendi rendered the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh. 
> 
> When 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away, the Shrine of the Bab consisted of six
> rooms surrounded by a small piece of land. The Mansion of Bahji and most
> of its lands were in the hands of the Covenant-breakers or their friends,
> except for the Holy Tomb itself, which covers a very small area, and two
> Pilgrim houses, one rented. The Master Himself, though so widely loved and
> respected ,was not known as the Head of an independent religion, but
> rather regarded as a Moslem notable and Holy Man. 
> 
> The young Guardian, freed by his very youthfulness, armed with the power
> conferred on him by his Grandfather, cut with one stroke the bonds still
> holding in appearance the Bahá'ís to Islam-he refused to go to the Mosque. 
> Tender, sensitive, crushed with grief, fighting his own inner battle to be
> reconciled to the glory of the station so suddenly revealed to him, Shoghi
> Effendi began to do all the Master had hoped to accomplish and to carry
> into effect His Words when He hinted that after Him the veils would be
> rent asunder. The Perfect Exemplar, the loving and forgiving Father, had
> passed away and the Order of Bahá'u'lláh was now to take shape under the
> guidance of the Champion of Divine Justice.  With wistful eyes the blessed
> Master had gazed up at the Shrine of the Bab and said that it was not
> possible to build the Shrine of the Bab, but God willing, it would be
> done.
> 
> The Guardian first added three rooms during the early years of his
> ministry to make the building a nine-roomed edifice. In 1944, the model of
> the completed Shrine was unveiled on the occasion of the One Hundredth
> Anniversary of the Bab's Declaration; it had an arcade and a dome, both of
> which the Master had stated it should have. By 1953 it was all built.
> 
> Year after year the Guardian increased the size of the Shrine gardens,
> himself laying out the design in its minutest detail. Patiently,
> persistently, he had the lands about it bought, designating each area,
> supervising each transaction, overcoming every obstacle. He got the
> Mansion of Bahá'u'lláh away from the arch Covenant-breaker, Muhammad Ali,
> and turned it into a Museum and Holy Place; he had all the Bahá'í
> properties exempted from government and municipal taxes; he had the Bahá'í
> marriage recognized as legally binding; he secured first the British and
> later, in a much stronger form, from the new State of Israel, recognition
> of the fact that it is a World Religion, whose Holy Places and whose World
> Center are in Haifa and Acca, and that he as the Head of this Faith had a
> higher position than any other religious dignitary in the land. 
> 
> He chose the design himself and erected the monuments over the resting
> places of the Greatest Holy Leaf, her mother and brother, and the wife of
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He likewise specified the International Archives building
> should be of the type and proportions which it is, approving himself every
> detail and often changing details until he got them the way he wanted
> them. He located its exact position on the ground, the size of its walls
> and stairs, the garden surrounding it. This building will house precious
> Bahá'í relics such as no previous religion has ever possessed. Shoghi
> Effendi, appealing direct to high government officials, secured Mazraih as
> a Holy Place for the Bahá'í pilgrims to visit, after it had been promised
> to other institutions when the Jewish State was formed. It was at his
> decision that the beautiful Temple site on Mt. Carmel was purchased, in
> the spot 'Abdu'l-Bahá had wished; and from the World Center streamed out
> the translations, the letters, the writings of the Guardian in a mighty
> flow, in exquisite language, full of power, accurate, profound, inspired. 
> 
> 
> The hand of the Guardian was a motivating force. Let there be no mistake
> that any glove ever did the work of that hand. The gloves were poor and on
> worthy instruments for the most part, well nigh useless judged by human
> standards. It was his hand in everything, from the littlest to the biggest
> thing that grasped every work, initiated every enterprise, never relaxed,
> never relinquished its grip until the task was done. Many gloves frayed
> out on that powerful hand, fell apart, were of necessity cast aside, but
> the work of the Cause went on uninterrupted until the last night of his
> life! 
> 
> The Administrative Order of the Faith, the provisions for which were laid
> down by Bahá'u'lláh Himself and amplified by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi
> set out to build. When the Master passed away, there were few Spiritual
> Assemblies in the world, and only one national body functioning in a very
> rudimentary manner. The builder, however, had been provided by God; the
> Great Administrator, with an almost unique capacity for organization, with
> a wisdom vouchsafed from on High with a world-encompassing vision, set
> about his task.
