The Sunday Mail
Flora Teckie
HARARE Bahá’ís will join the Bahá’ís all over the world tomorrow to celebrate the 172nd anniversary of the founding of their Faith.
The Bahá’í Faith – the youngest of the world’s independent religions – has its own sacred scriptures, laws, calendar, and holy days.
Founded in 1844, the Baha’i Faith has become the world’s second most widespread religion (according to Encyclopaedia Britannica) and is among the fastest growing world religions.
Bahá’ís reside in more than 116 000 localities around the world. They represent 2 112 different ethnic and tribal groups.
The Bahá’í Faith began with the mission entrusted by God to two Divine Messengers the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. In the middle of the 19th century, the Báb, the Herald of the Bahá’í Faith announced that He was the bearer of a message destined to transform humanity’s spiritual life. His primary mission was to prepare the way for the coming of Bahá’u’lláh, who would usher in an age of peace and justice.
Bahá’u’lláh (1817–1892), the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, is regarded by the Bahá’ís as the most recent in the line of Messengers of God.
Bahá’u’lláh delivered a new Revelation from God to humanity. Thousands of verses, letters and books flowed from His pen. In His writings, He outlined a framework for the development of a global civilisation which takes into account both the spiritual and material dimensions of human life. His writings offer spiritual guidance as well as directives for personal and social conduct.
They are designed to reshape the divisive society of the present world and usher in an era of universal peace.
As in the case of the other Messengers of God, Bahá’u’lláh was the direct recipient of Revelation from God.
Revelation, in the Bahá’í view, is the infallible and direct conveyance of God’s creative Word that is accessible only to the Messengers of God who transmit it to mankind.
This innate, divinely revealed knowledge enables them to establish laws and teachings that correspond to human needs and conditions at a given time in history.
Writings of Bahá’u’lláh cover a vast range of subjects from social issues such as the oneness of humanity, racial integration, the equality of men and women and disarmament, to those questions that affect the innermost life of the human soul.
From his words, the worldwide Bahá’í community draws its inspiration, discovers its moral bearing and derives creative energy.
In His Writings, Bahá’u’lláh confirm that there is only one God. Although people may pray to God in different languages and call Him by different names, nevertheless they have in mind the same Almighty Creator.
The belief and conviction that we all belong to one human family is at the heart of the Bahá’í Faith. The principle of the oneness of humankind is “the pivot round which the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve…”
The Bahá’í Writings state that: “There is perfect brotherhood underlying humanity, for all are servants of one God and belong to one family under the protection of divine providence”.
The belief in oneness of humanity does not imply uniformity. Rather, the Bahá’í Writings affirm the principle of unity in diversity. More than just tolerance of differences or celebration of superficial aspects of diverse cultures, the diversity of the human family should be the cause of abiding love and harmony, “as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord”.
The Bahá’í Faith does not have a priesthood or professional clergy. Bahá’í communities are administered and guided by elected institutions which operate at local, national and international levels.
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