Ridvan Archives - Minds Valley

The Baha’i Definition of Paradise: The First Day of Ridvan

mindsvalley99 — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 11:32:53 +0000

Starting today, and for the next twelve days, Baha’is all around the world will celebrate Ridvan, which means “paradise,” the holiest and most joyous time of the Baha’i year.

Pronounced rez-vahn, the Baha’i teachings refer to this 12-day period every spring as “the King of Festivals,” because it marks the anniversary of the declaration of a new religion in an earthly paradise of a rose-scented, birdsong-filled garden.

That actual garden, named Ridvan or Paradise by Baha’u’llah, witnessed the birth of the Baha’i Faith, the world’s newest independent religion, in April of 1863.

The bank of the Tigris River in Baghdad, Iraq.

It happened on a verdant island in the Tigris River near Baghdad. The garden on that island marks the exact spot where Baha’u’llah first declared his mission and inaugurated the Baha’i Faith, as he recounted in his Book of Certitude:

Consider how all created things eloquently testify to the revelation of that inner Light within them. Behold how within all things the portals of the Ridvan of God are opened, that seekers may attain the cities of understanding and wisdom, and enter the gardens of knowledge and power. Within every garden they will behold the mystic bride of inner meaning enshrined within the chambers of utterance in the utmost grace and fullest adornment.

A decade before his momentous declaration, in 1853, the Persian government had exiled Baha’u’llah to Baghdad, fearing the rapid spread of his teachings and their progressive impact on society. In April of 1863, because Baha’u’llah’s message of oneness and harmony continued to spread and threaten the clerics and their hold on power, he faced another exile – described in Star of the West Magazine by Jinab-i-Fadil:

At last the enemies of the Cause secured from the government authorities an order banishing Baha’u’llah from Baghdad. It first read that he should go, alone. But later this was changed, permitting his family and a few followers to accompany him. The band of exiles left Baghdad and paused, first, in a beautiful garden outside the city. Here they sojourned for twelve days. A tent was pitched for Baha’u’llah, and around it the tents for the others. These days in the garden are called “The days of Ridvan” and they are of supreme importance, for it was then that Baha’u’llah declared, to a few followers, his great mission and began to build the palace of peace and unity for the world. He revealed many wonderful verses which sing the melodies of the New Day of God.

When the twelve days were over, the party, mounted on horses and donkeys and guarded by Turkish soldiers, set out again. The believers who could not accompany them were utterly broken-hearted. It was as though Baha’u’llah was a king starting upon a glorious journey. Outwardly, an exile – but in his spirit a great light was shining.

Baha’u’llah, his family, and the band of exiles and believers who accompanied them faced a grueling, arduous overland journey to Constantinople. It took them four months of traveling, on foot and horseback, through the deserts and mountains of Asia Minor in the heat of the summer. During that period Baha’u’llah continued to proclaim the mission of his new Faith – the oneness of humanity and peace between all nations – to a widening circle of new adherents and followers in each village they passed through.

Constantinople circa 1870 – 7 years after Baha’u’llah arrived there in exile.

This profound announcement transformed the occasion of Baha’u’llah’s banishment from crisis to victory.

The flower pots on the ground mark the location of the bench where Bahá’u’lláh often sat when He visited the replica of the Ridvan garden in Israel, c. 1920

So each year in April, the twelve days of Ridvan – which Baha’is observe this year from sunset on April 20th to sunset on May 2nd – commemorate Baha’u’llah’s sojourn in the garden, and joyously celebrate the birth of his new Faith. To commemorate and observe this holiday, Baha’i communities and their friends around the world remember the eve of Baha’u’llah’s banishment from Baghdad to Istanbul, not as a time of sorrow or regret, but as a happy festival of revelation and renewal.

