Bahá’í World/Volume 27/Introduction to the Bahá’í Community
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INTRODUCTION
TO THE AHAI COMMUNITY
A group of Greek and Turkish Cypriots gather joyously for a Holy Day feast, their obvious delight in each other’s company contrasting With the ethnic tensions on that divided island. Young people in Angola, unable to attend school because of the war, participate in a workshop that gives them a Vision of the important role they have to play in society. A princess from Western Samoa travels to Fiji to offer tribal chiefs and elders a document outlining a process of development that respects the dignity of all peoples. Women and men gather in Garoua Boulai, a rural region of eastern Cameroon, to discuss how they can work together to alleviate some of the burdens placed on the women with regard to child care. A young Mongolian woman Who has never before left her province walks seventy kilometers in the snow, then travels by truck, and finally catches a plane to Ulaan Baatar, Where she participates in the election of her religion’s national administrative body. A youth group performs a dance about the terrible consequences of racism to a rapt audience of children in a school auditorium on Vancouver Island, Canada. In Colombia, a conga musical group imbues its traditional Latin rhythms With a spiritual message about the unity of humankind,
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t0 the delight of listeners in open-air venues. After two weeks of basic health-eare training, a woman in Zambia returns to her Village and shares what she has learned with her neighbors. These people, though they have in all probability never met one another, share a united View of the world and its future, as well as their own role in shaping that future. They are Bahá’ís.
The Bahá’í international community, comprising members of the Bahá’í Faith from all over the globe, new numbers some five million souls. They represent 2,112 ethnic and tribal groups and live in more than 127,000 localities in 190 independent countries and 45 dependent territories or overseas departments. What was once regarded by some as a small, obscure sect was reported by the Encyclopaedia Britannica 1992 Yearbook to be the secondmost widely spread independent religion in the world, after Chn'stianity. Its membership cuts across all boundaries of class and race, governing itself through the establishment of local and national elected bodies known as Spiritual Assemblies. Its international center and the seat of its world-governing council, known as the Universal House of Justice, are located in the Holy Land, in Haifa, Israel.
From what source do the members of the Bahá’í Faith draw their spiritual strength and their organizational structure? What are the tenets of faith that can so attract and unify such a diverse group ofpeople? How do they see the future? This brief introduction to the Bahá’í community, its history, its spiritual teachings, and its aims and obj ectives, provides information in response to these questions.
Origins In 1844, in Persia, a young siyyid (a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad) named Mirza ‘Ali-Muhammad declared Himself to be the Promised Qa’im awaited by Shi‘ih Muslims. He adopted the title “the Bab,” which means “the Gate,” and His teachings quickly attracted a large following. Alarmed by the growing numbers of “Babis,” as His followers were known, the Muslim clergy allied themselves with ministers of the Shah in an effort to destroy the infant Faith. Several thousand Babis were persecuted, tortured, and killed over the next number of years, but the growth of the new religion continued even after the Bab Himself was imprisoned
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and later executed in July 1850. The horrific treatment of the Babis at the hands of the secular and religious authorities was recorded by a number of Western diplomats, scholars, and travelers, who expressed their admiration for the Character and fortitude of the Victims of the persecution.
The Babi religion sprang from Islam in the same manner that Christianity sprang from Judaism or Buddhism from Hinduism. It was apparent early in the Bab’s ministry that the religion established by Him was not merely a sect or a movement within Islam but an independent Faith. Furthermore, one of the main tenets of Babi belief was the Bab’s statement that He had been sent by God to prepare the way for One greater than Himself, who would inaugurate an era of peace and righteousness throughout the world, representing the culmination of all the religious dispensations of the past.
Mirza Husayn—‘Ali was one of the leading adherents of the Babi Faith who was arrested and imprisoned during the tumultuous years of the Bab’s brief ministry. He was spared from execution but was banished from Persia to Baghdad, Constantinople, Adrianople, and finally the penal colony of Acre in Palestine. Thus, the Persian government, which had secured the support of the rulers of the rival Ottoman empire in suppressing the new movement, expected that His sphere of influence would be severely limited. During His initial imprisonment Mirza Husayn—‘Ali had received the first divine intimations that He was the Promised One of whom the Bab had spoken. He adopted the title Baha’u’llah, which means “the Glory of God,” and publicly declared His mission on the eve of His exile from Baghdad, in April 1863.
