# The Baha'i Faith

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-20 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Robert Stockman, The Baha'i Faith, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> The Bahá'í Faith
> 
> Robert Stockman
> published in Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World
> 
> Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008
> 
> (Note about terminology and spelling. The word bahá
> is Arabic for glory or splendor; the superlative form is abhá, most glorious or
> most splendid. From this root is formed Bahá'u'lláh, “the glory of
> God,” the title taken by the founder of the Faith, and from it comes Bahá'í, a word used as a noun to refer to a follower of Bahá'u'lláh and as an
> adjective to refer to things pertaining to the Bahá'í Faith. Grammatically, the
> word “Bahá'í” functions identically to the word “Christian.” While some
> academics have used the term “Bahaism,” it is not used at all in Bahá'í
> authoritative texts or literature in English and most Bahá'ís find it
> offensive. The standard term is “Bahá'í Faith” (with a capital F, indicating it
> is part of a proper name).
> 
> A
> standard transliteration system for Arabic and Persian words was adopted by the
> Bahá'í Faith worldwide in 1923. Academics and dictionaries have transliterated
> Bahá'í terms according to various systems or dropped transliteration
> altogether. This article will adopt the Bahá'í system, which has far more
> currency than any alternative.)
> 
> The Bahá'í Faith began in Iran. Its founder, Bahá'u'lláh
> (1817-92) taught the oneness of God, of religion, and of humanity, stressed the
> principle of unity, promulgated the religion’s personal spiritual practices,
> and defined its main institutions. His successors as heads of the Faith,
> ‘Abdu'l-Bahá (1844-1921), Shoghi Effendi (1897-1957), and now the nine-member
> Universal House of Justice (first elected in 1963), have continued to develop
> the Faith’s teachings and institutions and disseminate it worldwide.
> 
> History and Major
> Figures
> 
> The Bahá'í Faith emerged from Twelver
> Shi’ism, the form of Islam dominating Iran, which believes that a succession of
> twelve imams followed Muhammad and
> expects the return of the Twelfth Imam at the end of time. On May 23, 1844, `Alí-Muhammad
> (1819-50), a young merchant from Shiraz, in southern Iran, announced that he
> was that promised return. Taking the title of the Báb (“the Gate” in Arabic), he began to pen texts that he
> claimed were divine revelation. His followers, Bábís, grew rapidly in number,
> prompting strong opposition from Iran’s Shi’ite establishment and his imprisonment.
> Executions, army assaults against Bábí groups, and mob action resulted in the
> deaths of thousands to tens of thousands of Bábís. The Báb was executed by
> firing squad in 1850.
> 
> One of the few surviving Bábí
> leaders was Husayn-‘Alí of Núr (1817-92), son of a prominent member of the
> court. He took the title of Bahá'u'lláh (“Glory of God” in Arabic). The Báb
> hinted in his writings that Bahá'u'lláh was “he whom God will make manifest,” a
> messianic figure to appear nineteen years after the beginning of the Báb’s own
> mission. The Báb appointed Yahyá, Bahá'u'lláh’s teenaged half brother, the
> nominal head of the Bábí Faith, presumably to draw attention away from
> Bahá'u'lláh yet allow him to continue his role as informal leader of the Bábís.
> 
> In 1852 the Iranian government imprisoned
> Bahá'u'lláh, then exiled him. He went to Ottoman Iraq, where he withdrew into
> the wilderness for two years, then established himself in Baghdad and began to compose
> texts that, he hinted, were divine revelation. In April 1863 he formally announced
> his claim to be the messenger of God foretold by the Báb. The vast majority of
> Bábís accepted him over the next decade and became Bahá'ís.
> 
> In the next thirty years
> Bahá'u'lláh suffered additional exiles to Istanbul, Edirne in European Turkey,
> and the Turkish penal city of Acre (modern Akko in northern Israel). His half-brother
> Yahyá broke from him and established the Azalí movement, which never attracted
> more than a few hundred followers. Bahá'u'lláh produced theological and
> philosophical treatises, Qur’an commentaries, prayers, responses to attacks on
> his religion, mystical poetry, ethical works, and epistles to his followers. His
> literary corpus, encompassing some 15,000 extant works in Arabic, Persian, and
> an erudite combination of the two, comprises the core of Bahá'í scripture.
