Basic Teaching of Bahai's Faith

[Rex]

Bahá'u'lláh taught that there is one God whose successive revelations of His will to humanity have been the chief civilizing force in history. The agents of this process have been the Divine Messengers whom people have seen chiefly as the founders of separate religious systems but whose common purpose has been to bring the human race to spiritual and moral maturity.

Humanity is now coming of age. It is this that makes possible the unification of the human family and the building of a peaceful, global society. Among the principles which the Baha'i Faith promotes as vital to the achievement of this goal are

the abandonment of all forms of prejudice
assurance to women of full equality of opportunity with men
recognition of the unity and relativity of religious truth
the elimination of extremes of poverty and wealth
the realization of universal education
the responsibility of each person to independently search for truth
the establishment of a global commonwealth of nations
recognition that true religion is in harmony with reason and the pursuit of scientific knowledge


from:www.bahai.org

 

[Green Gaia]

History:
Most religious historians believe that the Bahá'í Faith arose from Islam, similar to the way Christianity arose from Judaism. However, many Bahá'í's believe that it is a unique religion with no historical connections to other faiths. It has grown to be a worldwide faith. It is most commonly spelled Baha'i, although alternate spellings of Ba'Hai, Bahai, and Bah'ai are sometimes seen.

Siyyid 'Ali-Muhammad (1819-1850 CE) assumed the title Bab which means the Gate. In 1844-MAY-23 He announced the "Declaration of the Bab." He explained that the purpose of His mission was to herald the arrival of "One greater than Himself", Who would fulfill the prophetic expectations of all the great religions. This date is regarded as the founding of the Bahá'í Faith. His followers became known as Babis. 20,000 were martyred for their beliefs. His movement caused much religious ferment. This led to His execution in 1850 by order of the Shah's chief minister and at the instigation of Muslim clerics, who saw His movement as a threat to orthodox Islam.

In 1863, one of the Bab's followers, Mirza Husayn-'Ali-i-Nuri (1817-1892), a prominent follower of the Bab to Whom the Bab had given several indications of His future station, confided to some of his followers and to His eldest son that He was the Manifestation predicted by the Bab. On 1863-APR-21, He began proclaiming his station openly and publicly to the world at large. His assumed title, Baha'u'llah, by which He is generally known, was the title the Bab used to refer to Him. The last forty years of Baha'u'llah's life were spent in prison or in exile. The last 22 years were spent in or near Acre, then a prison city. The world headquarters of the Bahá'í Faith is located in the Holy Land today as a result.

Baha'u'llah's son 'Abdu'l-Baha (1844-1921), was appointed by His father to be leader of the movement after His father's death.

The religion came to North America in 1893. The Bahá'í Faith states that it currently has about 6 million members worldwide, with about 2.5 million adherents in India and 140,000 in the US. The Canadian census found 14,730 in Canada in 1991. There have been many discussions on Bahá'í mailing lists which have tended to estimate only about one million members worldwide. Some claim that the US figure is also grossly inflated, and that the number of active members might be much lower. Barry Kosmin and Seymour Lachman estimated 28,000 adult US Bahá'ís in their 1993 book "One Nation Under God," -- a figure derived from Kosmin's National Survey of Religious Identification (NSRI) study of 1990. A more recent American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) found that there were an estimated 84,000 adult Bahai's in the U.S. in 2001. Fredrick Glaysher, an amateur demographer, estimates 26,600 members. 1

According to the 1992 Encyclopaedia Britannica Book of the Year, the Bahá'í Faith has established "significant communities" in more countries and territories than any other religion except for Christianity. They are organized in 205 areas vs. 254 for Christianity. According to The Baha'i World, this has increased to 235 countries and territories, including over 2,100 racial, ethnic and tribal groups. They number about 5 million members worldwide.

The official "Bahá'í Faith website" is at: http://www.bahai.org/ National pages are at http://www.us.bahai.org/ for the U.S., and http://www.ca.bahai.org/ for Canada.

Bahá'í faith is still looked upon by many Muslims as a breakaway sect of Islam. Bahá'ís are heavily persecuted in some countries because of this.

 

[BruceDLimber]

Hi again, Maize!

For the record, the only correct spelling is Baha'i. Anything else is simply misspelled.

The apostrophe is the transliteration of an actual (silent) letter in Persian, and indicates a glottal stop (i.e., a very brief pause in the pronunciation). This means that while we sloppy American's usually simply pronounce the word "ba-HIGH," in fact the apostrophe forces an extra syllable, so that it's properly "ba-HIGH-ee."

