Against Incredible Odds: Life of a Twentieth Century Iranian Baha'i Family by Baharieh Rouhani Ma'ani is the latest in the Baha'i Heritage series. It tells the story of one family from the Iranian town of Nayriz whose life has spanned the whole history of the Baha'i Faith, from its earliest days to the present. Their story is the story of the Baha'i Cause itself.
The Rouhani family was a direct witness to the growth of the Baha'i Faith and also to its persecution, from the time of the Baha'u'llah, through the ministries of ‘Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi and to the establishment and flowering of the Universal House of Justice. At every turn the family faced major misfortunes--fires, floods, the untimely death of their children and spouses, as well as the persecution and difficulties that swept over the Baha'i community. Yet at every turn they served the Faith as its defenders, teachers and pioneers. Again, their story is the story of the Baha'i community itself.
Written as a tribute to one family, the story portrays what Baha'i parents and ancestors went through to pass down to their children the precious legacy they possess today. It is a story of lifelong struggle against incredible odds, of renouncing worldly pleasures to achieve higher aims, of accepting material deprivations to gain spiritual strength and of foregoing the desire of wanting to be physically close to one’s children the cherished desire of every parent to enable them to scatter far and wide and work towards the achievement of Baha'u'llah's pivotal goal of unifying humankind.