CULT 007A Baha'i World Faith The Baha'i World Faith claims to be a religion of unique rele
CULT 007A
Baha'i World Faith
The Baha'i World Faith claims to be
a religion of unique relevance to the
modern world. Few cults are better
adapted to the mentality of the 20th
century than this one. Its emphasis upon
rationalism, human rights, international
peace, education, equality of the
sexes,and the eradication of all forms
of prejudice gives the Baha'i Faith a
very broad base of appeal. The Baha'i
cry for one world religion appeals to
the ecumenical spirit of the age,
especially in light of the continuing
insistence that Baha'is are in perfect
harmony with the Christian Faith. We
will look into several areas of this
cult.
ORGANIZATION
The Baha'i World Faith has had its
headquarters on Mt. Carmel in Haifa,
Israel, since 1949. In America the
center for the Baha'is is in Wilmette,
Illinois, where a 3 million dollar
temple draws over 100,00 visitors a year
according to their spokesmen. Additional
temples are located in Frankfurt,
Germany; Kampala, Uganda; and Sidney,
Australia. Though each one is different,
they are all nine-sided (Nine has
religious significance to Baha'is) and
each is covered with a dome.
Since they are convinced they have
a message the entire world should hear,
Baha'is have a strong missionary
emphasis. They are active in more than
250 countries, and through worldwide
missionary work has been limited to the
20th century, total membership totals
over 5 million. The 60's and the 70's
witnessed very strong growth, especially
in the United States (special emphasis
in California), where a large percentage
of the membership consist of minorities
and youth. California membership
constitutes over 25% of the membership
of Baha'i.
The Baha'is have three levels of
administration. A minimum of nine
believers is sufficient to constitute a
local spiritual assembly, which elects a
nine member administrative body each
year. These centers have no clergy or
house of worship. They employ only
teachers who conduct "Firesides" or
discussion groups in homes or Baha'i
centers. The second level of Baha'i is
the National Spiritual Assembly of nine
members elected each year by the
delegates to the faith's national
conventions. The very top level is the
UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE, which is
another nine member body elected every
FIVE years by the national spiritual
assemblies throughout the world.
Although the House of Justice serves
presently as the governing body for a
"world" religion, its ultimate intention
is to serve as the FINAL GOVERNING
AUTHORITY for ALL THE NATIONS OF THE
WORLD.
BAHA'I HISTORY
We at CFC have been amazed at the
various text found on this faith that
are duplicates of the media handed out
by BAHA'I themselves! You will note on
this BBS, CFC makes careful examination
of the HISTORICAL record and the
BIBLICAL record (if existent) to arrive
at our text files. We can do no
different, so we stay away from
Encyclopedia Brittainica, etc and look
to History for the history of this cult.
Iran, the birthplace of the Baha'i
Faith, has long been a Muslim nation.
The Persians (present day Iran) embraced
the Shi'ite sect of Islam rather than
the larger, more democratic Sunni sect,
which is the more traditional form of
Islam. The Shi'ites believe that Ali,
the son-in-law of Muhammad and the last
of the four universally recognized
caliphs (rulers of the faith in temporal
matters), was succeeded to the caliphate
by twelve of his descendants, called
Imams. The Shi'ite sect, alone,
recognizes these twelve as divinely
appointed leaders of Islam, and they
came to be regarded as sinless,
supernatural beings. The twelfth Imam
mysteriously disappeared without leaving
an heir, and the belief began in the
Shi'ites that he was still alive and
would one day return as the Messiah, or
Mahdi. In addition, some schools among
the Shi'ites began to teach that the
Imams were manifestations of deity, a
belief against orthodox Islam, which
denies even the possibility of divine
incarnation.
Periodically, especially during
times of oppression, men would arise
claiming to be the Hidden Imam or his
appointed channel of grace. This was
especially true in the early nineteenth
century when political and religious
reform was badly needed in Persia and
when the 1,000 years that Shi'ite
tradition affirmed would pass between
the disappearance and return of the
Hidden Imam was nearly completed. One
such man was Shaykh Amad al-Ahsa, whose
followers were called "Shaykhis." He and
his successor, Sayyid Kazim, were both
called Bab (The gate between the Hidden
Imam and mankind). They claimed to be in
contact with the Hidden Imam and
proclaimed that he would soon become
manifest.
