Today, one of the holiest and happiest days in the entire year for Baha’is, the followers and friends of Baha’u’llah will gather with smiles, laughter, and great joy – please join us!

This is much more than a birthday party, though. When Baha’u’llah was born at the hour of dawn on October 27th in 1817, Baha’is believe the means for the establishment of the long-awaited unity of the entire human race came into being. 

Baha’u’llah began teaching the newly-revealed Baha’i Faith in the spring of 1863. His revelation promised that the religious, racial, and nationalistic hatreds dividing the peoples of the world would soon be overcome. He said the violence, war, and fanaticism that separated human beings was obsolete. He asked humanity to transcend their prejudices and forget the things that keep them apart. He opened the way for lasting world peace based on a new spiritual foundation. He raised the great call for the unity of all peoples and cultures, all nations and religions, which all the prophets of old had promised would one day appear. 

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For those profound reasons, and many more, the global Baha’i community enthusiastically and joyously celebrates this day every year – the Birth of Baha’u’llah, the second of the Baha’i Twin Holy Days.

Of course, every religion recognizes the birth of its founder. In the same way that Buddhists celebrate the birth of Gautama Buddha on Vesak each year; in the same way that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus every year on Christmas; in the same way that every great Faith annually commemorates the birth of its founder, Baha’is mark Baha’u’llah’s birth with joy and happiness.

But this holy day is more than that, because Baha’is view the advent of Baha’u’llah as a major turning point in the world’s evolution. Baha’u’llah wrote:

The Revelation which, from time immemorial, hath been acclaimed as the Purpose and Promise of all the Prophets of God, and the most cherished Desire of His Messengers, hath now, by virtue of the pervasive Will of the Almighty and at His irresistible bidding, been revealed unto men. The advent of such a Revelation hath been heralded in all the sacred Scriptures.

In any age, the birth of a new messenger of God represents hope and joy and the coming of a spiritual springtime, when the whole world begins to awaken to that beautiful new divine message. Baha’is believe that Baha’u’llah, the most recent messenger and founder of a global Faith, represents the latest channel of God’s grace to humanity, the one who brings the unity of all peoples, the fulfillment of the age-old promise of the kingdom of God come to Earth. 

Born more than two centuries ago in the capital city of Persia, Tehran, Baha’u’llah grew up as the son of a government minister and nobleman. Rather than pursuing his father’s career, early in his adulthood Baha’u’llah turned to a life of service to the poor and needy. He sought no position or prominence, and accepted the religion of the Bab, which subjected Baha’u’llah and his family to terrible privation, persecution, and imprisonment. Thirteen years after the government’s execution of the Bab in 1850, Baha’u’llah announced that he was the one heralded by the Bab – God’s messenger for humanity’s golden age of unity and peace, foretold in all the world’s scriptures.

However, you won’t find a sense of triumphalism among the Baha’is, because Baha’u’llah taught that no distinction of station exists between any of the messengers of God. No Baha’i claims that the stations of the Bab or Baha’u’llah are superior to the stations of any of God’s previous messengers. In fact, Baha’is view all of the messengers and prophets of God as one. 

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Baha’u’llah proclaimed that his message is for every human being, intended not for one people or culture, one language or nation, but meant for all peoples. He announced that the coming of age of the human species, the time when the human race has the potential to recognize itself as one, discover its fullness and its common humanity, has arrived.

So the Baha’i Twin Holy Days mark the first universal holy day to be vouchsafed to everyone by a loving God – a shared world celebration.

This is the first day in human history that can be celebrated as sacred by all peoples, no matter what their background. In Baha’u’llah’s birthday Jewish people may discover the birth of the Messiah, and Christians recognize the return of Christ. Muslims might celebrate the reappearance of the Hidden Imam and the birth of the promised Qa’im. The Zoroastrians can rejoice at the birth of their king, the Shah Bahram; Buddhists can find the Maitreya Buddha, the supremely enlightened One. Hindus can recognize in Baha’u’llah the return of Krishna, born to reestablish righteousness on Earth. 

So this, the Baha’i teachings say, is the first event in human history that people of all traditions and all cultures can claim as their own. Happy Birthday of Baha’u’llah!

