The Ridván Feast is here again,
Remembering a Wondrous time;
When Bahá'u'lláh(3) Proclaimed His Glorious Reign,
In that Garden of Heavenly Clime(4).Rising Rivers like the Martyrs' Blood,
Isolating the many Friends,
Who became prisoners of the swelling Floods,(5)
As Revelations were noisily Penned.(6)'Twas Eighteen Hundred and Sixty Three,
On April the Twenty first,
At that gathering were the first to believe,
And for Twelve Days, He quenched their Thirst.And today His Faith, all the World to Count,(7)
For Bahá'ís, 'tis the King of Days,(8)
And the Ark on Carmel's Glorious Mount,
Looking out, over Haifa's Bay.(9)So sing and shout and be of good cheer,
As God's New Order, takes Form;(10)
Have courage, be strong, and be without fear,
Soon, Bahá'u'lláh's Faith'll be Born.(11)
1. Arabic, meaning Paradise.
2. This is the Bahá'á year according to the Bahá'á
Era. It started with the Proclamations of the Báb (meaning the Gate) in
1844 AD.
3. Bahá'u'lláh, Arabic, meaning 'The Glory of God', is the
Manifestation of God for this Day and is the Founder of the
Bahá'á Faith. It is believed, by the Bahá'ás, that
he has fulfilled the Promise Return foretold by Christ.
4. In a Garden, just outside Baghdad, in Iraq, Bahá'u'lláh and
many of His followers gathered. He called this the Garden of Ridván,
meaning the Garden of Paradise.
5. This stanza has two connotations. (i) That those who embraced the
Bahá'á Faith in the early days were often thrown into prison
and/or suffered Martyrdom. (ii) Whilst those who were actually in the Garden,
saw the rivers suddenly flood, cutting them off for twelve days. Hence, these
Days are known as the Twelve Days of Ridván.
6. Whilst the Actual Revelations were being chanted, there were those who job
it was to write down all that they heard with pens made from quills. This
caused a great screeching on the parchment as they speedily recorded all. The
Revealed Words were then rewritten and checked to be correct by
Bahá'u'lláh Himself.
7. The Bahá'á Faith is now the most wide spread faith after
Christianity and the seventh largest of the World Faiths.
8. This day is the Holiest Day in the Bahá'á Calendar, being the
time when Bahá'u'lláh publicly Proclaimed His Revelation to the
World.
9. The Ark is the Five Buildings of the World Centre situated on Mount Carmel,
over looking Haifa, in Israel - at present under construction. The Ark also had
great Spiritual connotations, not only for the Bahá'ás, but for
all of Humankind.
10. Since the time of Bahá'u'lláh, the Faith has steadily grown
while its Institutions have formed and grown in statue right around the World
in every country. It also refers to the construction of the Ark Buildings on
Mount Carmel, that have to be completed by the turn of this century, to
coinside with the establishing - by the Governments of the World - of the
Lesser Peace, when Wars between Nations will cease.
11. Bahá'u'lláh has described the developing Faith as that of an
Embryo and that the World is now in a state of pregnancy and will soon give
birth to this Child, His Faith. Then all will see and acknowledge His Faith.
As with any birth, there is pain and travail and, with this Spiritual Birth, it
will effect all, even the Bahá'ás, who must remain strong and
steadfast during these Dark Days of Uncertainties.
The Poems of John J. Butler at http://www.bcca.org/bahaivision/jjb/
Last update: April 1, 1996