Effendi Shoghi

“ Shoghi Effendi has read with much pleasure your welcome message of the 23rd of May last, and has learned with deep satisfaction of the success of the meeting you have held on the occasion of the anniversary of Báb’s Declaration. He feels, indeed, so happy to realize how unitedly and harmoniously your community is discharging its activities, and is certain that, as years go by, it will increasingly manifest a zeal and ardour that will enable it to achieve accomplishments that will not only be unique but which will have far-reaching effects upon the progress of the Cause throughout Germany. ”

“ I am deeply grateful to you for your constant and splendid services to our beloved Faith. These services and achievements will, no doubt, attract the blessings of Bahá’u’lláh. Rest assured that the Beloved is well pleased with your accomplishments, and will increasingly bless your high endeavours. May every obstacle be removed from your path and the dearest wish of your heart fulfilled. ”

“ He realizes that every effort the friends make in Germany these days is made in the face of great obstacles and at the cost of real sacrifice. But they must ever keep their goals in sight, and persevere for the sake of the Cause and for the sake of their fellow-countrymen who now, in their greatest hour of need, have the right to hear of Bahá’u’lláh Who alone can save the world and lead it to peace and happiness. ”

“ Your welcome message dated November 4th is just at hand, and its perusal has, as usual, greatly cheered our Guardian’s heart. He feels ever so grateful to you for the remarkable spirit and manner in which you are collaborating for the further consolidation of Bahá’í administration in your locality. Your painstaking labours to this end are being surely rewarded and guided by Bahá’u’lláh Who, as so often promised in His writings, will sustain and bless all those who arise to promote His message, and whom, no consideration whatever, deters from serving His Cause. ”

“ Shoghi Effendi has been deeply touched by your very cordial message of the 31st December, and is moved to write to you again and to assure you of his best wishes, and of his continued prayers for your protection and guidance in those hard and trying times.
His thoughts often turn to you and to our well-beloved German brethren in dear remembrance and loving appreciation of your services to the Cause. He is daily supplicating the Beloved to cheer and comfort your hearts, strengthen and guide your steps, and keep you ever steadfast and loyal in His path. ”

“ May the Spirit of Bahá’u’lláh guide, sustain and protect you in your deeply valued endeavours for the propagation of our glorious Faith, aid you to add to your numbers, to deepen your understanding of its fundamental truths, and promote its vital interests. ”

“ The Guardian has always wished to see Esslingen a great and flourishing Bahá’í center, just as our beloved Master always hoped that it may become. Of course you realize that perseverance, enthusiasm and a firm faith in the ultimate success of our Cause is necessary, and when we are assisted by the Almighty there can be no doubt that all our endeavours will be crowned with success. ”

“ No one can decide for you what you must do. Your own heart must tell you that your place is serving this struggling new Faith in the days when it is still, for the most part, unrecognized by the masses. ”

“ The Guardian sincerely hopes and prays that the study of the Dawn-Breakers will inspire the friends to greater activity and more exerted energy in serving the Cause and spreading its message in that town. The life of those heroes of the Faith should teach us what true sacrifice is, and to what extent we should forego our personal and worldly interests while endeavouring to carry the divine message to the four corners of the earth. ”

“ He was very pleased to hear you were able to visit the Bahá’í convention in Hamburg, and that you found the believers there so enthusiastic and devoted. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done everywhere, and such active and tireless workers, as you and your dear family, are needed urgently in every direction!
He most deeply values your loyalty, your devotion and your services. ”

“ The Guardian has received the letter you had written him on behalf of the Esslingen Assembly and dated September 27th, and wishes you to convey to your fellow-members in that body his thanks and appreciation, and his gratitude for the sentiments they had expressed to him through you. He very deeply values the assurances of love, loyalty and devotion you have given him, and is ardently praying that Bahá’u’lláh may abundantly reward you for all these evidences of your undying attachment to His Cause. ”

“ The German friends must always remember that, after the long years of suppression, and the war, when they were both cut off from the Guardian and forbidden to hold organized meetings, it is only natural that difficulties should sometimes arise in the course of their progress.
The main thing, however, is that all the believers should at all times feel conscious of their deep unity and brotherhood in the Cause of God, and that with love and understanding they should arise to overcome every problem, knowing that the Master will help and assist them to do so. ”

