The Ninth Day of Ridván in 2025 begins at sunset on April 27th and ends at sunset on April 28th. This day commemorates the reunion of Bahá’u’lláh’s family in the Garden of Ridván in Baghdad after He had declared His Divine Mission.
Bahá’ís around the world commemorate the ninth day of Ridván with joyous gatherings, prayers, readings, and fellowship. It is one of the three holy days during the Ridván festival where work is suspended.
Ridván is a is a twelve-day festival that commemorates the beginning of the Bahá’í Faith in 1863.
Three of the twelve days of Ridván have special significance–the first, ninth, and twelfth day, which fall respectively this year on April 20, April 28, and May 1, 2025.
The Ninth Day of Ridván honors a historic event in the Baháʼí Faith.
In April of 1863, Baháʼu’lláh, Prophet-Founder of the Baháʼí Faith, learned that He had been officially banished from the Ottoman Empire. At the time, both the Persian and the Ottoman governments opposed and feared the rapid spread of Baháʼu’lláh’s teachings, so they reacted with violence against His followers. More than 20,000 innocent people died as a result. However, the Ottoman government was unable to slow the spread of the Baháʼí Faith and so they banished the Founder and His followers.
On their Ninth day in the garden, the flooding Tigris receded enough so that Baháʼu’lláh’s family could cross the river and join Him. This reunification of Baháʼu’lláh’s family inspired the symbolic meaning of the Ninth Day of Ridván.
Ridván is a twelve-day festival, spanning the 13th day of Jalal to the 5th of Jamal of the Baháʼí calendar, signifying the 12 days Baháʼu’lláh spent in the Garden of Riḍván meeting with visitors before His exile to Constantinople.
Riḍván (which means “paradise” in Arabic) commemorates Baháʼu’lláh’s declaration in 1863 as the Promised One of all religions.
“To Israel He was neither more nor less than the incarnation of the ‘Everlasting Father,’ the ‘Lord of Hosts’ come down ‘with ten thousands of saints’; to Christendom Christ returned ‘in the glory of the Father,’ to Shi’ih Islam the return of the Imam Husayn; to Sunni Islam the descent of the ‘Spirit of God’; to the Zoroastrians the promised Shah-Bahram; to the Hindus the reincarnation of Krishna; to the Buddhists the fifth Buddha”.
(Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By).
The event on the ninth day serves as a reminder of the importance of unity, harmony, and the interconnectedness of humanity. It encourages Baháʼís to strive for unity and understanding within their communities.
There are three holy Days as part of the Festival, the first day, the ninth and the twelfth. The annual Baháʼí Festival commemorates the 12 days when Baháʼu’lláh, the Prophet Founder of the Baháʼí Faith, publicly proclaimed His Mission as God’s Messenger.
Bahá’ís consider the 12-day Festival of Ridván (Paradise) as pre-eminent among its various Holy Days.
Ridván marks the inception of the Bahá’í Faith as a distinct religion.
Through the previous decade (1853–1863), Bahá’u’lláh had concealed His
Mission. This period of “messianic secrecy” has been referred to as the
“Days of Concealment”, although Bahá’u’lláh’s writings in Baghdad during
this period were rife with hints about His Prophetic Mission, especially in His
pre-eminent doctrinal text, the Book of Certitude (Kitáb-i-Íqán), which was
revealed in two days and two nights in January 1861. Beyond the basic
revelation that He was “He Whom God will make manifest,”
The Najibiyyih Garden, as it was first known, was named for Muhammad Najib Pasha, the wāli (governor) of Baghdad from 1842 to 1847, who built the garden and an attached palace in what was originally an agricultural area outside the city.
Although Najib Pasha died in May 1851, the garden was presumably in the hands of his heirs when it was used by Baháʼu’lláh, between April through May, 1863.
Despite its importance to the Baháʼí community, the garden was never owned by the Baháʼís. It was purchased by the government in 1870, and was used as a guest house for Nasruddin-Shah—who was responsible for Baháʼu’lláh’s imprisonment and exile—when he visited Iraq in 1870. The park was further developed during the governorship of Midhat Pasha (1869–1872), who leveled the road leading to the garden and built another road, approximately 400–500 meters in length. The garden was cleared during the early twentieth century, to make way for the Royal Hospital. Baghdad Medical City, a large complex of teaching hospitals, now stands in its place.
The garden was described as a wooded garden having four “flower-bordered avenues” lined with roses, which were collected by gardeners during Baháʼu’lláh’s stay and piled in the center of His tent to be offered to visitors. “So great would be the heap,” the chronicler Nabíl-i-Aʻzam
relates, “that when His companions gathered to drink their morning tea in His presence, they would be unable to see each other across it.”
Nightingales
were said to sing loudly in the garden, which, together with the fragrance of the roses, “created an atmosphere of beauty and enchantment”.
The love of the nightingale for the rose is a common theme in Persian literature, particularly in mystic poetry, where the nightingale’s yearning is used as a metaphor for the soul’s yearning for God. (“The Rose and nightingale in Persian literature”. One night during His stay in the Garden of Ridván, Baháʼu’lláh is recorded as having spoken the following words: “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?”
(Taherzadeh, Adib (1976).
The Revelation of Baháʼu’lláh, Volume 1. Oxford, UK: George Ronald. p. 259).
Regarding the Festival of Ridván, the Kitab-i-Aqdas, revealed ten years later, ordains it as one of the two “Most Great Festivals,” along with the anniversary of the Declaration of the Báb. Bahá’u’lláh specified that the first, ninth, and twelfth days were to be major holy days – days on which work is prohibited.
Compiled by:-
Jaya Raju Thota
Greater VisakhapatnamAndhra Pradesh,
India
