By FRANK AZAD
Special to the Bulletin
For 12 days, from April 21 to May 2, 2023, Baha’is of Manteca who are the followers of Baha’u’llah, meaning the Glory of God, the Prophet Founder of the Baha’i Faith, will join hundreds of localities in the United States and over 8 million Baha’is worldwide to celebrate the most Joyous of the Baha'i holy days, the Most Great Festival of “Ridvan”, meaning paradise.
Baha’u’llah was born to an aristocratic, prominent and noble family whose father was a minister to the King in Persia, now Iran in 1817.
Due to being the most outspoken supporter of the Bab, His Herald, who abrogated the teachings of Islam, and announced that God’s new Messenger promised by all the religions will soon appear, He was imprisoned, all His properties were confiscated, and was ordered by the Shah and the Muslim leaders to leave His native land.
He was subjected to 40 years of imprisonment and four successive banishments from Iran to Baghdad, then to Istanbul, & to Edirne in Turkey, and finally to the Holy Land, a prison in Akka, now in Israel. He died over there in 1892. His resting place in the suburb of Akka is the most sacred site for the Baha’is and a place for pilgrimage.
During Baha’u’llah’s banishment in Iraq, He stayed in a garden on the banks of the Tigris River near Baghdad that He called the garden of “Ridvan”, meaning “paradise”, for 12 days.
In 1863, during His stay at the Ridvan garden, Baha’u’llah announced to the monarchs, rulers and peoples of the world that He was the Promised One, as foretold by the Bab and in all the world's religious scared scriptures. He confirmed the infallibility of the divine revelations of the past prophets such as Abraham, Krishna, Buddha, Moses, Jesus Christ, Mohammad, and the Bab who all came from one God, each building upon the illuminating Messages of those gone before, leading humanity to new spiritual heights and bringing social teachings according to the requirements, and exigencies of that particular age.
He further announced that although the Messengers are different, it is the same spirit, the spirit of God, which animates them all. Baha’u’llah established the Baha’i religion which is to last no less than one thousand years, until it is superseded by a new Messenger of God who will inaugurate a new religion and bring social teachings according to the requirements of that age, a process that Baha’u’llah says will continue for eternity every several hundred years. With no priest or clergy, He invited all to independently investigate His message.
The Ridvan period was also a time when Baha'u'llah proclaimed the foundational social principles that lie at the heart of His teachings such as unity of God, unity of His prophets, unity of mankind, elimination of all kinds of prejudice & racism, equality of men & women as two wings of a bird, universal peace, universal education, spiritual solution to economic problems, elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty, one international auxiliary language, unity of nations in one global political commonwealth, and more, signaling the arrival of a new stage in the evolution and maturity of the life of humanity, characterized by peace, justice, human dignity and human rights.
On April 21, the Baha’is of Manteca along with all other Baha’i communities in the US and all over the world will also vote for their local governing councils that consist of 9 adult Baha’is and are elected without nominations or campaigning and are responsible to govern the affairs of the Baha’i communities in their particular cities for one year.
