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Shoghi Effendi Rabbani (March 1, 1897 - November 4, 1957) was a direct descendant of Bahá’u’lláh[1] and the grandson of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá[2]. After the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá he was appointed the Guardian of the Bahá’à Faith serving as the Head of the Bahá’à community from 1921 until his passing in 1957.
As Guardian Shoghi Effendi was the Head of the international Bahá’à community and the authorized infallible interpreter of Bahá’à scripture. For much of his ministry he almost single-handedly managed the international affairs of the Faith establishing major teaching plans to organize community work and maintaining a prolific correspondence with Bahá’à individuals and institutions to provide personal and administrative guidance.
During his ministry he oversaw the development of the administration of the Bahá’à Faith establishing formal institutions to organize and coordinate internal community affairs and to systematically undertake expansion and consolidation work. He developed institutions at the World Centre of the Faith in Haifa to allow for the Bahá’à community to coordinate in a unified way on the international level and encouraged the Bahá’à community to establish friendly relations and collaborate with external bodies, especially the United Nations.
In addition to his administrative achievements Shoghi Effendi developed and expanded Bahá’à literature in the English language translating several major works of the Central Figures of the Faith, who are the Báb[3], Bahá’u’lláh, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, into English which remain the standard English language versions. He issued several major messages outlining the purpose of the administrative systems he established and the fundamental spiritual framework of the Faith, translated The Dawn-Breakers which provided the early history of the Faith in the English language, and composed God Passes By which surveyed and interpreted the significance of the major developments of the religion from 1844 to 1944.
He also developed important Bahá’à properties in the Holy Land establishing extensive gardens, constructing the superstructure of the Shrine of the Báb, establishing the Arc on Mount Carmel constructing the International Archives Building on it, securing a site for the future construction of a Mashriqu’l-Adhkár[4], and renovating and expanding the properties at BahjÃ.