Saturday, January 22, 2000
Rhuiyyih Rabbani, Bahai Icon, Dies
Madame Rhuiyyih Rabbani, the last member
of the Bahai faith's venerated holy family, has died in Haifa, Israel. She
was 89.
Born in New York as Mary Sutherland
Maxwell, Rabbani's parents were Bahais. News of her death on Wednesday
brought words of reverence and praise from Bahais throughout the world.
"It's the last link to the Bahai holy
family," Los Angeles Bahai Center administrator Randy Dobbs said Friday.
She held the title of the "Hand of the
Cause of God," bestowed upon her in 1952 by her husband, Shoghi Effendi,
five years before his death. Effendi was the great-grandson of the founder
of the Bahai faith, the Baha'u'llah, who died in 1892. Rabbani and Effendi
had no children.
The Bahai faith has its roots in the
Islamic Babi movement in Persia. Baha'u'llah was originally a Babi. While
in exile in Iraq and Turkey, he came to believe that he was the prophet
foretold by the Bab.
Rabbani was closely involved with the
development of the faith's world center in Israel, according to the Los
Angeles Bahai center. The center reports there are 10,000 to 12,000 Bahais
in Southern California and followers of the religion in 190 countries and
45 dependent territories.
©Copyright 2000, Los Angles Times
Original Story
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