Bahá’u’lláh was ferried across the river accompanied by three of His sons: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Mirza Mihdi (the Purest Branch) and Muhammad-Ali who were eighteen, fourteen and ten years of age, respectively. With them also was His amanuensis, Mirza Aqa Jan. The identity of others who may have accompanied Him, or of those in the garden who had pitched His tent and were making preparations for His arrival or of those who might have followed Him on that day, is not clearly known.
Garden of Ridvan, circa 1930s
The call to afternoon prayer was raised from the mosque and the words ‘Allah’u’ Akbar’ (God is the Greatest) reverberated through the garden as the King of Glory entered it. There, Bahá’u’lláh appeared in the utmost joy, walking majestically in its avenues lined with flowers and trees. The fragrance of the roses and the singing of the nightingales created an atmosphere of beauty and enchantment.
The companions of Bahá’u’lláh had, for some time, known the Declaration of His station to be imminent. This realization came to them not only as a result of many remarks and allusions made by Him during the last few months of His sojourn in Baghdad but also through a noticeable change in His demeanour. Another sign which unmistakably pointed to its approaching hour was the adoption, on the day of His departure from His house in Baghdad of a different type of headdress known as taj (tall felt hat), which He wore throughout His ministry.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá has described how, upon His arrival in the garden Bahá’u’lláh declared His station to those of His companions who were present, and announced with great joy the inauguration of the Festival of Ridvan.
Sadness and grief vanished and the believers were filled with delight at this announcement. Although Bahá’u’lláh was being exiled to far-off lands and knew the sufferings and tribulations which were in store for Him and His followers, yet through this historic Declaration He changed all sorrow into bliss full joy and spent the most delightful time of His ministry in the Garden of Ridvan. Indeed, in one of His Tablets, He has referred to the first day of Ridvan as the ‘Day of supreme felicity’, and has called on His followers to ‘rejoice, with exceeding gladness’ in remembrance of that day.
The manner of the Declaration of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission is not clear, neither is the identity of all who heard Him. One thing, however, is clear. During His ten-years’ sojourn in Iraq, although Bahá’u’lláh had alluded to His station, and identified Himself with the utterances of God revealed in His Tablets, He had never designated Himself as ‘Him Whom God shall make manifest’. It was in the Garden of Ridvan that, in the course of His Declaration He unequivocally did so, announcing Himself as the One Whose advent the Báb had proclaimed for Whose sake He had sacrificed Himself and for Whom He had established a covenant with His followers. That day was one of the most eventful in the life of Bahá’u’lláh. The whole day He was occupied with important affairs, which culminated in the Declaration of His Mission—the most momentous event of His ministry.
- Adib Taherzadeh (The Revelation of Baha’u’llah, vol. 1)