> 
> In his will, Bahá'u'lláh
> appointed his eldest son, ‘Abbás (1844-1921), his successor and the head of his
> Faith. ‘Abbás took the title of ‘Abdu'l-Bahá (“servant of Bahá” in Arabic). His
> literary corpus of 16,000 works in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish is
> regarded as inspired interpretation of Bahá'u'lláh’s works and form a part of
> Bahá'í scripture. One of `Abdu'l-Bahá’s major accomplishments was coordinating
> the spread of the Bahá'í Faith to the Occident, starting in 1893. After the
> Young Turks Revolution in 1908, ‘Abdu'l-Bahá was freed from house arrest in
> Acre and was able to travel to Egypt (1910), Europe (1911, 1913) and North
> America (1912). He gave hundreds of talks, interpreting and explaining Bahá'í
> teachings to western audiences. He also began to establish local and national
> Bahá'í organizations and oversaw work on two Bahá'í Houses of Worship.
> 
> In his Will and Testament, ‘Abdu'l-Bahá appointed his grandson, Shoghi
> Effendi Rabbani (1897-1957) to be his successor and the Guardian of the Bahá'í
> Faith. Upon `Abdu'l-Bahá’s passing in November 1921, Shoghi Effendi took
> provisions in the Will and Testament
> as a blueprint for establishing local and national Spiritual Assemblies, the nine-person governing councils of Bahá'í
> communities, and then gave the national Spiritual Assemblies goals for
> spreading the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford educated, Shoghi Effendi created
> authoritative English translations of many of Bahá'u'lláh’s works. His 36,000
> letters in English, Persian, Arabic, and French are considered authoritative
> interpretation, but not scripture.
> 
> When Shoghi Effendi died
> unexpectedly in November 1957, the twenty-seven individuals he had appointed Hands of the Cause of God as “chief
> stewards” of the Bahá'í Faith assumed temporary responsibility to coordinate
> the community until the Universal House
> of Justice, a nine-man supreme governing council, was elected in April
> 1963. The Universal House of Justice, whose authority and functions were
> outlined by Bahá'u'lláh, ‘Abdu'l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi, is elected by all
> the members of the national Spiritual Assemblies every five years. It has continued
> the expansion of the Bahá'í Faith worldwide, answered hundreds of thousands of
> letters asking for clarification of the Bahá'í teachings, issued statements on
> Bahá'í principles, coordinated the Faith’s external relations, and guided the
> development of local and national Bahá'í institutions.
> 
> Teachings and
> Practices
> 
> The Bahá'í teachings are often summarized as the oneness of
> God, the oneness of religion, and the oneness of humanity. Bahá'u'lláh spoke of
> God as an ultimately unknowable essence which manifests its qualities and
> attributes in the natural world and vouchsafes revelation to humanity through
> chosen mouthpieces termed manifestations.
> He identified Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Zoroaster, the Báb, and himself
> as manifestations. ‘Abdu'l-Bahá added the Buddha, and Shoghi Effendi, Krishna,
> to the list. Bahá'í scripture attributes the differences between religions to
> differing cultural and linguistic contexts, fallible interpretation of the
> teachings, and humanity’s unfolding needs. The religions’ messianic expectations
> are understood to refer to the Báb or Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'u'lláh’s writings
> contain many interpretations of qur’anic and biblical texts.
> 
> The
> oneness of humanity refers to the idea that all human beings come from the same
> stock and therefore are fundamentally equal, regardless of race or gender. The
> manifestations have been their divine educators and an important source of
> human cultural and ethical progress. Bahá'u'lláh claims to be the manifestation
> for the modern age and to bring teachings that will serve as the founding
> principles of a world civilization. Among them are equal rights of women in all
> social spheres, including work and politics; universal education; the harmony
> of science and religion; the elevation of work, performed as a service to
> humanity, to the level of worship; the central role of consultation (a system
> of collective decision making that starts with prayer); and the need for an
> international system of governance that prevents war, protects the environment,
> coordinates the flow of commerce, and reduces the extremes of wealth and
> poverty.
> 
> The
> principle of unity is central to Bahá'í doctrine. At the practical level, it
> refers to groups of persons consulting and serving others together, but the
> ultimate goal is being “one soul in many bodies,” a mystical level of trust,
> intimacy, and communion. Partisanship prevents spiritual unity and thus Bahá'ís
> do not join political parties (though they can vote). Bahá'í community
> governance is based on electing nine-member spiritual assemblies in an
> atmosphere of prayer and in the complete absence of nominations, campaigning,
> or any mentioning of names. The religion has no clergy. Complementing the
> elected councils are individual advisors, consultants, and encouragers: Counselors at the international and
> continental levels (appointed by the Universal House of Justice), Auxiliary Board members at the national
> and regional levels, and assistants
> at the local level.
