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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
20 stories in the library.
Years later Leroy Ioas described the visitors who came to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá from dawn onward, and the swift answers with which, in a single moment, He might decide someone’s destiny.
In Chicago in 1912 young Leroy Ioas bought white carnations for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá but asked his father to present them. After the talk, the Master turned to the boy and gave him the red rose from His own coat.
At the Masonic Temple in Chicago in 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told Mrs. Dealy, who was going blind, that she must choose between spiritual and physical sight. She chose spiritual sight, as Leroy Ioas, seated beside her, witnessed.
Leroy Ioas recalls that until Shoghi Effendi passed away in England he was sending cables about work to finish before his return, which suggests he did not expect to die.
Leroy Ioas recalls the Guardian's humility: Shoghi Effendi never spoke of "the days of the Guardian", and he stopped Ioas from ever mentioning his name in the same breath as the Master's.
Troubled by cables from America, Shoghi Effendi asked Leroy Ioas about a National Assembly meeting, then described the meeting and the spirit behind it himself, explaining that God gave him a feeling in his heart.
Leroy Ioas recalls how Shoghi Effendi praised even the gardeners, looked at people's good deeds rather than their shortcomings, and bore with great forgiveness the suffering caused by relatives who had turned away from the Cause.
The Guardian fixed the site of the International Archives on Mount Carmel with strings on the ground, planted its gardens first, and had the builders raise it from the rear with five metres to work in. It was completed in 1957.
Leroy Ioas recalls how Shoghi Effendi embraced and kissed Charles Dunning, the plainly dressed Knight of Bahá'u'lláh for the Orkney Islands, and seated him beside himself at dinner.
Leroy Ioas praised the way Shoghi Effendi had built the Administrative Order. The Guardian answered that he had no blueprint: God guided him one step at a time, and the Bahá’ís must share his confidence in that guidance.
Leroy Ioas describes Shoghi Effendi’s day in Haifa: prayer from 5:30 in the morning, his vast mail, the pilgrims from East and West and the International Bahá’í Council, until late at night, every day of the week.
Leroy Ioas recalled that Shoghi Effendi lived only for the Cause of God, rejoicing at news of the believers' victories and grieving at their sufferings, his heart like a mirror reflecting all parts of the world.
Leroy Ioas recalled Shoghi Effendi telling how, unwilling to become Guardian after ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing, he went to the mountains of Switzerland and fought with himself until he conquered himself, and that every Bahá’í must do the same.
Walking home with Shoghi Effendi in Haifa, Leroy Ioas heard the Guardian describe the burdens weighing on him and offered to take on his papers. With tears in his eyes, the Guardian answered that only God could give him relief.
Leroy Ioas recalls the evening Shoghi Effendi shared news that a discouraged pioneer on a Pacific island, whom he had urged again and again to stay, now had two spiritual assemblies.
Leroy Ioas recalls how Shoghi Effendi gave the aged Corinne True a purse once used by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, with a gold coin inside bearing the year of her first visit to the Master.
A Canadian pilgrim asked whether translators could replace the nightingale and the rose for readers in the Arctic; Shoghi Effendi said the sacred texts must be translated exactly, then gave her attar of rose for the friends in Canada and for the Inuit.
Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas recalls the contrast between Shoghi Effendi's slight, refined frame and the power with which he spoke, and how closely the Guardian resembled 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
As the Shrine of the Báb neared completion, Shoghi Effendi placed plaster from the Báb's prison cell at Máh-Kú beneath a tile of the dome; when Leroy Ioas offered to test the scaffolding first, the Guardian reminded him he was a mountaineer.
Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas recalls how Shoghi Effendi went straight to the heart of every question, grew weary of long, roundabout letters, and wanted every task to bring an immediate result.