The Baha'i Faith

55. O SON OF PASSION!

Cleanse thyself from the defilement of riches and in perfect peace advance into the realm of poverty; that from the well-spring of detachment thou mayest quaff the wine of immortal life.

Randomly taken from the Hidden Words of Bahá'u'lláh. Click here for another Hidden Word.

What is the Bahá'í Faith?

The Bahá'í Faith is a worldwide religion based on the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'ís believe in progressive revelation. This means that God sent messengers at different points in time, whenever mankind needed to be guided. These messengers include Jesus Christ, Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, etc. Thus it is believed that all the religions of the world have come from the same God. The messenger of our time is Bahá'u'lláh and he lived between 1817 and 1892.

The religion has rapidly grown from a seemingly obscure religion in the Middle East, to a religion which has established itself in every country of the world (yes, even Zimbabwe).

Principles of the Faith

The principles emphasized by Bahá'u'lláh are summarised below:

The oneness of humanity - all human beings are equal regardless of race, religion, colour, etc
The equality of men and women - one sex is not better than the other, they are equal and thus they should have equal opportunities
The elimination of prejudice - it is forbidden to discriminate between human beings for we are all one
The elimination of extreme wealth and poverty - in the future everyone will be equal financially
The independent investigation of the truth - each individual should strive to find out which religion to follow, it should not be imposed on them
Universal education - everyone should be educated
Religious tolerance - we should all respect each other's religions, for they have come from the same God
The harmony of science and religion - all religious events can be explained scientifically and vice-versa
A world commonwealth of nations - each country working together to ensure that the world prospers (similar to the United Nations)
A universal language - a language which is understood by everyone - could it be English?

Useful Links

This page is just skimming the surface of The Faith. It is hoped that this page has aroused your interest and that you will follow the links below for further information: