The Bahai Faith: Origins and Relevance of a Worldwide Religion - Essay Example

? The Baha'i Faith: A Report on the Origins and Relevance of a Worldwide Religion Your Your 11/05 The Baha'i Faith is a religious community unified by a series of central tenets, beliefs, practices, and ideals. The religion originated in 19th-century Persia, where it was founded by Baha'u'llah, a supposed messenger from God who was persecuted for teaching ideas discordant with the dominant Persian and Ottoman authorities. Baha'u'llah’s life coincided with that of Siyyid Ali Mu?ammad Shirazi, better known as the Bab (meaning “gate” in Arabic). Like Baha'u'llah, the Bab received theistic attention and was cast as the spiritual second coming of John the Baptist.Baha'u'llah followed the Bab’s life up until the Bab was sentenced to death for seditious religious activity: a fate that would similarly befall Baha'u'llah decades later. Baha'u'llah cast himself as the one anticipated by the Bab’s prophecies of a great reformer (Hutter, 2005). After the first Baha'i communities were formed by Baha'u'llah, Baha'u'llah became interested in religious continuity: handing over leadership of the communities to his son Abbas Effendi in a will that appointed him “Abdu'l-Baha,” or “center of the covenant.” Like his father and the Bab, Abdu'l-Baha faced problems with the religious authorities in his own right—living in exile and imprisonment as a result of the Turkish revolution in Persia in 1908. Since the first decade of the 20th century, the Baha'i Faith has made strides in overcoming. At the heart of the Baha'i Faith and the teachings of the Bab are three core principles: the unity of religion, the unity of God, and the unity of mankind (Hutter, 2005). In terms of a unity of religion, the Baha'i Faith teaches that all religions are manifestations of the same general phenomena as given by revelation. Within each religion, certain general principles such as altruism are universal and consistent. In terms of unity of God, the Baha'i Faith holds that God is unified with the universe—something thought to be eternal and as purposive through the so-called “Messengers of God” (Smith, 2008). In terms of unity of mankind, human beings are brought together by their uniquely rational soul that recognizes man’s relationship with God. Few things in the Baha'i Faith are “sacred” under the strict definition of that concept due to the fact that all things are, in reality, unified. However, the texts that explicate the central tenets of the Faith are considered “sacred” insofar as they provide meaning to the religion. Sacred texts consist of anything written by Baha'u'llah, the Bab, or Abdu'l-Baha, which means few (if any) individuals have the right to interpret and elucidate the meaning of the documents. The most sacred of these texts is the Kitab-i-Aqbas, which was written by Baha'u'llah; among other things, it forms a book of laws governing religious and social conduct (Hatcher and Martin 46). Like Christianity’s Bible, the Kitab-i-Aqbas is an enormously important document in the Baha'i Faith. In fact, very few things in the Baha'i Faith are profane, the opposite of sacred. Because this religion is so tolerant (due to its belief in all-encompassing unity) of other cultures, religions, and belief systems, various sorts of negative language are not profane in a meaningful way. To illustrate this point, it is helpful to characterize and define the worldwide Baha'i community. With approximately, 5 million Baha'is living in the world, the Baha'i Faith is relatively small compared to the major monotheistic religions. However, Baha'is are dispersed rather evenly throughout the world, forming communities in South Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East. The central organization of the Baha'i Faith conducted travel teaching efforts throughout the mid-20th century that brought the religion to every corner of the globe. Having started in Persia, it is not a surprise that the densest concentration of Baha'i adherents resides in modern-day Iran, where the Faith is the largest religious minority. No country in the world has a Baha'i majority, although numbers of Baha'is in India are not insignificant, numbering at around 2.2 million people. In addition, the Baha'i Faith is one of the fastest growing religious groups in the world, and it is one of the most diverse: spanning across hundreds of languages and thousands of ethnicities (Park). The unique worldview of the Baha'is produces equally distinctive approaches to traditional human institutions and events, such as marriage, death, and birth. Marriage, death, and birth are all topics that invoke some input from religion, especially in monotheistic religions such as Christianity and Islam. In Baha'i, marriage is an expression of the unity and harmony between two individuals that is reminiscent of one of the three principles given above: the unity of mankind. Marriage is profoundly important to Baha'is because it serves as the foundational structure for human society. Baha'u'llah frequently praised marriage in this manner throughout his writings, primarily for its function in rearing children (Smith, 2008). To that point, Baha'is today celebrate both the birth of Baha'u'llah and the Bab, which suggests that adherents regard birth highly. On the other side of the spectrum, Baha'is treat death like birth in the sense that it is a new beginning; that is, since the rational soul of a human being does not die, it continues on with the characteristics that we associate with individual people. Continuing on into the next life, as Baha'u'llah taught, should be regarded with great joy, just like the process of birth should be celebrated and welcomed. The Baha'i Faith’s unique positions on these fundamental institutions produce likewise unique positions with respect to social structures such as laws, governments, and the workplace. Baha'u'llah’s Kitab-i-Aqbas provides many of these laws, including bans on gambling, gossip, premarital sex, partisan politics, and alcohol consumption. These laws also uphold fasting and obligatory prayer as necessary instruments in coming closer to God. Baha'is also regard productive work as an activity that brings the worshipper closer to God in the sense that performing useful work is a form of worship. Service to humanity, in other words, is essential to the spiritual life referred to in Baha'u'llah’s writings. In that regard, forms of monasticism seen in other monotheistic faiths is prohibited in the Kitab-i-Aqbas. The Baha'i Faith is noted for its positive effects on the cultures in which it is present. Given that Baha'i is present in so many diverse cultures around the world, it is impossible to generalize, but looking at specific examples of these effects offers a useful perspective. The egalitarian nature of Baha'i, for instance, has led to greater degrees of freedom for women, including access to education through the creation of schools and clinics. On this theme of socioeconomic development, the Baha'i Universal House of Justice issued a memo in 1983 that urged adherents to seek out ways to improve the economic and social improvement of local communities, which led to a spike in the number of Baha'i community development projects from the late 1970s to the late 1980s. Baha'is continue to advocate for a world government on the premise of the unity of humankind, noting that nationalist or collectivist differences between peoples no longer apply in the era of globalization. As a result, the Baha'i Faith seeks to open access of all people, regardless of their country, to the material benefits of development programs. It should come as no surprise then that Baha'is are concerned with socioeconomic progress irrespective of what country the progress is being made in. Despite adherents’ universal concern for humankind, however, Baha'is are often persecuted as a religious minority in their respective countries, especially by Islamic governments. Seeing Baha'i as an apostasy from Islam, conservatives tend to push back against the rights (and occasionally the lives) of Baha'i people. One example of such a pushback occurred in Iran, where Baha'i cemeteries have been desecrated and massacres of Baha'i have occurred. Like in Iran, Baha'i adherents in Egypt are discriminated against severely, even to the point where they cannot acquire government identification documents necessary to be rightful citizens of that country. Although this treatment is changing, strong public censure of Baha'is in majority Muslim countries proves that post-Islamic monotheistic religions are controversial. References Hatcher, W.S. and J.D. Martin. The Baha'i faith: The emerging global religion. New York: Harper & Row, 1998. Hutter, M. "Baha'is." Jones, L. Encyclopedia of religion. Detroit: Macmillan, 2005. 737-740. Park, K. World almanac and book of facts. New York: World Almanac Books, 2004. Smith, P. An introduction to the Baha’i faith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Read More