Background and History of the Festival of Ridvan

See also Timeline of Events Related to Festival of Ridvan

References

1 January 1992 (published). Days of Ridvan: A Compilation edited by Baha’u’llah. Kalimat Press. pages 76 pages. See also here. This is from Baha’i Library

Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. Trans. Shoghi Effendi. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, rev. ed. 1952), no. xiv, passim cited in Gail, Marzieh. 1976. Dawn over Mount Hira and Other Essays. London: George Ronald.

“And so this Easter coincides with another scene in another garden — also in the East, for all religions come from the East — but this time the garden was in Baghdad. It was during the season of roses. Visitors came to Bahá’u’lláh from all over Baghdad to say good-bye to Him — for He was about to be exiled again. And early in the mornings, the gardeners would pick the roses and pile them in the centre of Bahá’u’lláh’s tent — and He would give them to various of His followers to take to His Arab and Persian friends in the city. This custom is still followed in Haifa; I have seen the Guardian of the Faith give flowers or handfuls of petals from the holy shrines on Mount Carmel, to the friends (Gail 1976:172).”

“This ‘Most Great Festival’ took place during the twelve days prior to Bahá’u’lláh’s being exiled out of Baghdad. During those nights the moon was growing toward the full, and the nightingales were so loud that as He walked up and down the flower-bordered paths in the moonlight, only those followers who were near Him could distinctly hear His voice (Gail 1976:172).”

“There is a remarkable Tablet about the Festival of Ridvan — it is in the Gleanings. In it the Prophet or Manifestation of God is referred to as the Pen — because He is moved by the Holy Spirit (if this terminology is too theological for you, say He is moved by the tremendous power which stirs the Prophet of God), and writes as He is irresistibly moved to write. It is in part a colloquy between the Spirit and Bahá’u’lláh (Gail 1976:172).”

It begins:

“The Divine Springtime is come, O Most Exalted Pen, for the Festival of the All-Merciful is fast approaching. Bestir thyself, and magnify, before the entire creation, the name of God, and celebrate His praise, in such wise that all created things may be regenerated and made new… This is the Day whereon naught can be seen except the splendours of the Light that shineth from the face of Thy Lord, the Gracious, the Most Bountiful…
And later the Pen halts, and this colloquy occurs:
We have heard the voice of thy pleading, O Pen, and excuse thy silence. What is it that hath so sorely bewildered thee?

And the Pen answers —

The inebriation of Thy presence, O Well-Beloved of all worlds, hath seized and possessed me.” (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. Trans. Shoghi Effendi. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, rev. ed. 1952), no. xiv, passim cited in Gail, Marzieh. 1976. Dawn over Mount Hira and Other Essays. London: George Ronald).

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“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 centre 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, 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 dust 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 ceaselessly engaged 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.” (Nabil’s Narrative cited in Taherzadeh, Adib. date. The Revelation of Baha’u’llah v 1. p. 275-6 available in Ocean)

“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 ceaselessly engaged 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.” (Nabil cited in Shoghi Effendi’s God Passes By, p. 153; Adib Taherzadeh’s The Revelation of Baha’u’llah v 1, p. 276; also cited in H.M. Balyuzi’s Baha’u’llah – The King of Glory, p. 173) read more by H.M. Balyuzi on the Festival of Ridvan.

“Already the shadow of that great oncoming event had fallen upon the colony of exiles, who awaited expectantly its consummation. As the year “eighty” steadily and inexorably approached, He Who had become the real leader of that community increasingly experienced, and progressively communicated to His future followers, the onrushing influences of its informing force. The festive, the soul-entrancing odes which He revealed almost every day; the Tablets, replete with hints, which streamed from His pen; the allusions which, in private converse and public discourse, He made to the approaching hour; the exaltation which in moments of joy and sadness alike flooded His soul; the ecstasy which filled His lovers, already enraptured by the multiplying evidences of His rising greatness and glory; the perceptible change noted in His demeanor; and finally, His adoption of the taj (tall felt head-dress), on the day of His departure from His Most Holy House — all proclaimed unmistakably His imminent assumption of the prophetic office and of His open leadership of the community of the Báb’s followers. (Shoghi Effendi, 1944. God Passes By. NSA of the Baha’is of the United States, p. 153)”

