O Faithful Servant of the Best-Beloved

O faithful servant of the Best-Beloved, the Most Glorious! O steadfast friend, flourishing in the garden of His luminous Beauty! The brief but informative letter you had written to Shoghi Effendi, the Chosen Branch, the Guardian of the Cause of God, has been received together with the scrolls of doubt you had enclosed. Indeed, men whose nostrils have been perfumed by the fragrance of the Abhá Paradise, whose ears have been exhilarated by the sweet melodies of the nightingale warbling in the rose-garden of immortality, and whose souls have been refreshed and quickened by the reviving breaths of holiness, would surely be saddened to hear the screech of the raven and the croaking of the crow, and from them they would certainly endeavour to flee. For the disgusting odour of violation is like poisonous air, whose baneful effects upon the body and soul are injurious and harmful, nay rather it will eventually lead to terrible loss and perdition. Thus the way you have dealt with this matter is approved and acceptable.

Since Shoghi Effendi has gone on a journey for a while, this lowly one was prompted to answer your letter. Convey wondrous Abhá greetings to all the lovers of the Blessed Beauty and the faithful friends of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. And upon you be His glory.

Source: Letter of Bahíyyih Khánum, in Bahíyyih Khánum (Bahá'í World Centre, 1982), part V, no. 32. Text from Project Gutenberg eBook #19242.

Khánum, B.. (1982). *Bahíyyih Khánum*. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19242/pg19242-images.html