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At the request of the Universal House of Justice, the Research Department has provided the enclosed response to your email message of 12 November 1994, in which you inquire about the reason that the prayers of the Guardian are not translated into English.
With loving Bahá'í greetings,In her email letter of 12 November 1994 to the Universal House of Justice, Shohreh Mansouri enquires about the prayers written in Persian and Arabic by Shoghi Effendi. She wishes to know why these prayers have not been translated into the English language.
The following two extracts from letters written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice provide information which pertains to Miss Mansouri's query:
Even though the beloved Guardian wrote some prayers in his
letters to the eastern friends, he did not encourage their translation
into the western languages. In a letter written on his behalf to the
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States on 23
February 1957, his secretary stated:He sees no necessity for translating prayers that he has written
in Persian into English. The Bahá'ís have a great many wonderful
prayers already translated, and he feels that now is not the time to
spend money on these things.In response to your Email message of 6 November 1986 regarding
the possibility of publishing a selection of the prayers of Shoghi
Effendi translated into English, the Universal House of Justice
instructs us to advise that it does not feel that the time has come for
this to be done. We are to convey its further comments.
There is no doubt that one day the general messages of the
beloved Guardian addressed to the friends in the East, particularly to
the friends in Iran and written in Arabic and Persian, will be
translated for the benefit of the English-speaking world. In the context of
such a project, the prayers of Shoghi Effendi, which usually form
part of these communications, will of course be translated and made
available to the friends.