Baha’u’llah was still nominally a prisoner when He passed away some forty years later in Acre, in May 1892, although the authorities had gradually loosened their restrictions as they became acquainted with Him and the nature of His teachings. During the long years of His exile Baha’u’llah revealed the equivalent of over one hundred volumes of writings, consisting of the laws and ordinances of His dispensation, letters to the kings and rulers of the East and the West, mystical teachings, and other divinely inspired writings.
In His Will and Testament, Baha’u’llah appointed His eldest son, ‘Abbas Effendi, who adopted the title ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (“the Servant
of Baha”), as His successor and sole authoritative interpreter of His
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teachings. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had shared His F ather’s long exile and imprisonment and was freed only after a new regime was installed by the “Young Turk” movement in 1908. Shortly thereafter, at an advanced age, He embarked on an arduous j ourney to Europe and America where, from 1911 to 1913, He proclaimed Baha’u’llah’s message of universal brotherhood and peace to large audiences, consolidated fledgling Bahá’í communities, and warned of the potential catastrophe looming on Europe’s darkening horizon. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had returned to His home in Haifa, just across the bay from Acre, and devoted Himself to caring for the local people, fending off famine by feeding them from stores of grain He had safeguarded for just such an eventuality. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s humanitarian services and His promotion of intercultural harmony were recognized by the British government, which, at the end of the war, conferred upon Him a knighthood, a title He acknowledged, although He declined to use it. He passed away in 1921 and is buried on Mount Carmel in a vault near the spot where He had interred the remains of the Bab some years before.
Among the legacies that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá bequeathed to history was a series of letters called the Tablets Of the Divine Plan, which He had addressed to the Bahá’ís of North America during the years of World War I. These fourteen letters directed the recipients to scatter to countries on all continents and share with their populations the teachings of Baha’u’llah—a mandate that led to the global expansion of the Bahá’í community.
Another of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s legacies was His Will and Testament, which Bahá’ís regard as the charter of the administrative order conceived by Baha’u’llah. In this document, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá appointed His eldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi, as His successor, to act as Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith and authorized interpreter of its teachings.
During the period of his Guardianship, from 1921 to 1957, Shoghi Effendi concentrated his attention on four main areas: the development of the Bahá’í World Centre in the environs of Haifa; the translation and interpretation of the Bahá’í sacred writings; the rise and consolidation of the institutions of the Bahá’í administrative order; and the implementation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s plan for the propagation of the Bahá’í Faith around the world.
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At the Bahá’í World Centre, Shoghi Effendi effected the construction of a superstructure for the mausoleum containing the remains of the Bab, which had been brought secretly from Persia and interred by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in a spot designated by Baha’u’llah on Mount Carmel. Shoghi Effendi beautified and expanded the simple native stone structure, which is today a site of pilgrimage for Bahá’ís from all over the world. He enhanced the Bahá’í properties, particularly the site of Baha’u’llah’s grave near Acre, with gardens of striking beauty, and initiated construction of the International Bahá’í Archives building to house artifacts from the early days of the Bahá’í Faith. This building, the first structure built along the arc—shaped path on the site designated as the world administrative center of the Bahá’í community, was completed in 1957.
In concert with the actions he took to develop the Bahá’í World Centre and lay the foundations, literally and figuratively, for the further course of that development, Shoghi Effendi was also instrumental in interpreting the writings of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and in translating them from the original Persian and Arabic into English. The Guardian had served as secretary to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for a number of years and was a student at Oxford University at the time of His passing. Shoghi Effendi’s mastery of Persian, Arabic, and English, coupled with the authority conferred upon him as the appointed interpreter of the Bahá’í writings, made him uniquely qualified to undertake their translation. He also translated a history of the Babi Faith, authored a history of the first century of the Bahá’í Faith, God Passes By, and wrote thousands of letters to communities and individuals around the world, elucidating passages from the writings and thus giving direction and impetus to Bahá’í activities.