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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, came into this world at the hour of dawn on this day in 1817, bringing the means for the establishment of the long-awaited unity of the entire human race. 

When he began teaching his new Faith in the spring of 1863, Baha’u’llah promised that the religious, racial, and nationalistic hatreds dividing the world’s peoples would soon be overcome. 

He promised, as well, that the war and fanaticism which separates human beings was now annulled. 

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Baha’u’llah challenged all people to transcend their prejudices and the things that keep them apart as one human family. 

He brought a blueprint for a new international order, which opens the way for lasting world peace based on a deeply spiritual foundation. 

He raised the great call for the unity of all peoples and cultures, all nations and religions, which the prophets of old had promised would one day appear:

We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations …. That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled … Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ’Most Great Peace’ shall come …. These strifes and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one family …. Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind …. – 

Every one of those profound reasons, and many more, inspire the global Baha’i community to enthusiastically and joyously celebrate this holy day — the Birth of Baha’u’llah, the second of the Baha’i Twin Holy Days.

Every year Baha’is anticipate this day with great joy. In the same way that Buddhists annually celebrate Vesak, the birth of Gautama Buddha; in the same way that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus every year on Christmas; in the same way that every great Faith annually commemorates the birth of its founder, Baha’is view the advent of Baha’u’llah as a major turning point in the world’s evolution:

The Revelation which, from time immemorial, hath been acclaimed as the Purpose and Promise of all the Prophets of God, and the most cherished Desire of His Messengers, hath now, by virtue of the pervasive Will of the Almighty and at His irresistible bidding, been revealed unto men. The advent of such a Revelation hath been heralded in all the sacred Scriptures. 

To Baha’is, Baha’u’llah’s birth represents hope and joy and the advent of a spiritual springtime, when the whole world awakens to his hopeful, beautiful message of love, peace, and unity. Baha’is believe that Baha’u’llah, the most recent messenger and founder of a global Faith, has provided humanity with the latest channel of God’s grace. 

Born in 1817 in Tehran, the capital city of Persia, Baha’u’llah grew up as the son of a government minister and nobleman. Rather than pursuing his father’s career as expected, early in his adulthood Baha’u’llah began devoting his life to the service of the poor and needy.

He sought no position or prominence and accepted the new religion of the Bab — which subjected Baha’u’llah and his family to terrible privation, persecution, and imprisonment. Thirteen years after the government’s execution of the Bab in 1850, Baha’u’llah announced that he was the one heralded by the Bab, God’s messenger for humanity’s golden age of unity and peace, foretold in all of the world’s scriptures:

O peoples of the world! The Sun of Truth hath risen to illumine the whole earth, and to spiritualize the community of man. Laudable are the results and the fruits thereof, abundant the holy evidences deriving from this grace. This is mercy unalloyed and purest bounty; it is light for the world and all its peoples; it is harmony and fellowship, and love and solidarity; indeed it is compassion and unity, and the end of foreignness; it is the being at one, in complete dignity and freedom, with all on earth.  

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Among his teachings on unity and harmony, Baha’u’llah taught that no distinction of station exists between any of the prophets of God — in fact, Baha’is view all of the messengers and prophets of God as one. Baha’u’llah’s message is intended not for one people or culture, one language or nation, but is meant for all peoples. 

The Baha’i teachings say that the coming of age of the human species, the time when the human race can recognize itself as one, discover its fullness and its common humanity, has arrived.

So this day — the birthday of Baha’u’llah — is holy because it marks the first day in human history, which can be celebrated as sacred by all peoples, no matter what their background. In it, Jewish people have discovered the birth of the Messiah, and Christians recognized the return of Christ, while Muslims celebrate the reappearance of the Hidden Imam or the birth of the promised Qa’im. Zoroastrians rejoice at the birth of their king, the Shah Bahram; Buddhists can find in Baha’u’llah the Maitreya Buddha, the supremely enlightened One; and Hindus can recognize the reincarnation of Krishna, born to reestablish righteousness on Earth. 

Happy Birthday of Baha’u’llah!