It is somewhat embarrassing to find myself speaking of my own recollections of the Greatest Holy Leaf. I came to the Holy Land in 1922 when I was two-and-a-half years old. The Greatest Holy Leaf passed away in 1932. Of course, I have no memories left of the first two or three years because I was too young, but a few memories have remained of the later years of that decade. I will, then, speak about this young child who has memories of being in the presence of the Greatest Holy Leaf. This child had a brother who was very close to him -- my brother Jalal who passed away in May of this year -- and the experiences which I relate were joint experiences. I am grateful to Baha'u'llah for having occasion to mention my brother's name here today.
The young child of whom I speak was born of a mother, Fatimih Khanum, who had spent her youthful life in service to the Greatest Holy Leaf, serving for some fifteen years, dating back to the time when the Master was in the house of 'Abdu'llah Pasha in 'Akka. Some of you may have met her sister, my aunt, Zeenat Baghdadi, who came to the Holy Land not long ago to give information relating to the restoration of the house of 'Abdu'llah Pasha. These two sisters, when they were young girls in 'Akka, nine and eleven years old, were accepted into the household of 'Abdu'l-Baha. My mother was chosen to serve the Greatest Holy Leaf for all those years. So in our family home we had many stories and feelings -- the feelings more important than the stories --about the Greatest Holy Leaf, and the way my mother felt about her. These things are in my background and are for you to visualize as I speak to you.
Speaking about this bond between Shoghi Effendi and the Greatest Holy Leaf, Zeenat, my aunt, used to say that in the house of 'Abdu'llah Pasha there used to be a parrot. The Greatest Holy Leaf used to take a mirror, hold it before the bird and bid it to say 'Yá Iláhí va Mahbúbí' ( O my God and my Beloved!) and to say 'Shoghi ján!' (Shoghi dear!) Early in the morning, at dawn, my aunt recalled, the household could hear the parrot crying 'Yá Iláhí va Mahbúbí' . . . Shoghi ján!' We have my aunt's voice on tape and I have tried to imitate that 'Shoghi jan!' with its high pitch.
- ‘’Ali Nakhjavan (‘The Greatest Holy Leaf: A Reminiscence’; excerpts from an address presented during the World Centre seminar commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of the Greatest Holy Leaf, held in the reception concourse, permanent Seat of the Universal House of Justice, 17 July 1982; The Baha’i World 1979-1983)