“Many a night,” writes Nabil, depicting the tumult that had seized the hearts of Bahá’u’lláh’s companions, in the days prior to the declaration of His mission, “would Mirza Aqa Jan gather them together in his room, close the door, light numerous camphorated candles, and chant aloud to them the newly revealed odes and Tablets in his possession. Wholly oblivious of this contingent world, completely immersed in the realms of the spirit, forgetful of the necessity for food, sleep or drink, they would suddenly discover that night had become day, and that the sun was approaching its zenith.” (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 153)”

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 ceaselessly engaged 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. 154)”

“As to the significance of that Declaration let Bahá’u’lláh Himself reveal to us its import. Acclaiming that historic occasion as the “Most Great Festival,” the “King of Festivals,” the “Festival of God,” He has, in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas, characterized it as the Day whereon “all created things were immersed in the sea of purification,” whilst in one of His specific Tablets, He has referred to it as the Day whereon “the breezes of forgiveness were wafted over the entire creation.” “Rejoice, with exceeding gladness, O people of Baha!”, He, in another Tablet, has written, “as ye call to remembrance the Day of supreme felicity, the Day whereon the Tongue of the Ancient of Days hath spoken, as He departed from His House proceeding to the Spot from which He shed upon the whole of creation the splendors of His Name, the All-Merciful… Were We to reveal the hidden secrets of that Day, all that dwell on earth and in the heavens would swoon away and die, except such as will be preserved by God, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. Such is the inebriating effect of the words of God upon the Revealer of His undoubted proofs that His pen can move no longer.” And again: “The Divine Springtime is come, O Most Exalted Pen, for the Festival of the All-Merciful is fast approaching…. The Day-Star of Blissfulness shineth above the horizon of Our Name, the Blissful, inasmuch as the Kingdom of the Name of God hath been adorned with the ornament of the Name of Thy Lord, the Creator of the heavens…. Take heed lest anything deter Thee from extolling the greatness of this Day — the Day whereon the Finger of Majesty and Power hath opened the seal of the Wine of Reunion, and called all who are in the heavens and all who are on earth…. This is the Day whereon the unseen world crieth out: ‘Great is thy blessedness, O earth, for thou hast been made the footstool of thy God, and been chosen as the seat of His mighty throne’ …Say … He it is Who hath laid bare before you the hidden and treasured Gem, were ye to seek it. He it is who is the One Beloved of all things, whether of the past or of the future.” And yet again: “Arise, and proclaim unto the entire creation the tidings that He who is the All-Merciful hath directed His steps towards the Ridvan and entered it. Guide, then, the people unto the Garden of Delight which God hath made the Throne of His Paradise… Within this Paradise, and from the heights of its loftiest chambers, the Maids of Heaven have cried out and shouted: ‘Rejoice, ye dwellers of the realms above, for the fingers of Him Who is the Ancient of Days are ringing, in the name of the All-Glorious, the Most Great Bell, in the midmost heart of the heavens. The hands of bounty have borne round the cups of everlasting life. Approach, and quaff your fill.'” And finally: “Forget the world of creation, O Pen, and turn Thou towards the face of Thy Lord, the Lord of all names. Adorn, then, the world with the ornament of the favors of Thy Lord, the King of everlasting days. For We perceive the fragrance of the Day whereon He Who is the Desire of all nations hath shed upon the kingdoms of the unseen and of the seen the splendors of the light of His most excellent names, and enveloped them with the radiance of the luminaries of His most gracious favors, favors which none can reckon except Him Who is the Omnipotent Protector of the entire creation.” (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 155)”

