Changing Times Blog

8 Details from the Guardian’s Life

“Like a cloud-break in a stormy sky these words [Salutation and praise..rest upon..the Primal Branch], even as a mighty shaft of sunlight, broke through the gloom and tempest of dangerous years and shone from on high upon a small boy.” – Priceless Pearl

• The Greatest Holy Leaf would take Shoghi Effendi’s hands into hers and remark: “These are like the hands of my father [Baha'u'llah].”
• As a child, he had memorized some touching passages written by ‘Abdu’l-Baha after the Ascension of Baha’u'llah and when he chanted these, the tears would roll down the earnest little face.
• During his 1922 stay in Switzerland, the Guardian bought a bicycle and cycled over many passes and although he had “a lack of mechanical sense”, he always arrived home safe.
• Queen Marie of Rumania and her daughter had already docked with their boat in Haifa, when she was informed her visit was impolitic and not permissible, was put in a car and whisked away to another country.
• During World War II, the Guardian, Ruhiyyih Khanum and Sutherland Maxwell left Haifa to seek safety in England. They passed through Italy just three days before Italy declared war on the Allies. They took a train through France amongst thousands of refugees and were finally stranded for two weeks in the coastal town of St.Malo until they caught the last ship to England, only hours before the Germans captured St. Malo.
• Although he never travelled across the Atlantic, the Guardian travelled twice through Africa from South through to Palestine. Once during his studies in Oxford, the other time when returning from England during World War II. On the way, they made excursions into the jungles and took a boat up the Nile
• In spite of the commotion caused by the seizure of the keys to the Shrine of Baha’u'llah by the Covenant-breakers, Shoghi Effendi gave instructions calmly as to where the lights should be placed inside and outside the Shrine, as it was in process of being illuminated.
• “He is extraordinarily unidirectional. His persistence is irresistible, there is no dissipation of his forces. He only wants one thing, he wants it passionately, immediately, completely, perfectly. He descends on it like a hurricane and never lets up until its done.” – Ruhiyyih Khanum

From Ruhiyyih Rabbani’s Priceless Pearl

Tags: Bahai, bahais, guardian, life, priceless pearl, ruhiyyih khanum, shoghi effendi