Roses for the Friends in the City
Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, (1944), Bahá'í Publishing Trust · Read original
When in Bahá'í history
Baghdád (today: Baghdad, Iraq)
How this story reached us
- 1.God Passes By (Shoghi Effendi), chapter IX, "The Declaration of Bahá'u'lláh's Mission and His Journey to Constantinople": Nabíl's account of the roses
- 2.A Flame of Fire (A. Q. Faizi), the chapter on Aḥmad of Yazd: the flood and the ninth day
A retelling based on God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi, which quotes the recollections of the chronicler Nabíl. The account of the flood comes from A Flame of Fire by A. Q. Faizi. Words in quotation marks are quoted from those books.
On 22 April 1863 Bahá'u'lláh left His house in Baghdád and crossed the Tigris to the garden of Najíb Páshá, which His followers named the Garden of Riḍván. He had been summoned to Constantinople, and He stayed in the garden for twelve days before setting out. There He declared His mission to His companions.
Shoghi Effendi writes that little is known of the exact circumstances of that Declaration, and that Nabíl's description is "one of the very few authentic records we possess of the memorable days He spent in that garden." Nabíl related:
Every day, 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. All these roses Bahá'u'lláh would, with His own hands, entrust to those whom He dismissed from His presence every morning to be delivered, on His behalf, to His Arab and Persian friends in the city.
Nabíl also recalled that every day, from morning until evening, Bahá'u'lláh was talking with the stream of visitors who kept coming from Baghdád.
His own family was not yet with Him. A. Q. Faizi writes that on the day Bahá'u'lláh went to the garden "the river overflowed and only on the ninth day was it possible for His family to join Him in the Garden." That ninth day, 30 April, is one of the three days of Riḍván that Bahá'ís keep as Holy Days.
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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