After the death of Kazim, the sect
became divided between those who
believed that the new successor was
Hajji Karim Khan of Kirman and a much
larger faction which followed Sayyid Ali
Muhannad of Shiraz. The latter
proclaimed in 1844 that he was the Bab,
a manifestation of God, the Mahdi for
whom all had waited. The first group
continued under the name of Shaykhis;
the latter were called Babis.
Sayyid Ali Muhammad of Shiraz was
born in 1820, descendant of the family
of Muhammad. He was quite and modest
and, as he grew older, became studious
and pious. He made a pilgrimage to the
shrine of the Imams near Bagdad, where
he met Sayyid Kazim and became strongly
influenced by Shaykhi doctrine. When
Kazim died, the movement temporarily
lacked a leader. Becoming convinced of
his own divine mission, the Bab gathered
eighteen "apostles," whom he called the
"Letters of the Living." They began to
proclaim vigorously his "divine"
identity and mission, which met with
varying response in different cities.
Some eagerly accepted the "good news,"
while others reacted with hostility And,
in some cases, violence.
"...in the History of Islam,
putting forward a claim to be the Hidden
Imam has always been connected with
political uprising." In order to prevent
this, the Persian authorities imprisoned
the Bab. However; because the people
were looking for a deliverer, the
movement spread. While in prison, the
Bab wrote a number of books and had
visits from his disciples.
In the spring of 1848, while the
Bab was still alive in prison, the babi
leaders met in conference where they
declared the laws of the Islamic
dispensation had now been abrogated in
the same way that Muslims believe that
the Islamic dispensation replaced the
Christian revelation. The decided that
rather than being the twelfth Imam, the
Bab was the prophet of the new
dispensation in place of Muhammad. This
declaration placed the Bab clearly
outside of the Islamic fold and invited
the utmost hostility from the
traditional Muslims.
After the Babis sought forcefully
to gain control of the province of
Mazanderan, a succession of conflicts
with the Persian government resulted
that led to the mass defeat of the Babis
and in 1850, the execution of Bab.
Those writings of the Bab which
have been preserved are called the Bayan
(translated =utterance or exposition).
The Bab was convinced that his works
were superior TO ALL OTHERS, that they
were inimitable, and that they replaced
Muhammad's Quran (KORAN) as the
scripture relevant to the present age.
He cited the supposedly superior quality
of his writings as proof of his divine
mission, just as Muhammad had compared
his writings to the Bible. The Bayan
includes religious and social laws for
the universal theocracy of this new age.
As Baha'is claim, the Bab taught
that one would come after him who would
be greater than he. In the Bayan there
are seventy references to "He whom God
will manifest."
SUBH-I-AZAL and BAHA
In keeping with the Shi'ite belief
that Muhammad appointed his son-in-law
to the caliphate before his death, the
Bab appointed the viceregency of his
movement to Mizra Yahya Subh-i-Azal,
Subh-I-Azal continued as the ruler of
the Babi community for about sixteen
years. This appointment is noted in the
book NUQ tatu 'L-kaf, which is a history
of the babi movement written in 1851 by
an "authorized" Babi, Mizra Jani. There
is no historical evidence to the
contrary, though Baha'i histories omit
mention of this appointment of Subh-i-
Azal.
Subh-i-Azal instructed his
followers to lay aside the sword, and
under his leadership, the movement
continued to grow with little
opposition. He was assisted in the
leadership of the movement by his older
half-brother, Mizra Husayn Ali, who took
for his name, BAHA (Glory).
Turmoil began when a number of
claimants to the coming divine
manifestation arose, citing certain
verses in the Bayan and ignoring the
required time span of 1,500 years. Then
Azim, a devoted disciple of the Bab,
devised a plot to assinate the Shah,
which failed and resulted in a search
for Babi leaders and the execution of
many. The Mizra brothers fled Bagdad to
escape.
In Bagdad, Baha became increasingly
active in the leadership of the
movement, while his brother retired to
seclusion in order to contemplate and
write. Baha saw that the movement needed
stronger leadership than his brother was
supplying, but he recognized that since
he had not been appointed by the Bab,
the only way he could attain it would be
to convince the faithful that he was "He
whom God will manifest." However; strong
opposition from other leaders prevented
Baha from making any such claim at that
time. in spite of these thoughts, Baha
wrote during that period in his "Book of
Certitudes" (alleged to have been a
response to others who were claiming to
be the "HE") that the time interval
between the Bab and He whom God will
manifest "is about 1000 years."
After ten years in Bagdad,
outbreaks of violence between Muslims
and Babis forced the Turkish government
to banish the Babi leaders to Adrianople
on the extreme western border of Turkey.
