The name usually used by Bahá'ís for the first and only person to hold the title of Guardian of the Baha'i Faith. He was appointed in 1921, at the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and carried out the duties of his office until his death in 1957.
In addition to the leadership of the worldwide Baha'i community, according to Baha'i belief, the station of Guardianship also conveyed the ability to produce authoritative interpretations of the Baha'i Writings. This led some of the Baha'is to seek his advice on all sorts of worldly matters, such as financial investments, even though he explained that he had no supernatural guidance for answering such questions.
Shoghi Effendi also made it clear that his writings were not to be classified as part of the Baha'i sacred literature, but were instead to be viewed as an aid for studying the writings of Bahá'u'lláh, the Báb, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
Shoghi Effendi's achievements included: building the framework of the Baha'i system of community administration; guiding the Baha'i community to expand its geographic scope; translating numerous key documents and passages from the Baha'i sacred writings into English, with clarifications of their meaning and application to the problems of the day; and carrying forward the development of the Baha'i World Center and its holy places in Israel. | 