In that way, the Ridvan Baha’i holy days symbolize the power of the prophet of God to bring forth light from darkness and win triumph from seeming defeat, as Abdu’l-Baha said in this 1912 speech he gave in New York City:

The Persian government believed the banishment of [Baha’u’llah] from Persia would be the extermination of his cause in that country. These rulers now realized that it spread more rapidly. His prestige increased, his teachings became more widely circulated. The chiefs of Persia then used their influence to have Baha’u’llah exiled from Baghdad. He was summoned to Constantinople by the Turkish authorities. While in Constantinople he ignored every restriction, especially the hostility of ministers of state and clergy. The official representatives of Persia again brought their influence to bear upon the Turkish authorities and succeeded in having Baha’u’llah banished from Constantinople to Adrianople, the object being to keep him as far away as possible from Persia and render his communication with that country more difficult. Nevertheless the cause still spread and strengthened.

Baha’is believe that Baha’u’llah’s announcement of his new revelation in the paradise of the Ridvan garden brought a new, inner paradise to humanity.

The Garden of Ridvan in Baghdad, Iraq.

During that first day of Ridvan in 1863 Baha’u’llah revealed the Suriy-i-Sabr, known as the “Tablet of Job.” In it, Baha’u’llah wrote a sentence that revealed one of the great themes of the Baha’i teachings, the concept of progressive revelation and the inherent unity of all religions:

God hath sent down His Messengers to succeed to Moses and Jesus, and He will continue to do so till ‘the end that hath no end;’ so that His grace may, from the heaven of Divine bounty, be continually vouchsafed to mankind.

A decade later, in 1873, Baha’u’llah referred to that first day of Ridvan as the moment when all humanity was “immersed in the sea of purification:”

Verily, all created things were immersed in the sea of purification when, on that first day of Ridvan, We shed upon the whole of creation the splendours of Our most excellent Names and Our most exalted Attributes. This, verily, is a token of My loving providence, which hath encompassed all the worlds.

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The 9th Day of Ridvan: the Unity of the Human Family

mindsvalley99 — Fri, 05 May 2023 13:03:14 +0000

Baha’is follow the teachings of Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, and every year Baha’i communities around the world joyously commemorate their Faith’s teachings of love and unity.

Today, Baha’is will observe the ninth day of the annual Ridvan festival (ridvan means paradise) – a day with a joyful special significance which makes it holy for every Baha’i. Baha’u’llah wrote that this great announcement – the coming of a new Divine prophet to humanity, described as “the Tongue of the Ancient of Days” – should be seen as “the Day of supreme felicity:”

Rejoice with exceeding gladness, O people of Baha, as ye call to remembrance the Day of supreme felicity, the Day whereon the Tongue of the Ancient of Days hath spoken, as He departed from His House, proceeding to the Spot from which He shed upon the whole of creation the splendors of His name, the All-Merciful.

The Ninth Day of Ridvan began during the period when the Tigris River reached flood stage in the spring of 1863. In late April Baha’u’llah and a handful of his followers crossed over the river to the Najibiyyih garden, a park-like setting on an island filled with rose bushes and the lilting songs of nightingales. There they set up their tents and prepared spiritually for their imminent overland journey to Constantinople (now Istanbul) – Baha’u’llah’s next place of government-imposed exile.

On that fragrant island they began to observe a divine springtime, that holiest of human celebrations, when a new prophet of God has come. Abdu’l-Baha, in a speech he gave in the United States in 1912, described it this way:

This time of the world may be likened to the equinoctial in the annual cycle. For, verily, this is the spring season of God. In the Holy Books a promise is given that the springtime of God shall make itself manifest; Jerusalem, the Holy City, shall descend from heaven; Zion shall leap forth and dance; and the Holy Land shall be submerged in the ocean of divine effulgence … It is a day of joy, a time of happiness, a period of spiritual growth.

Baha’u’llah’s declaration of his mission to a few followers in the Garden of Ridvan gave new inspiration to everyone around him, infusing the entire gathering in that garden of paradise with joy and life. Each year Baha’is commemorate these joyous emotions during the twelve-day Ridvan Festival, and Baha’i communities all over the world host parties and gatherings that welcome everyone in the spirit of the unity of the human family.

On the ninth day after Baha’u’llah reached the Ridvan garden, when the Tigris River had receded sufficiently from its spring flood stage, Baha’u’llah’s family and many other followers could finally cross the river by boat to join him in that Garden of Paradise. As a result, Baha’is celebrate the Ninth Day of Ridvan each year because it commemorates the unity of the human family and the great joy of Baha’u’llah’s declaration.

