Bahá'u'lláh's Declaration (Ridván) Sources

Tablet of Job (Lawh-i-Ayyub)

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)

http://bahai-library.org/provisionals/surih.sabr.html

Then make mention in the Book, the servant of God, Taqi. He who believed in God on the day when the revelation was resplendent from the dawning place of the spirit. He is the one who assisted his Lord as much as he could when Vahid entered the eastern city of love [i.e. Nayriz]. He said "O my people, in truth the testimony of God has come and the countenance of truth is unveiled." O people of the Qur'an! Haste ye to it and do not turn your back therefrom. O my people! The beauty of God has dawned from the horizon of holiness. The promise is fulfilled. Haste ye to the Ridvan in which his countenance is shining from.

Tablet of the Branch

Inhale the fragrances of the Ridvan from His roses and be not of those who are deprived. Appreciate the bounty of God upon you and be not veiled therefrom --- and, verily, We have sent Him forth in the temple of man. Thus praise ye the Lord, the Originator of whatsoever He willeth through His wise and inviolable Command!

Tablet to Napolean III

All feasts have attained their consummation in the two Most Great Festivals, and in two other Festivals that fall on the twin days -- the first of the Most Great Festivals being those days whereon God shed the effulgent glory of His most excellent Names upon all who are in heaven and on earth, and the second being that day on which We raised up the One Who announced unto the people the glad tidings of this Great Announcement. Thus hath it been set down in the Book by Him Who is the Mighty, the Powerful. On other than these four consummate days, engage ye in your daily occupations, and withhold yourselves not from the pursuit of your trades and crafts. Thus hath the command been issued and the law gone forth from Him Who is your Lord, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

Tablet in the handwriting of Mirza Aqa Jan

(Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha'u'llah v 1, p. 278)

According to Tablet in the handwriting of Mirza Aqa Jan, addressed to a certain Aqa Muhammad-Rida, on the first day of Ridvan Bahá'u'lláh made three particularly important statements to His followers:

The first was to forbid the use of the sword in His Dispensation. During the ministry of the Báb the believers defended themselves against their persecutors; Bahá'u'lláh clearly forbade this. In many Tablets He counselled His followers to teach the Cause with wisdom and prudence and not to arouse the antagonism of a fanatic enemy. He enjoined caution when teaching those who were determined to uproot the foundation of the Faith and harm its adherents. At one stage in His ministry He particularly exhorted His followers to guard against falling into the hands of enemies, but if faced with martyrdom, to lay down their lives in the path of their Faith rather than kill their persecutors. The tongue of the believer who teaches the Cause, He stated in one Tablet, is the mightiest sword he possesses, for his utterances are endowed with a power that can remove veils of ignorance from the hearts of men. Soon, as a result of such counsels and exhortations, the attitude of the believers was radically changed, and swords and other weapons were put away never to be used again. During the ministries of Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá great numbers of Bahá'ís were martyred in Persia, but they did not resort to violence.[2] They gave their lives willingly, and many testified in the hour of martyrdom that their life-blood proclaimed the truth of the Cause of God for this age.

Comment on Khadimu'llah passage

Ridvan was a time when Baha'u'llah first made known to a handful of friends and family members his abrogation of the Islamic and Babi laws regarding the duty of holy war or jihad. He also then first put forward the principle that the door of Revelation was shut for a full thousand years. Finally, he said that God had "appeared" (tajalli) to all creation with all his names. In the Qur'an it is said that Moses begged God to show himself to him, and God refused, saying "You shall never behold me." Then God showed himself (tajalla) to the mountain, and levelled it, at which Moses swooned. Baha'u'llah's wording implicitly suggests that what was forbidden to Moses and his people has been granted to Baha'u'llah and the entire world in the era of modernity. This principle of God's self-disclosure may be linked in turn to the abolition of ritual impurity, which Baha'u'llah says occurred at Ridvan.

It also seems to me increasingly clear that Ridvan really was meant as Peace Festival, a commemoration of the end of religious warfare, the end of ritual pollution and of the shunning of some human beings by others, the end of the Babi sectarianism and strife occasioned by multiple "manifestations," and the attainment by all humankind to the Beatific Vision.

Tablet of the Feast of the Ridwan

http://bahai-library.com/provisionals/tablet.ridvan.html

by Baha'u'llah, translated by Dr. Khan and Marzieh Gail

This tablet was revealed by Baha'u'llah when He "Declared Himself" to be recited at the Feast of Ridwan.

HE IS THE ALMIGHTY LORD!

