Before proceeding to the momentous decision of building
the new International Archives, I should like to mention an episode which
further demonstrates the eager interest of Shoghi Effendi in collecting
information and facts pertaining to the Sacred Writings and the history of the
Cause. One evening, as I entered the dining-room, the Guardian was already
seated at his place at the table, his face shining with an inner jubilation
which he could neither control nor conceal. At his side, upon the table, stood
a small bundle, an object wrapped in a coloured silk handkerchief, typical of the
East and of Iran in particular. As soon as we were all seated and attentive,
even before dinner was served, he said that a pilgrim had that day arrived from
Tihrán, bringing with him one of the most precious documents to be placed in
the archives. He untied the handkerchief and with great reverence lifted out a
manuscript in book form, and, placing it in a position that every one could
see, added that it contained two original Tablets in the handwriting of
'Abdu'l-Bahá. One was the Íqán and the other was a Tablet the name of which I
do not now remember.
These manuscripts, Shoghi Effendi stated, were transcribed
by 'Abdu'l-Bahá in His beautiful calligraphy, when He was about eighteen years
old, and bore some additions in the Hand of Bahá'u'lláh, insertions which He
had written on the margins of many pages in reviewing the manuscripts. Shoghi
Effendi had never before seen the original of the Íqán and was deeply
astonished to discover that the phrase he had chosen from this book and placed
on the title page of his translation of Nabíl's Narrative, The
Dawn-Breakers, was an after-reflection of Bahá'u'lláh's, written by
Himself, on the margin of one page. The phrase in question is the one starting:
'I stand, life in hand, ready; that perchance...'*
The Guardian, that evening, was not only astonished but
overjoyed as well, because he was conscious that through a mysterious process
he had been inspired to adopt that phrase as an eternal testimonial to
Bahá'u'lláh's yearning to sacrifice His life for the Báb, the Primal Point. All
of us who were seated at the table were awed and profoundly stirred, and I, in
particular, felt that the existence of a spiritual link between our Guardian
and the invisible world of God was something that no one should ever doubt.
* Kitáb-i-Íqán , p.
161 (Brit. ed.), p. 252 (U.S. ed.). See DB for the translation here used, which
appears on the title page.