Shoghi Effendi

Shoghí Effendi (;; }} ;1896 or 1897 After its erection, his wife found written evidence that his real birthday was 1 March 1897.}} – 4 November 1957) was Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith from 1922 until his death in 1957. As the grandson and successor of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, he was charged with guiding the development of the Baháʼí Faith, including the creation of its global administrative structure and the prosecution of a series of teaching plans that oversaw the expansion of the religion to a number of new countries. As the authorized interpreter of the Baháʼí Writings his translations of the primary written works of the Faith’s central figures, provided unity of understanding about essential teachings of the Faith and safeguarded its followers from division. Upon his death in 1957, leadership passed to the Hands of the Cause, and in 1963 the Baháʼís of the world elected the Universal House of Justice, an institution which had been described and planned by Baháʼu’llah.

Effendi, an Afnán, was born Shoghí Rabbání in ʻAkká (Acre) where he spent his early life, but later went on to study in Haifa and Beirut, gaining an arts degree from the Syrian Protestant College in 1918 and then serving as ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's secretary and translator. In 1920, he attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied political science and economics, but before completing his studies news reached him of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death, requiring him to return to Haifa. Shortly after his return at the end of December 1921 he learned that in his Will and Testament ʻAbdu'l-Bahá' had named him as the Guardian of the Baháʼí Faith. Shoghi Effendi's clear vision for the Baháʼí Faith's progress was inherited from ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and based on the original writings of Baháʼu’llah, two particularly important aspects of his leadership focused on building its administration and spreading the faith worldwide.

During his 36 years as Guardian Shoghi Effendi translated and expounded on many of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, established plans by which the faith was enabled to spread globally, and sent more than 17,500 letters. He kept in touch with progress in all existing Bahá’i communities as well as monitoring and responding to the situation in the Middle East, where the believers were still suffering persecution. He also began work on establishing Haifa, Israel, as the  Bahá’i World Center, and created an International Bahá’i Council to aid him in his work, several members being newly appointed Hands of the Cause. He also presided over the community's enlargement from 1,034 localities in 1935 to 2,700 in 1953, and further to 14,437 localities in 1963. From the beginning to the end of his leadership, the total population of Baháʼís around the world grew from 100,000 to 400,000.

Shoghi Effendi died during a visit to London in 1957, having contracted Asian flu, and is buried at New Southgate Cemetery in the city of London. Provided by Wikipedia