When I was about 10 weeks old, the appointed Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, died unexpectedly in London, England on November 4. He was barely 60. He was brilliant, notably as a writer/historian, and could’ve been and done many
Beautiful, carefree face. He’s about 8.
things, but when his grandfather appointed him to lead the small Baha’i community, he gave up alternate futures completely, at the age of 24. He died in harness, and the Cause that he led for 37 years is still trying to account for all the work he did in establishing it on firm and growing administrative, spiritual, ethical and material foundations. Shoghi Effendi was a community architect, counsellor, pre-eminent translator of its scriptures, and an astoundingly prolific correspondent.
One of his many book-length letters was written to the Baha’is of the West in March of 1941, in the darkest days of the second World War. “Not ours,” he said, at such a time, and even today, “to arrive at a precise understanding of the steps which must successively lead a bleeding humanity…to its ultimate resurrection.” In concluding, he urged on his fellow believers in their painstaking work with a marvellously hopeful end in view:
“Ours rather the duty, however confused the scene, however dismal the present outlook, however circumscribed the resources we dispose of, to labor serenely, confidently and unremittingly to lend our share of assistance, in whichever way circumstances may enable us, to the operation of the forces which…are leading humanity out of the valley of misery and shame to the loftiest summits of power and glory.”
There are few photos, especially during his later life.