> 
> Patiently, persistently, painstakingly, Shoghi Effendi reared strong
> national bodies. He brought into being the International Bahá'í' Council -
> the embryonic Universal House of justice. He kept the balance, the perfect
> balance, between a thing too loosely knit, too individualistic to function
> efficiently, and too much efficiency, too many rules and regulations, too
> much running into endless and unnecessary detail which is one of the great
> afflictions of present day civilization.
> 
> When he had created the system and reared the machinery of the Bahá'í
> Administrative Order, he suddenly shifted the whole mechanism into gear; 
> he called for the first Seven-Year Plan, the first step in the
> Promulgation of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Divine Plan, which is the instrument for
> the spiritual conquest of the entire globe. Plan followed plan. The
> scattered diversified followers of the Faith began to take shape as the
> army of Bahá'u'lláh; guided by the National Spiritual Assemblies. The
> pioneers, the vanguard as he called them of this great host, began to
> march out and over the world until, at the half-way point of the mighty
> Crusade he had launched, Shoghi Effendi could look upon a united, strong,
> enthusiastic, world-wide community of believers, who had already achieved
> the major part of the tasks he had set for them. 
> 
> What gifts he had, what gifts he gave: Gleanings From the Writings of
> Bahá'u'lláh, The Dawn-Breakers- Nabil's Narrative, The Kitab-i-Iqan, The
> Hidden Words, and the Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, translations of
> superlative style and power, making available the essence of Bahá'u'lláh's
> Message to the western world. What life he breathed into us through his
> own writings, beginning with his World Order letters-the Goal of a New
> World Order, the Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh, followed by the Unfoldment
> of World Civilization, (now The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh), The Advent of
> Divine justice, The Promised Day is Come, works which were supplemented by
> dynamic cables and special messages. To such a long list of distinguished
> works was added the finest flower of his mind, his masterful review of the
> first one hundred years of the greatest Dispensation vouchsafed by God to
> man on this planet-God Passes By. 
> 
> His was the vision which looked at the Cause as a whole, saw present and
> future as part of one mighty panorama. He not only collated the teachings,
> but, with a strong sense of history, assembled the most precious relics in
> the Bahá'í world into a religious archives such as no previous Faith has
> possessed. He saw to it that all the precious sites associated with the
> Bab and Bahá'u'lláh and the heroes and martyrs of this Cause were,
> whenever possible, purchased: the House where Bahá'u'lláh was born in
> Teheran, His father's house in Takur, the Siyah-Chal, where the first rays
> of His Divine Mission fell upon Him in the blackness of a dungeon, the
> House He occupied in Constantinople, and one of the Houses He occupied in
> Adrianople; the bleak fortress of Mah-Ku, where the Bab revealed the
> Bayan, His shop in Bushihr, and many other sites associated with Him and
> His companions. At Shoghi Effendi's instructions an exhaustive photographic
> record was made of hundreds of these spots associated with the Heroic Age
> of the Faith.
> 
> He encouraged the Persian believers to compile the histories of the early
> days of the Cause in their provinces, and laid upon the Persian National
> Spiritual Assembly the great responsibility of collecting and transcribing
> the Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, thus preserving for posterity
> a truly priceless heritage.  He was truly the builder by nature; he
> completed the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in America, the great Mother Temple
> of the West, unique in having had its foundation stone laid by
> 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself. He initiated, chose the designs, and set in motion
> the plans for the erection of the African, the European, the Australasian,
> the Teheran and the Holy Land Temples. He specified the sites for the
> National Haziratu'l-Quds and the national endowments. He named the
> languages into which the literature of the Faith was to be translated, and
> personally encouraged the pioneers to go forth and fulfill 'Abdu'l-Bahá's
> plan. 
> 
> Ah, but he did more than this! He made each believer feel that over him
> watched a just mind and a loving heart; that he had a part to play, was
> precious to the Faith, had duties to discharge, enjoyed privileges
> infinitely precious because he was a member of the Community of the Most
> Great Name. 
> 
> Let us never forget this, never lose sight of this!  This oneness he made
> a reality, this staunch loyalty to our Faith he implanted in our hearts. 
> His work in this world is done. Ours is not. 
> 
> We are all, in a way, Shoghi Effendi's heirs.  We have inherited his work. 
> His plan is completely laid out. Ours is the task to fulfill it. We must,
> each of us, complete our share of the World Crusade.  This is the memorial
> we must build to our beloved Shoghi Effendi. Let us love him more now than
> ever before, and through the power of our love attract his love to us, and
> bring his blessing on our labors. Let us not fail him, for he never failed
> us. Let us never forget him, for he never forgot us.
>
> — *Tribute to Shoghi Effendi, A (Used by permission of the curator)*