Shoghi Effendi

Shoghi Effendi, an Afnán, was born Shoghí Rabbání in Acre in the Ottoman Empire, where he spent his early life, but later went on to study in Haifa and Beirut, gaining an arts degree from the Syrian Protestant College in 1918 and then serving as ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's secretary and translator. In 1920, he attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied political science and economics. Before completing his studies, news of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death reached him, requiring him to return to Haifa. Shortly after his return at the end of December 1921, he learned that the Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá named him Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith. Two crucial aspects of his leadership focused on building the administration and spreading the faith worldwide.

During his 36 years as Guardian, Shoghi Effendi translated and expounded on many of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, established plans that enabled the faith to spread globally and sent more than 17,500 letters. He kept in touch with progress in all existing Bahá’i communities as well as monitoring and responding to the situation in the Middle East, where the believers were still suffering persecution. He also began work to establish Haifa, Israel, as the Bahá’i World Center. He created an International Bahá’i Council to aid him in his work, several members of which were newly appointed Hands of the Cause. He also presided over the community's expansion from 1,034 localities in 1935 to 2,700 in 1953, and further to 14,437 in 1963. From the beginning to the end of his leadership, the total population of Baháʼís around the world grew from 100,000 to 400,000.

Shoghi Effendi died during a visit to London in 1957, having contracted Asian flu, and is buried at New Southgate Cemetery in the city of London.

Background

Born in Acre in the Acre Sanjak of the Ottoman Empire in 1896 or 1897, Shoghi Effendi was related to the Báb through his father, Mírzá Hádí Shírází, and to Baháʼu'lláh through his mother, Ḍíyáʼíyyih Khánum, the eldest daughter of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, who provided much of his initial training, greatly influenced Shoghi Effendi from the early years of his life. Shoghi Effendi learned prayers from his grandfather, who encouraged him to chant. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá also insisted that people address the child as "Shoghi Effendi" rather than simply as "Shoghi" as a mark of respect towards him.

As a child, Shoghi Effendi was aware of the difficulties endured by the Baháʼís in Acre, which included attacks by Mírzá Muhammad ʻAlí against ʻAbdu’l-Bahá. Mirza Muhammad-‘Ali, who was ʻAbdu’l-Bahá's younger half-brother and aggrieved by ʻAbdu’l-Bahá's designation as Baháʼu’llah's successor, began plotting to discredit him by falsely claiming that he was the cause of the uprising in Ottoman Syria. The problems which this caused in the Baháʼí community were felt as far away as Iran and beyond. As a young boy, he was aware of the desire of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (reigned 1876–1909) to banish ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to the deserts of North Africa, where he was expected to perish.

Tablet from ʻAbdu'l-Bahá

Being ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's eldest grandson, the first son of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's eldest daughter Ḍíyáʼíyyih Khánum, Shoghi Effendi had a special relationship with his grandfather. Zia Baghdadi, a contemporary Baháʼí, relates that when Shoghi Effendi was only five years of age, he pestered his grandfather to write a tablet for him, which ʻAbdu'l-Bahá obliged:

He is God! O My Shoghi, I have no time to talk, leave me alone! You said write, I have written. What else should be done? Now is not the time for you to read and write. It is the time for jumping about and chanting O My God! Therefore, memorize the prayers of the Blessed Beauty and chant them that I may hear them. Because there is no time for anything else.

Shoghi Effendi then set out to memorize several prayers and chanted them as loud as he could. This caused family members to ask ʻAbdu'l-Bahá to quiet him, a request he apparently refused.

Education

Shoghi Effendi's early education took place at home with other children from the household. It was provided by private tutors, who taught him Arabic, Persian, French, English, and literature. From 1907 to 1909, he attended the College des Frères, a Jesuit institution in Haifa, where he studied Arabic, Turkish, French and English. In 1910, when ʻAbdu'l-Bahá was residing in Egypt before his journeys to the West, Shoghi Effendi was briefly enrolled in the College des Frères in Ramleh.

Plans for him to accompany his grandfather on his travels fell through when the port authorities in Naples prevented him from continuing, ostensibly due to health issues. Upon his return to Egypt sometime after March 1912, he was sent to a Jesuit boarding school in Beirut, transferring in October to the preparatory school attached to the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut, graduating in 1913. Later that year, Shoghi Effendi returned to the Syrian Protestant College as an undergraduate and earned a BA in 1917. Despite enrolling there as a graduate student, he returned to Haifa without completing his degree.