Outside the Garden of Ridvan in Baghdad, Iraq.

Even though they had reunited on the island, though, Baha’u’llah’s family had no idea what would happen next. Exiled by a vicious Persian despot – Nasiri’d-Din Shah – and two of his most hostile ministers, Mirza Aqasi and Amir-Nizam, Baha’u’llah, his family and his followers would soon embark on their forced exile, a treacherous four-month journey to an unknown future in a foreign land with an alien language and culture.

Impoverished, reviled by officials and made homeless by their decrees, they had no idea what tests, trials and tortures Constantinople might hold. Rumors swirled – that Baha’u’llah and all his followers would be imprisoned, tortured or killed. The capitol of the Ottoman Empire, an unknown future awaited them in Constantinople, infamous at the time for its Turkish prisons and their harsh, brutal treatment of captives.

But regardless of the dangers ahead, Baha’u’llah remained joyous. The historian Nabil wrote:

One night, the ninth night of the waxing moon, I happened to be one of those who watched beside His blessed tent. As the hour of midnight approached, I saw Him issue from His tent, pass by the places where some of His companions were sleeping, and begin to pace up and down the moonlit, flower-bordered avenues of the garden. So loud was the singing of the nightingales on every side that only those who were near Him could hear distinctly His voice. He continued to walk until, pausing in the midst of one of these avenues, He observed: “Consider these nightingales. So great is their love for these roses, that sleepless from dusk till dawn, they warble their melodies and commune with burning passion with the object of their adoration. How then can those who claim to be afire with the rose-like beauty of the Beloved choose to sleep?”

Baha’u’llah, in his powerful declaration in the garden of Ridvan, announced the universal call of a new spiritual revelation to humanity:

Take heed lest anything deter thee from extolling the greatness of this Day – the Day whereon the Finger of majesty and power hath opened the seal of the Wine of Reunion, and called all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth.

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Celebrating the Twelfth Day of Ridvan

mindsvalley99 — Tue, 02 May 2023 06:01:34 +0000

Every new Faith traces its beginnings back to the moment when its prophet and founder first recognized, revealed, and began to proclaim its holy mission.

Christians trace their Faith’s origins to the period when Jesus Christ, after his baptism by John the Baptist, returned from his sojourn in the wilderness to begin preaching the new gospel.

Jewish people recognize the return of Moses from Mount Sinai as the time when he brought the Ten Commandments to his followers.

In Islam, Muslims mark the beginnings of their Faith from the year 610 C.E., in a cave named Hira on Mount Jabal al-Nour near Mecca in what is now Saudi Arabia, where Muhammad received his first revelation.

For Baha’is, the 12-day period called Ridvan, which means “paradise,” commemorates Baha’u’llah’s initial announcement of his new revelation. Baha’u’llah wrote:

Arise, and proclaim unto the entire creation the tidings that He Who is the All-Merciful hath directed His steps towards the Ridvan and entered it. Guide, then, the people unto the garden of delight which God hath made the Throne of His Paradise.

This special period of time, celebrated by Baha’is in every part of the world during late April and early May each year, signifies more than simply the beginnings of their Faith – to Baha’is it means that a new spiritual springtime has arrived for the entire world, as Baha’u’llah announced:

O friends! It behoveth you to refresh and revive your souls through the gracious favours which in this Divine, this soul-stirring Springtime are being showered upon you. The Day-Star of His great glory hath shed its radiance upon you, and the clouds of His limitless grace have overshadowed you. How high the reward of him that hath not deprived himself of so great a bounty, nor failed to recognize the beauty of his Best-Beloved in this, His new attire. –

When the 12^th and final day of the original Ridvan period in 1863 arrived, Baha’u’llah departed from that garden island outside of Baghdad and began his four-month journey to Constantinople, now known as Istanbul.

Exiled by government decree because his new, progressive teachings had continued their rapid spread among the people of the Ottoman Empire, Baha’u’llah and his family faced a perilous, grueling trip on foot and horseback through the hottest months of the year. Precisely at noon on the 12^th day of Ridvan Baha’u’llah mounted his horse, a noble red roan stallion, and set out on the road to face an unknown fate.

