Jinabi-i-Fadil-i-Mazindarani “is proceeding to America with the sole purpose of promoting far and wide and with greater efficiency and vigour the all important work of Teaching.”

Our dear friend, Jinab-i-Fadil-i-Mazindarani, accompanied by his family, has gladly and gratefully responded to the kind invitation of the American friends to visit them once more and extend his helping hand to the many friends who are so faithfully labouring throughout that continent for the Cause of Baha'u'llah.

Deeply appreciative of the sentiments of warm and abiding affection which his co workers of that land have abundantly shown him in the past, fired with the zeal of service which the passing of our Beloved has kindled in every heart and hopeful of the immediate future of the Cause in those regions, he is proceeding to America with the sole purpose of promoting far and wide and with greater efficiency and vigour the all important work of Teaching.

The Indian “Baha’i News” magazine

May your endeavours in every sphere of your spiritual activities be crowned with brilliant success, that His glorious Promise regarding the future of that land may be speedily fulfilled. It is my earnest hope that " The Bahá'í News", the representative organ of the Bahá'í Community in India, may expand and develop, may widen the sphere of its correspondence, add to the number and quality of its articles in Persian as well as in English, report regularly in its columns the news of the spiritual activities of all Bahá'í centres in India and elsewhere, and in general provide for the full, correct and dignified presentation of the Cause to the general public. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated January 9, 1923 to the Baha’is of India and Burmah; Dawn of a New Day, p.1) To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

How to “inspire and stimulate the mind of the enlightened seeker”

The universal Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh if declared and propounded with wisdom and judgement, determination, selflessness and sincerity, and above all if exemplified in our lives and dealings with our fellow men, cannot fail to inspire and stimulate the mind of the enlightened seeker and win the admiration and allegiance of all mankind.

Ours then is the duty and privilege to bring to the attention of this distressed and war weary world this Message of Eternal Salvation and help to establish the Era of Peace and Brotherhood as purposed and foretold by Bahá'u'lláh. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated January 9, 1923 to the Baha’is of India and Burmah; Dawn of a New Day, p.1) To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

The “Rays of this Divine Revelation shall make of India a spiritually-quickened, peaceful and united country”

True, that land seems now unhappily to be plunged in the darkness of prejudice, hate and mistrust, yet however dark the immediate prospect may appear, our confidence remains unshaken that ere long these mists shall clear away, the dawn of a New Day shall break upon that land and the Rays of this Divine Revelation shall make of India a spiritually-quickened, peaceful and united country. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated January 9, 1923 to the Baha’is of India and Burmah; Dawn of a New Day, p.1) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha'i World)

We shouldn’t allow the “complexity of the problems that are besetting humanity” to make us lose heart

As we observe the sad conditions of the world and the complexity of the problems that are besetting humanity, we may at times lose heart and grow forgetful of the promised dawn of the New Day, so repeatedly and emphatically foretold in the Sacred Writings. But we need only refer to some of the earliest writings of our beloved Master to regain that confidence which the vicissitudes of the world, however distressing, can never shake. Are not these words wherein he assures us of the onward march of the Cause -- a march which no one can resist and which is sure to lead humanity to its glorious destiny?

‘Abdu’l-Baha is “ever watching from his Station on High … guiding and strengthening his faithful lovers"

Though your number in each of these cities be small and limited, yet by virtue of that Celestial Potency bequeathed to every one of you by our departed Master, you are assured that ere long your small company shall expand and wield such power and influence as no earthly power can ever hope for or attain. Who can doubt that he is ever watching from his Station on High over his scattered fold and is guiding and strengthening his faithful lovers who toil and labour for the fulfillment of his Word and the realization of his Purpose for mankind? (Excerpt from a letter written by Shoghi Effendi to the Baha’is in a number of cities in north America, dated January 8, 1923; Star of the West, vol. 14, April 1923) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

The unfading Splendour of ‘Abdu’l-Baha's Spirit

True, in this day the Light of the Covenant is hidden from mortal eyes, yet the unfading Splendour of His Spirit, freed from earthy limitations, shines more brilliantly than ever before and is sure to guide our steps if we but seek His Guidance and walk steadfastly in His Way.

May the radiance of His Inspiration illumine our hearts and the hope of Eternal Reunion be our stay and solace in these days of bereavement and service to His Cause. (Excerpt from a letter written by Shoghi Effendi to the Baha’is of Cleveland, dated, January 5, 1923; Star of the West, Vol. 13, March 1923) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

The impact of the Master’s “Call”, visit and tender attention on New York City

Our departed Master, whose Call first awakened that city, who later visited it and with his own hands watered its soil, and who to his last hour bestowed his tenderest care upon it, is now, as ever before, watching from his Station on High the progress of the work which he has entrusted to you, his beloved children, ready to bless, guide and strengthen you in your efforts to achieve success for his Cause. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter to the Baha’is of New York, dated February 3, 1923; Star of the West, Vol. 14, April 1923) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

New York believers are called upon to “infuse the regenerating Spirit of Baha'u'llah into the divers communities, creeds and classes that are represented in that most cosmopolitan city of the American continent.”

