The Light of Divine Guidance Volume I Part 8

14 June 1933

Dear Dr. Muhlschlegel:

Many thanks for your letter of June 4th 1933. I presented it together with the enclosed report on the Summer school to the Guardian who was very pleased to read them.

He kept the report but wishes me to inform you that as the Baha'i World Volume five will not be compiled and made ready for the press except after the coming summer, you could write another and fuller report to include the one that will be held this year. There will surely be some further points of interest that could be mentioned; and it is always better to have such reports as up-to-date as possible.

The Guardian hopes that this summer a great step will be taken in developing the School and that you will play an important role in that connection.

In case of the need of further correspondence on this or similar subjects please write directly to Shoghi Effendi, it will avoid unnecessary delay.

In closing may I express the Guardian's prayers and best wishes for the progress of your work in serving the Faith....

LETTER OF 27 JUNE 1933

27 June 1933

Dear Dr. Muhlschlegel:

Shoghi Effendi wishes me to acknowledge on his behalf the receipt of your letter dated May 11th, 1933, together with the enclosed Program of the Baha'i meetings held in Stuttgart and Esslingen, all of which he has carefully read and deeply appreciated.

In regard to the transliteration of Oriental names and words into German he wishes me to inform you that the system of transliteration actually in use in the Baha'i world has been adopted and approved with only slight changes by a general Orientalist Congress representative of world's greatest orientalists including some outstanding German authorities in various branches of Oriental history and literature. As you see, therefore, it is a highly recommendable system of transliteration and this is why the Guardian is so emphatic about its univeral adoption by the Baha'is the world over. Any departure from that system, he strongly feels, may lead to incalculable difficulties and misunderstandings in the future.

He would certainly urge you to adopt it yourself and then advise our German friends to do the same in all their official Baha'i publications and particularly in the forthcoming issues of the "Sonne der Wahrheit"

wherein some chapters of the "Dawn-Breakers" are going to be published.

Concerning the date of the anniversary of the Bab's declaration the Guardian feels that it would be preferable to postpone the consideration of this problem until the Universal House of Justice is established. In the meantime he would advise you to follow the system actually in use in the Baha'i world, i.e. (year 9.) even in Germany. According to this system the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of the Faith should be celebrated in May of the year 101, that is when we enter the second Baha'i century. By year 90 we should not mean that 90 years have elapsed since the declaration of the Bab but that we are in the 9th year. But whether it is preferable to adopt this system or that suggested by you and which, you remark, is in use among Christians and Moslems, the future House of Justice has to decide.

Touching the Baha'i funeral service the Guardian would like you to know that it is of an extreme simplicity, consisting as it does of a congregational prayer which has not yet been translated into any western language but which Shoghi Effendi is planning to have it translated and circulated among the friends. The friends and relatives of the deceased who are unwilling to attend the service should not be forced to do so.

In closing may I extend to you the loving greetings of the Guardian....

[From the Guardian:]

Dear and valued co-worker:

This is to a.s.sure you how glad and gratified I feel to learn that the German believers are taking so active a part in the international activities of the Cause. Their thoroughness, ability, patience and open-mindedness highly qualify them to a.s.sume such responsibilities and undertake so great a task. I trust that the letters you will soon be sending to the British High Commissioner for Palestine will be a prelude to the brilliant services you are destined to render to the Cause of Baha'u'llah.

Your true brother, Shoghi

LETTER OF 9 AUGUST 1933

9 August 1933

Dear Dr. Muhlschlegel:

I am directed by Shoghi Effendi to inform you of the receipt of your letter dated July 13th, 1933, together with the enclosed copy of the pet.i.tion addressed by the German Baha'i National a.s.sembly to the British High Commissioner in Jerusalem and the report of the Baha'i activities in Stuttgart, all of which he has read with great care and deepest interest and for which he has asked me to offer you his heartfelt thanks.

Your pet.i.tion, though short is, nevertheless, strongly worded and very substantial. It is hoped that it will impress the authorities in Palestine and will enable them to realize the gravity and the urgency of our case.

a.s.suring you of his best wishes and of his ardent prayers for the success of your work,...

[From the Guardian:]

Dear and prized co-worker:

Your prompt and able response to my request has greatly touched me, and I wish to express again my lovely appreciation and abiding grat.i.tude. I cherish great hopes for your future contributions to the spread and consolidation of the Faith in that land, and will continue to pray for your success from the depths of my heart.

Your true and affectionate brother, Shoghi

LETTER OF 1 OCTOBER 1933 (SUMMER SCHOOL)

1 October 1933 (Summer School)

Dear Baha'i co-workers,

The Guardian has just received your beautiful message of Sep. 3rd, 33, written through the kindness of Miss Jack, and he has directed me to thank you all for the success that has attended your summer school cla.s.ses at Esslingen. The importance and significance of such annual gatherings are immense, since they offer each and every one of you a unique opportunity to come and discuss together the ways and means whereby the Faith can extend and develop throughout Germany. By the collective spirit, the unity and the enthusiasm they create, these meetings serve to strengthen the bonds of amity and cooperation among the friends and to give them a new vision of the Cause, of its imperative needs and requirements in these days of political agitation and strife. The social and political conditions in your land are, indeed, very distressing, and if they remain unchanged for a long time, may hamper the progress of the Faith. It is now that you should work in utmost unity and in the spirit of an unflinching devotion to the ideals and teachings of the Cause.

Shoghi Effendi hopes that your summer school will increasingly develop and will become an important center for the spread of the Message. You should try to raise its intellectual as well as its spiritual standard and to pave the way for its future development into one of the foremost Baha'i universities in the West. Much stress should be laid on the thorough study of the history and of the teachings of the Cause, and particularly of the nature, basis and outstanding features of the Administration. The severe tests and trials through which our German brethren have pa.s.sed during the last few years clearly demonstrate how much they are in need of a full comprehension of the administrative basis of the Cause. It is hoped that in the coming years much progress will be achieved in this respect.

a.s.suring you all of our Guardian's best wishes and of his ardent prayers on your behalf....

[From the Guardian:]

Dear co-workers:

It is such a joy to learn that you have had the pleasure and benefit of the companionship of our dear and distinguished Baha'i sister, Miss Jack, whose recent and exemplary services we all deeply appreciate. I will remember you all in my prayers at the holy shrines, and will supplicate for you the Beloved's richest blessings. May He guide your steps and cheer your hearts in the service of His glorious and sacred Faith,

Your true brother, Shoghi