A Time of Emergence:  Riḍván 1863 & 2011

The Bahá’í world has just finished celebrating the twelve-day festival of Riḍván (April 21^st-May 2^nd) in commemoration of the period in 1863 during which Bahá’u’lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, declared Himself to be the Manifestation of God for today, the One promised by the Messengers of the past.  I would like in my first post to narrate a small portion of Bahá’u’lláh’s story as it led up to His declaration, concluding with a reflection on the historical significance of this year’s Riḍván period for Bahá’ís everywhere.

From Tehran to Baghdad: 1844-1963

Nineteen years earlier in 1844, Bahá’u’lláh had accepted the claim of a young merchant from Shiraz to be the promised Qá’im or Mahdi of Islam and the forerunner to a Manifestation of God greater than Himself.  The Báb, which translates as “the Gate,” was only twenty-four when He made such a claim, and He would be publically executed by firing squad only six short years later at the age of thirty.  Thousands of His followers likewise suffered martyrdom for their beliefs.  Bahá’u’lláh, though born to a noble family, did not escape his co-religionists’ persecutions, and was imprisoned for four months in the notorious Siyah-Chal, or Black Pit, an underground dungeon in Tehran.  During those long months Bahá’u’lláh carried perpetually around his neck a great chain weighing over one hundred pounds, a burden that left His body scarred for the remainder of His life.

It was in the Siyah-Chal that Bahá’u’lláh awoke to the realization that He was the One promised by the Báb, the Manifestation of God sent to world with a message for our times.  As Bahá’u’lláh Himself describes the event:

While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above My head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden — the embodiment of the remembrance of the name of My Lord — suspended in the air before Me…Pointing with her finger unto My head, she addressed all who are in heaven and all who are on earth, saying: By God! This is the Best-Beloved of the worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within you, could ye but understand. This is the Mystery of God and His Treasure, the Cause of God and His glory unto all who are in the kingdoms of Revelation and of creation, if ye be of them that perceive. (Bahá’u’lláh,Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 4-5)

Though Bahá’u’lláh Himself said nothing, it was clear to all upon His release that something magnificent had taken place within Him while imprisoned.  As His own daughter recounts, Bahá’u’lláh “had a marvelous divine experience whilst in that prison. We saw a new radiance seeming to enfold him like a shining vesture, its significance we were to learn years later. At that time we were only aware of the wonder of it, without understanding, or even being told the details of the sacred event” (quoted in Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh vol. 1, p. 8-9).  Fearful of His influence, the government and clergy of Iran exiled Bahá’u’lláh from His homeland, and sent Him to Iraq.  This city was to serve as His home for most of the next ten years.  Though the enemies of the Báb and His followers thought Bahá’u’lláh’s banishment would sap the Bábís’ spirits entirely, the event caused the fame of the youthful Faith to spread widely.

While Bahá’u’lláh did not publically proclaim His mission until the end of His stay in Baghdad, He began immediately to reveal a great body of Writings, many of which are today the most beloved for Bahá’ís around the world, such as the Book of Certitude and the Hidden Words. Through His Writings and the force of His personality, Bahá’u’lláh was able to revive a disheartened and brutalized Bábí community.  He drew ever-increasing numbers into its fold and was able to generate enthusiastic admiration from thoughtful individuals in every stratum of Iraqi society.  When word of His growing influence reached Iran, those who sought to destroy the Cause of the Báb became infuriated, and through their constant interventions the Ottoman government decided to again exile Bahá’u’lláh, this time from Baghdad to Constantinople.  It was on the event of His forced departure from Baghdad that Bahá’u’lláh entered the Garden of Riḍván, “riḍván” meaning paradise, remaining therein for twelve days.  He there revealed His station to the Bábí’s, giving birth to what is now known as the Bahá’í Faith.

The previous decade in which Bahá’u’lláh had outwardly concealed His mission, He explained, was ordained by God as the “Days of Concealment”, and much had been accomplished during that time.  It was a time of preparation, a time of maturation in which the Bábí community was internally consolidated, the worth of its mission demonstrated through the gruesome sacrifice of thousands of its followers, its fame spread throughout the world.  Bahá’u’lláh had been blessed with a decade to prepare those around Him for the vastness of His Cause.  The festival of Riḍván is thus a celebration of the emergence of the Bahá’í Faith from its previous state of preparatory inwardness, the blossoming of a seed long in gestation.

A New Stage in the Divine Plan: 2011

In the subsequent 168 years, the Bahá’ís of the world have watched their Faith spread around the entire globe.  Today, Bahá’ís can be found among members of almost every nation as well as the overwhelming majority of ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic groups throughout the planet, establishing the Faith as the second most geographically widespread religion after Christianity.  During the period of 1916-1996, the Bahá’í community was occupied to a great degree with this process of global expansion, striving to bring together a complete cross-section of humanity in a united effort to translate Bahá’u’lláh’s vision of a just and unified world civilization into reality.  Yet, as the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing body of the Bahá’í world, stated in its Riḍván letter of 1996, the Bahá’í world was then entering “an extraordinary period in the history of the Faith, a turning point of epochal magnitude,” in which its focus would change markedly.

The House of Justice called upon the Bahá’ís to develop a global network of training institutes “on a scale never before attempted.”  The fundamental purpose of these institutes was to advance the Bahá’í community’s capacity to contribute to the building of civilization, and the most expedient way for them to do so was to transform the very culture of their growing community.  The transformation of culture is by no means an easy task, and the House of Justice counseled, “enormous effort must be devoted to the task at hand.”  After four years of intense effort, the House of Justice noted joyfully in 2000 that the “culture of the Bahá’í community experienced a change.”  One year later they celebrated the blossoming of these cultural shifts into a “new state of mind…evident among us all.”

Having been established, the training institutes were contributing significantly to the creation of new patterns of thought and action, both within the Bahá’ís and their friends participating in the community’s activities.  These institutes continued to develop over the next five years, to the point where the House of Justice announced confidently that “the elements required for a concerted effort to infuse the diverse regions of the world with the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation have crystallized into a framework for action that now needs only to be exploited.”  As learning about this system grew from worldwide energetic experimentation over the next five years, the results became clearer still: “in the system thus created to develop its human resources, the community of the Greatest Name possesses an instrument of limitless potentialities. Under a wide diversity of conditions, in virtually any [geographical region], it is possible for an expanding nucleus of individuals to generate a movement towards the goal of a new World Order.”  Nevertheless, as the House of Justice made absolutely clear, “what evokes such a deep sense of pride and gratitude in our hearts is not so much the numerical feat you have achieved, remarkable as it is, but a combination of developments at the more profound level of culture, to which this accomplishment attests.”

Riḍván is a time of emergence for Bahá’ís, a time of reinvigoration and renewal.  It is the time when the global Bahá’í community measures its strides during the previous years, formulates a vision, and renews commitment to the tasks ahead.  In this spirit, I have presented this vision and narrative as it is told from within the Bahá’í community.  I do not doubt that others would offer other narratives, but my purpose here is to speak in the midst of my life as a Bahá’í.  Much of what I hope to discuss as the months progress relates to the challenges and opportunities facing a Bahá’í community striving to create a vibrant and dynamically evolving culture ever more able to channel the world’s energies towards lasting peace.  Thus, I hope the above post to serve as an introduction to the contemporary life of the Bahá’í community; an evolving, learning, and growing community; a world embracing community; a community with clear mission, goals, strategies, and instruments; a community striving to serve humanity, welcoming with open arms all willing to walk this path of service together; a community emerging from obscurity into the widespread recognition of its status as a world religion.