The Declaration in the Garden of Riḍván
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, (1944), Bahá'í Publishing Trust · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
Baghdád (today: Baghdad, Iraq)
A retelling based on God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi (chapters VIII and IX), which quotes the eyewitness account of Nabíl. The three statements of the first day are described in Adib Taherzadeh's The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, volume 1. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.
Bahá'u'lláh had been an exile in Baghdád for ten years. Shoghi Effendi places the birth of His Revelation in the Síyáh-Chál, the dungeon of Ṭihrán, in 1852. For the decade that followed He did not announce it. In 1863 His enemies, among them the Persian consul-general in Baghdád, obtained an order from the Ottoman government summoning Him to Constantinople.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, 22 April 1863, thirty-one days after Naw-Rúz, Bahá'u'lláh left His house in Baghdád for the last time. A crowd of every class and background filled the approaches to the house. On His way He gave alms to the poor and spoke words of comfort to those who pressed around Him. At the river He was ferried across, with His sons and His amanuensis, to the Najíbíyyih Garden on the opposite bank. The afternoon call to prayer had just been raised when He entered it. His followers later named it the Garden of Riḍván.
He stayed in the garden twelve days. Friends and visitors came in successive waves to take their leave of Him. Among them were Álúsí, the Muftí of Baghdád, and the governor, Námiq Páshá, who asked what he could do for Him. "Extend thy consideration to Our loved ones," Bahá'u'lláh replied, "and deal with them with kindness."
It was during these days that Bahá'u'lláh declared to His companions that He was the One whose coming the Báb had foretold, "Him Whom God shall make manifest." Shoghi Effendi is candid about how little is known: "Of the exact circumstances attending that epoch-making Declaration we, alas, are but scantily informed." The words Bahá'u'lláh used, the manner of the Declaration and the names of those who heard it were not recorded. Taherzadeh notes a Tablet, written down by Bahá'u'lláh's amanuensis, which records three statements He made on the first day. He forbade His followers the use of the sword. He stated that no other Manifestation of God would appear before a thousand years had passed. And He said that at that moment all the names and attributes of God had been fully manifested in all created things.
Nabíl, who was there, left one of the few first-hand descriptions of those days. "Every day," he wrote, "ere the hour of dawn, the gardeners would pick the roses which lined the four avenues of the garden, and would pile them in the center of the floor of His blessed tent. So great would be the heap that when His companions gathered to drink their morning tea in His presence, they would be unable to see each other across it." Bahá'u'lláh gave all these roses, with His own hands, to those He sent into the city each morning, to be delivered on His behalf to His Arab and Persian friends there.
On the ninth night of the waxing moon Nabíl was keeping watch beside the tent. Near midnight Bahá'u'lláh came out and walked along the moonlit avenues. The nightingales were singing so loudly that only those near Him could hear His voice. He stopped in one of the avenues and said: "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?" For three nights Nabíl circled the tent and found Him awake each time he passed. By day he saw Him speaking without pause to the visitors who kept arriving from the city.
Bahá'u'lláh Himself called the day of His arrival in the garden the "Most Great Festival," the "King of Festivals," the "Festival of God." Shoghi Effendi describes the Festival of Riḍván as "the holiest and most significant of all Bahá'í festivals." Bahá'ís keep it for twelve days each year; the first, ninth and twelfth days are holy days.
At noon on 3 May 1863 Bahá'u'lláh mounted His horse and rode out of the garden on the first stage of the journey to Constantinople.
This is a retelling. For the fuller account, see God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, chapter IX.
Cite this story
Effendi, S.. (1944). *God Passes By*. Bahá'í Publishing Trust. https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/shoghi-effendi/god-passes-by/
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The Roses of Riḍván
During Bahá'u'lláh's twelve days in the Garden of Riḍván in 1863, roses were heaped so high in His tent that the companions could not see one another across them, and at night He spoke of the sleepless nightingales.
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In a garden outside Baghdád, roses were piled so high in Bahá'u'lláh's tent that His friends could not see one another across them, and at night the nightingales sang until dawn.
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When Bahá'u'lláh was summoned from Baghdád in 1863, His followers were dismayed. Esslemont records that during the twelve days in the Garden of Riḍván He showed the greatest joy, dignity and power, and His followers became happy and enthusiastic.
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Nabíl-i-A'ẓam, who was in the Garden of Riḍván in 1863, recalled the roses heaped each morning in Bahá'u'lláh's tent and the night Bahá'u'lláh spoke of the nightingales.