Baha’i faith

[prasanna]

Beginnings of the Baha’i faith


Baha’i House of Worship, New Delhi, India

The Baha’i faith is the youngest of the world's independent religions. Its founder, Baha’u’llah (1817-1892), is regarded by Baha’is as the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad.

The central theme of Baha’u’llah’s message is that humanity is one single race and that the day has come for its unification in one global society. God, Baha’u’llah said, has set in motion historical forces that are breaking down traditional barriers of race, class, creed, and nation and that will, in time, give birth to a universal civilization. The principal challenge facing the peoples of the earth is to accept the fact of their oneness and to assist the processes of unification.
The Spread of Baha’i
The Baha’i Faith grew out of Islam, but is entirely independent of its parent religion. It first appeared in Persia, then spread to neighbouring Muslim lands in the Ottoman and Russian Empires and to northern India. Though some early followers were of Jewish, Christian, or Zoroastrian background, the vast majority had been followers of Islam.

The forerunner of the Baha’i faith was an Iranian named Siyyid Kazim-i-Rashti, known as the ‘Bab’. The title Bab means ‘gate’ and originated among early Shi’a Muslims as a name for the spokesmen of the 12th Imam following the Prophet Muhammed. In 1844 the Bab taught that he was the gate through which a Promised One would soon appear as messenger from God.

To Islamic clergy the Bab and his followers were heretics, because they believed in the coming of further prophets. They were persecuted, and the Bab was executed in 1850. His follower Baha’u’llah was exiled to Baghdad, where he proclaimed himself as the expected messenger of God in 1863. From there he was removed eventually to Acre, in present-day Israel, arriving as a prisoner in 1868. He remained here under house arrest until his death in in 1892. His teachings had already spread beyond the Middle East, and his shrine in Bahja is today the focal point of the Baha’i world community.



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Baha'i faith statement


What do Baha’is believe?


The shrine of the Bab, amid gardens on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel – the world headquarters of the Baha’i faith

Basic Teachings of Baha’u’llah
Baha’u’llah taught that there is one God whose successive revelations to humanity have been the chief civilizing forces 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, making possible the unification of the human family and the building of a peaceful, global society. To achieve this goal the Baha’i faith teaches:

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



What do Baha’is teach about ecology?


A tree planting project undertaken by students at the Rabbani Baha’i School near Gwalior in India

One World
‘The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.’ These words of Baha’u’llah summarise the Baha’i sense of world citizenship and commitment to stewardship of the earth. The oneness of humanity is, for Baha’is, the fundamental spiritual and social truth of this age. It implies a major restructuring of the world’s educational, social, agricultural, industrial, economic, legal and political systems. Baha’is believe this restructuring will enable the emergence of a sustainable, just and prosperous world civilisation that will exist on this planet for half a million years.

‘Nature is God’s Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world’
Tablets of Baha’u’llah
p 142

Nature reflects God
The world reflects the qualities and attributes of God, and should therefore be greatly respected and cherished. Baha’i Scriptures describe nature as an emanation of God’s will.
Interconnectedness
All things are interconnected and flourish according to the law of reciprocity. This principle underlies the Baha’i understanding of the way the universe works and the responsibilities of humanity.
Science and technology
Science and technology should help humanity to live in harmony with nature. Science should be guided by spiritual principles, to preserve as much as possible the earth’s bio-diversity and natural order, in a way that ensures long-term sustainability. A spiritually based civilisation in which science and religion work in harmony will preserve the ecological balance of the earth, foster stability in human population, and advance the material and the spiritual well-being of all peoples and nations.