From the earliest days of his ministry Shoghi Effendi set
about creating order in what was then a very small Bahá'í world, barely
existing in some of the thirty-five countries which had received at least a ray
of illumination from the Light of Bahá'u'lláh. The great, guiding lines were
clear in his mind and as he grew older, and the community of believers grew and
increased in experience, these lines became clearer and details were added.
'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself in His Will and Testament had foreshadowed this unfoldment
when He said of the Guardian, "that day by day he may wax greater in
happiness, in joy and spirituality, and may grow to become even as a fruitful
tree." Time and space do not permit of a chronological recapitulation of
this evolution. We must try to catch the great vision he gave us and see how
the details were gradually filled in. So often, as I listened to and observed
Shoghi Effendi, I felt he was the only real Bahá'í in the world. Everyone else,
claiming to be a Bahá'í, had a portion of the Faith, an angle on it, a concept,
however large, tinctured by his own limitations, but the Guardian saw it as a
whole, in all its greatness and perfect balance. He had not only the capacity
to see but to analyse and express with brilliant clarity what he saw.
- Ruhiyyih
Khanum (‘The Priceless Pearl’)
