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The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion whose members follow the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, founder and prophet of the religion. Its central themes are that (1) there is one God (known by many different names in the various languages and cultures), (2) humanity is one single family and that the day has come for its unification in one global society, and (3) all the great religions are stages in a single evolving faith, the Faith of God. Bahá'u'lláh, a Persian whose name is Arabic for "the Glory of God", taught that there is one God who progressively reveals his will to humanity. In the Bahá'í view, each of the great religions was brought by Messengers of God—such as Moses, Krishna, the Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus, Muhammad, and the Báb—and represent a successive stage in the spiritual development of civilization. Bahá'ís believe Bahá'u'lláh is the most recent Messenger in this line, and that he has brought teachings which address the moral and spiritual challenges of the modern world. In its emphasis on the coming of a Prophet inspired by God, and its recognition of earlier religions as a legitimate part of its heritage, it forms part of the Abrahamic tradition, claiming a direct spiritual descent from the religion of Abraham as do Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
Because of its inclusiveness in recognizing all the above as messengers of God, the Bahá'í Faith is commonly assumed in religious studies textbooks to be syncretic, although this is disputed by other scholars and Bahá'ís themselves on the grounds that Bahá'u'lláh claimed to have received an independent revelation from God, including new laws and teachings not found in the scriptures of earlier religions.
The Bahá'í faith has experienced a number of schisms in the course of its history. In brief, the death of each major figure has led to disputes over succession, and subsequent mutual anathemas in which each side has condemned the other as covenant breakers. The largest subdivision is the Baha'i Faith (Haifa), with several million members. Others include:
- Orthodox Bahá'í Faith - The second largest group of followers of Bahá'u'lláh. Shismed around 1960
- Minor Bahá'í divisions - Other, often very small groups of followers of Bahá'u'lláh
Geographic extent
The Bahá'í Faith, according to The Britannica Book of the Year (1992–present), is the second most widespread of the world's independent religions in terms of the number of countries where adherents live; it is established in 247 countries and territories throughout the world. Bahá'ís come from over 2,100 ethnic, racial, and tribal groups and are numbered at approximately seven million adherents worldwide . The central works of the Bahá'í scriptures have been translated into over 800 languages.
The majority of Bahá'ís live in Asia (3.6 million), Africa (1.8 million), and Latin America (900,000). According to "The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2004", the largest Bahá'í community in the world is in India, with 2.2 million Bahá'ís residing there, although only 5,575 claimed to be Bahá'í in the 1991 Census (its numbers have thus been increasing rapidly in recent years). Next is Iran, with 350,000 Bahá'ís, and the USA, with 150,000. Aside from these countries, numbers vary greatly. Currently, no country has a Bahá'í majority. Guyana is the country with the largest percentage of Bahá'ís (7%).
The Islamic government of Iran has a history of hostility to the Bahá'ís. The House of the Báb in Shiraz, one of the three sites to which Bahá'ís perform pilgrimage, has been destroyed twice, Bahá'í cemeteries have been desecrated and property seized and occasionally demolished including the House of Mírzá Burzurg, Bahá'u'lláh's father. Bahá'ís have been banned from attending university and holding government jobs since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and many Bahá'ís were imprisoned during the early 1980's.
According to the Bahá'í World News Service, in the period between 1978 and 1998, over two hundred Bahá'ís have been executed for being members of the religion.
History
The Báb
- Please see biographic article for full details
In 1844 the Persian prophet-herald Siyyid `Alí-Muhammad, proclaimed that he was "the Báb", which means "Gate" in Arabic, thus establishing a new religion. It is distinct from Islam but grew out of the Islamic matrix in the same way that Christianity grew out of Judaism, or Buddhism out of Hinduism. Followers of the Báb were known as Bábís and their religion as "the Bábí Faith."
As the Báb's teachings spread his followers came into increasing conflict with the state religion, and in several instances this led to violence. Bahá'ís emphasize the persecution of the Faith and the torture and execution of large numbers of Bábís. The Báb was imprisoned and eventually executed by a firing squad in Tabriz, Persia (present-day Iran) on July 9, 1850. His mission lasted six years.
His tomb, the 'Shrine of the Báb', located on the slope of Mount Carmel in Haifa is an important place of pilgrimage for Bahá'ís. The remains of the Báb were brought secretly from Persia to the Holy Land and were eventually interred in the Shrine built for them in a spot specifically designated by Bahá'u'lláh.
Although the Bábí Faith has its own scriptures and religious teachings, Bahá'ís believe its duration was intended to be very short. The Báb's writings introduced the concept of "He whom God shall make manifest", the one promised in the scriptures of all of the world's great religions. The Bahá'ís believe that the Báb's purpose was fulfilled in Baha'u'llah, when he made his claim to be this messianic figure in 1863.
Perhaps several thousand (non-Bahá'í) followers of the Báb exist in today's Iran. Bahá'ís often call them Azalis, after Subh-i Azal; but they prefer to be known as Bayanis, after the Báb's holy book, the Bayan (or Commentary). They claim that the Báb's true successor was not Bahá'u'lláh but his older half-brother Subh-i-Azal ("Morning of Eternity"), whom Bahá'ís refer to as "Mirza Yahya".
Bahá'u'lláh
- Please see biographical article for full details
Mírzá Husayn-`Alí, known as Bahá'u'lláh, was the son of a Persian nobleman who became one of the early followers of the Báb. He was arrested and imprisoned during a period of severe persecution in 1852. He claimed that while incarcerated in the dungeon of the Síyáh-Chál in Tehran, he received the first intimations that he was the One anticipated by the Báb. Eleven years later, in 1863, while exiled in Baghdad, he formally announced his mission to his family and a small number of followers.
Problems with the Persian and Ottoman authorities took Bahá'u'lláh farther and farther into exile, from Baghdad to Istanbul (Constantinople), then to Edirne (formerly Adrianople, also within the Ottoman Empire), and finally, in 1868, to imprisonment in the penal colony of Acre (in present-day Israel), on the very edge of the Ottoman Empire. Bahá'u'lláh remained there until his death on May 29, 1892, after forty years of exile and imprisonment, although He was eventually released from strict confinement and allowed to live nearby. Bahá'ís regard his resting place outside the city as the holiest spot on earth, the Bahá'í Qiblih to which they turn in prayer each day.
During his lifetime, Bahá'u'lláh wrote the equivalent of more than one-hundred volumes of what Bahá'ís believe are divinely inspired writings in Arabic and Persian, including the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, "the Most Holy Book", the main repository of Bahái teaching, written in 1873. "The Book of Certitude" (aka Kitáb-i-Iqan) is the primary Baha'i theological work. The Baha'i scriptures also include the works of the Bab and `Abdu'l-Baha (see below), and total about 200 volumes.
Bahá'u'lláh had three wives and a total of fourteen children (seven from his first wife Assieh later surnamed Navvab, six from his second wife Fatimih known as Mahd-i-'Ulya and one from his last wife Gowhar) of which a total of seven lived into adulthood. See Bahá'u'lláh's family for full details.