Ridvan 2001: Study Guide ======================== Exported from Holy-Writings.com on 2026-06-18 1 clipping 1. Next Section From the Pen of our beloved Guardian : " To dear friends,At this season of the year when Bahá'ís throughout the world are celebrating the Ridvan festivities and are renewing their determination to work and live under the banner of Bahá'u'lláh". - Shoghi Effendi (Letter dated 30 April 1930) " ... the Ridvan feast, which for all administrative purposes, is the beginning of the Bahá'í year". - Shoghi Effendi (Latter dated June 05, 1934 -Quoted in Dawn of a New Day, p.49) Greatest Holy Leaf writes : Greatest Holy Leaf writes: "The festival of Ridvan is come and the splendor of the light of God is shining from the invisible horizon of His mercy. The overflowing grace of the Lord of oneness is pouring down copiously from the unseen world and the glad-tidings of the kingdom are coming in from all countries. The resplendent morn that betokens the advancement of the Cause of God and heralds exaltation of His word is dawning an every region." Bahiyyih Khanum- Gleaned from "Bahiyyih Khanum", p.111 Study Program - Ridvan Message 2001 : To the Bahá'ís of the World Bahá'ís - The faithful followers of Bahá'u'lláhWorld - "Know ye that by "the world" is meant your unawareness of Him Who is your maker ..." (GWB, p. 276) - It also refers to the Bahaí world Dearly loved Friends, Friends - Traditional greeting of the beloved guardian to the Bahá'ís of the world With great joy in our hearts and high expectations Heart - "what can alone contain Me is the heart of him, that believeth in Me and is faithful to My Cause". -- (GWB p. 186)Expectation - "We entreat God to graciously aid His servants. What this Wronged One doth expect from everyone is justice and fairness. Let no one be content with mere hearing; rather doth it behove everyone to ponder that which this Wronged One hath revealed." - Bahá'u'lláh, Tablets, p. 130 welcome to this Ridvan Ridvan - " Arise, and proclaim unto the entire creation the tidings that He Who is the All-Merciful hath directed His steps towards the Ridvan and entered it". (GWB,p.31) season 21 April - 2 May each yearFor more information read - Gleanings, p. 27-35; God Passes By, p. 153-5 King of Glory, p. 169 at a change of time, when a new state of mind is evident among us all. Abroad in our world community there is a heightened awareness of the value of Value - To take account of; to heed; to regard as important or significant process, Process - Continued forward movement the necessity of planning and the virtue of systematic action in fostering Plan - Method or scheme of actionsystematic - Method or orderly procedure; methodical in conduct, performance or habitAction - Process of doingFoster - To sustain and promote, cherish/cultivate/indulge growth and in developing the human resources by which expansion can be Growth - Stage or state in growingResource - Means of resort in exigency, expedient, stratagemHuman Resources - "The new Plan revolves around ...enhancing the vitality of the faith of individual believers, greatly developing the human resources of the Cause, ...". "Training of the friends and their striving, through serious individual study, to acquire knowledge of the Faith, to apply its principles and administer its affairs, are indispensable to developing the human resources necessary to the progress of the Cause". Ridvan Message, 150B.E. Expansion - Its past experience demonstrates that focused attention on expansion invariably brings good results. What is required at this stage of the community's development is an accelerating increase in the number of individual enrolments. Ridvan Message, 153B.E Sustained Sustain - To maintain or cause to continue, to endure " ... Send down upon the, O Lord, the concourse of the angels in the heaven and earth and all that is between, to aid Thy servants, to succor and strengthen them, to enable them to achieve success, to sustain them, ....". - The Bab, Bahá'í Prayers, p.161 "If you are to sustain rapid expansion and consolidation in the coming years, it is imperative that far greater numbers of dedicated and committed souls arise ...." . - Ridvan Message, 153B.E The will and determination needed to sustain large - scale expansion and consolidation can be created through a consistent and widespread institute programme aimed at exposing growing contingents of believers to the Creative Word, thus enhancing their spiritual capacities to diffuse the light of the Faith and to further the development of its institutions. Ridvan Message, 153B.E and consolidation assured The coherence of understanding about common principle or relationship Consolidation - To make solid, to uniteAssure - To secure, to confirmCoherence - Connection or congruity arising from some these prerequisites of progress cannot be Prerequisite - Something required beforehandProgress - To move or proceed from point to point overvalued, nor can the importance of perpetuating them through well-ordered Perpetuate - To give an enduring character or existence Order - Methodical arrangement training be overestimated. And so the arrival of our community at such a moment of consciousness is an occasion of Overestimate - Beyond the conventional valueConsciousness - Awareness, that state of being which is characterized bythought significance for us. We are deeply grateful to the Blessed Beauty to be able to recognize Blessed Beauty - A title of Bahá'u'lláh Able - Having sufficient power, to endure, to vouch for Recognize - To acknowledge formally, to admit the fact and acclaim it at the very beginning of the global enterprise being launched during Acclaim - To claim, to call out loudlyGlobal - Pertaining to the earth in its entiretyEnterprise - A project which involves activity these festive days. Festive days - 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 splendors 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. (GWB,p. 27-35) The power of will generated by this consciousness characterized the conference Will - Determination, motivation, strength of characterConsciousness - Awareness, that state of being which is characterized by thoughtCharacterize - To mark with distinctive features of the Continental Counselors and the members Continental Counselors - For more information read: See Appendix: Counselors (Page 21) Next Section — Ridvan 2001: Study Guide (Used by permission of the curator)