Video
The following link
a video devotional for Ridvan:
http://upliftingwords.org/RidvanVideo.htm
Writings
1. He is God! Thou seest, O my Lord, the assemblage of Thy
loved ones, the company of Thy friends, gathered by the
precincts of Thine all-sufficing Shrine, and in the
neighborhood of Thine exalted garden, on a day among the days
of Thy Ridván Feast - that blessed time when Thou didst dawn
upon the world, shedding thereon the lights of Thy holiness,
spreading abroad the bright rays of Thy oneness, and didst
issue forth from Baghdad, with a majesty and might that
encompassed all mankind; with a glory that made all to fall
prostrate before Thee, all heads to bow, every neck to bend
low, and the gaze of every man to be cast down. They are
calling Thee to mind and making mention of Thee, their breasts
gladdened with the lights of Thy bestowals, their souls
restored by the evidences of Thy gifts, speaking Thy praise,
turning their faces toward Thy Kingdom, humbly supplicating
Thy lofty Realms.
-`Abdu'l-Bahá:
Memorials of the Faithful, Pages: 175-177
2. The Festival
of Ridván is come and the splendour of the light of God is
shining from the invisible horizon of His mercy. The
overflowing grace of the Lord of oneness is pouring down
copiously from the unseen world and the glad-tidings of the
Kingdom are coming in from all countries. The resplendent morn
that betokens the advancement of the Cause of God and heralds
the exaltation of His Word is dawning in every region. Praise
be to God that the fame of the Ancient Beauty - may my life be
offered up for His loved ones - has been noised abroad in the
world and the glory of His Cause is spread far and wide
throughout the East and the West. These joyous developments
will indeed gladden the hearts of His loved ones.
-Shoghi
Effendi: Bahiyyih Khanum, Page: 112
3. Say: The Most
Great Festival is, indeed, the King of Festivals. Call ye to
mind, O people, the bounty which God hath conferred upon you.
Ye were sunk in slumber, and lo! He aroused you by the
reviving breezes of His Revelation, and made known unto you
His manifest and undeviating Path.
-Bahá'u'lláh:
The Kitab-i-Aqdas, Page: 60
4. God hath …
abolished the concept of "uncleanness", whereby
divers things and peoples have been held to be impure. He, of
a certainty, is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Generous. Verily,
all created things were immersed in the sea of purification
when, on that first day of Ridván, 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. Consort ye
then with the followers of all religions, and proclaim ye the
Cause of your Lord, the Most Compassionate; this is the very
crown of deeds, if ye be of them who understand.
-Bahá'u'lláh:
The Kitab-i-Aqdas, Page: 47
5. I entrust to
your keeping this city of Baghdad, in the state ye now behold
it, when from the eyes of friends and strangers alike,
crowding its housetops, its streets and markets, tears like
the rain of spring are flowing down, and I depart. With you it
now rests to watch lest your deeds and conduct dim the flame
of love that gloweth within the breasts of its inhabitants.
-Bahá'u'lláh,
quoted in God Passes By, , Page: 149
6. To Israel He (Bahá'u'lláh)
was neither more nor less than the incarnation of the
"Everlasting Father," the "Lord of Hosts"
come down "with ten thousands of saints"; to
Christendom Christ returned "in the glory of the
Father," to Shi'ah Islam the return of the Imam Husayn;
to Sunni Islam the descent of the "Spirit of God"
(Jesus Christ); to the Zoroastrians the promised Shah-Bahram;
to the Hindus the reincarnation of Krishna; to the Buddhists
the fifth Buddha.
-Shoghi Effendi:
God Passes By, Pages: 94-96
7. The purpose
underlying all creation is the revelation of this most
sublime, this most holy Day, the Day known as the Day of God,
in His Books and Scriptures - the Day which all the Prophets,
and the Chosen Ones, and the holy ones, have wished to
witness.
-Bahá'u'lláh,
quoted in The Advent of Divine Justice, Page: 77
8. Verily I say,
this is the Day in which mankind can behold the Face, and hear
the Voice, of the Promised One. The Call of God hath been
raised, and the light of His countenance hath been lifted up
upon men. It behoveth every man to blot out the trace of every
idle word from the tablet of his heart, and to gaze, with an
open and unbiased mind, on the signs of His Revelation, the
proofs of His Mission, and the tokens of His glory.
Great indeed is
this Day! The allusions made to it in all the sacred
Scriptures as the Day of God attest its greatness. The soul of
every Prophet of God, of every Divine Messenger, hath thirsted
for this wondrous Day. All the divers kindreds of the earth
have, likewise, yearned to attain it.
-Bahá'u'lláh:
Gleanings, Pages: 10-11
9. Of the exact
circumstances attending that epoch-making Declaration we,
alas, are but scantily informed. The words Bahá'u'lláh
actually uttered on that occasion, the manner of His
Declaration, the reaction it produced, its impact on Mirza
Yahya, the identity of those who were privileged to hear Him,
are shrouded in an obscurity which future historians will find
it difficult to penetrate. The fragmentary description left to
posterity by His chronicler Nabil is one of the very few
authentic records we possess of the memorable days He spent in
that garden. "Every day," Nabil has related,
"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." "One
night," he continues, "the ninth night of the waxing
moon, I happened to be one of those who watched beside His
blessed tent. As the hour of midnight approached, I saw Him
issue from His tent, pass by the places where some of His
companions were sleeping, and begin to pace up and down the
moonlit, flower-bordered avenues of the garden. So loud was
the singing of the nightingales on every side that only those
who were near Him could hear distinctly His voice. He
continued to walk until, pausing in the midst of one of these
avenues, He observed: '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 successive nights I watched and
circled round His blessed tent. Every time I passed by the
couch whereon He lay, I would find Him wakeful, and every day,
from morn till eventide, I would see Him ceaselesslyengaged in
conversing with the stream of visitors who kept flowing in
from Baghdad. Not once could I discover in the words He spoke
any trace of dissimulation."
-Shoghi Effendi,
God Passes By, p. 152
