Baha'ism

Shoghi Effendi

After the death of ‘Abd al-Baha’, his grandson Shoghi Effendi Rabbani54 (1897-1957) became the official head of the Baha’i faith, although for a brief period the Baha’is were led by the sister of ‘Abd al-Baha’, Bahiyyah Khanum (1846-1932). Although not officially appointed, she served in this role a number of times during the sabbatical absences of Shoghi Effendi.

While his grandson was still a boy, ‘Abd al-Baha’ had provisioned in his will that Shoghi Effendi would act as the first vali-ye amr allah ‘Guardian of the Cause of God’. Predictably, the leadership of Shoghi Effendi was challenged and like his grandfather he eventually expelled nearly every member of his extended family (including those who refused to shun family members already labelled Covenant-Breakers).55

Unlike his predecessors who essentially remained within the world of the oriental Islamic Middle East, Shoghi Effendi was educated under a western Christian system. He attended both Catholic and Protestant schools in Palestine and Syria and began studies in political science, economics and English at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.56 He had a thorough command of the English language and it was under his direction that the Baha’i faith became westernised.

Shoghi Effendi’s was a brilliant administrator and he spent his life systematising the new religion; translating important Babi and Baha’i works into English and overseeing the construction of major architectural projects for the Baha’i world centre in Haifa. Most importantly he delineated the boundaries of Baha’i orthodoxy (history, doctrines, beliefs and practices) in such a manner that the Baha’i faith became an independent religious entity, firmly distinguishable from its Islamo-Babi matrix.

Shoghi Effendi decided to marry Mary Sutherland Maxwell57 (1910-2000), the daughter of two prominent western believers, rather suddenly in 1937 after a brief, secret courtship.58 They had no children and Shoghi Effendi died intestate in 1957. He is buried in London, where he passed away, which is a point of minor pilgrimage for Baha’is.

Next > Baha'ism: Hands of the Cause

References

54Shoghi Effendi was the grandson of ‘Abd al-Baha’ by the latter’s eldest daughter Diya’iyyah (d.1951). His father was Mirza Hadi Shirazi Afnan (d. 1955), a remote in-law of the Bab.

55Momen, Moojan, “The Covenant”, unpublished article, 13 Dec. 2002, <http://www.northill.demon.co.uk/relstud/covenant.htm>.

56Smith, “Shoghi Effendi Rabbání”, A Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahá’í Faith 315.

57Shoghi Effendi gave her the title and name Amatul-Baha’ “Handmaiden of Baha’” Ruhiyyih Khanum.

58Rabbani, Ruhiyyih, The Priceless Pearl (London: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1969) 149-152.

Next > Baha'ism: Hands of the Cause