RUHIYYIH KHANUM

excerpt from TRINIDAD REMEMBRANCES (see Aug 31, 2010)

Ruhiyyih Khanum, wife of the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, came to Trinidad for a touring and teaching trip throughout the country.  I was blessed with the opportunity to be present on this trip.  She was a fascinating, enriching, entertaining lady, very loving but firm as she made choices about her agenda. 

We were in a small village and she was speaking to a group of people in a concrete building with open windows.  A cow stuck it's head through the window and mooed while Khanum was talking.  Khanum stopped, turned to the window and said to the cow," I don't remember inviting you."  Then went on with her talk.  In this talk she used some visual aides.  She had a simple lamp and some lovely scarves.  She turned on the lamp to show the light and explained that it represented the light of a new revelation from God.  Then she said that someone decided that it needed to have a little more color and fancy decorations (manmade additions to the religion) so she laid one of the scarves on the lamp.  She made more efforts to "improve" or "market" and put a scarf on the lamp each time.  Before long the light was no longer able to shine through the scarves.  The light was basically gone.  She grabbed the scarves off and the light was visible again.  She said this is what happened each time a new religion came from God.  The light was bright again.