She “arose to dedicate her life to the service of her Father’s glorious Cause”

Banishing from her mind and heart every earthly attachment, renouncing the very idea of matrimony, she, standing resolutely by the side of a Brother whom she was to aid and serve so well, arose to dedicate her life to the service of her Father’s glorious Cause. Whether in the management of the affairs of His Household in which she excelled, or in the social relationships which she so assiduously cultivated in order to shield both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, whether in the unfailing attention she paid to the every day needs of her Father, or in the traits of generosity, of affability and kindness, which she manifested, the Greatest Holy Leaf had by that time abundantly demonstrated her worthiness to rank as one of the noblest figures intimately associated with the life-long work of Bahá’u’lláh. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 17 July 1932; ‘Baha’i Administration’)

Bahiyyih Khanum, The Greatest Holy Leaf

“next to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, … [she is] … the brightest embodiment of that love which is born of God and of that human sympathy which few mortals are capable of evincing”

Not until, however, she had been confined in the company of Bahá’u’lláh within the walls of the prison-city of Akká did she display, in the plenitude of her power and in the full abundance of her love for Him, more gifts that single her out, next to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, among the members of the Holy Family, as the brightest embodiment of that love which is born of God and of that human sympathy which few mortals are capable of evincing. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 17 July 1932; ‘Baha’i Administration’)

“How staunch was her faith, how calm her demeanor, how forgiving her attitude, how severe her trials”

How staunch was her faith, how calm her demeanor, how forgiving her attitude, how severe her trials, at a time when the forces of schism had rent asunder the ties that united the little band of exiles which had settled in Adrianople and whose fortunes seemed then to have sunk to their lowest ebb! It was in this period of extreme anxiety, when the rigors of a winter of exceptional severity, coupled with the privations entailed by unhealthy housing accommodations and dire financial distress, undermined once for all her health and sapped the vitality which she had hitherto so thoroughly enjoyed. The stress and storm of that period made an abiding impression upon her mind, and she retained till the time of her death on her beauteous and angelic face evidences of its intense hardships. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 17 July 1932; ‘Baha’i Administration’)

The monument of the resting place of the Greatest Holy Leaf symbolically represents stages in the Administrative Order of the Faith

This love the Guardian had for the Greatest Holy Leaf, who had watched over him for thirty-five years as far more than a mother, continued to be demonstrated for the remainder of his life. When the news of her death [15 July 1932 at the age of 86] reached him in Switzerland his first act was to plan for her grave a suitable memorial which he hastened to Italy to order. No one could possibly call this exquisitely proportioned monument, built of shining white Carrara marble, anything but what it appears - a love temple, the embodiment of Shoghi Effendi's love, he had undoubtedly conceived its design from buildings of a similar style and, under his supervision, an artist now incorporated his concept in the monument he planned to erect on her resting-place. Shoghi Effendi used to compare the stages in the Administrative Order of the Faith to this monument, saying the platform of three steps was like the local Assemblies, the pillars like the National Assemblies, and the dome that crowned them and held them together like the Universal House of Justice, which could not be placed in position until the foundations and pillars were first firmly erected. After the Greatest Holy Leaf's monument had been completed in all its beauty he had a photograph of it sent to many different Assemblies, as well as to a special list of individuals to whom he wished to present so tender a memento. 

- Ruhiyyih Khanum  ('The Priceless Pearl')

“archetype of the people of Baha”

…the shining attributes of that most resplendent Leaf, that archetype of the people of Baha. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (compilation: ‘Bahiyyih Khanum, The Greatest Holy Leaf’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, 1982)

“the outstanding heroine of the Bahá'í Dispensation”

… known… by the same title as that of her illustrious mother, and whose services until the ripe old age of four score years and six, no less than her exalted parentage, entitle her to the distinction of ranking as the outstanding heroine of the Bahá'í Dispensation… 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘God Passes By’)

Bahá’u’lláh’s Tablet addressed to the Greatest Holy Leaf inscribed around the circular dome of her resting place on Mount Carmel

 Baha'u'llah's Tablet, in His Own handwriting, to Bahiyyih Khanum

He is the Eternal! This is My testimony for her who hath heard My voice and drawn nigh unto Me. Verily, she is a leaf that hath sprung from this preexistent Root. She hath revealed herself in My name and tasted of the sweet savours of My holy, My wondrous pleasure. At one time We gave her to drink from My honeyed Mouth, at another caused her to partake of My mighty, My luminous Kawthar. Upon her rest the glory of My name and the fragrance of My shining robe.

- Baha’u’llah  (compilation: ‘Bahiyyih Khanum, The Greatest Holy Leaf’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, 1982)