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Leila Seradj created this video and posted it to www.vimeo.com/2320032. She wrote the following:
“I made this video using photos from bahai.org/attaining : images of Baha’is from five continents engaging in common yet diverse activity. Text from a recent message dated 20 October 2008 from the Universal House of Justice (the international governing body of the worldwide Baha’i community) to the Baha’is of the world.
“The video was made as an invitation to the Washington, D.C. Baha’i community’s Reflection Gathering…”
admin @ December 10, 2008
Apologetics, Christianity, Introduction to the Baha'i Faith, Science and Religion Comments (0)
At the Contender Ministries website, www.contenderministries.org/bahai.php, is an introduction to the Baha’i Faith. It includes inaccurate information, and details that clarify the misstatements are below. Excerpts from the website are italicized.Those who believe in absolute truths, such as those found in the Bible, are dismissed as intolerant and an obstacle to world peace.
This statement implies that Baha’is do not believe that there is an absolute truth in the Bible. Baha’is believe what is in the Bible, and a passage from the Baha’i Teachings states that there is one truth.
“The fact that we imagine ourselves to be right and everybody else wrong is the greatest of all obstacles in the path towards unity, and unity is necessary if we would reach truth, for truth is one.”
(Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 136)
Rather than naming Muhammad as the greatest of the prophets as the Muslims do, Baha’is hold Baha’u'llah to be the greatest of the prophets.
There are subtleties regarding the Baha’i perspective of the station of each Messenger of God.
“No distinction can be made amongst the Prophets in the sense that They all proceed from One Source, and are of One Essence. But their stations and function in this world are different.”
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, October 19, 1947)
“Were any of the all-embracing Manifestations of God to declare: ‘I am God,’ He, verily, speaketh the truth, and no doubt attacheth thereto. For it hath been repeatedly demonstrated that through their Revelation, their attributes and names, the Revelation of God, His names and His attributes, are made manifest in the world…And were any of them to voice the utterance, ‘I am the Messenger of God,’ He also speaketh the truth, the indubitable truth. Even as He saith: ‘Muhammad is not the father of any man among you, but He is the Messenger of God.’ Viewed in this light, they are all but Messengers of that ideal King, that unchangeable Essence. And were they all to proclaim, ‘I am the Seal of the Prophets,’ they, verily, utter but the truth, beyond the faintest shadow of doubt. For they are all but one person, one soul, one spirit, one being, one revelation. They are all the manifestation of the ‘Beginning’ and the ‘End,’ the ‘First’ and the ‘Last,’ the ‘Seen’ and ‘Hidden’ — all of which pertain to Him Who is the Innermost Spirit of Spirits and Eternal Essence of Essences. And were they to say, ‘We are the Servants of God,’ this also is a manifest and indisputable fact. For they have been made manifest in the uttermost state of servitude, a servitude the like of which no man can possibly attain. Thus in moments in which these Essences of Being were deep immersed beneath the oceans of ancient and everlasting holiness, or when they soared to the loftiest summits of Divine mysteries, they claimed their utterances to be the Voice of Divinity, the Call of God Himself.”
(Compilations, Baha’i World Faith, p. 24)
“These Manifestations of God have each a twofold station. One is the station of pure abstraction and essential unity…The other station is the station of distinction, and pertaineth to the world of creation, and to the limitations thereof. In this respect, each Manifestation of God hath a distinct individuality, a definitely prescribed mission, a predestined revelation, and specially designated limitations. Each one of them is known by a different name, is characterized by a special attribute, fulfils a definite mission, and is entrusted with a particular Revelation…It is because of this difference in their station and mission that the words and utterances flowing from these Well Springs of Divine knowledge appear to diverge and differ. Otherwise, in the eyes of them that are initiated into the mysteries of Divine wisdom, all their utterances are, in reality, but the expressions of one Truth As most of the people have failed to appreciate those stations to which We have referred, they, therefore, feel perplexed and dismayed at the varying utterances pronounced by Manifestations that are essentially one and the same.”
(Compilations, Baha’i World Faith, p. 22)
Baha’is do consider the station of Baha’u'llah to be uniquely great.
“There is no record in history, or in the teachings, of a Prophet similar in Station to Bahá’u'lláh, having lived 500,000 years ago. There will, however, be one similar to Him in greatness after the lapse of 500,000 years.”