The bridge at Büyükçekmece, Turkey, which Baha’u’llah and His companions crossed on their way from Constantinople to Adrianople in December 1863

At the place of departure, he was immediately surrounded by hordes of people begging for his blessings and imploring him not to go. The historian Nabil, an eyewitness to Baha’u’llah’s departure that day, described a wrenching scene: “Numerous were the heads which, on every side, bowed to the dust at the feet of [Baha’u’llah’s] horse, and kissed its hoofs, and countless were those who pressed forward to embrace His stirrups.”

Although Baha’u’llah had asked his many followers to stay in Baghdad and not try to trail along behind the exiled group, one of the Baha’is, named Mirza Asadu’llah Kashani, couldn’t help himself. Quoted in Lady Blomfield’s book The Chosen Highway, he reported that:

Although Baha’u’llah had commanded the friends not to follow them, I was so loath to let Him go out of my sight, that I ran after them for three hours.

He saw me, and getting down from His horse, waited for me, telling me with His beautiful voice, full of love and kindness, to go back to Baghdad, and with the friends, to set about our work, not slothfully, but with energy:

“Be not overcome with sorrow – I am leaving friends I love in Baghdad. I will surely send to them tidings of our welfare. Be steadfast in your service to God, who doeth whatsoever He willeth. Live in such peace as will be permitted to you.”

We watched them disappear into the darkness with sinking hearts, for their enemies were powerful and cruel! And we knew not where they were being taken. An unknown destination!

Weeping bitterly, we turned our faces toward Baghdad, determined to live according to His command.

Baha’u’llah’s daughter Bahiyyih Khanum later said, in an interview with Myron H. Phelps recorded in his book Abbas Effendi, His Life and Teachings, that an entire retinue of government soldiers escorted the exiles on their journey:

Many of [Baha’u’llah’s] followers decided to abandon Baghdad also, and accompany him in his wanderings. When the caravan started, our company numbered about seventy-five persons. All the young men, and others who could ride, were mounted on horses. The women and [Baha’u’llah] were furnished wagons. We were accompanied by a military escort.

Decorated pen case belonging to Bahá’u’lláh

On the 12^th day of Ridvan, Baha’u’llah began his second exile. His first, ten years before, had taken him and his family from Tehran in Persia to Baghdad in Iraq. Two more banishments would come after this one, the final exile to the pestilential prison-city of Akka in Palestine, where few survived the terrible prison conditions.

But these cruel banishments, decreed by rulers who feared the rapid spread of Baha’u’llah’s teachings, failed in their intent to suppress, damage and destroy the Baha’i Faith – instead, they rendered it victorious, helping to spread its healing spiritual message around the world.

That’s one reason why, during the Ridvan period each year, Baha’is around the world elect the democratic institutions that administer and guide their Faith. Because the Baha’i Faith has no clergy, Baha’i communities govern themselves with democratically-elected bodies of nine people called Spiritual Assemblies, annually elected at the local and national level during the twelve days of Ridvan. At five year intervals, Baha’is elect their global governing body, the Universal House of Justice, during this same period.

So every year during the twelve days of Ridvan, when Baha’is gather to pray and silently cast their ballots for these unique democratic institutions, they affirm Baha’u’llah’s teachings of world unity, symbolically honoring the garden of humanity in all its diversity and beauty while celebrating Baha’u’llah’s powerful declaration in the garden of Ridvan. If you know any Baha’is where you live, please join in!

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The Baha’i Definition of Paradise: The First Day of Ridvan

mindsvalley99 — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 10:54:30 +0000

Starting today, and for the next twelve days, Baha’is all around the world will celebrate Ridvan, which means “paradise,” the holiest and most joyous time of the Baha’i year.

Pronounced rez-vahn, the Baha’i teachings refer to this 12-day period every spring as “the King of Festivals,” because it marks the anniversary of the declaration of a new religion in an earthly paradise of a rose-scented, birdsong-filled garden.

