2.12 Sayyid Nayyir Afnan
Sayyid Nayyir Afnan, son of Sayyid Ali Afnan, whose obituary is announced in Shoghi Effendi’s message, or rather full of excommunication, of April 5, 1952, was Baha’s grandson in the female line. Shoghi Effendi was Baha’s great grandson in the female line like Shoghi Effendi, Sayyid Nayyir Afnan was a “branch of the Divine and sacred the lote-tree, grown out of the twin-holly Trees.” He was educated in the United Kingdom and was an expert in agriculture. He had a charming personality and associated with, and befriended men in all walks of life irrespective of race and creed. He did not believe in Abdul Baha’s shibboleth of “covenant-breaking”, on which he expressed himself strongly. He was married to Shoghi Effendi’s sister Ruh-Angiz Khanum. He viewed with disfavor Shoghi Effendi’s impulsive actions of expulsions from the Faith, and conveyed his convictions to Shoghi Effendi, to which he turned a deaf ear. In Sayyid Nayyir Afnan’s opinion Shoghi Effendi wanted to have only ‘yes-men’ around him. Sayyid Afnan lived alone at the time of his death in Haifa. His wife and two daughters had taken up their permanent residence in Lebanon.

He was missed by his “covenant-breaking” friends for a day or two. When these friends looked him up in his house they found him dead. He had been suffering from heart trouble for some years. His remain were laid to rest by those friends.

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