The Grass That Would Not Grow

A retelling for children, based on The Priceless Pearl by Rúhíyyih Rabbání. The words in quotation marks and the line set apart below are taken word for word from the book.

High on Mount Carmel, in Haifa, stands the Shrine of the Báb. When Shoghi Effendi had just become the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, he wanted lawns of green grass to grow in front of it.

The gardener who had worked for 'Abdu'l-Bahá told him it could not be done. Lawns, he said, would not grow in that land.

Shoghi Effendi did not give up. He sent a telegram to a Bahá'í friend in Paris: "What of our lawn project?" No answer came. Ten days later he sent another: "Letter still unanswered. What of lawn seeds?"

The seeds arrived, but they did not do well. So Shoghi Effendi asked a cousin in Egypt to send him the best grass seed that could be found there. That did not work out either.

Then he wrote letters himself to four seed companies, one in France and three in England, and ordered grass seeds, flower seeds, bulbs and cuttings.

This time the lawns grew. A year later he wrote to one of the companies for more seed, saying he was very happy with the lawn. These may have been the first big lawns ever grown in that land. Green lawns and red paths became part of the gardens he made, year after year, on Mount Carmel and at Bahjí.

Rúhíyyih Rabbání, who later became his wife, wrote in her diary about the way Shoghi Effendi worked whenever he set his mind on getting something done:

He descends on it like a hurricane and never lets up until it is done.

This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see "The Lawns on Mount Carmel".

Rabbání, R.. (1969). *The Priceless Pearl*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://bahai-library.com/khanum_priceless_pearl