The Baha'i Studies Listserv In The Priceless Pearl, Ruhiyyih Khanum makes some interesting comments on this issue. On p. 128 she says that she feels that the Guardian's "mind...feelings...instructions and reactions" are better conveyed by the Guardian's telegrams and cables, which are his own words and are more "intimated...powerful and revealing", than by the long letters written on his behalf. On p. 139, she mentions the "attitude" of the Guardian is "contained in the words" written by his secretary. Most interesting is the episode narrated on p. 210 where a letter is sent on behalf of Shoghi Effendi but which Ruhiyyih Khanum has "little doubt [that it was] dictated by the guardian himself," apparently wanting to convey his attitude but wanting to diminish the authority with which the particular words are endowed.
The Guardian seems to have dealt sometimes in amazingly subtle nuance. Gary -----Original Message----- From: Susan Maneck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Baha'i Studies <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, 1 Oct 2008 12:27 pm Subject: Re: Shoghi Effendi quote? The Baha'i Studies Listserv On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 10:37 AM, Albert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The Baha'i Studies Listserv > The question is 'would anyone write on behalf of the Guardian without him > approving it'. I don't think so. Thus it is a mute point who wrote it. Albert, As this letter written on behalf of the Guardian states, this is not a mute point at all: P.S. -- I wish to call your attention to certain things in " Principles of Bahá'í Administration" which has just reached the Guardian; although the material is good, he feels that the complete lack of quotation marks is very misleading. His own words, the words of his various secretaries, even the Words of Bahá'u'lláh Himself, are all lumped together as one text. This is not only not reverent in the case of Bahá'u'lláh's Words, but misleading. Although the secretaries of the Guardian convey his thoughts and instructions and these messages are authoritative, their words are in no sense the same as his, their style certainly not the same, and their authority less, for they use their own terms and not his exact words in conveying his messages. He feels that in any future edition this fault should be remedied, any quotations from Bahá'u'lláh or the Master plainly attributed to them, and the words of the Guardian clearly differentiated from those of his secretaries. (Shoghi Effendi, The Unfolding Destiny of the British Baha'i Community, p. 260) Susan __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Pub lic - http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