During his time at the Syrian Protestant College, he spent his visits home to Haifa assisting ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in translation, becoming his full-time secretary and translator from the end of 1918.

By the spring of 1919, the intensity of Shoghi Effendi's secretarial work had taken its toll on his health, resulting in recurring occurrences of malaria. By the spring of 1920, he was so unwell that ʻAbdu'l-Bahá arranged for him to convalesce at a sanatorium in Paris. Following his recovery, he enrolled in the Non-Collegiate Delegacy at Balliol College, Oxford to improve his English translation skills.

Death of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá

While Shoghi Effendi was studying in England, he learned of the passing of ʻAbdu’l-Bahá in the early hours of 28 November 1921, news that came as a grievous shock, as he had been unaware that his grandfather was ill. Following his return to Haifa on 29 December 1921, the prerequisites of the Will and Testament of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá were announced, unequivocally stating that Shoghi Effendi was to be appointed as ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's successor and Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith. The institution of the Guardianship had been conceived by Baháʼu’llah, with ʻAbdu'l-Bahá outlining its specific functions and jurisdiction in the Will and Testament, two particularly important functions being the interpretation of the Baháʼí teachings and guiding the Baháʼí community.

Private life and marriage

Shoghi Effendi's personal life was subordinate to his work as Guardian , and it was not until 1950 that he secured the secretarial support he required to handle the mounting correspondence. By then, he had established a timetable of continuous hard work while in Haifa, with summer breaks during which he spent time in Europe, initially in the Swiss Alps, and in 1929 and 1940 traversed Africa from south to north.

On March 24, 1937, Shoghi Effendi married Mary Maxwell, entitled Rúhíyyih Khánum, a Canadian. She was the only child of May Maxwell, a disciple of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, and William Sutherland Maxwell, a Canadian architect. Shoghi Effendi had first met Mary as a girl when she came on pilgrimage with her mother in 1923. She made another pilgrimage as a teenager with two of her mother's close friends. With Shoghi Effendi's encouragement, Mary became an active Baháʼí teacher and a letter written to him described her as "a beautiful and most refreshing girl to know".

In 1936, Shoghi Effendi wrote to Mary and her mother, inviting them to visit Haifa. They arrived in January 1937, and a discreet courtship between Shoghi Effendi and Mary ensued. At the time of their marriage, Mary was 26 years old and a tall, athletic woman who had spent 18 months living in Nazi Germany with her cousin before coming to Haifa. The couple exchanged vows in the room of Bahíyyih Khánum in the House of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá in Haifa. The ceremony was brief with Rúhíyyih Khánum wearing black. Only a select few were aware of the wedding, including the witnesses and a small group of Haifa residents. Consequently, the news of the marriage came as a surprise to the global Baháʼí community when Shoghi Effendi's mother cabled the Baháʼís.

Announce Assemblies celebration marriage beloved Guardian. Inestimable honour conferred upon handmaid of Baháʼu'lláh Ruhiyyih Khanum Miss Mary Maxwell. Union of East and West proclaimed by Baháʼí Faith cemented. Ziaiyyih mother of Guardian.

While Shoghi Effendi and Rúhíyyih Khánum never had children, Rúhíyyih Khánum became his constant companion and helpmate; in 1941, she became Shoghi Effendi's principal secretary in English. In a rare public statement, revealing his private sentiments, in 1951 he described his wife as "my helpmate, my shield in warding off the darts of Covenant breakers and my tireless collaborator in the arduous tasks I shoulder".

Shoghi Effendi held Iranian (Persian) nationality throughout his life and travelled on an Iranian passport, although he never visited Iran.

Leadership style

Shoghi Effendi was 24 when he became Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith, and, following a short break to prepare himself for what this entailed, he began to address the task at hand. With his Western education and Western dress, Shoghi Effendi’s leadership style was noticeably different from that of his grandfather ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. His letters to Baháʼís were signed "your true brother”, and rather than referring to his personal role as Guardian, his focus was instead on the institution of the guardianship. He expended his energy on building the Faith worldwide, laying the foundations for its the Baháʼí World Centre, and relying on extensive correspondence rather than direct travel to communicate advice to a growing global community. He spent time with the many Baháʼís who visited Haifa on pilgrimage, inspiring and teaching them, and often using them as emissaries when they returned to their various home communities.