“ The progress being made by the Faith in Germany is excellent. It is if at last the Cause were let out of the cage and can spread its wings there and fly—and the hearts of the German people are a very rich field in which to sow the Divine Seeds. He has always foreseen for Germany a great future in the Bahá’í world... ”

“ Shoghi Effendi was very glad to learn that you devote a considerable amount of your time to the study of the teachings. It is absolutely essential for those who desire to spread the movement to be quite familiar with the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and the Master. Without that knowledge we may be spreading our own views and wrongly attributing to them things that are the result of our imaginings. ”

“ He is ardently praying on your behalf that the spirit which is animating you may ever grow deeper, and may translate itself into sustained and whole-hearted service to the Faith in the beloved land of Germany. He is specially entreating the Beloved that the difficulties which you and your beloved co-workers in that land are so unexpectedly encountering may be gradually removed, and that you may be again set free to assist in spreading the Teachings among your fellow-countrymen. ”

“ For what the Cause greatly needs in Germany at present is unity, both of thought and action. Not until the believers succeed in putting the Bahá’í principle of cooperation and fellowship into actual practice can they hope to vindicate the truth of the Message. Unity, therefore, is vital, and constitutes the main key to the success of your endeavours in every field of Bahá’í activity. ”

“ On the contrary, Bahá’u’lláh says God has created all the good things in the world for us to enjoy and partake of. But we must not become attached to them and put them before the spiritual things. Chastity in the strict sense means not to have sexual intercourse, or sexual intimacies, before marriage. In the general sense it means not to be licentious. This does not mean we Bahá’ís believe sexual relations to be impure or wrong. On the contrary they are natural and should be considered one of God’s many blessings. He does not know anything about whether albumen and delicious food affect sex ”

“ However gloomy the immediate future may seem to appear, the prospect which the distant future has in store for the community of German believers is of such immeasurable brightness as it cannot but afford the deepest comfort and encouragement to you in your moments of uttermost sorrow and distress. ”

“ All the believers there were so happy to have a German brother with them! Also, he has received reports of the excellent teaching work on the Covenant that your dear husband is doing. This is very important, especially at this time when Ahmad Sohrab is trying to again become active in Germany.
The German friends must learn to put the teachings above personalities and stop taking sides. This is a sign of immaturity and this old and beloved community cannot afford to linger in childhood, but must become a strong adult community of united, alert and active believers.... ”

“ He feels that you should not ask the believers not to elect you to the Spiritual Assembly during the coming year. However, you might ask your fellow-members not to elect you as Chairman or as an officer of the Spiritual Assembly, if you are reelected to that body. This will lighten your work, and enable you, if you do not feel well enough, to omit attending some of the meetings; but your presence on the Assembly, if elected to it, the Guardian feels is important, because of your long experience in the Faith and your loyalty and tact.... ”

“ As to your third question Shoghi Effendi would like you to understand that when one believes in one to be divinely inspired and when one is convinced that he has a great mission to the world in his teachings, he must very naturally be ready to accept all that that world-teacher that divinely-inspired man says. ”

“ If you must go back to Stuttgart, he hopes you can still live in its neighbourhood and be instrumental in forming another Assembly, rather than to be just one more Bahá’í in an already crowded Community. As you perhaps already know, he has urged the large communities to send out pioneers. Indeed, if only fifteen Bahá’ís remained in each city, willing to serve, it would be quite sufficient to maintain the Spiritual Assembly. The sooner the rest would arise to pioneer, the better it would be for them and for the Faith. ”

“ Consider what source of joy and gratification it should be to you to see people, who have been for years seeking for the truth and craving to obtain it, who look upon the prevailing conditions of the world with distress and earnestly pray for salvation, find through you the object of their quest and attain the peace, tranquillity and spiritual life which they have longed for. ”

“ But as Bahá’u’lláh in the book of Aqdas directs the friends to bury their dead, he indirectly discourages cremation. Whether there is some basic reason for such a preference he does not say, but we may try and find it.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá does often state that the medical science will much improve. With the appearance of every Revelation a new insight is created in man and this in turn expresses itself in the growth of science. This has happened in past dispensations and we find its earliest fruits in our present day. What we see however is only the beginning. ”

“ Firmness in the Covenant is their Fortress, their greatest protection, and new Bahá’ís should be taught this before they are admitted into the Community. In this way they will be given the spiritual strength to overcome the tests which are inevitable, and which strengthen the growth of the Community and drive its roots deeper in the soil of faith. ”