And BTW, Glaysher is an extremely hostile opponent of the Baha'i Faith, and thus has (in his mind) considerable reason to minimize and downplay Baha'i membership figures; he is NOT at all objective. As I understand it, the current numbers are around 130,000 in the US, and about seven million world wide (with some sources giving even higher figures). (Not too shabby for 100,000 in 1963 and 3 million in 1985!)

Regards,

Bruce

 

[Sunstone]

What is meant by the "recognition of the unity and relativity of religious truth"? Does this mean that there is no absolute truth?

 

[Valjean]

The Bahai's have some similarities to Islam but as Maize pointed out, Baha'i is a seperate revelation.

Bahai's are persecuted as apostates in their country of origin (Iran) and for their tolerence and "liberal" religious views elsewhere in the middle East.

 

[BruceDLimber]

What is meant by the "recognition of the unity and relativity of religious truth"? Does this mean that there is no absolute truth?

Hi, there!

The Baha'i scriptures state explicitly that the ONLY absolute is God Himself, and that everything else is thus relative. (The term used in place of "relative" is "contingent.")

Regards,

Bruce

 

[Majikthise]

A religious poll I took (belief-o-matic) put Baha'i ,high on my list.This morning I realised Islam is a belief that deserves more respect than I've given it.I feel really weird right now.(goes off to ponder things.)

 

[BruceDLimber]

A religious poll I took (belief-o-matic) put Baha'i high on my list.... I feel really weird right now.(goes off to ponder things.)

I'm tempted to say, "There's a moral there somewhere! . . ."



Bruce

 

[Majikthise]

Just thinking, that's all.

 

[justplainkaren]

The membership figures for *all* religions are inflated -- if you added up all the members that religious groups claim to have, you'd end up with a number larger than the world's population. What happens is that folks coming in are counted, but those who drift away aren't subtracted. So, yeah, one could legitimately say that Baha'i membership statistics are "inflated", because about half of those on the rolls are inactive. On the other hand, government statistics in Bolivia routinely show far *more* Baha'is than appear on the official rolls, because Baha'i radio programs have reached people in remote areas where they have been converted, but never officially signed up.

The way a group keeps its statistics depends on what self-definition it uses. A Baha'i friend of mine found out that he was still on the rolls of the Catholic church -- apparently once you're baptized, you are always considered a Catholic, even if you are "lapsed". Most Protestant groups who don't believe in infant baptism only count members over 13. And then, there's the question of the level of commitment -- a person may have an attachment to a religious belief, even if they never show up. But, then, of course, many of those left on the rolls have drifted away entirely, and have completely changed religious identities.

The individual's self-definition is really the only accurate way to assess adherence, and even then, with small religious groups, it's hard to get accurate poll numbers. I think that the second Kosmin poll is probably the most accurate count for Baha'is in the U.S.

Love, Karen

 

[drew22]

you thought i meant Bahaullah, yes Bahaullah is a prophet
Maitreya is also a prophet and He fulfills the Bahai prophecy of the third letter of the word Baha. When can you go to this website and tell if it is true? Of course you cannot say what is what until find out what the 1000 year prophecy is. I certainly see the clear meaning of what Bahaullah said in the Most Holy Book.

 

[arthra]

As far as numbers of Baha'i at least in the US each Baha'i has a membership card and unique number so the actual number of Baha'is is probably accurate... Other countries vary. With the influx of many Baha'i refugees from Iran the Faith in the US is much greater than it was say thirty some years ago...

Membership lists are also available at Conventions each year when we vote for representatives to the National Convention.

- Art

 

[Quiddity]

Membership card...interesting.

~Victor

 

[mankind_iz_one]

If you want to give money to the Baha'i Faith you had better be carrying one of those membership cards. Otherwise you will be politely told to take your money elsewhere.

 

[arthra]

It's true that only Baha'is can contribute to our funds so we don't solicit from any other groups or individuals... This is a privilege for Baha'is only.

Yes all voting Baha'is have membership cards... Our Faith is organized differently than many other groups.

We have no priests or professional clergy and our administration is elected annually from the local level to the international level.

Only one Local Spiritual Assembly can be formed per civil jurisdiction ... and there must be a minimum of nine adult believers to form an Assembly. So we don't have different groups of Baha'is say forming in a city... only one Assembly is permitted.

 

[BruceDLimber]

And in addition, Baha'is don't "pick and choose" their congregations: each Baha'i is automatically a member of the community where he or she resides. . . .

Regards,

Bruce