> 
> Anyone
> who recognizes Bahá'u'lláh as a manifestation of God and ‘Abdu'l-Bahá and
> Shoghi Effendi as his successors, accepts the Bahá'í institutions they created,
> and strives to follow their teachings, is considered a Bahá'í. Bahá'ís are to recite,
> daily and in private, one of the Faith’s three obligatory prayers; fast
> (abstain from food, water, and tobacco) from sunrise to sunset every March
> 2-20; read the Word of God every morning and evening; serve others; follow
> Bahá'í moral laws (such as abstaining from sex outside of heterosexual marriage
> and from alcohol); go on pilgrimage (currently to the Bahá'í World Center in
> northern Israel); participate in Bahá'í community activities (such as voting
> and attending Feast, the monthly
> Bahá'í community meeting); and support their religion by teaching it to others
> and contributing to its funds. A strong personal connection with Bahá'u'lláh
> and `Abdu'l-Bahá is an important part of the personal faith of Bahá'ís.
> 
> Current Extent and
> Status
> 
> The Bahá'í Faith moved beyond its Iranian Shi’ite milieu in
> the 1870s and 1880s when Iranian Jews, Zoroastrians, and Sunni Muslims joined.
> By the 1890s Sunnis as far west as Egypt and as far east as Indonesia had
> become Bahá'ís, as had Lebanese Christians and Burmese Buddhists. ‘Abdu'l-Bahá oversaw
> the conversion of one or two hundred Europeans, a similar number of Indians (mostly
> Parsees), and of Burmese, a few thousand North Americans, and a scattering of
> Japanese, Chinese, Hindus, Sikhs, Hawaiians, Australians, New Zealanders, South
> Africans, and Latin Americans. Once Shoghi Effendi established a network of national
> Spiritual Assemblies, he encouraged them to found Bahá'í communities across
> Latin America (1937-53), Europe (1946-53) Africa (1950-63), and Asia and the
> Pacific (1953-63). The Universal House of Justice has continued the spread of
> the Bahá'í Faith, especially in former Iron Curtain countries after 1989. The
> World Christian Encyclopedia regards it as the second most widespread religion
> in the world (Christianity is found in 238 countries, the Bahá'í Faith in 218,
> and Islam in 204). Its membership, about 100,000 in 1900 and 250,000 in 1963,
> was about five million in 2000. Persecution of the Bahá'ís continues in some
> Islamic nations, notably Egypt and Iran, where 222 have been executed in the
> last twenty-eight years.
> 
> Bibliography.
> 
> `Abdu'l-Bahá. Some Answered Questions, comp.
> trans. Laura Clifford Barney, 4th US. ed. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í
> Publishing Trust, 1981.
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh. Gleanings from the Writings of
> Bahá'u'lláh, trans. ed. Shoghi Effendi, rev. ed. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í
> Publishing Trust, 1952.
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh. The Kitáb-i-Aqdas: The Most Holy
> Book, trans. ed. Bahá'í World Centre. Haifa: Bahá'í World Centre, 1993.
> 
> Bahá'u'lláh, the Báb, and `Abdu'l-Bahá. Bahá'í
> Prayers: A Selection of Prayers Revealed by Bahá'u'lláh, the Báb, and
> `Abdu'l-Bahá, 2d. ed. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 2002.
> 
> Collins, William P. Bibliography of
> English-Language Works on the Bábí and Bahá'í Faiths, 1844-1985. Oxford:
> George Ronald, 1990.
> 
> Hatcher, William S., and J. Douglas Martin. The
> Bahá'í Faith: The Emerging Global Religion, new ed. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá'í
> Publishing Trust, 2003.
> 
> Shoghi Effendi. Call to the Nations.
> Haifa: Bahá'í World Centre, 1977.
> 
> Smith, Peter.
> The Babi and Baha’i Religions: From
> Messianic Shi’ism to a World Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press,
> 1987.
> 
> Smith, Peter. A
> Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahá'í Faith. Oxford: Oneworld, 2000.
> 
> Stockman,
> Robert H. The Bahá'í Faith in America, Origins,
> 1892-1900: Volume 1. Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1985.
> 
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> — *The Baha'i Faith (Used by permission of the curator)*