“The departure of Bahá’u’lláh from the Garden of Ridvan, at noon, on the 14th of Dhi’l-Qa’dih 1279 A.H. (May 3, 1863), witnessed scenes of tumultuous enthusiasm no less spectacular, and even more touching, than those which greeted Him when leaving His Most Great House in Baghdad. “The great tumult,” wrote an eyewitness, “associated in our minds with the Day of Gathering, the Day of Judgment, we beheld on that occasion. Believers and unbelievers alike sobbed and lamented. The chiefs and notables who had congregated were struck with wonder. Emotions were stirred to such depths as no tongue can describe, nor could any observer escape their contagion.” (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 155)”

“Mounted on His steed, a red roan stallion of the finest breed, the best His lovers could purchase for Him, and leaving behind Him a bowing multitude of fervent admirers, He rode forth on the first stage of a journey that was to carry Him to the city of Constantinople. “Numerous were the heads,” Nabil himself a witness of that memorable scene, recounts, “which, on every side, bowed to the dust at the feet of His horse, and kissed its hoofs, and countless were those who pressed forward to embrace His stirrups.” “How great the number of those embodiments of fidelity,” testifies a fellow-traveler, “who, casting themselves before that charger, preferred death to separation from their Beloved! Methinks, that blessed steed trod upon the bodies of those pure-hearted souls.” “He (God) it was,” Bahá’u’lláh Himself declares, “Who enabled Me to depart out of the city (Baghdad), clothed with such majesty as none, except the denier and the malicious, can fail to acknowledge.” These marks of homage and devotion continued to surround Him until He was installed in Constantinople. Mirza Yahya, while hurrying on foot, by his own choice, behind Bahá’u’lláh’s carriage, on the day of His arrival in that city, was overheard by Nabil to remark to Siyyid Muhammad: “Had I not chosen to hide myself, had I revealed my identity, the honor accorded Him (Bahá’u’lláh) on this day would have been mine too.” (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 156)”

“The same tokens of devotion shown Bahá’u’lláh at the time of His departure from His House, and later from the Garden of Ridvan, were repeated when, on the 20th of Dhi’l-Qa’dih (May 9, 1863), accompanied by members of His family and twenty-six of His disciples, He left Firayjat, His first stopping-place in the course of that journey. A caravan, consisting of fifty mules, a mounted guard of ten soldiers with their officer, and seven pairs of howdahs, each pair surmounted by four parasols, was formed, and wended its way, by easy stages, and in the space of no less than a hundred and ten days, across the uplands, and through the defiles, the woods, valleys and pastures, comprising the picturesque scenery of eastern Anatolia, to the port of Samsun, on the Black Sea. At times on horseback, at times resting in the howdah reserved for His use, and which was oftentimes surrounded by His companions, most of whom were on foot, He, by virtue of the written order of Namiq Pasha, was accorded, as He traveled northward, in the path of spring, an enthusiastic reception by the valis, the mutisarrifs, the qa’im-maqams, the mudirs, the shaykhs, the muftis and qadis, the government officials and notables belonging to the districts through which He passed. In Karkuk, in Irbil, in Mosul, where He tarried three days, in Nisibin, in Mardin, in Diyar-Bakr, where a halt of a couple of days was made, in Kharput, in Sivas, as well as in other villages and hamlets, He would be met by a delegation immediately before His arrival, and would be accompanied, for some distance, by a similar delegation upon His departure. The festivities which, at some stations, were held in His honor, the food the villagers prepared and brought for His acceptance, the eagerness which time and again they exhibited in providing the means for His comfort, recalled the reverence which the people of Baghdad had shown Him on so many occasions. (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 156)”

While writers and chroniclers have left copious accounts of the throngs of people, their expression of sorrow, the excellence of the skilled work of the gardeners, nothing is said of how Bahá’u’lláh made His long-awaited Declaration.