It is my earnest hope and prayer that now at this decisive hour of the Cause of God the friends may with clear vision and redoubled energy endeavor to deepen still further the essential truths of the Cause in their own lives, and then extend the sphere of their activity, endeavoring at all times to infuse the regenerating Spirit of Baha'u'llah into the divers communities, creeds and classes that are represented in that most cosmopolitan city of the American continent.

From the leaflets, the circular letter and the pamphlet enclosed in the letter of your Spiritual Assembly, I can see clearly how well you have undertaken the task of acquainting the intellectual and religious circles of your city with the Divine Teachings, how admirably you have coordinated your efforts for service and how beautifully you have immortalized the memory of the Beloved's sojourn in your midst. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter to the Baha’is of New York, dated February 3, 1923; Star of the West, Vol. 14, April 1923) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

The Guardian praises the spiritual qualities of the believers in New York City

All throughout the various vicissitudes which the Movement has encountered during this past year of bereavement and uncertainty, the faithful lovers of the Master in New York have, by their wisdom in teaching, the range and character of their activities, their perseverance in their labors and their unity in service, proved themselves worthy of the blessings which our beloved 'Abdu'l-Baha showered upon them during his repeated visits to their city. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter to the Baha’is of New York, dated February 3, 1923; Star of the West, Vol. 14, April 1923) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

How to “combat effectively the ills and sicknesses of this distracted world”

With hearts united, with minds purified and with a determination never to waver or surrender, let us step into the arena of service and armed with the sword of utterance and teaching combat effectively the ills and sicknesses of this distracted world.

We need not feel depressed or overwhelmed with the magnitude of the task for the mighty combatants whom the hands of the Master have raised in every part of the globe shall come to our aid and the Hosts of the Unseen shall reinforce our numbers till the Spirit of Love and Peace even as foretold in the Holy Writ of Baha'u'llah will have filled the world.

(Shoghi Effendi, extract from a letter dated December 30, 1922 to Baha’is of Philadelphia; Star of the West, vol. 14, April 1923) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

Persia was the “leading nation in the Bahá'í world” as of January 1922

I shall never fail to send you all the news I receive from different parts of the Bahá'í world that you may know of the efforts and triumphs our brethren, the loved ones of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, are achieving and will achieve after Him.

Persia, the leading nation in the Bahá'í world, today will, I am confident, through its centre, Tihran, communicate with you all, that the East and West, even as our Beloved One has so much wished it, may become even as one. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter written to the Baha’is of Japan, dated January 26, 1922; ‘Japan Will Turn Ablaze’, pp. 59) (To see the entire letter, please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

"Japan will turn ablaze! Japan is endowed with a most remarkable capacity for the spread of the Cause of God!”

Despondent and sorrowful, though I be in these darksome days, yet whenever I call to mind the hopes our departed Master so confidently reposed in the friends in that Far-Eastern land, hope revives within me and drives away the gloom of His bereavement. As His attendant and secretary for well-nigh two years after the termination of the Great War, I recall so vividly the radiant joy that transfigured His Face wherever I opened before Him your supplications as well as those of Miss Agnes Alexander. What promises He gave us all regarding the future of the Cause in that land at the close of almost every supplication I read to Him! Let me state, straightway, the most emphatic, the most inspiring of them all. These are His very words, that still keep ringing in my ears; -- "Japan will turn ablaze! Japan is endowed with a most remarkable capacity for the spread of the Cause of God! Japan, with (another country whose name He stated but bade us conceal it for the present) will take the lead in the spiritual reawakening of the peoples and nations that the world shall soon witness!" On another occasion, -- how vividly I recall it! -- as He reclined on His chair, with eyes closed with bodily fatigue, He waved His hand and uttered vigorously and cheerfully these words in the presence of His friends: -- "Here we are seated calm, quiet and inactive, but the Hand of the Unseen is ever active and triumphant in lands, even as distant as Japan."

San Francisco is “similar in its atmosphere and peaceful surroundings to the Holy Land”

It is indeed gratifying to learn how your flourishing city, so rich and splendid in its material gifts, so similar in its atmosphere and peaceful surroundings to the Holy Land, and potentially endowed with such spiritual capacity, is now taking a leading part in lending a fresh impetus to the onward march of the Movement in regions which, though distant and remote, are yet so near and dear to the Master's heart.