Development of the Administrative Order
Shoghi Effendi’s work in developing the Bahá’í administrative order is one of the most dramatic legacies of his years as Guardian. The first step in this development was to encourage the organized, planned expansion of Bahá’í communities in places where local and national Bahá’í councils, known as Spiritual Assemblies, would eventually be established. The Guardian effected this global expansion of Bahá’í communities through a series of international
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plans of varying duration, during which twelve National Spiritual Assemblies were elected.
At the time of Shoghi Effendi’s sudden passing in 1957, the Bahá’í community was in the middle of a global plan of expansion and consolidation called the “Ten Year Crusade.” During this period, which concluded in 1963—the centenary of Bahá’u’lláh’s declaration of His mission in the Garden of Riḍván in Baghdadthe goal was to open 132 new countries and major territories to the Faith and expand existing communities in 120 countries and territories that had previously been opened to the Faith. These ambitious targets were actually exceeded by the end of the plan, in spite of the difficulties posed by the Guardian’s death.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in His Will and Testament, had authorized the continuation of the Guardianship through the appointment by the Guardian of a successor from among his own sons, should he have them, or other direct descendants of Baha’u’llah. Such a designation was dependent upon the decision of Shoghi Effendi as to whether an individual could be named who met the demanding spiritual qualifications specified by Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Shoghi Effendi had no children and died without designating such a Guardian to follow him. He had, however, taken steps toward the election of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing body of the Bahá’í Faith which was to function, with him, as one of the two authorized successors provided for in the writings of Baha’u’llah and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. He had also appointed a number of individual Bahá’ís to an auxiliary institution of the Guardianship called “Hands of the Cause of God.” These individuals had been Charged with the duty of protecting the unity of the faith and collaborating with the National Spiritual Assemblies around the world to ensure that the goals of the Ten Year Crusade were won. Upon Shoghi Effendi’s passing, these men and women guided the Bahá’í community to complete the plan initiated by the Guardian and to hold the first election of the Universal House of Justice in 1963.
Conceived by Baha’u’llah Himself, the institution of the Universal House of Justice is established on principles laid down in the Bahá’í sacred writings. Its election, by the members of the fifty—six National Spiritual Assemblies that existed in April 1963, clearly demonstrated the principle of unity so central to the Bahá’í
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Faith, With the nine members coming from four continents and representing a variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds.
Based on the authority conferred on it by the Founder of the Faith, the Universal House of Justice stands as the acknowledged central authority in the worldwide Bahá’í community and has, during the past thirty-six years, launched six global plans for the advancement of the Faith. From a worldwide population of 408,000 in 1963, the Bahá’í community has grown to approximately five million members; the number of National and Regional Spiritual Assemblies has grown from 56 to 179; and the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies has increased from 3,555 to some 12,500. Bahá’ís live in 235 countries and territories around the planet.
Spiritual and Moral Teachings and Bahá’í Community Life
The force that unites this diverse body of people is a unity of Vision achieved through belief in Baha’u’llah as a Manifestation of God, in the social and administrative structures He established, and in the spiritual and moral teachings He propagated. Central to these spiritual teachings is the concept that there is only one God and that the world’s great religions have been established by Messengers or Manifestations of this one Divine Reality—Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus, and Muhammad—Who have been sent by the Creator throughout history to deliver a divine message commensurate With humanity’s stage of development. The spiritual essence of all the major religions, in the Bahá’í View, is the same: humanity has been created to know and to worship God. Only the religions’ social teachings change through this process of progressive reve1ation. The Bahá’í perspective is optimistic, seeing the cumulative benefits of progressively revealed religions as fundamental to an “ever~advancing civilization.” What divides various religious communities, Bahá’ís believe, comes not from God but from humanity and its aocretions to the essential religious teachings brought by each divine Messenger.
At this stage of humanity’s development, the unity of the human race must be recognized, the equality of women and men must be established, the extremes of wealth and poverty must be eliminated, and the age—old promise of universal peace must be realized. Likening the development of the human race to that of a child, the
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Bahá’í writings say that we have passed through stages analogous to infancy and childhood and are now in the midst of a tumultuous adolescence, on the threshold of maturity. Baha’u’llah taught that humanity is destined to come of age, but the course it takes to achieve that goal is entirely in its own hands.
