Baha’i Tenets according to the Charlotte, NC Baha’i Community
As a non-denominational minister in Atlanta, I often talk to others of different faiths and even coach individuals of various faiths. Last weekend I went to an interfaith event and met a pleasant Bahá’í woman. This in itself is not so unusual. More and more frequently, I run into Baha’is, and they have uniformly been pleasant. Because of this, and because so many of us outside of the Baha’i faith know little about it, I asked the woman, Cynthia Mangam, if she would be so kind as to compile information for this post. The following is her response. My sincere thanks to her, and I hope the rest of you come away from her essay with a greater appreciation and understanding of this increasingly popular faith.
The Bahá’í Faith, the world’s newest independent religion, teaches the oneness of God, the unity of humanity and the essential harmony of religion. Bahá’í believe in peace, justice, love, altruism and unity. Its teachings promote the agreement of science and religion, the equality of the sexes and the elimination of all prejudice and racism.
Just about anywhere you go on the planet, you’ll find Bahá’ís—the Bahá’í Faith is the world’s second-most widespread religion after Christianity, spanning the globe and working to unite it. Bahá’ís have no clergy or churches, gathering together in democratically led communities and welcoming everyone.
The millions of Baha’is in the world come from every ethnicity, nationality, tribe, age, racial group, religious background and economic and social class. Gentle, peaceful, warm and welcoming, diverse Bahá’ícommunities exist just about everywhere. Bahá’í accept the validity of each of the founders and prophets of the major world religions and believe in progressive revelation, the unique Bahá’í principle that views every great Faith as a link in a single spiritual system progressively revealed by God to humanity.
Essentially a mystical Faith, the Bahá’í teachings focus on the soul’s relationship with the eternal, unknowable essence of God, and recommend daily prayer and meditation to everyone. Baha’is believe that the human spirit lives eternally, and so endeavor to illumine their souls with spiritual attributes—kindness, generosity, integrity, truthfulness, humility and selfless service to others.
Also a practical Faith, the primary Bahá’í principles advocate international unity, the complete cessation of all warfare, universal compulsory education for every child, a spiritual solution to the extremes of wealth and poverty, an end to religious fundamentalism and division, and a unified global response to oppression, materialism, and the planet’s mounting environmental crisis.
Bahá’í believe in the independent investigation of reality, and encourage everyone to question dogma, tradition, and superstition by embarking on a personal search to discover the truth.
The Bahá’í writings say that religion must be the source of unity and fellowship in the world—but if it produces enmity, hatred, and bigotry, the absence of religion would be preferable.
Unlike many religions of the past, Baha’is have the original writings of the Bahá’í founder Baha’u’llah, of his son and successor Abdu’l-Baha, and of the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, Shoghi Effendi. Bahá’ís rely on and revere those inspiring, powerful works—and of course, they’re available to all. The Bahá’í teachings have been translated into hundreds of languages, including tribal and indigenous ones, to make them available to all the people of the world. In those Bahá’í writings, Baha’u’llah’s new Faith calls on every human being to investigate its claim as the return of the prophets of the past religions, and the fulfillment of their promises of the dawn of a new day.
~some excerpts of the above are from bahaiteachings.org
Quotes from Bahá’u’lláh:
“My first counsel is this: Possess a pure, kindly and radiant heart, that thine may be a sovereignty ancient, imperishable and everlasting.”
“Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship. He Who is the Daystar of Truth beareth Me witness! So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.”
Let your vision be world-embracing rather than confined to your own self.
Quotes from Abdu’l Bahá:
Women have equal rights with men upon earth; in religion and society, they are a very important element. As long as women are prevented from attaining their highest possibilities, so long will men be unable to achieve the greatness which might be theirs.
Bahá’u’lláh taught, that Religion is the chief foundation of Love and Unity and the cause of Oneness. If a religion becomes the cause of hatred and disharmony, it would be better that it should not exist. To be without such a religion is better than to be with it.”