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During the early years of the Baha’i Faith, when Baha’is made their pilgrimage to visit the shrines of the Bab and Baha’u’llah in the Holy Land, they had the bounty of meeting Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi.
Those central figures of the Baha’i Faith — Abdu’l-Baha, the son and successor of its founder Baha’u’llah; and Shoghi Effendi, Abdu’l-Baha’s grandson and the Faith’s appointed Guardian after Abdu’l-Baha’s passing — warmly welcomed Baha’i pilgrims from all over the world.
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This brief excerpt from Baha’u’llah’s Tablet of Visitation explains why Baha’is travel as pilgrims to the holy places where the Bab and Baha’u’llah are interred — to honor and worship the prophets of God:
I bear witness that he who hath known Thee hath known God, and he who hath attained unto Thy presence hath attained unto the presence of God. Great, therefore, is the blessedness of him who hath believed in Thee, and in Thy signs, and hath humbled himself before Thy sovereignty, and hath been honored with meeting Thee, and hath attained the good pleasure of Thy will, and circled around Thee, and stood before Thy throne.
Here is Meherangiz Munsiff’s remembrance of her first pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where her dearest wish — to meet Shoghi Effendi — came true:
In 1947 my husband, Eruch Munsiff, was part of the first group of diplomats sent to England from India after its independence. Both of us were Baha’is now, and we yearned to go on our Baha’i pilgrimage.
Then in 1952, a cable came, saying something to the effect that, “Now the way is open and the [Baha’is] may apply for pilgrimage. They are welcome.”
Who do you think was first in line? We sent a cable, and Shoghi Effendi said, “Most welcome.” …
On the last day prior to our departure I went to the Baha’i Centre and met a Persian lady who had a shining, brilliant face. In those days, I was rather fond of fashion and tried to look as glamorous as I could. Appreciating how lovely she was, I asked her, “How come you are so beautiful? What have you done to your face? Do you eat or do anything special?”
She said, “Nothing.”
I said, “Come on now.” She was Persian, so I said “No taarof, tell me.” [Taarof is the Persian custom of ritual politeness]
She said, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
I said, “Your face is just brilliant. It’s beautiful.”
She said, “Maybe, just maybe, I don’t know … I’ve just come back from Haifa, meeting Shoghi Effendi.”
I said, “That’s it! Come on, you are coming home with me.”
I took her home. I said to her, “Sit down. Please tell me everything that happened, and what’s the protocol.” My husband being in the diplomatic service I was very conscious of protocol, and anyway I didn’t know how to behave in the presence of Shoghi Effendi.
“Oh,” she said, “It’s nothing in particular. There were twenty pilgrims from Iran …”
To me this was a disaster; an utter total disaster. I had always wanted to be alone with Shoghi Effendi. So that night, I started to pray in the bedroom, talking to Shoghi Effendi. “Shoghi Effendi I love you so much. I don’t want anybody to be there. I just want to be with you, alone. I don’t need you to explain any plans, because I’m not intelligent and not so clever to execute plans. I have no wishes other than to be alone with you. I have no complaints about anybody. All I want is that you just let me sit by your feet. You go on doing what you have to do. And I’ll just sit there and look at you and be there. That’s all I want. But please let me be alone with you.”
My husband, observing these rantings, kept saying, “My dear, I think you’ve lost your marbles. Shoghi Effendi’s not here. He’s in Haifa. Who are you talking to like that all the time? Get to bed. We have to get up early and go at 4 o’clock for the train to Marseilles.”
Finally I told him, “You go to bed. Shoghi Effendi can hear me. I know he hears me.”
“Oh my gosh,” he muttered, “She is really crazy.” Understandably, my poor husband was quite worried that I had truly lost my mind.
From Marseilles we got the boat and arrived in Haifa after a very difficult passage.
[When we debarked,] all of a sudden there came another announcement. “Where are Mr. and Mrs. Munsiff? Shoghi Effendi is waiting for them.” At which point I have to say I lost it: I had my purse in my hand which they still had to examine. I just banged it on the [Customs] counter and said, “Look, sir, that’s all yours. I’m going. Did you hear that announcement? Shoghi Effendi is calling us. He’s waiting. I won’t make him wait. You can take all you like.”
Stunned, he looked at me and said, “Okay, okay, madam, don’t get so upset,” and he quickly passed us through.
My sense of direction is not good at the best of times and as we were walking up the hill, I didn’t really know where we were. As we came through a gate, I saw a lady waiting, and another lady beside her. As I was going up the steps, I knew it was Abdu’l-Baha’s house. The other lady was Persian, but I didn’t know whether the first lady was American or European. But as I first saw her, I felt compelled to fall at her feet, until something said, “Come on now. Control yourself, you’re going crazy. This time your husband is right. You don’t just fall at the feet of anybody.”
