The Guardian's Chosen Name

A retelling drawn from The Priceless Pearl by Rúḥíyyih Khánum, with the words of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament. The narrative is in our own words; words in quotation marks are quoted from those texts.

Shoghi Effendi was born in 'Akká on 1 March 1897, the eldest grandson of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. During his early years of study in Haifa he asked his Grandfather for a name of his own, because he was always being confused with his cousins, who were all called Afnán. 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave him the surname Rabbání, which means "divine," and his brothers and sisters used it too.

He studied at the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut and later at Balliol College, Oxford. Rúḥíyyih Khánum writes that "the entire course of Shoghi Effendi's studies was aimed by him at fitting himself to serve the Master, interpret for Him and translate His letters into English."

On 29 November 1921 a cable reached the London office of Major Tudor Pole: "His Holiness 'Abdu'l-Bahá ascended Abha Kingdom. Inform friends. Greatest Holy Leaf." Shoghi Effendi arrived at the office about noon, saw the open cablegram on the desk and read it. Tudor Pole came into the room a moment later and found him in a state of collapse. He was taken to the home of one of the London believers, Miss Grand, and put to bed for a few days. He sailed from England on 16 December with his sister and Lady Blomfield, and reached Haifa on 29 December. His great-aunt, Bahíyyih Khánum, the sister of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, was waiting for him in the house.

After the Master's passing, His family had searched His papers for instructions about His burial. They found none, but they found His Will, addressed to Shoghi Effendi. A few days after his arrival they read it to him. He later said on more than one occasion that he had had no foreknowledge of the institution of the Guardianship, least of all that he had been appointed to it. In the Will 'Abdu'l-Bahá wrote of him as "the most wondrous, unique and priceless pearl that doth gleam from out the Twin surging seas," and told the believers to turn to him:

...as he is the sign of God, the chosen branch, the Guardian of the Cause of God, he unto whom all the Aghsán, the Afnán, the Hands of the Cause of God and His loved ones must turn. He is the Interpreter of the Word of God...

Rúḥíyyih Khánum writes that in the empty house he sank "under the waters of darkest grief and despair." On 6 February 1922 he wrote to his friend Mrs Whyte: "The task is so overwhelmingly great, the realization of the inadequacy of my efforts and myself so deep that I cannot but give way and droop whenever I face my work..."

A month later, on 5 March, he added a postscript to a letter to the American believers:

May I also express my heartfelt desire that the friends of God in every land regard me in no other light but that of a true brother, united with them in our common servitude to the Master's Sacred Threshold, and refer to me in their letters and verbal addresses always as Shoghi Effendi, for I desire to be known by no other name save the one our Beloved Master was wont to utter, a name which of all other designations is the most conducive to my spiritual growth and advancement.

On 5 April 1922 he left Haifa for Europe with his eldest cousin, placing the affairs of the Faith for a time under the supervision of the Holy Family and the headship of the Greatest Holy Leaf until he had regained his strength. He signed the letter that explained this "The servant of His Threshold, Shoghi." In the autumn, distressed by his long absence, Bahíyyih Khánum sent members of the family to find him. One evening, returning from a long walk in a mountain village, he found his mother in the street looking for him; she had come all the way from Palestine. She persuaded him to come home, and he was back in Haifa in December 1922.

The same wish to keep attention away from himself appears in a cable he sent to India in 1924: "My birthday should not be commemorated". He served as Guardian for thirty-six years, until his passing in London in November 1957.

This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see The Priceless Pearl by Rúḥíyyih Khánum, and the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.

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