Baha’u’llah wrote the Nightingale of Separation before departing from BaghdadSUNDOWN SUNDAY, MAY 1: The final day of the Baha’i Festival of Ridvan begins tonight, and devotees will be remembering the day Baha’u’llah—the Promised One of the Baha’i faith—and his family left the Garden of Ridvan to begin their three-month journey to Constantinople. Tomorrow, work is suspended, and Baha’is will spend the day in prayer and celebration with other community members. (Wikipedia has details.)
For more of this story, you may want to read our earlier reports on Ninth of Ridvan and on the start of Ridvan, also known as the “King of Festivals” among Baha’is.
Prior to his departure, Baha’u’llah wrote the Nightingale of Separation to express his sorrow in leaving his followers in Baghdad. (Read the Nightingale of Separation at Baha’isOnline.net.) As he had heard nightingales sing at night in the garden, so Baha’u’llah wrote a lament in their name to his followers. Many Baha’is read or hear this lament read on the Twelfth Day of Ridvan.
Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online journal covering religion and cultural diversity.
