Ridwan season approaches...

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Lovely music and views for Ridvan!

Bahais celebrating Ridvan ,Happy Ridvan to everyone - YouTube

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Crossing the River

Bahá'u'lláh boarded a small boat waiting for Him; the people pressed all around Him, wishing to be in His Presence for as long as they could.
The boat pushed off, and ferried Bahá'u'lláh across the water, in company with 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Purest Branch , another of His sons, and His secretary, and the companions on the bank all watched with sorrowing hearts as He receded into the distance.
Bahá'u'lláh set foot on the opposite bank and crossed into the Garden, just as the call of 'God is the Greatest' resounded throughout the district from the pinnacles of the mosque, summoning the inhabitants to the late afternoon prayer, at two hours to sunset. Shortly after Bahá'u'lláh's arrival, the River rose up, making it difficult to cross, and it was only on the ninth day that the whole of Bahá'u'lláh's family was able to join Him.

Those Remaining on the Banks

An extraordinary exhilaration, a marvellous exaltation in the atmosphere filled the companions that day. As they remained watching on the bank, they were aware of this, yet unable to understand what in due time they were to learn.
Seeing the boat reach the other side and Bahá'u'lláh disappear in the distance, they started off on foot toward the main bridge floating on the River, they made their way to the Garden, where food was cooking and tea prepared for the friends.

The Garden of Ridvan

For twelve days Bahá'u'lláh stayed in the Garden, and would be found each day in the utmost joy, walking majestically in the flower-lined avenues and amongst the trees.
The friends living in Baghdad would come during the day and return home each night, whilst others would be engaged in service to those in the Garden.
Eminent rulers, clergy and jurists would come continuously to Bahá'u'lláh's tent with their insoluble problems, and take their leave satisfied with their dilemmas entirely solved.

Day 1 - Mystery Manifest

On the very first day of the Ridván festivities, Bahá'u'lláh shone out to the world like the most brilliant sun. At that critical hour and without warning, amidst the unending multitude of interrupting visitors thronging His tent and the dangers such a news would bring to His exile, Bahá'u'lláh chose to lay bare the mystery surrounding His person, and assume the power and authority of the One promised by the Báb. He made known how the effulgence of the Eternal Truth had at that moment infused all created things with the life of every divine quality, immersing creation in the sea of purification; the sword was to be utterly cast from reach; and He made it known that the next Messenger would come to the world after a thousand years. In such a way, and through many signs, Bahá'u'lláh conveyed His position to those who were present, and announced with great joy the start of the Festival of Ridvan. Though on the threshold of His exile into great suffering in far-away lands, yet sadness and grief entirely vanished from everyone's hearts, and was replaced with unclouded delight.

The Story of Ridván

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The three announcements


In a Tablet written some years later Bahá'u'lláh states that three announcements were made on the first day of Ridvan.

First, Bahá'u'lláh's followers were forbidden to fight to advance or defend their faith. (Religious war, jihad, had been permitted in Islam and under certain conditions by the law of the Bab.)

Second, there would not be another prophet for a full thousand years.

Third, at that moment all the names of God were fully manifest in all things.

These are perhaps to be regarded as an oblique announcement of His own prophethood. The first two anticipate basic features of Bahá'í law recorded in the Kitab-i-Aqdas.

The third announcement is echoed in many passages from Tablets related to Ridvan, for example:



"For We perceive the fragrance of the Day whereon He Who is the Desire of all nations hath shed upon the kingdoms of the unseen and of the seen the splendour of the light of His most excellent names, and enveloped them with the radiance of the luminaries of His most gracious favours -- favours which none can reckon except Him, Who is the omnipotent Protector of the entire creation."

Thus, Bahá'u'lláh's arrival in Ridvan marks a mystic transformation of the world, in which the entire creation is infused with the glory of God's names. His announcement should, therefore, be viewed less as the revealing of a secret to a few individuals than as a fundamental transformation in the relationship between God and the world.


From "Ridvan"

by John Walbridge
published in Sacred Acts, Sacred Space, Sacred Time: Baha'i Studies volume 1
Oxford: George Ronald, 1995

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Happy Ridvan 2012 - YouTube

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Joyous Ridvan - In the Garden of Ridvan - YouTube

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May 2nd concludes the Ridvan Festival...The Twelfth Day of Ridvan. The Baha'i communities around the planet have elected the Spiritual Assemblies on the local and national levels and every five years the Universal House of Justice is elected by the National Spiritual Assemblies.

What follows is a video on the history:

The Festival of Ridvan - YouTube