Baha?I Faith

views updated

BAHA˒I FAITH

The Baha˒i faith was founded by Baha˒allah as an outgrowth of the Babi religion, the messianic movement begun in 1844 by the Iranian prophet Sayyed ˓Ali Muhammad, commonly known as the Bab ("Gate").

History

After the execution of the Bab in 1850 and the pogrom following a Babi attempt to assassinate the shah, the Babi movement suffered a crisis of leadership. Its titular leader was Mirza Yahya, known as Subh-e Azal, but from the mid-1860s the effective leader was Azal's elder brother, Baha˒allah. Both were exiles in Baghdad. Baha˒allah later wrote that he had had mystical experiences while imprisoned in Tehran in 1852, and by the early 1860s he had begun hinting that he was "he whom God shall make manifest," the Babi messiah. On 21 April 1863 he announced this claim to several close associates, an event that Baha˒is now consider the beginning of their religion. Baha˒allah nonetheless continued to recognize the nominal leadership of Azal. The final break came in 1867 when he wrote to Azal formally claiming prophethood. The Babis then split into three main groups. By the end of the 1870s those who had accepted the claim of Baha˒allah were the large majority and came to be known as Baha˒is. A smaller number, the Azalis, stayed loyal to Subh-e Azal and vociferously opposed Baha˒allah. A few accepted neither claim.

Through his extensive correspondence and meetings with pilgrims during his exile in Acre, Baha˒allah organized the new community. He rejected the militancy and esoteric Shi˓ite mysticism characteristic of the Babis, instead stressing political neutrality and progressive themes such as international peace, education, and the emancipation of women and slaves. By the time of the death of Baha˒allah in 1892, the Iranian community had recovered from the disasters of the Babi period, and small but growing communities, mainly consisting of Iranian émigrés, had been established in many countries of the Middle East, the Russian Empire, and India.

After Baha˒allah's death most Baha˒is accepted the leadership of his eldest son, ˓Abd al-Baha˒. In the 1890s small but influential communities of Baha˒i converts from Christianity were established in Europe and North America. Despite the turmoil caused by World War I and by revolutions in Iran, Turkey, and Russia, ˓Abd al-Baha˒ was able to establish an institutional structure for most of the major Baha˒i communities, increasingly in the form of elected governing committees known as spiritual assemblies. The most important event of his ministry, however, was a series of journeys to Europe and America from 1911 to 1913. These trips were the occasion for an increasing stress on the liberal social teachings of the Baha˒i faith.

˓Abd al-Baha˒ was succeeded in 1921 by his grandson, Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, whose English education and Western orientation marked a final break with the religion's Islamic roots. Shoghi Effendi was not a charismatic figure like his grandfather and preferred to focus on institution-building and consolidation. The most spectacular achievement of his ministry was a series of "teaching plans," in which Baha˒i missionaries settled in scores of new countries and territories, notably in Latin America, Africa, and the Pacific. By the 1950s some of these communities were growing rapidly. Shoghi Effendi wrote extensively and systematically in Persian and English, standardizing Baha˒i theological self-understanding and practice. His translations of several volumes of Baha˒allah's writings became the standard Baha˒i scriptures for Western Baha˒is. He also wrote a history of the Babi and Baha˒i Faiths and translated a history of the Babi religion. These works also became fundamental for the self-understanding of Western Baha˒is. Finally, through his construction of Baha˒i shrines and temples in Haifa, Acre, and several Western cities, he made the Baha˒i faith more visible and created a Baha˒i architectural idiom.

Shoghi Effendi died in 1957, leaving neither an heir nor a will. In 1963, after a six-year interregnum, the various Baha˒i national spiritual assemblies elected an international governing body, the Universal House of Justice, which has since been elected every five years. The Universal House of Justice continued Shoghi Effendi's programs of teaching plans and construction. There are now several million Baha˒is in the world, most in the developing world, leaving only a small minority in Iran or Islamic countries.

Baha˒i Theology, Beliefs, and Practices

The theological roots of the Baha˒i faith are in the Babi religion, which was essentially an esoteric Shi˓ite movement. The fundamental Baha˒i theological conception is that of the logos figure of the manifestation of God: the prophet as the perfect mirror of God's attributes. Human beings and all other creatures are lesser mirrors of God's various attributes. The prophet is thus a model and a revealer of God's knowledge and will. God's full plan is revealed gradually by a series of prophets, who guide humanity's emergence into a worldwide spiritual civilization. Baha˒allah is of particular significance, since his ministry marks the beginning of human maturity and world unity. Thus, for Baha˒is all religions are fundamentally true, having been based on prophecy, though the Baha˒i faith is destined to supercede them. The differences among religions are due either to the differing circumstances of the time and place of their revelation or to gradual corruption of the original message.

The characteristic feature of Baha˒allah's revelation is its stress on unity, a theme expressed in Baha˒i social teachings. Thus, racism, nationalism, religious fanaticism, prejudice of any sort, and the degradation of women are condemned in Baha˒i teachings. Likewise, there is no Baha˒i clergy, and all believers are considered fundamentally equal. The theme of unity permeates Baha˒i thought and practice, giving the community a decidedly egalitarian character.

The Baha˒i faith is nominally a religion of law, but its religious law, though generally analogous to Islamic law and practice, is usually simpler and less demanding. There is a daily prayer, an annual nineteen-day fast, nine major holy days, and a "feast" every nineteen days on the first day of each month of the Baha˒i calendar. Regulations governing marriage, divorce, and funerals are simple. Baha˒is are monogamous, and marriage is conditioned on the consent both of the couple and of living parents. In practice, Baha˒i communal life often is less concerned with worship than with community administration and particularly the goal of expanding the community.

Baha˒i scripture consists of the authenticated writings of Baha˒allah and ˓Abd al-Baha˒. Shoghi Effendi's works are authoritative as interpretation, and writings of the Universal House of Justice are authoritative in legislative and administrative matters. Writings of individuals are considered personal opinion and not binding on others. Because the authoritative writings are so voluminous, Baha˒i writers have tended to focus on collection and collation. Most Baha˒i theological writing has been polemical rather than speculative in character. There is no developed Baha˒i legal tradition. Since the 1970s there has been increasingly vigorous academic and theological study of the Baha˒i faith.