That actual garden, named Ridvan or Paradise by Baha’u’llah, witnessed the birth of the Baha’i Faith, the world’s newest independent religion, in April of 1863.

Consider how all created things eloquently testify to the revelation of that inner Light within them. Behold how within all things the portals of the Ridvan of God are opened, that seekers may attain the cities of understanding and wisdom, and enter the gardens of knowledge and power. Within every garden they will behold the mystic bride of inner meaning enshrined within the chambers of utterance in the utmost grace and fullest adornment.

At last the enemies of the Cause secured from the government authorities an order banishing Baha’u’llah from Baghdad. It first read that he should go, alone. But later this was changed, permitting his family and a few followers to accompany him. The band of exiles left Baghdad and paused, first, in a beautiful garden outside the city. Here they sojourned for twelve days. A tent was pitched for Baha’u’llah, and around it the tents for the others. These days in the garden are called “The days of Ridvan” and they are of supreme importance, for it was then that Baha’u’llah declared, to a few followers, his great mission and began to build the palace of peace and unity for the world. He revealed many wonderful verses which sing the melodies of the New Day of God.

When the twelve days were over, the party, mounted on horses and donkeys and guarded by Turkish soldiers, set out again. The believers who could not accompany them were utterly broken-hearted. It was as though Baha’u’llah was a king starting upon a glorious journey. Outwardly, an exile – but in his spirit a great light was shining.

Baha’u’llah, his family, and the band of exiles and believers who accompanied them faced a grueling, arduous overland journey to Constantinople. It took them four months of traveling, on foot and horseback, through the deserts and mountains of Asia Minor in the heat of the summer. During that period Baha’u’llah continued to proclaim the mission of his new Faith – the oneness of humanity and peace between all nations – to a widening circle of new adherents and followers in each village they passed through.

This profound announcement transformed the occasion of Baha’u’llah’s banishment from crisis to victory.

The flower pots on the ground mark the location of the bench where Bahá’u’lláh often sat when He visited the replica of the Ridvan garden in Israel, c. 1920

So each year in April, the twelve days of Ridvan – which Baha’is observe this year from sunset on April 20^th to sunset on May 2^nd – commemorate Baha’u’llah’s sojourn in the garden, and joyously celebrate the birth of his new Faith. To commemorate and observe this holiday, Baha’i communities and their friends around the world remember the eve of Baha’u’llah’s banishment from Baghdad to Istanbul, not as a time of sorrow or regret, but as a happy festival of revelation and renewal.

The Persian government believed the banishment of [Baha’u’llah] from Persia would be the extermination of his cause in that country. These rulers now realized that it spread more rapidly. His prestige increased, his teachings became more widely circulated. The chiefs of Persia then used their influence to have Baha’u’llah exiled from Baghdad. He was summoned to Constantinople by the Turkish authorities. While in Constantinople he ignored every restriction, especially the hostility of ministers of state and clergy. The official representatives of Persia again brought their influence to bear upon the Turkish authorities and succeeded in having Baha’u’llah banished from Constantinople to Adrianople, the object being to keep him as far away as possible from Persia and render his communication with that country more difficult. Nevertheless the cause still spread and strengthened.

Baha’is believe that Baha’u’llah’s announcement of his new revelation in the paradise of the Ridvan garden brought a new, inner paradise to humanity.

During that first day of Ridvan in 1863 Baha’u’llah revealed the Suriy-i-Sabr, known as the “Tablet of Job.” In it, Baha’u’llah wrote a sentence that revealed one of the great themes of the Baha’i teachings, the concept of progressive revelation and the inherent unity of all religions:

God hath sent down His Messengers to succeed to Moses and Jesus, and He will continue to do so till ‘the end that hath no end;’ so that His grace may, from the heaven of Divine bounty, be continually vouchsafed to mankind.

A decade later, in 1873, Baha’u’llah referred to that first day of Ridvan as the moment when all humanity was “immersed in the sea of purification:”

Verily, all created things were immersed in the sea of purification when, on that first day of Ridvan, We shed upon the whole of creation the splendours of Our most excellent Names and Our most exalted Attributes. This, verily, is a token of My loving providence, which hath encompassed all the worlds.

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