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, December 24, 1941)
Shoghi Effendi became the “Guardian of the Cause,” and during his lifetime, Baha’is agreed there would perpetually be such a guardian. However, Effendi died before appointing a successor. Consequently, six years after he died, the first Baha’i Universal House of Justice was elected to serve as the Guardian.
The Guardian and the Universal House of Justice were to serve as twin institutions of the Baha’i Faith. That Shoghi Effendi died is not the reason why a Universal House of Justice was elected, and it does not serve as the Guardian. It’s role is designed to be complementary to that of the Guardian. ‘Abdu’l-Baha wrote the following in his Will and Testament:
“O my loving friends! After the passing away of this wronged one, it is incumbent upon the ‘Aghsán (Branches), the Afnan (Twigs) of the Sacred Lote-Tree, the Hands (pillars) of the Cause of God and loved ones of the Abhá Beauty to turn unto Shoghi Effendi - the youthful branch branched from the two hallowed and sacred Lote-Trees and the fruit grown from the union of the two offshoots of the Tree of Holiness, - as he is the sign of God, the chosen branch, the guardian of the Cause of God, he unto whom all the ‘Aghsán, the Afnan, the Hands of the Cause of God and His loved ones must turn. He is the expounder of the words of God and after him will succeed the first-born of his lineal descendents. The sacred and youthful branch, the guardian of the Cause of God as well as the Universal House of Justice, to be universally elected and established, are both under the care and protection of the Abhá Beauty, under the shelter and unerring guidance of his Holiness, the Exalted One (may my life be offered up for them both). Whatsoever they decide is of God……The mighty stronghold shall remain impregnable and safe through obedience to him who is the guardian of the Cause of God.”
(From p. 11 of the USA Edition, 1944 & 1968, translated by Shoghi Effendi.)
Shoghi Effendi wrote about the distinct roles of the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice.
“…it is made indubitably clear and evident that the Guardian of the Faith has been made the Interpreter of the Word and that the Universal House of Justice has been invested with the function of legislating on matters not expressly revealed in the teachings. The interpretation of the Guardian, functioning within his own sphere, is as authoritative and binding as the enactments of the international House of Justice, whose exclusive right and prerogative is to pronounce upon and deliver the final judgement on such laws and ordinances as Bahá’u'lláh has not expressly revealed. Neither can, nor will ever, infringe upon the sacred and prescribed domain of the other. Neither will seek to curtail the specific and undoubted authority with which both have been divinely invested. Though the Guardian of the faith has been made the permanent head of so august a body he can never, even temporarily, assume the right of exclusive legislation. He cannot override the decision of the majority of his fellow-members…He interprets what has been specifically revealed, and cannot legislate except in his capacity as member of the Universal House of Justice.”
(Shoghi Effendi, The Dispensation of Bahá’u'lláh, page 58)
The goal of the Baha’i faith and its leadership is for the world to become a single super-state with Baha’i as its religion. It’s no wonder Baha’i is promoted vigorously by the U.N. and plays a major part in all United Nations spiritual events.
These statements do not provide complete information regarding the Baha’i view of a future world government. ‘Abdu’l-Baha said that the world will consist of independent states protected by a federal union.”The United States may be held up as the example of future government — that is to say, each province will be independent in itself, but there will be federal union protecting the interests of the various independent states.”
(Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 167)
“You have asked whether it is possible to have a World Federation when not all countries have attained their independence. The answer is in the negative. Both ‘Abdu’l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi likened the emergence of the American Republic and the unification of the ‘diversified and loosely related elements’ of its ‘divided’ community into one national entity, to the unity of the world and the incorporation of its federated units into ‘one coherent system.’”
Just as the American Constitution does not allow one state to be more autonomous than another, so must the nations of the world enjoy equal status in any form of World Federation. Indeed one of the ‘candles’ of unity anticipated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is ‘unity in freedom.’”
(The Universal House of Justice, Messages 1963 to 1986, p. 335)
Baha’is do believe that world unity will be achieved. An extract from The World Order of Baha’u'llah written by Baha’u'llah provides details about the nature of the future government of the world.
“Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life.
admin @ October 7, 2008