The Garden of Gladness

*A retelling for children, based on **Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era** by J. E. Esslemont (1923), with details from **God Passes By**.*

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For ten years Bahá'u'lláh lived in the city of Baghdád, beside the river Tigris. Many people there loved Him.

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Then, at the request of the government of Persia, the Turkish government ordered Him to go to Constantinople, a city far away. When His followers heard the news, they were deeply troubled. So many of them crowded around His house that the family went out of the town and camped in a garden, the Garden of Najíb Páshá, for twelve days, while a caravan was made ready for the long journey.

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Bahá'u'lláh was ferried across the river to the garden. He entered it in the afternoon, just after the call to afternoon prayer had been raised.

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In those twelve days, Bahá'u'lláh was not sad. He showed the greatest joy, dignity and power. His followers became happy too. Crowds of people came from the city to visit Him, and even the Governor of Baghdád came to honor Him.

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Nabíl, one of His followers, wrote down what he saw. Every morning before dawn the gardeners picked the roses that grew along the paths of the garden and piled them up in Bahá'u'lláh's tent. The heap was so high that the friends drinking their morning tea could not see one another across it. Bahá'u'lláh gave the roses to His companions to take as gifts to His friends in the city.

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It was in that garden, during those twelve days, that Bahá'u'lláh told some of His followers His great news. The Báb, who had declared His mission nineteen years earlier, had promised that One would come after Him, sent by God. Bahá'u'lláh announced that He was that Promised One.

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The Bahá'ís call that place the Garden of Riḍván, which means Paradise. Every year they celebrate those twelve days as the Festival of Riḍván. The day Bahá'u'lláh entered the garden is the first day of the holiest and most important of all Bahá'í festivals.

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*This is a retelling for children. For the fuller account, see ["Twelve Days in the Garden of Najíb Páshá"](/stories/hd-first-day-of-ridvan-garden-of-najib-pasha).*

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