In the words of the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith:

“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 174 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 ceaselessly engaged 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.”‘2

(H.M. Balyuzi, Baha’u’llah – The King of Glory, p. 173)

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Tablets and writings associated with Ridvan.

There are a number of important tablets of Baha’u’llah are associated with Ridvan. These include:

a. Lawh-i-Ayyub. The Tablet of Job, also known as Suriy-i-Sabr (“the Surih of Patience”), Madinatu’s-Sabr (“the City of Patience”), and Surat Ayyub. A long tablet in Arabic revealed on the afternoon Baha’u’llah arrived at the garden of Ridvan. It was written for Haji Muhammad-Taqiy-i-Nayrizi, whom Baha’u’llah surnamed Ayyub, “Job,” a veteran of the battle of Nayriz. The tablet praises Vahid (q.v.), the Babi leader at Nayriz, and the believers of Nayriz. (Ayyam-i-Tis`ih 262-304)

b. Tablet of Ridvan, beginning “Huva ‘l-Mustavi `ala hadha ‘l- `arshi’l-munir” “He is seated upon this luminous throne.” An Arabic tablet speaking joyfully of the lifting of the veils that had concealed God’s beauty and the manifestation of all his names in created things and appealing to the people to answer the call of their Lord. After each verse is a refrain of the form, “Glad tidings! This is the Festival of God, manifest from the horizon of transcendent bounty.” (Ayyam-i-Tis`ih 246-50)

c. Hur-i-`Ujab: “The Wondrous Maiden.” An allegorical tablet in Arabic rhymed prose celebrated the unveiling of Baha’u’llah’s glory. In this allegory the Maid of Heaven comes forth and unveils herself. Her unveiled beauty inflames creation. In joy she passes around the wine of life, plays music, and serves the food of beauty. But the arrogant reject her and she returns saddened to her heavenly palace, grieving that the people of the Book have rejected her and vowing not to return to them until the Day of Resurrection (Ayyam-i-Tis`ih 251- 54. RB 1:218).

d. “The Divine Springtime is come. . . “: (Qad ata Rabi`u’l-Bayan) The superscription of this tablet says that it “was revealed in the Ridvan for all to read during the Festival of Ridvan. . .” The tablet takes the form of a dialogue between God and “the Most Exalted Pen” – i.e., Baha’u’llah. God chides Baha’u’llah for not openly proclaiming the greatness of this day. Baha’u’llah replies that he is silent only because the people are veiled. God answers that today only His face can be seen in creation. God excuses Baha’u’llah’s silence and proclaims that he has made Baha’u’llah the trumpet of the Day of Resurrection. The tablet explains in mystical terms the significance of Baha’u’llah’s entry into the garden of Ridvan and commands Baha’u’llah to attract the hearts of men through the Word of God. The tablet appeals to the believers to heed the call of God. Baha’u’llah concludes the tablet with the statement that the Word of God had so inebriated him that he can write no longer. This well-known and frequently-quoted tablet is frequently referred to by western Baha’is as the Ridvan Tablet. (Ayyam-i-Tis`ih 254-61; GWB xiv; Days to Remember 27-31) See

e. “When the gladness of God seized all else. . .”: (Fa-lamma akhadha farahu’llah kulla ma sivahu. . .) An Arabic tablet in which Baha’u’llah describes, with much mystical symbolism, his departure from the Most Great House, the grief of the people in the streets, his crossing of the Tigris and entry into the garden, and his final departure. This tablet is a rich source for understanding the symbolic significance of Ridvan and provides some historical information as well. (Ayyam-i-Tis`ih 305-12)

f. Other tablets and talks: There are other prayers, tablets and talks of Baha’u’llah and `Abdu’l-Baha relating to Ridvan, usually composed at or for a particular Ridvan observance. (Ayyam-i-Tis`ih 313-21, 324-31; Days to Remember 31-34; AVK 3:29-39).

g. Ridvan messages: As early as 1923 Shoghi Effendi sent a letter of encouragement and greeting to the American national Baha’i convention at Ridvan. Later it was his regular practice to write a Ridvan letter to the Baha’is of the world summarizing the progress of the Faith in the previous year and setting out general directions for the coming year. The Universal House of Justice has continued this practice. Other Baha’i institutions, especially national spiritual assemblies, also sometimes issue Ridvan letters.

