The Family Joins Bahá'u'lláh in the Garden

*A retelling based on **Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era** by J. E. Esslemont, with details from God Passes By (Shoghi Effendi), A Flame of Fire (A. Q. Faizi) and The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh (Adib Taherzadeh).*

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At the request of the Persian Government, the Ottoman Government ordered Bahá'u'lláh to leave Baghdád for Constantinople. Esslemont writes that on hearing the news His followers "were in consternation" and besieged His house, and that He spent the twelve days before the journey in the Garden of Najíb Páshá outside the town while the caravan was prepared. Bahá'ís remember that garden as the Garden of Riḍván.

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According to *God Passes By*, Bahá'u'lláh was ferried across the Tigris with His amanuensis and His sons, among them 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He entered the garden on April 22, 1863, just after the afternoon call to prayer had been raised. Aḥmad of Yazd, to whom the Tablet of Aḥmad was later revealed, was then living close to Bahá'u'lláh's house in Baghdád. He later recalled, in an account recorded by A. Q. Faizi, that on that same day the river overflowed, and that only on the ninth day was it possible for His family to join Him in the garden.

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Of the twelve days Bahá'u'lláh spent there, three are Holy Days. Adib Taherzadeh describes them as "the first day on which He declared Himself, the ninth day when all His family joined Him and rejoiced at His Declaration, and the twelfth day when He left that garden."

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Esslemont describes those days:

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> During those days Bahá'u'lláh, instead of being sad or depressed, > showed the greatest joy, dignity and power. His followers became > happy and enthusiastic, and great crowds came to pay their respects > to Him. All the notables of Baghdád, even the Governor himself, > came to honor the departing prisoner.

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*A retelling based on **Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era**. For the fuller account, see the original.*

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