October 30

The Guardian feels sure that the contribution which has been made by your friend who has not been active in the Cause for a short time will be the means of stimulating her to renewed service. There is nothing that brings success in the Faith like service. Service is the magnet which draws the divine confirmations. Thus, when a person is active, they are blessed by the Holy Spirit. When they are inactive, the Holy Spirit cannot find a repository in their being, and thus they are deprived of its healing and quickening rays. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 12 July 1952 to an individual believer; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, Baha’i Funds and Contributions)

October 28

Teaching is of course the head corner-stone of all Bahá'í service, but successful teaching is dependent upon many factors, one of which is the development of a true Bahá'í way of living and the fulfilment of responsibilities which we have incurred. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 3 June 1952 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, Guidelines for Teaching)

October 26

Although it is good not to provoke conventional people too much, on the other hand, we must not allow them to come between us and obeying Bahá'u'lláh; and we know that He has instructed His servants to spread His Message.... 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 1 May 1951 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, Guidelines for Teaching)

October 24

Although this may temporarily prove an embarrassment to your work, and a set-back, there is no doubt that it signalizes a step forward in the advance of the Faith; for we know that our beloved Faith must eventually clash with the entrenched orthodoxies of the past; and that this conflict cannot but lead to greater victories, and to ultimate emancipation, recognition and ascendancy. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 8 April 1951, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to two believers; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. II, Opposition)

October 22

We must always remember that the administrative Order is a means to an end, an instrument to co-ordinate and unify the efforts of the Bahá’ís. It is still imperfectly understood by them, but very great progress has been made already. Now, through this administration, it is becoming possible to at last bring the knowledge of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings to the masses, and this is a field you could render great services in. Your fire, your love for your fellow men, are qualities much needed in our work, and Shoghi Effendi hopes you will feel the urge to plunge yourself into the service of this glorious Cause. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 30 March 1947 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi; ‘The Light of Divine Guidance, vol, 2’)

October 20

To Him [Baha’u’llah] Jesus Christ had referred as the “Prince of this world,” as the “Comforter” Who will “reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment,” as the “Spirit of Truth” Who “will guide you into all truth,” Who “shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak,” as the “Lord of the Vineyard,” and as the “Son of Man” Who “shall come in the glory of His Father” “in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” with “all the holy angels” about Him, and “all nations” gathered before His throne. To Him the Author of the Apocalypse had alluded as the “Glory of God,” as “Alpha and Omega,” “the Beginning and the End,” “the First and the Last.” Identifying His Revelation with the “third woe,” he, moreover, had extolled His Law as “a new heaven and a new earth,” as the “Tabernacle of God,” as the “Holy City,” as the “New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” To His Day Jesus Christ Himself had referred as “the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory.” To the hour of His advent St. Paul had alluded as the hour of the “last trump,” the “trump of God,” whilst St. Peter had spoken of it as the “Day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” His Day he, furthermore, had described as “the times of refreshing,” “the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy Prophets since the world began.”

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

October 18

Important as these differences are, both sects [of Islam] agree, however, in expecting a twofold Manifestation. The shí’ahs look for the Qá’im, who is to come in the fulness of time, and also for the return of the Imám Husayn. The sunnís await the appearance of the Mihdí and also “the return of Jesus Christ.” When, at the beginning of his Mission, the Báb, continuing the tradition of the shí’ahs, proclaimed His function under the double title of, first, the Qá’im and, second, the Gate, or Báb, some of the Muhammadans misunderstood the latter reference. They imagined His meaning to be that He was a fifth Gate In succession to Abu’l Hasan-‘Alí. His true meaning, however, as He himself clearly announced, was very different. He was the Qá’im; but the Qá’im, though a High Prophet, stood in relation to a succeeding and greater Manifestation as did John the Baptist to the Christ. He was the Forerunner of One yet more mighty than Himself. He was to decrease; that Mighty One was to increase. And as John the Baptist had been the Herald or Gate of the Christ, so was the Báb the Herald or Gate of Bahá’u’lláh. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘Introduction to ‘The Dawn-Breakers’)

October 16

…just as in the realm of the spirit, the reality of the Bab has been hailed by the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation as "The Point round Whom the realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve," so, on this visible plane, His sacred remains constitute the heart and center of what may be regarded as nine concentric circles, paralleling thereby, and adding further emphasis to the central position accorded by the Founder of our Faith to One "from Whom God hath caused to proceed the knowledge of all that was and shall be," "the Primal Point from which have been generated all created things."

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘Citadel of Faith’)

October 14

The Prophets know God, but how is more than our human minds can grasp. We believe we attain in the next world to seeing the Prophets. There is certainly a future life. Heaven and hell are conditions within our own beings. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 14 November, 1947, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; ‘High Endeavours: Messages to Alaska’)

October 12

Regarding the time to hold the 19 Day Feasts: any time most convenient for all the believers is permissible, as long as it is between sunset and sunset of the calendar day on which the feast falls, as our Bahá’í days begin and end at sunset. The feasts are really for the believers only, but if a non-Bahá’í happens to come, we should not ask him to leave and hurt the person’s feelings. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 18 February 1947, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi; ‘The Light of Divine Guidance’, vol. 2)

October 10

What is needed to achieve success in the teaching field is a complete dedication on the part of the individual, consecration to the glorious task of spreading the Faith, and the living of the Bahá’í life, because that creates the magnet for the Holy Spirit, and it is the Holy Spirit which quickens the new soul. Thus, the individual should be as a reed, through which the Holy Spirit may flow, to give new life to the seeking soul. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 18 December 1953, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi; ‘High Endeavours: Messages to Alaska’)

October 8

We will have experience of God’s spirit through His Prophets in the next world, but God is too great for us to know without this Intermediary. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 14 November, 1947, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; ‘High Endeavours: Messages to Alaska’)

October 6

To answer you briefly what the original state of the universe was no one as yet knows. But we believe God is a spiritual Being and did create it; how we do not know. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 14 November, 1947, written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; ‘High Endeavours: Messages to Alaska’)

October 4

The Covenant is the "axis of the oneness of the world of humanity" because it preserves the unity and integrity of the Faith itself and protects it from being disrupted by individuals who are convinced that only their understanding of the Teachings is the right one - a fate that has overcome all past Revelations. The Covenant is, moreover, embedded in the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh Himself. Thus, as you clearly see, to accept Bahá'u'lláh is to accept His Covenant; to reject His Covenant is to reject Him. 

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a letter dated 3 January 1982, written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer; The Compilation of Compilations, vol. I, The Covenant)

October 2

The wise and judicious Manuchihr Khán [Governor of Isfahán] could not resist the temptation of visiting so strange, so intriguing a Personage [the Báb]. Before a brilliant assemblage of the most accomplished divines he, a Georgian by origin and a Christian by birth, requested the Báb to expound and demonstrate the truth of Muhammad’s specific mission. To this request, which those present had felt compelled to decline, the Báb readily responded. In less than two hours, and in the space of fifty pages, He had not only revealed a minute, a vigorous and original dissertation on this noble theme, but had also linked it with both the coming of the Qá’im and the return of the Imám Husayn—an exposition that prompted Manuchihr Khán to declare before that gathering his faith in the Prophet of Islám, as well as his recognition of the supernatural gifts with which the Author of so convincing a treatise was endowed. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)