The Letters That Reached the World

A retelling for children, based on The Priceless Pearl by Rúḥíyyih Khánum.

After 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away, His grandson Shoghi Effendi became the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith. He lived and worked in Haifa, and he did this work for thirty-six years.

As soon as the Bahá'ís heard that he was back in Haifa, letters began to pour in from all parts of the world. There were far too many for one person to answer. Should he stop writing to individual people and write only to the Assemblies? That would save a great deal of time, but it would also break the personal link between him and the friends.

He made a promise to the Bahá'í National Assembly in Britain: no letter sent to him, however unimportant, would first be opened and read by anyone except himself.

In the end he decided not to give up writing to individual believers, especially in the West and in countries with new Bahá'ís. He had found that Assemblies did not always know how to treat people in a way that healed their hurts and kept them active in the Faith. As the work grew, a secretary usually wrote the letters for him and took care of the details. But the Guardian's own words were there too: the promise of his prayers, and his encouragement.

He also sent many cables, short messages sent by wire, and for the rest of his life he kept a copy of each one, numbered and filed by year.

He wrote his own books and long messages himself, by hand, on small lined pads. If a page became too messy with changes, he patiently copied it all out again. Then he typed it on a very small typewriter, using just two fingers. When he was typing his history of the Faith, God Passes By, he sometimes kept at it for ten hours at a stretch.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "The Guardian's Correspondence".

Khánum, R.. (1969). *The Priceless Pearl*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust.