January 23. On this date in 2000, Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum (née Mary Sutherland Maxwell) was buried in Haifa, adjacent to the home, originally a residence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, where she had resided since 1937 when she married Shoghi Effendi.
The funeral of Mrs Ruhiyyih Rabbani, 89, international dignitary of the Bahá'í Faith, was held on Sunday, January 23, at 2 pm. Mrs Rabbani was buried in Haifa, Israel, in a garden facing the home where she lived since 1937.
The simple ceremony, which took place in Mrs Rabbani's home, consisted of readings from the Baha'i sacred scriptures. The Bahá'í obligatory prayer for the dead was recited. It is the only Bahá'í prayer which is to be recited in congregation; it is to be recited by one Bahá'í while all present stand.
Mrs Rabbani's coffin was carried across the street to her final resting place by six pall bearers, from six different parts of the world. At the graveside, a prayer by Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, was read, which says, in part, "Within the garden of Thine immortality, before Thy countenance, let me abide forever, O Thou who art merciful unto me". This is not the obligatory prayer referred to previously.
The rain, which had held off until the final minutes of the funeral, poured down.
About 1000 people attended the funeral, including Mr Chris Greenshields, Minister-Counsellor of the Canadian Embassy; Mrs Marsha Von Duerckhein, Consul-General of the US Embassy; Mr Ariel Kenet of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dr Roman Bronfman, Member of the Knesset; Mr Amram Mitzna, the Mayor of Haifa; and Mr Shmaryahu Biran, the Mayor of Acre. Dr Nissam Dana of the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs represented the Israeli Government.
Many of the Bahá'í Faith's senior officers attended, including members of the Universal House of Justice, international Counselors, and members of some 80 national Bahá'í governing councils from as far away as Mongolia and Samoa. Mr Jack McCants and Mrs Pat Locke represented the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'í of the United States.
Thousands of memorials are being held nationally and locally throughout the world.
Mary Sutherland Maxwell was born on August 8, 1910, to William Sutherland Maxwell (the architect who would design the Shrine of the Bab and be named a Hand of the Cause by Shoghi Effendi in 1951) and May Ellis Bolles Maxwell. Because 'Abdu'l-Bahá stayed at the Maxwell's home during his stay in Montreal in 1912, the home was later designated a Bahá’í Shrine. Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum described the importance of this Shrine with the following words:
Things arise in historic perspective as time goes by. This is the only private home in Canada where ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stayed. After His visit, it was always considered blessed by having been used by Him. For future generations, it will eventually grow in importance and sacredness, because He, the Centre of the Covenant, the Greatest Mystery of God, stayed here.
It was at this home that 'Abdu'l-Bahá gave his talk discussing his views on native cultures, Africans, indigenous North Americans and pre-Columbian America.
During her youth she twice traveled to Palestine for pilgrimage, the first time with her mother at age twelve and the second time with her mother's friends at age sixteen. It was during these pilgrimages that she first met Shoghi Effendi.
As a young woman, Mary had expressed a great desire to learn Spanish. However, her plans to travel to Republican Spain were thwarted with the Spanish Civil War. Instead, Mary chose to live with her cousin in Nazi Germany in 1935, a move which was endorsed by Shoghi Effendi. In Germany, Shoghi Effendi encouraged Mary to strengthen the fledgling Bahá’í community. The young Mary assimilated herself in German culture, wearing a dirndl and learning to speak German fluently. Whilst in Germany, Mary received an invitation from Shoghi Effendi to make a pilgrimage with her mother. Mother and daughter accepted the invitation.
Arriving in Haifa in January 1937 with her mother, she and Shoghi Effendi began a brief courtship. In February the couple were engaged, and Mary cabled her father to come as soon as he could to Haifa. On March 24 at the age of 26, Mary married Shoghi Effendi. The newlyweds made a trip to Switzerland and Shoghi Effendi introduced his young bride to his favorite sights in the country to which he would often travel. It was only a year after his wedding that Shoghi Effendi in 1938 praised Germany's Anschluss of Austria.
In 1951 Shoghi Effendi appointed her to the International Bahá'í Council and in 1952 a Hand of the Cause of God, as a replacement for her father who had died shortly before her appointment. She accompanied Shoghi Effendi during his various visits with the leadership of the newly-established State of Israel.
After Shoghi Effendi's death, for the remainder of her life, she traveled extensively and gave numerous talks. From 1969 through 1973, she undertook a Great African Safari. Around 1981, she spoke to the Persian Bahá'í community in Los Angeles "upbraiding them for settling in a such a decadent urban center, implying they should never have left Iran, and that if they had insisted on doing so should at least have had the decency to settle as missionaries in some remote village of the global South...When someone from the audience asked where they should have settled instead, she replied in Persian that it was self-evident: "Khar kih nistid" ("you are not asses")."
She died on January 19, 2000, at the age of 89 in Haifa, Israel where she is buried at the Bahá'í World Centre.
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