Declaration of Baha’s Mission at The Garden of Ridvan
Baha’s Verses in Baghdad
2. Declaration of Baha’s Mission at The Garden of Ridvan
2.2 Baha’s Verses in Baghdad
Baha’s verses written by him during his sojourn for the benefit of mankind at large were destroyed in the river there. See Mirza Aqa Jan Washing Out Baha’s ‘Verses’.
This is confirmed by Shoghi Effendi in P. 138 ibid:
“According to the testimony of Nabil, who was at that time living in Baghdad, the unrecorded verses that streamed from his [i.e. Baha’s] lips averaged, in a single day and night the equivalent of the Quran! As to those verses which either dictated or wrote himself, their number was no less than either the wealth of material they contained, or the diversity of subject to which they referred. A vast, and indeed the greater proportion of those writings alas, irretrievably lost to prosperity. No less authority than Mirza Aqa Jan. Baha’s amanuensis affirms, as reported by Nabil, that by the express order of Baha, hundred of thousands of verses mainly written by his own hand were obliterated and cast into the river. ‘Funding me reluctant to execute his orders,’ Mirza Aqa Jan has related to Nabil, ‘Baha would reassure me saying: ‘None is to be found at this time worthy to hear those melodies’ ….. Not once, or twice, but innumerable times, was I commanded to repeat the act’:”
These 'verses' preceded Baha’s declaration in the Garden of Ridvan. Baha moved to the Najibiyya garden, subsequently designate the garden of Ridvan, on April 22, 1863 (ibid Qa’ada 3, 1279)” and tarried there for twelve days before leaving for Istanbul on “May 3, 1863 (ibid Qa’da 14, 1279).’
According to Baha’s legend, Baha declared or proclaimed his mission to the companions there. Nabil, the author of the Dawn-Breakers, Nabil’s Narrative was Baha’s chronicles and poets laureate.