 May your patient efforts be crowned with signal success and may the Light of this Divine Revelation so illumine your city as to justify the high hopes which our Beloved had confidently reposed in every one of you. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated December 30, 1922 to Baha’is of San Francisco; Star of the West, Vol. 14, April 1923) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

Chicago to become “the throbbing centre of Baha’i activities throughout” America

May I assure you in this short message of mine of my sincere admiration for and firm attachment to those old and tried believers who have been engaged ever since the earliest days of the Cause in that land in the noble pursuit of spreading far and wide the Universal Teachings of Baha'u'llah.

Your city so far famed for its intimate association with the history of the rise of the Mashreq’ul-Azkar will, I trust, witness in the not distant future while this majestic Structure is being raised a swift regeneration in the spiritual lives of its inhabitants, that it may become truly the throbbing centre of Baha’i activities throughout the land.

We all look forward with eager hearts to the time when this noble Edifice, with all its various accessories completed, will become the focal centre of spiritual, humanitarian and intellectual achievements to which the friends of that city, the pioneers of such a glorious work, will have a distinct share to contribute.

(Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated December 29, 1922 to Baha’is of Chicago; Star of the West, Vol. 13, March 1923) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

How to win over people who are firm in their religious beliefs

Though its people be firmly entrenched in their religious sectarianism and strongly attached to their religious doctrines and traditions, yet who can doubt that with courage and persistence, kindliness and wisdom, the all-conquering words of Bahá'u'lláh can fail to break down all these barriers of prejudice and religious exclusiveness and conquer this longstanding stronghold of sectarian belief!

Surely the efficacy of the universal Teachings of Bahá'u'lláh as applied to the cherished and time-honoured religious traditions of the East, has been sufficiently demonstrated to justify at present our confident hopes for the future and speedy re-awakening of that land. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a message to Baha’is of Canada, dated 2, January, 1923; Messages to Canada, p. 3) (To see the entire message please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

The Guardian welcomes receiving communications from the members of British NSA and the friends

I would be pleased and grateful if the members of the Spiritual Assembly would at any time inform me of their needs, wants and desires, their plans and activities, that I may through my prayers and brotherly assistance contribute, however meagrely, to the success of their glorious mission in this world.

To my extreme regret, I feel unable in view of my manifold and pressing duties, and owing to the extraordinary extension of the Movement in recent times, to correspond with the friends individually and express to them in writing what I always feel in the depth of my heart of brotherly affection and abiding gratitude for their love and sympathy for me. I shall, however, await with eager expectation their individual letters and assure them of my readiness and wish to be of any service to them in their work for the Cause.

The Guardian started “correspondence with every Baha’i local centre throughout the East” – encouraging sharing of news between East and West

I am now starting correspondence with every Bahá'í local centre throughout the East and will not fail to instruct and urge the believers everywhere to send directly through their respective spiritual local Assemblies the joyful tidings of the progress of the Cause, in the form of regular detailed reports, to the various assemblies of their spiritual brethren and sisters in the West. England, I am confident, will regularly and consistently receive, directly, and indirectly through the "Star of the West" and the "Bahá'í News" of India, a large share of such tidings from Persia, Caucasus, Turkestan, India, Turkey and Mesopotamia, North Africa and Egypt. It would be most gratifying and encouraging to all earnest workers for the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh if every now and then a report on the spiritual activities of the friends in Great Britain, as well as articles on spiritual matters, would be submitted for publication to the above-mentioned periodicals. It would, I feel very strongly, react very favourably on the Cause in England, and would serve to draw closer the ties that bind all spiritual centres together at the present time.  (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated 23, December, 1922 to the Baha’is of Great Britain; Unfolding Destiny, p. 12) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

Dr. Esslemont’s book, Baha’u’llah and the New Era, gives the “finest and most effective presentation of the various aspects of the Cause to the mind of the Oriental as well as to that of the Westerner.”

I am enclosing various suggestions of Mr. Dreyfus-Barney and of Mr. Roy Wilhelm made by them at my request, during their last sojourn in the Holy Land. I submit them to Dr. Esslemont's consideration as well as to that of the Spiritual Assembly. I very deeply regret my inability to give the attention I desire to this admirable work of his, but will assuredly do all in my power to aid him in the final stages of his work. I am certain however that the book as it now stands gives the finest and most effective presentation of the various aspects of the Cause to the mind of the Oriental as well as to that of the Westerner. May it arouse a genuine and widespread interest in the Cause throughout the world. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter to the Baha’is of Britain, dated 23 December, 1922; Unfolding Destiny p. 12) (To see the entire letter please visist Messages to the Baha’i World)

The very first letter from the West that reached the Guardian after his temporary absence and return to the Holy Land

I have during the last few days been waiting eagerly for the first written messages of my Western friends, sent to me since they have learned of my return to the Holy Land. How great was the joy when dear Miss Rosenberg's letter -- the very first that reached me from the West -- was handed to me this evening, bearing the joyful news of the safety, the unity and the happiness of my British friends across the seas! I read it and re-read it with particular pleasure and felt a thrill of delight at the welcome news of the harmonious and efficient functioning of your Spiritual Assembly.

