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.