I didn’t know who the lady waiting to receive us was. Later I came to know she was Ruhiyyih Khanum. I had not seen Khanum’s photograph. I had no idea who she was, but seeing her had a profound effect on me. I did manage to control myself by telling myself, “My husband will really get mad at me now.” Fortunately, I didn’t do anything. And she embraced me, “Welcome, welcome, Shoghi Effendi is waiting for you.”
It was late at night. My husband was taken in [to meet with Shoghi Effendi] first. And Khanum made me sit down. She realized I was terribly nervous, not nervous in the sense of being afraid, but nervous with excitement. She gave me tea and reassured me, saying, “Calm down. Settle down.” Then after a while she said, “Okay, now you and Jyoti can come.” I had not prepared Jyoti in any way but when she walked in, without any prompting, she immediately fell at the feet of Shoghi Effendi. He picked her up and said, “It’s not allowed. You mustn’t do that.” Well, I prefer not to share what happened to me, but in any event he welcomed us. . .
When we were coming out, I was weeping, and my daughter said to me, “Mummy, mummy” very softly so as not to be rude, “Please don’t cry. Did you know he’s the biggest, the greatest man in the whole world? Did you not hear his voice mummy?” She thought I was crying because I was disappointed. She kept insistently saying to me, “Did you not hear the power in his voice? He is the biggest and the best.”
I said, “Yes, I know.”
“Then,” she asked, “Why are you crying?”
I said, “Because I am happy.”
She had very big eyes and long eye lashes, and she just turned her eyes up as though saying, “Well, I don’t understand. How can you cry when you’re happy?” Children don’t cry when they’re happy, so this was beyond her comprehension. One thing was clear, my innocent child of five had never been affected by another human being in this way and was completely consumed by the Guardian’s unique spiritual force.
At a meeting in the United Kingdom I had promised the Baha’is there that I would pray for them. And then I had said, “Why pray only for you? I will pray for the whole world to be able to go to Haifa, but not when I’m there.” Of course, they all laughed.
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During that first meeting Shoghi Effendi said to me, “You must be tired now. I have given you a room in the Eastern Pilgrim House. From the window you can see the Shrine of the Bab. Don’t forget to pray for the friends!”
As we were leaving him he said, “You know, Mrs. Munsiff, twenty pilgrims are coming from Iran.”
I must be honest, I felt as if my heart stopped, and, as I was standing up, I nearly lost my balance with what can only be described as real physical pain. I said to myself, “In my heart I talked to you all night but you didn’t hear a word? Not one word? Twenty pilgrims? Twenty? and all I want is to be alone with you.”
As this thought was just leaving me the beloved Guardian looked at me, with those powerful hazel eyes and with a twinkle in his eye, and a twitch in his smile, he said, “But now these pilgrims are stuck in Alexandria for passport reasons.” And life came flowing back to me. “Thank you,” I said. He bade me goodnight, “Now go and sleep well.”
Those twenty pilgrims never did come until the day we were leaving. Their taxis arrived as we were departing. It was truly amazing and I was eternally grateful. We were the only pilgrims for eleven days …
Twenty years later when I was in the Canary Islands, and I was telling this story, one of the men sighed with astonishment, “So you are the cause of our getting stuck in Alexandria! The immigration officer took all twenty of our passports without giving any explanation. I would go every day and he would say, ‘No!’ And without any reason he refused to give them back till on the eleventh day he released them.”
But I will always believe the real reason they were stuck in Alexandria was because my prayers had been answered and as a family we enjoyed the immeasurable bounty of being on pilgrimage alone in Haifa for eleven days.
These BahaiTeachings.org essays are adapted from the book “Lifeline: A Life of Prayer and Service as Experienced by Meherangiz Munsiff, Knight of Baha’u’llah,” written by Meherangiz and Jyoti Munsiff in collaboration with Pixie McCallum, published by George Ronald, Oxford, reprinted with permission and available at www.grbooks.com.
Born into a Baha’i family in India. Her mother was a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh and father served on various Bahá’i Committees in an administrative capacity. Family was blessed by going on pilgrimage and having met Shoghi Effendi the Guardian of the Faith Practiced as a...
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Got to know all NorthAmerica incl. Wilmette where was shown Wilmette with our House of Worship: then started my independent investigation about Baha'i which brought me also to Persia & Israel:
my mother, grandmother & brother declared their Faith in Baha'u'llah.
I was elected to the NSA of Switzerland 9 times & served as Bahai Interantional Community representative to the UNO, & am now pioneering in Samoa since 1994: following the loving advice by our dear Hand of the Cause of God Dr. Ugo Giachery with whom we visited HRH King Malietoa of Samoa