To promote the development of a society in which Bahá’í ideals can be fully realized, Baha’u’llah established laws and moral teachings that are binding on Bahá’ís. Central to these is daily obligatory prayer. Study of and meditation upon the Bahá’í sacred writings each morning and evening is also enjoined upon believers. Bahá’ís between the ages of fifteen and seventy, with certain exceptions, observe an annual nineteen-day, dawn—to-dusk fast. Baha’u’llah referred to prayer and fasting as the “twin pillars” of faith, an indication of their importance and the benefits to be gained from them. He also raised work to the level of worship. The main repository of Baha’u’llah’s laws is a volume entitled the Kitab-iAqdas, or the Most Holy Book.
There are no dietary restrictions in the Bahá’í Faith, but the consumption of alcohol and the use of narcotic and hallucinogenic drugs are forbidden, as they affect the mind and interfere with spiritual growth. Baha’u’llah counseled Bahá’ís to be honest and trustworthy, to render service to humanity with an abundance of deeds rather than mere words, to be chaste in their relationships with others, and to avoid gossip and backbiting. He forbade lying, stealing, adultery, sodomy, and promiscuity. The importance of the family is central to Bahá’í community life, as is the moral and spiritual education of children.
Bahá’ís often gather together in their communities to study the sacred writings of their faith and to pray, but a central feature in Bahá’í community life is a meeting called the “Nineteen Day Feast,” at which all members join in worship, consult about community affairs, and socialize. Pending the further development of Bahá’í communities, these meetings often occur in rented facilities, people’s homes, or in the local Bahá’í center. The Bahá’í writings call for the erection in each community of a beautifillly designed House of Worship, set in exquisite gardens and functioning as a spiritual center of activity. A variety of social and humanitarian institutions are also to be established around it. A Bahá’í House of Worship
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presently exists on each continent, and sites have been purchased around the world for the construction of many more. They are open to people of all faiths—or those professing no particular faith—for prayer and meditation. Services are nondenominational. There are no sermons, only readings and prayers from the Bahá’í writings and scriptures of other world faiths and music by an a capella Choir. This preserves for worshippers the sacredness of the experience of hearing and meditating upon the Holy Word without the interference of man-made concepts.
Aims, Objectives, and Activities
As the Universal House of Justice stated in a message addressed to the peoples of the world, written in October 1985 on the eve of the United Nations International Year of Peace, “Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first fundamental prerequisite for the reorganization and administration of the world as one country, the home of humankind.” The ultimate aim of the Bahá’í Faith is the establishment of unity among all the peoples of the world, and it is because of its orientation towards unity on an international scale that the Bahá’í community has been active at the United Nations since that organization’s inception. Today the Bahá’í International Community, an extremely active non-governmental organization (NGO) that represents the collective voice of the national Bahá’í communities around the world, enjoys special status With the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It is particularly involved in addressing human rights issues, the needs of women and Children, and environmental concerns, as well as pursuing sound, sustainable development policies. To coordinate its international efforts in these areas, the Bahá’í International Community’s United Nations Office and Office of Public Information, as well as Offices of the Environment and for the Advancement of Women, collaborate with National Spiritual Assemblies around the world in various projects and representations at international gatherings. The Bahá’í International Community’s activities at the United Nations have earned it a reputation as one of the most effective religious NGOs in the UN system. Its national and international representatives have taken active roles in the major world summits and NGO forums sponsored by the United Nations during the past decade.
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Bahá’ís look towards a day when a new international order will be established, a commonwealth to which all the nations of the world will belong. As Shoghi Effendi wrote in 1936,
The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Baha’u’llah, implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded. This commonwealth must, as far as we can Visualize it, consist of a world legislature, whose members will, as the trustees of the whole of mankind, ultimately control the entire resources of all the component nations, and will enact such laws as shall be required to regulate the life, satisfy the needs and adjust the relationships of all races and peoples. A world executive, backed by an international Force, will carry out the decisions arrived at, and apply the laws enacted by, this world legislature, and will safeguard the organic unity of the whole commonwealth. A world tribunal will adjudicate and deliver its compulsory and final verdict in all and any disputes that may arise between the various elements constituting this universal system.1
Shoghi Effendi went on to describe the tremendous benefits to humanity resulting from such a world order:
The enormous energy dissipated and wasted on war, whether economic or political, will be consecrated to such ends as will extend the range of human inventions and technical development, to the increase of the productivity of mankind, to the extermination of disease, to the extension of scientific research, to the raising of the standard of physical health, to the sharpening and refinement of the human brain, to the exploitation of the unused and unsuspected resources of the planet, to the prolongation of human life, and to the furtherance of any other agency that can stimulate the intellectual, the moral, and spiritual life of the entire human race.2
To make its aims and objectives widely known and to promote
l. Shcghi Effendi, The World Order ofBahd’u ’lláh: Selected Letters, 2d ed. (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1991), p. 203. 2. Ibid., p. 204.