Casting the “seeds of faith and loving fellowship ... in the soil of hearts”

I have shared fully your news with those loving pilgrims and resident friends in the Holy Land whom I meet regularly in what was in the past the audience-chamber of the Master and who thirst after the tidings of the progress of the Cause in every land. They, and myself with them, will pray most fervently for every one of you that the seeds of faith and loving fellowship that you are casting in the soil of hearts may germinate and swell the ever increasing number of the valiant hosts of Bahá and enable them to attain glorious victory. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter addressed to the Baha’is of Australia, 20 December, 1922; Messages to Antipodes, p.1) (To see the entire letter, please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

The “Spirit of Faith and Peace as revealed in the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh” "will" eventually “fill the world and the darkness of strife” will “be no more”

Having returned to the Holy Land with a renewed vigour and a refreshed spirit, I shall not fail with the help of the Master to do my part in enabling you to carry on further and still further the Glorious Standard of Baha to the very heart and uttermost confines of Germany and thus hasten the Day when the Spirit of Faith and Peace as revealed in the Cause of Bahá'u'lláh will fill the world and the darkness of strife be no more. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated 17 December 1922 to the Baha’is of Germany; The Light of Divine Guidance v I, p. 8) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

The Guardian admires the spiritual qualities and activities of German believers

The news of your most spiritual gatherings, since the Great Plan of the Master as revealed in His Testament has been unfolded to our eyes; the formation and functioning of the National Body with efficiency and harmony; the extension of your activities; the widening of your correspondence; the generous and spontaneous help you have extended us in connection with our difficulties in the Holy Land and above all the spirit of ready devotion and ever-increasing zeal which is back of it all - these are sweet thoughts that cheer the bereaved Ladies of the Holy Household and encourage here and abroad the many friends who look forward to the hour when all the Master has promised His friends in Germany will come to be fulfilled. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated 17 December 1922 to the Baha’is of Germany; The Light of Divine Guidance v I, p. 7) (To see the entire letter please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

The Guardian explains factors that necessitated his need for a temporary absence and what “sustained and comforted” him during that time period

To have been unable, owing to sad circumstances over which I have had no control, to keep in close and constant touch with you, the beloved children of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, since His passing from this world, is to me a cause of sad surprise and deep and bitter regret. To say that ever since the Dawn of a New Day has broken upon me I have in the least felt reluctant or disinclined to enter into relationship with every one of you, or felt indifferent to a Cause which is so close and dear to your hearts, would indeed betray every sentiment of love and fellowship which animates every one of us in our servitude to His Holy Threshold. It was rather my utter exhaustion, my profound feelings of sorrow, the overwhelming sense of my own position and responsibilities and the extreme pressure of work that have caused me to maintain such a long silence and seem forgetful of those brave and valiant lovers of the Master in that land.

1922: Baha’is of Britain formed a National Council [1] – the Guardian delineates its duties

I need hardly tell you how grateful and gratified I felt when I heard the news of the actual formation of a National Council whose main object is to guide, co-ordinate and harmonise the various activities of the friends, and when I learned of its satisfactory composition, its harmonious procedure and the splendid work it is achieving.

My earnest prayer is that the blessing of the Almighty may rest upon all its deliberations, that it may be divinely guided, inspired in its work, may smooth speedily and definitely all differences that may arise, may promote the all-important work of Teaching, may widen the sphere of its correspondence and exchange of news with the distant parts of the Bahá'í world, may secure through its publications a dignified and proper presentation of the Cause to the enlightened public, and may in every other respect prove itself capable of distinct and worthy achievements. (Shoghi Effendi, excerpt from a letter dated 16 December 1922 to Baha’is in Great Britain; The Unfolding Destiny of the British Baha’i Community, pp. 10-11) (To see the entire letter, please visit Messages to the Baha’i World)

[1 Dr. Esselmont and E. T. Hall were "chosen" to represent Bournemouth and Manchester respectively and they met with seven others representing "The London Groups" to form the first "All-England Bahá'í Council" which met at the London home of Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper 6 June, 1922. Mr. G. P. Simpson was elected Chairman.]