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Overview of the Bahá'í faith.

'To be a Bahá'í simply means to love all the world; to love humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and universal brotherhood.'
Abdu'l-Baha

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The Bahá'í faith is one of the youngest of the world's major religions. It was founded by Baha'u'llah(pronounced buh-howluh) in Iran in the 19th century.



The central idea of the faith is that of unity, and Bahá'ís seek to remove barriers of race, gender, and belief. They believe that people should work together for the common benefit of humanity.

Summary

  • The Bahá'í faith accepts all religions as having true and valid origins
    • But other religions don't accept the validity of Bahá'í teachings
  • The Bahá'í faith teaches that humanity is a single people with a common destiny
  • The Bahá'í faith is the religion of the followers of Baha'u'llah
  • It was founded in Iran in 1844
  • There are 6 million Bahá'ís in the world, in 235 countries
  • There are around 6,000 Bahá'ís in Britain
  • Bahá'ís believe in one God
  • Bahá'ís believe God progressively reveals more about his will to successive generations
    • God's will was revealed through Manifestations of God (prophets or messengers) who each provided appropriate guidance for their particular times and cultures
    • Bahá'ís recognise Zoroaster, the Buddha, Jesus Christ and the Prophet Muhammad and others as Manifestations of God

History
The Bahá'í tradition emerged from Persia (Iran) in the mid-nineteenth century.

Persia was then mainly a Muslim country, and the Bahá'í faith developed as the fulfilment of Shi'a Islamic prophecies.

Belief
The Bahá'í faith accepts the validity of all other religious faiths and traditions.

Their main prophet, Baha'u'llah taught that God intervenes throughout human history at different times to reveal more of himself through his messengers (called Divine Messengers, or Manifestations of God).

Bahá'ís recognise Zoroaster, the Buddha, Jesus Christ and the Prophet Muhammad as Manifestations of God, each providing appropriate guidance for their particular time and society.

Baha'u'llah
Bahá'ís believe that Baha'u'llah is the most recent Manifestation of God. Baha'u'llah himself stated that he is not God's final messenger.

The followers of Baha'u'llah were descended from the Babis - believers in the Bab who foretold the mission of Baha'u'llah.