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its perspective on various issues, the Bahá’í International Community not only collaborates with like-minded organizations in and out of the United Nations, but it engages in public information efforts to bring the spiritual and social principles of the Faith t0 the attention of people everywhere. The persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran since the 1979 Iranian revolution has prompted wide dissemination of information about the Bahá’í Faith in the international news media. More than two hundred members of the Faith have been executed for their belief, considered as heresy by the regime, and thousands more have been imprisoned, fired from their jobs, or have had their homes confiscated or their pensions cut off as a result of government orders. Bahá’ís around the world have responded in unity to this ongoing persecution in Iran—~the land in which their religion was born—by petitioning their governments to take action against this injustice; it is, to some degree, as a result of these efforts that the persecutions have not been more extreme, although Iran’s Bahá’ís still face the possibility of arbitrary imprisonment and execution, and are still denied fundamental rights and freedoms.3
The Bahá’í community has also taken a proactive approach in promulgating its Views. The statement on peace issued by the Universal House of Justice in 1985, entitled The Promise of World Peace, sparked a worldwide campaign of presentations and public education projects throughout the International Year of Peace and since, aimed at government figures, leaders of thought, and the general population. The centenary of Baha’u’llah’s passing in 1992 was commemorated, in part, with the publication of a statement detailing His life, teachings, and mission, designed to increase knowledge of the Bahá’í Faith among members of the public. Other events of that signal year included a gathering in the Holy Land in May, involving some three thousand participants from all over the world, and the Bahá’í World Congress, held in New York City in November, which brought together some 27,000 Bahá’ís from all regions of the globe. A statement presenting the Bahá’í perspective on social development, The Prosperity ofHumankind, was disseminated at the World Summit for Social Development in
3. See pp. 151—54, 279—86, and 287—93 for further information on the continuing persecution of Iran’s Bahá’í community.
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Copenhagen in March 1995, and later that year a statement entitled T urning Point for All Nations was released as a contribution to discussions on the future of the United Nations that marked the organization’s fiftieth anniversary. Most recently, the Bahá’í International Community has released Who Is Writing the F uture? Reflections on the T wentieth Century.
The Bahá’í community has also been continually engaged in a series of international teaching plans. It has seen rapid expansion in different parts of the world, perhaps most notably in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, where national Bahá’í communities have been established in recent years following the collapse of long—standing political barriers. New national governing bodies are also being formed elsewhere, as the Universal House of Justice deems communities to have reached a sufficient level of maturity.
The existence and growth of the Bahá’í community offers irrefutable evidence that humanity, in all its diversity, can learn to live and work together in harmony. While Bahá’ís are not unaware of the turmoil in the world surrounding them, their View is succinctly depicted in the following words, taken from The Prosperity Of Humankind:
A world is passing away and a new one is struggling to be born. The habits, attitudes, and institutions that have accumulated over the centuries are being subjected to tests that are as necessary to human development as they are inescapable. What is required of the peoples of the world is a measure of faith and resolve to match the enormous energies With which the Creator of all things has endowed this spiritual springtime of the race.4
The source of this faith and resolve is the message of hope offered to humanity by the teachings of Baha’u’llah. It is a message that deserves the thoughtful consideration of all those who yearn for peace and justice in the world.
4. Bahá’í International Community Office of Public Information, The Prosperity ofHumankind (1995). See The Bahá’í’ W0rld1994—95, pp. 273—96, for the complete text of this statement.
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