There, with no one nearby to oppose him,
Baha declared that he was the one who
should come. He assumed the name
Baha'u'llah (Glory of God), a title
applied to the Divine Manifestations in
the Bayan. Baha'u'llah called upon his
brother and all the Babis to submit to
him without question, since this would
be the only appropriate response to one
who is GOD, and the Bab had instructed
in the Bayan that "HE" be received in
that manner.
While most of the Babis accepted
Baha'u'llah's claim and thus became
known as Baha'is, Subh-i-Azal and some
of his followers refused. They strongly
believed that the Bab's revelation was
all sufficient for the age. They held
that it was unreasonable to suggest that
the elaborate system revealed by the Bab
was only to last twenty-two years, but
rather that it must be accepted and
instituted for multitudes of people for
many centuries before another
manifestation would appear. After all,
the Bab had indicated that it would be a
minimum of 1,511 years before "HE" would
appear. They reasoned that (1) since the
Bab was infallible and (2) that he had
appointed Subh-i-Azal to succeed him, if
Baha was truly "He," Subh-i-Azal would
have to recognize him. Thus the minority
that remained loyal to Subh-i-Azal
continued to be called Babis (sometimes
Azalis).
Baha'u'llah sought to force Subh-i-
Azal to recognize him by withholding his
share of the allowance that the Turkish
government had been supplying to the
exiles. As a result, Subh-i-Azal's
children fell sick due to lack of food,
and his wife complained to the wife of
the Turkish governor. This "betrayal"
incurred even greater wrath from
Baha'u'llah. The Baha'is responded to
Babis resistance by rewriting many Babi
writings and records, degrading the Bab
to a forerunner of Baha'u'llah, the REAL
prophet for the age, and MURDERING about
twenty Babis in Bagdad, Adrianople, and
Akka. Two of these Babis were brothers
of Fatima, widow of the Bab; another one
was her current husband; and two were
"Letters of the Living" that were
appointed by the Bab. The murderers were
never punished nor disowned by
Baha'u'llah. The conflict between the
two parties became so fierce that the
Turkish government separated them,
sending Babis to Cypress and the Baha'is
to Akka in Palestine.
Baha'is often claim that
Baha'u'llah was imprisoned most of his
life. He was in exile and was not free
to leave Akka, but for the most of his
stay in Akka he was free to move about
and owned palaces and gardens that were
purchased with funds supplied by his
followers in Iran and other countries.
Baha'u'llah's claim to be God put
him under the difficult pressure of
having to play and live up to that role
during the twenty-six years of his life
that followed. Contrary to his previous
custom, in Akka he lived largely in
seclusion. No One was allowed to visit
him except by special permission.
One write of this time wrote:
"each visitor was carefully prepared
for his audience with the Manifestation
of God. He was told that what he saw
when he came into the Divine Presence
would depend on what he was himself-If
he was a material person he would see
only a man, but if he was a spiritual
being he would see God. When his
expectations had been sufficiently
aroused, the pilgrim was led into the
presence of Baha'u'llah as was permitted
to gaze a few moments upon the "Blessed
Perfection," care being taken that the
visitation should end before the spell
was broken...Baha'u'llah, however, did
not encourage the Bah'is in their desire
to visit him.. there was too great a
risk of their seeing and hearing things
in Akka which might weaken their faith.
There was a saying among the Baha'is of
Iran that 'whosoever went to Akka lost
his faith.'"
In Akka Baha'u'llah recognized that
the Bab had designed his religion in a
manner suitable only to Persia. He also
saw that the Bab's vision of world wide
theocracy was unrealistic. Thus, in
order to promote the universal
aspirations of the Babi/Baha'i religion,
Baha'u'llah ignored many of the Bayan's
injunctions and sought to make the faith
appealing to the Christians and Muslims
in the lands the religion had spread to.
Baha'u'llah appealed to members of these
faiths out of their own scriptures,
claiming not only to be the one whom the
Bab foretold, but also the return of the
Shi'ite Hidden Imam, the return of
Christ, AND the Comforter whom Jesus
said would come.
Baha'u'llah wrote numerous epistles
called "tablets" to believers, rulers,
the Pope in Rome and other religious
leaders. He also wrote longer treatises.
All are considered to be the word of
God. In all, these works number over
100. Bah'is have no definite Canon of
scripture. A small book called the AQDAS
is considered the most important of
--NEXT SECTION IS CULT 007B
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