Rameez Makhdoomi
Few humans change the course of humanity towards love, kindness and mercy. Shoghi Effendi is among those rare gems .
Shoghí Effendi born 1 March 1897 and died November 1957) is among the top intellectual minds of globe. He was the grandson and successor of ʻAbdu’l-Bahá, appointed to the role of Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith from 1921 until his death in 1957.He created a series of teaching plans that oversaw the expansion of the faith to many new countries, and also translated many of the writings of the Baháʼí central figures.He was succeeded by an interim arrangement of the Hands of the Cause until the election of the Universal House of Justice in 1963.
He was full of knowledge. He had a humane vision and merciful outlook to everything.
Shoghi Effendi spent his early life in ʻAkká, but went on to study in Haifa and Beirut, gaining an arts degree from the Syrian Protestant College in 1918, then serving as secretary and translator to ʻAbdu’l-Bahá. In 1920 he attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied political science and economics, but his second year was interrupted by the death of ʻAbdu’l-Bahá and his appointment as Guardian at the age of 24.
Shoghi Effendi was the leader and head of the Baháʼí Faith for 36 years. He sent more than 17,500 letters, mostly in Persian and English, directing and keeping up with the progress of existing Baháʼí communities, responding to persecution in the Middle East, coordinating teaching efforts, and building up the Baháʼí World Center in Haifa.
His quotes are world famous full of vision and humanity. Like : For what pleasure can compare the pleasure of bringing joy and hope to other hearts. The more we make others happy the greater will be our own happiness and the deeper our sense of having served humanity.”
— Shoghi Effendi
The troubles of this world pass, and what we have left is what we have made of our souls, so it is to this we must look to becoming more spiritual, drawing nearer to God, no matter what our human minds and bodies go through.”
— Shoghi Effendi.
He had a vision that Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving.
With characteristic calm and perception, Shoghi Effendi saw the potential for triumph in every apparent crisis facing the Bahá’ís. Also, While assisting the community to take action in national courts and on the international stage to defend their basic human rights, he also taught them to see difficulties as opportunities to carry forward the work of the Faith.
Significantly, he married a Westerner. And when illness took his life much too soon, in London, he would even be buried in the West; in death as in life, he continues to bring Easterners to the West just as he brought Westerners to the East.
He was without a doubt a great humanist.
