An excerpt from Shoghi Effendi: Recollections by Ugo Giachery
Oxford: George Ronald, 1973; pages 149-150
Before proceeding to the momentous decision of building the
new International Archives, I should like to mention an episode
which further demonstrates the eager interest of Shoghi Effendi
in collecting information and facts pertaining to the Sacred
Writings and the history of the Cause. One evening, as I entered
the dining-room, the Guardian was already seated at his
place at the table, his face shining with an inner jubilation which he
could
neither control nor conceal. At his side, upon the table, stood a
small bundle, an object wrapped in a coloured silk handkerchief,
typical of the East and of Iran in particular. As soon as we were all
seated and attentive, even before dinner was served, he said that a
pilgrim had that day arrived from Tihrán, bringing with him one
of the most precious documents to be placed in the archives. He
untied the handkerchief and with great reverence lifted out a
manuscript in book form, and, placing it in a position that every
one could see, added that it contained two original Tablets in the
handwriting of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. One was the Íqán and the other
was a Tablet the name of which I do not now remember.
These manuscripts, Shoghi Effendi stated, were transcribed by
'Abdu'l-Bahá in His beautiful calligraphy, when He was about
eighteen years old, and bore some additions in the Hand of
Bahá'u'lláh, insertions which He had written on the margins of
many pages in reviewing the manuscripts. Shoghi Effendi had
never before seen the original of the Íqán and was deeply astonished
to discover that the phrase he had chosen from this book and
placed on the title page of his translation of Nabíl's Narrative, The
Dawn-Breakers, was an after-reflection of Bahá'u'lláh's, written
by Himself, on the margin of one page. The phrase in question is
the one starting: 'I stand, life in hand, ready; that perchance...'*
The Guardian, that evening, was not only astonished but overjoyed
as well, because he was conscious that through a mysterious
process he had been inspired to adopt that phrase as an eternal
testimonial to Bahá'u'lláh's yearning to sacrifice His life for the
Báb, the Primal Point. All of us who were seated at the table were
awed and profoundly stirred, and I, in particular, felt that the
existence of a spiritual link between our Guardian and the invisible
world of God was something that no one should ever
doubt.
* Kitáb-i-Íqán , p. 161 (Brit. ed.), p. 252 (U.S. ed.). See DB for the translation here used, which appears on the title page.
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