Only God Can Give Me Relief

Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas, who served beside Shoghi Effendi in Haifa during the last years of the Guardian’s life, recalled this conversation in a talk he gave in Johannesburg in 1958:

Sometime later, I usually had the privilege of walking home with the Guardian after he left the pilgrims, and very often he talked further about the subject which we had been discussing at dinner, and gave further amplification, which, of course, were very precious moments, and he gave very precious things. So, that evening he had been talking about spiritual matters. It was the most spiritual talk that I had ever heard the Guardian give all the time that I was in Haifa. It seemed like he was opening a door into Heaven and letting us look in for awhile. And of course I was hoping as we walked home that he was going to continue talking about this subject, and perhaps give some more elucidations. Well, we got half way home and he turned around and says, “Leroy, as you know, I’ve been Guardian of the Cause for thirty-six years. And the responsibilities and the worries are just weighting me down. In the days of the Báb, the Faith was established in two countries. In the days of Bahá’u’lláh, there were eleven countries. In the days of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, there were thirty-one countries. Today, there are over two hundred and fifty countries and islands in the world.” He said, “I have so many things weighting me down. I have to consider the future of the Cause. I have to consider the welfare of the Cause in every country. And I have all this burning correspondence, all of this work, all of the time. All of these things weighting me down, and I have got to have relief.” Then I said, “Shoghi Effendi, why don’t you give me those papers? I can do a lot more work than I’m doing. I’ll have to have a lot of help in my office, and I’ve got to have more help doing the things I’m doing, but I can take those papers and I can quote those papers and I can digest them, I can tell you what the questions are, and I can let you know what they are, and all you have to do is let me know what the answer is.” I said, “That will give you some relief.” And he turned with tears in his eyes, and he said, “Only God can give me relief.”

Now, was he telling us that he would soon be leaving us? I don’t know. It never dawned on us for a moment that that’s what he was doing.

Source: Leroy Ioas, “In the Days of the Guardian”, a talk given in Johannesburg, South Africa, 31 October 1958 (audio and transcript, Bahá’í Library Online).

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: shoghi-effendi-premonition-death).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/shoghi-effendi-premonition-death