Baha'i

[Persian bahā'ī, a follower of Bahā'ullāh, the Splendor of God, Bahaullah, from bahā', splendor, from Arabic.]

For more information on Baha'i, visit Britannica.com.

In 1844 a Muslim named Ali Muhhamad Shirazi declared himself the spokesman for the twelfth Imam, or prayer leader, anticipated by some Shi'ite Muslims ever since the ninth century. Calling himself Bab-ud-Din, the "Gate of Faith," he introduced sweeping reforms into Islam, such as raising the status of women. A group of followers gathered around him, calling themselves Babis, "followers of the Bab." Although Bab-ud-Din was executed in 1850, he believed he had prepared the way for another who would found a worldwide religion.

A follower who escaped after the execution believed himself to be the predicted one. Mirza Husayn Ali took the name Baha'u'llah, "Glory of Allah," in 1863, and those who followed him became known as Baha'is.

Imprisoned in Acre, Turkey, Baha'u'llah was still able to receive guests and write. After his death in 1892, his son Abdul Baha took over the movement, traveling and lecturing extensively, eventually even receiving knighthood in England for his work promoting world peace.

Now, having moved far away from Islam, Baha'i is recognized as a separate religion.

Baha'u'llah's emphasis was on unity. He believed his religion to be the culmination of all the religions of the world, though he didn't seek to overthrow any of them. He taught that the Qur'an should be interpreted allegorically and was equal to the scriptures of all other religions. He did not believe in the existence of angels or spirits, and he felt that heaven and hell are symbolic conditions of the soul, not literal places.

He taught his followers that all religions come from the same source, and that divine revelation is continuous and progressive. Messengers of God, according to the teachings of Baha'u'llah, include Moses, Zoroaster, Jesus, Muhammad, and the Buddah. Baha'u'llah was the most recent, the Manifestation of God for the New Era. His was one of the first world religions to preach the unity of the whole human race and to teach that all religions are the work of one God.

Communal worship takes place in members' homes, consisting of prayer and readings from various scriptures and Baha'u'llah's writings. The Baha'i vision is positive and world-embracing, seeking the elimination of war and armaments and the formation of a world tribunal for settling disputes.

Some five million followers carry the vision throughout the world.

Sources: Ludwig, Theodore M. The Sacred Paths: Understanding the Religions of the World. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996.

The Bahá'í religion developed out of the Bábí movement, which in turn sprang from Shi'ite Islam. Bahá'u'lláh, born in Tehran in 1817, became a Bábí in 1844 (the year the Bábí movement began) and in 1863 announced that he was the divine messenger awaited by the movement. Within a few years virtually all Bábís accepted Bahá'u'lláh's messianic claim, thereby becoming Bahá'ís. Bahá'u'lláh gave his religion shape through fifteen thousand letters and about one hundred essays and books, which form the core of Bahá'í scripture. In them he described the nature of God, revelation, humanity, and physical creation; delineated the path of individual spiritual development, involving prayer, scripture study, fasting, pilgrimage, material sacrifice, and service to humanity; defined the holy days and governing institutions of the Bahá'í community; and described a spiritual civilization in which war would be abolished, humanity would be unified, and all would have access to education, opportunity, and prosperity. Before Bahá'u'lláh died in 1892 he appointed his son, 'Abdu'l-Bahá (1844–1921), as head of the religion.

In 1892 the Bahá'í religion was brought to the United States by Middle Eastern immigrants. The first American, Thornton Chase (1847–1912), converted in 1894 in Chicago; by 1900 there were some 1,500 Bahá'ís in the United States, with the largest communities in Chicago, New York, and Kenosha, Wisconsin. The first Bahá'í temple in the Western world was built in Wilmette, a Chicago suburb, from 1912 to 1953. American Bahá'ís played a major role in taking the religion to Europe (1899), East Asia (1914), South America (1919), Australia (1920), and sub-Saharan Africa (1920). They helped organize many of the earliest Bahá'í local and national "spiritual assemblies" (governing councils); the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States dates back to 1926, with a predecessor institution dating to 1909. The religion has seen steady membership growth in the United States, from 3,000 in 1936 to 140,000 in 2000. Worldwide in 2000 it had more than 5 million members.

Bibliography

Smith, Peter. The Bábí and Bahá'í Religions: From Messianic Shi'ismto a World Religion. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

—Robert Stockman