The Universal House of Justice
The Bahá'í World Centre
11 December 1994
Shohreh Mansouri
Dear Baha'i Friend,
At the request of the Universal House of Justice, the Research Department has provided the enclosed response to your email message of 12 November 1994, in which you inquire about the reason that the prayers of the Guardian are not translated into English.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
For Department of the Secretariat
M E M O R A N D U M
From: Research Department
To: The Universal House of Justice
Date: 11 December 1994
Prayers of Shoghi Effendi
In her email letter of 12 November 1994 to the Universal House of Justice, Shohreh Mansouri enquires about the prayers written in Persian and Arabic by Shoghi Effendi. She wishes to know why these prayers have not been translated into the English language.
The following two extracts from letters written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice provide information which pertains to Miss Mansouri's query:
Even though the beloved Guardian wrote some prayers in his letters to the eastern friends, he did not encourage their translation into the western languages. In a letter written on his behalf to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States on 23 February 1957, his secretary stated:He sees no necessity for translating prayers that he has written in Persian into English. The Baha'is have a great many wonderful prayers already translated, and he feels that now is not the time to spend money on these things.(4 December 1985 to an individual believer)
In response to your Email message of 6 November 1986 regarding the possibility of publishing a selection of the prayers of Shoghi Effendi translated into English, the Universal House of Justice instructs us to advise that it does not feel that the time has come for this to be done. We are to convey its further comments.
There is no doubt that one day the general messages of the beloved Guardian addressed to the friends in the East, particularly to the friends in Iran and written in Arabic and Persian, will be translated for the benefit of the English-speaking world. In the context of such a project, the prayers of Shoghi Effendi, which usually form part of these communications, will of course be translated and made available to the friends.(23 November 1986 to a Baha'i Publishing Trust)