Administration

One of Shoghi Effendi’s main objectives on becoming Guardian was to organise the administrative work of the Baháʼí World Centre, with an initial focus on sustaining correspondence with a growing number of Baháʼís throughout the world. This involved the need for secretarial assistance, which in the early years came from his father and two Persian Baháʼís who had served as secretaries to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. Between late 1924 and 1927, he received assistance initially from John Esslemont, and following his untimely death a year later, from Ethel Rosenberg, both of them Baháʼís from the UK. He was also assisted in this work by several members of his family. In an attempt to reduce his correspondence, Shoghi Effendi encouraged Baháʼí communities to publish and distribute newsletters to other communities, the newsletter generated from Haifa including news from the Baháʼí World Centre and Baháʼí activities around the world, thus alleviating the need for Baháʼís to send him letters asking for information. As an extension of the Baháʼí World Centre, he established a Baháʼí Bureau in Geneva, representing the community at international forums and meetings as well as international organisations which had their headquarters in Geneva.

During the early years of his guardianship, Shoghi Effendi focused on the formation and nurturing of national and local Spiritual Assemblies to encourage the spread of the Faith and as a prerequisite for the election of the Universal House of Justice. National bodies were elected according to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá’s instructions and using procedures set down by Shoghi Effendi, who took on responsibility for defining the requirements for their election, detailing their authority, outlining and evaluating rules for their functioning, and managing the application of these criteria in various situations and social conditions. The first three national spiritual assemblies were established at Shoghi Effendi’s instruction in Great Britain, India and Germany in 1923.

In 1951, Shoghi Effendi began expanding international Baháʼí institutions, appointing twelve Hands of the Cause as ʻAbdu'l-Bahá stipulated in his will. In the same year, he established the International Baháʼí Council, a secretariat and advisory body whose members were initially appointed and subsequently elected, and which increasingly took on responsibility for communicating with the community and interacting with the government of Israel. In 1952, he appointed seven further Hands of the Cause, adding another eight in 1957. In 1954, he asked the Hands of the Cause to appoint 36 people to serve on five continental Auxiliary Boards to assist them in their work. The purpose in forming these international institutions appeared to be the provision of support in carrying out expansion goals for the Ten Year Crusade in conjunction with preparation for the election of the Universal House of Justice.

Shoghi Effendi was instrumental in developing the Baháʼí World Centre, initially buying the mansion at Bahji, near Akko (formerly Acre), in which Baha’u’llah lived until he died in 1892, where the Shrine of Baháʼu'lláh is situated, and around which he purchased extra land and created extensive gardens. He supervised the construction of the golden-domed building over the Shrine of the Báb, developed the surrounding land and erected the International Archives building in the vicinity. He also endorsed plans involving the establishment of a centre which was to evolve into a network of buildings, landscaped gardens and shrines, and which was to be recognised by Baháʼís worldwide as the centre of the Baháʼí Faith.

In 1937, Shoghi Effendi instructed the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼís of the United States and Canada to complete the exterior of the Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, as one of the goals of their Seven-Year Plan. This was finally completed in 1943, with the temple’s dedication taking place in May 1953. On 23 August 1955, Shoghi Effendi announced that Africa would build its first House of Worship in Kampala, Uganda; the temple was dedicated in January 1961.

Growth

During the years when Shoghi Effendi was Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith, the number of believers expanded to more than 400,000, and the plans he instituted during this time surpassed their goals. Before the first plan was initiated in 1935, there were 139 spiritual assemblies worldwide, with Baháʼís living in 1,034 locations. These numbers had increased to 670 spiritual assemblies and 2,700 locations by 1953. That year, he launched a 10-year global crusade whose purpose was to establish the faith worldwide, the faith spreading widely in parts of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands. Although Shoghi Effendi died in 1957, by 1963 the geographical presence of the Baháʼí Faith in the world had increased to 14,437 localities, with 56 national assemblies and 3,551 local spiritual assemblies.

Other

In a more secular cause, before World War II he supported the work of restoration-forester Richard St. Barbe Baker to reforest Palestine, introducing him to religious leaders from the major faiths of the region, from whom backing was secured for reforestation.