Lo, this is the garden of Paradise wherein is raised the Voice of God, the Dominant, the Strong; Here do the immaculate Maids of Heaven dwell, they whom no eye hath seen save only God's, the Sanctified, the Well-Beloved; Herein the eternal nightingale singeth on the bough of the sacred Lote-Tree a song that bedazzaleth the minds, and herein are the needy led to the haven of wealth, and all men guided to the Word of God; verily this is a manifest truth.

(Here is the song that the nightingale singeth;)

IN THY NAME THAT IS GOD,

Thou art verily God!

O sacred Monk, ring out the bells, for the day of God hath come, and the Beauty of the All-Glorious is established on the holy, shining throne.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O prophet of wisdom, Hud, beat thou upon thy drum, in the name of the Lord, the Precious, the Bountiful, for the Temple of Holiness is seated upon His high, unapproachable throne.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O Thou beauty of eternity, pluck with the fingers of the spirit at the strings of Thy lute that is wondrous and Holy, for the Heavenly Beauty hath come in His garment of glimmering silk.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O angel of light, sound thou thy trumpet to herald this appearance, for the letter HA hath mounted above the letter of pre-existent might.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O Nightingale of Praise, sing out upon thy boughs within this garden and land, the well-beloved Name, for the beauty of the red rose hath shone from the impenetrable veils.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O Thou Dove of Paradise, sing upon the boughs in this wondrous day, when the Lord hath cast His rays upon all creatures.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O Thou Bird of Eternity, soar into this firmament, for the bird of faithfulness hath winged his flight to the presence of the merciful Lord.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O Dwellers in Paradise, sing out and chant with melodious voices, for the melody of God is pealing from beyond the high pavilions of holiness.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O denizens of the Kingdom, sing in the name of the Well-beloved, for the beauty of commandment hath gleamed from behind the veils, in the shining mantle of the spirit.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O dwellers in the kingdom of names, adorn the zones of the furthermost heaven, for the Greatest Name is riding on the mighty clouds of holiness.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O people of the realm of holy attributes in the heaven of Abha, prepare to meet your God, for the breezes of sanctity have wafted from the exalted throne, and this is a manifest grace.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O thou Ridwan of the one God, rejoice within thyself, for the Ridwan of God, the Exalted, the Precious, the Wise, is made manifest.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O heaven of the grandeur, thank God within thyself, for the heaven of holiness is raised up in the realm of the sanctified heart.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O Sun of this earth, eclipse thy face, for the sun of eternity hath dawned in the luminous heaven.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O land of knowledge, swallow up thy learning, for the realm of wisdom is unfolding in the self of God., the Exalted, the Mighty, the Bountiful.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O lamp of the world, extinguish thyself, for the light of the Lord is kindled in the lamp of eternity, and hath illumined the denizens of heaven and earth.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O seas of the world, quiet your waves within you, for the crimson sea hath surged with a wondrous Cause.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O cock of everlasting life, crow out on the peaks of the realm of might, for the Herald of God hath sounded His Call from every lofty hill.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O concourse of lovers, give out the glad tidings with all your heart, for the time of waiting is over, and the covenant hath come, and the Beloved hath shone in wondrous beauty.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

O people of knowledge, rejoice within your souls, for the day of parting is gone by, the time of certainty hath come, and the beauty of this Youth hath shone in sacred raiment within the paradise of the steadfast Name.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

Lauded art Thou O my God! I implore Thee by Thy day in which all the prophetic days are resurrected, Thy day whereof a moment comprehendeth all the ages.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

And I implore Thee by Thy Name which Thou made king of the Kingdom of Names and ruler over all in earth and heaven.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

To make men free of all besides Thyself, and cause them to approach unto Thee and sever themselves from all but Thee. Verily Thou art the Powerful, the Precious, the Compassionate.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

Then kindle, O my Beloved, in their hearts the flame of Thy love, till it shall burn away the memory of all save Thee, that they may testify with themselves that verily Thou hast dwelt from everlasting on the heights of immortality, that nothing hath been joined with Thee, and that Thou ever art as Thou hast been. There is no God save Thee, the Mighty, the Beneficent.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

And those among Thy servants who seek to ascend the heights of Thy singleness, if their souls be set on the remembrance of aught else save Thee, they shall not be true believers in the unity of God, nor will the rank of a follower of the oneness of God be allotted them.

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!

The glory be to Thee, O my God, for as long as Thy command endureth. Wherefore send Thou down from the clouds of Thy Mercy that which shall cleanse the hearts of Thy lovers, and sanctify the souls of Thy friends.

Then raise them up in Thy Loftiness, and give them the victory over all on earth; for this is that which "We have desired to bring honor upon those who were brought low in the land, and to make them leaders of men, and to make them our heirs."* (Koran)

Glory to Thee, O God, O Thou who art God,

O Thou who alone art God!