See http://bahai-library.org/encyclopedia/ridvan.html

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“To these two outstanding contributions to the world’s religious literature, occupying respectively, positions of unsurpassed preeminence among the doctrinal and ethical writings of the Author of the Bahá’í Dispensation, was added, during that same period, a treatise that may well be regarded as His greatest mystical composition, designated as the “Seven Valleys,” which He wrote in answer to the questions of Shaykh Muhyi’d-Din, the Qadi of Khaniqayn, in which He describes the seven stages which the soul of the seeker must needs traverse ere it can attain the object of its existence.

The “Four Valleys,” an epistle addressed to the learned Shaykh Abdu’r-Rahman-i-Karkuti; the “Tablet of the Holy Mariner,” in which Bahá’u’lláh prophesies the severe afflictions that are to befall Him; the “Lawh-i-Húríyyih” (Tablet of the Maiden), in which events of a far remoter future are foreshadowed; the “Suriy-i-Sabr” (Surih of Patience), revealed on the first day of Ridvan which extols Vahid and his fellow-sufferers in Nayriz; the commentary on the Letters prefixed to the Surihs of the Qur’án; His interpretation of the letter Vav, mentioned in the writings of Shaykh Ahmad-i-Ahsa’i, and of other abstruse passages in the works of Siyyid Kazim-i-Rashti; the “Lawh-i-Madinatu’t-Tawhid” (Tablet of the 141 City of Unity); the “Sahifiy-i-Shattiyyih”; the “Musibat-i-Hurufat-i-‘Aliyat”; the “Tafsir-i-Hu”; the “Javahiru’l-Asrar” and a host of other writings, in the form of epistles, odes, homilies, specific Tablets, commentaries and prayers, contributed, each in its own way, to swell the “rivers of everlasting life” which poured forth from the “Abode of Peace” and lent a mighty impetus to the expansion of the Báb’s Faith in both Persia and Iraq, quickening the souls and transforming the character of its adherents. (Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, p. 140)

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He did this by revealing the Suriy-i-Sabr (Surih of Patience), otherwise known as Lawh-i-Ayyub (Tablet of Job), which is equal in length to almost one-quarter of the Kitáb-i-Íqán. This Tablet, in Arabic, was revealed in honour of Haji Muhammad-Taqi, a native of Nayriz, upon whom Bahá’u’lláh bestowed the title of Ayyub (Job). (Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha’u’llah v 1, p. 263)

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“Glad tidings! This is the Festival of God, manifest from the horizon of transcendent bounty”

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Notes:

“There, as He Himself has recorded, under the impact of this dream, He experienced the onrushing force of His newly revealed Mission, that “flowed” even as “a mighty torrent” from His “head” to His “breast,” whereupon “every limb” of His body “would be set afire.” There, in a vision, the “Most Great Spirit,” as He Himself has again testified, appeared to Him, in the guise of a “Maiden” “calling” with “a most wondrous, a most sweet voice” above His Head, whilst “suspended in the air” before Him and, “pointing with her finger” unto His head, imparted “tidings which rejoiced” His “soul.” There appeared above the horizon of that dungeon in the city of Tihran, the rim of the Orb of His Faith, whose dawning light had, nine years previously, broken upon the city of Shiraz — an Orb which, after suffering an eclipse of ten years, was destined to burst forth, with its resplendent 102 rays, upon the city of Baghdad, to mount its zenith in Adrianople, and to set eventually in the prison-fortress of ‘Akká. (Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, p. 101)”