Ridván 174 B.E.
National Spiritual Assembly
nsa@bahai.org.uk
13 April 2017
6 Jalál 174 B.E.
To all believers in the UK
Dearly loved friends,
Rejoice with exceeding gladness, O people of Bahá, 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 splendours of His name, the All-Merciful. God is Our witness. Were We to reveal the hidden secrets of that Day, all they 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. (Bahá’u’lláh, Days of Remembrance, No.6, para.19)
The National Spiritual Assembly sends to each and every one of you its deep love and warmest greetings as we prepare to join with all of the followers of the Blessed Beauty around the world to celebrate the festival of Riḍván. The Pen of Bahá’u’lláh attests that these 12 days constitute
a festival wherein all things have been adorned with the vesture of the names of God, and wherein His bounty hath compassed all things from first to last. (Days of Remembrance, No.7, para.2)
Beginning this year at sunset on 19 April, these most sanctified and significant of the Holy Days commemorate the period during which Bahá’u’lláh—in the face of another exile, from Baghdád to Constantinople—retired to the Najíbíyyih Garden, where He openly declared Himself as the Manifestation of God for this day.
For Bahá’ís, having been afforded the inestimable bounty of recognising His station, the Riḍván festival is a time for gratitude, reflection and great joy. For those believers who are resident in localities where an Assembly can be formed or elected, it is also a moment of profound responsibility as they arise to fulfil their obligations to contribute to the raising up of His Administrative Order. Shoghi Effendi specified that the friends should abstain from working, if possible, on the first, ninth and twelfth of Riḍván, which fall during this year on 20 April, 28 April and 1 May, respectively.
Let us also take the opportunities of this season to advance our preparations for the forthcoming bicentenary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh in October this year. Might the Riḍván festivities offer an opportunity for us to engage a large number of friends in conversation, conveying—as the Universal House of Justice has described it — “a sense of what it means for humanity that these two Luminaries rose successively above the horizon of the world” and indeed, encouraging them to inform others of the glad tidings of His advent?
The National Assembly will pray that your every effort exerted in His path will be richly blessed and bountifully confirmed.
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
Patrick O’Mara,
Secretary