1976: First visit by a Baha’i reigning monarch to the resting place of the Shoghi Effendi

5 October 1976

To all National Spiritual Assemblies

WITH FEELINGS IMMENSE ELATION ANNOUNCE BAHA'I COMMUNITIES ALL CONTINENTS JOYFUL NEWS FIRST VISIT BY BAHA'I REIGNING MONARCH TO RESTING PLACE BELOVED SHOGHI EFFENDI WELL NIGH NINETEEN YEARS FOLLOWING HIS PASSING. HIS HIGHNESS MALIETOA TANUMAFILI II OF WESTERN SAMOA COURSE HIS RECENT VISIT LONDON ATTAINED THIS INESTIMABLE BOUNTY. HIS HIGHNESS ACCOMPANIED BY SMALL DELEGATION FRIENDS HEADED BY HAND CAUSE GIACHERY INCLUDING HANDS CAUSE KHADEM VARQA AND FIVE MEMBERS NATIONAL ASSEMBLY UNITED KINGDOM PROCEEDED CEMETERY PARTICIPATED DEEPLY MOVING HIGHLY DIGNIFIED VISITATION RESTING PLACE SIGN GOD ON EARTH WHOSE LIFELONG HEROIC LABOURS ACHIEVED WORLD-WIDE SPREAD GLORIOUS CAUSE BAHA'U'LLAH.  FOLLOWING PRAYERS DEVOTIONS AND EXPRESSIONS APPRECIATION GRATITUDE BY HIS HIGHNESS HE MET WITH RADIANT SPIRIT LARGE GATHERING BELIEVERS ASSEMBLED PRECINCTS GRAVE TO WELCOME HIM AND TO WHOM HE CONVEYED GREETINGS HIS FELLOW SAMOAN BAHA'IS AND HIS HOPE GROWTH FAITH FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH ALL OVER WORLD. IN HOLY LAND SYNCHRONIZING WITH THESE EVENTS HANDS CAUSE OTHER MEMBERS, INTERNATIONAL TEACHING CENTRE JOINED MEMBERS HOUSE JUSTICE SPECIAL VISIT BAHJI WHERE FERVENT PRAYERS WERE OFFERED SACRED THRESHOLD MOST HOLY SHRINE IN THANKSGIVING HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT WHICH REPRESENTS PRELUDE TO FULFILMENT LONG CHERISHED DESIRE 'ABDU'L-BAHA AND SHOGHI EFFENDI WITNESS PILGRIM KINGS PAY THEIR HUMBLE TRIBUTE AT HOLY SHRINES FOUNDERS OUR FAITH IN SPIRITUAL HEART PLANET. FERVENTLY PRAYING THIS JOYOUS NEWS WILL STRENGTHEN RESOLVE SUPPORTERS MOST GREAT NAME EVERY LAND REDOUBLE THEIR EFFORTS TO FORGE AHEAD HOWEVER ARDUOUS THE TASKS HOWEVER SEEMINGLY INSURMOUNTABLE THE OBSTACLES UNTIL EVERY GOAL WORLD- WIDE PLAN IS SPEEDILY AND FULLY CONSUMMATED.

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

(Messages from the Universal House of Justice, ‘1963-1986’)

Baha’u’llah identifies the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá as “the first, the greatest and mightiest” of the books revealed by the Báb

...the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá—the Báb’s commentary on the Súrih of Joseph—characterized by the Author of the Íqán as “the first, the greatest and mightiest” of the books revealed by the Báb…

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah’ included in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)

1934: “ample proof of the growing momentum with which the invincible community of the Most Great Name is marching forward to ultimate victory”

• The international status which the Religion of God has thus far achieved…
• The unprecedented impetus which the illustrious deeds of the American believers have lent to the onward march of the Faith;
• the intense interest which the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West is fast awakening among divers races and nations;
• the rise and steady consolidation of Bahá’í institutions in no less than forty of the most advanced countries of the world;
• the dissemination of Bahá’í literature in no fewer than twenty-five of the most widely-spoken languages;
• the success that has recently attended the nation-wide efforts of the Persian believers in the preliminary steps they have taken for the establishment, in the outskirts of the capital-city of their native land, of the third Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Bahá’í world;
• the measures that are being taken for the immediate formation of their first National Spiritual Assembly representing the interests of the overwhelming majority of Bahá’í adherents;
• the projected erection of yet another pillar of the Universal House of Justice, the first of its kind, in the Southern Hemisphere;
• the testimonies, both verbal and written, that a struggling Faith has obtained from Royalty, from governmental institutions, international tribunals, and ecclesiastical dignitaries;
• the publicity it has received from the charges which unrelenting enemies, both new and old, have hurled against it;
• the formal enfranchisement of a section of its followers from the fetters of Muslim orthodoxy in a country that may be regarded as the most enlightened among Islamic nations—

these afford ample proof of the growing momentum with which the invincible community of the Most Great Name is marching forward to ultimate victory. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From the weighty treatise known as ‘The Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh’, February 8, 1934; included in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)