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"Shoghi Effendi Rabbani was the eldest great-grandson of Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, appointed in the Will and Testament of his grandfather, 'Abdu'l Baha, the son and successor of Baha'u'llah as His Successor and Head of the congregation of Baha'i's throughout the world. For the first eleven years of his life he shared the imprisonment of 'Abdu'l Baha in the prison-city of 'Akka, the main penal colony of the Ottoman Empire, where the family of Baha'u'llah was imprisoned for forty years from 1868 to 1908 as political prisoners solely because of the liberality and progressive nature of Baha'u'llah's teachings.
The revolution of the Young Turks in 1908 freed all political prisoners and 'Abdu'l Baha moved with His family to the city of Haifa, twelve miles away, where His grandchildren could receive a proper education. Shoghi Effendi attended the College des Freres in Haifa, the American University in Beirut, and later Balliol College in Oxford University, England. Before his studies were completed 'Abdu'l Baha passed away and Shoghi Effendi discovered that 'Abdu'l Baha had appointed him as His successor.
Shoghi Effendi's thirty-six years of service to the Faith, as Guardian of the Cause, represents the cornerstone of it's progress and development in this century. As interpreter, administrator and spiritual leader, he was the builder of the Baha'i International Community and the global society it represents. He worked tirelessly to develop the administrative and spiritual World Centre of the Faith and to have it recognized worldwide as an independent religion, aimed at the unification of mankind and the establishment of a World Administrative Order." (Amatu'l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum, published with permission, 1991)