Miscellanea
Here we discuss very briefly a few of the other issues that have been either misunderstood, or were made up about the Baha'i Faith. Writing on some of these issues may develop into longer topics which will have their own pages in the future.
Some of what has been written about the Baha'i Faith has been :
The Baha'i Faith is (but really is NOT) :
* A misguided sect of Islam (or sometimes more specifically a sect of Shiite Islam)
The Baha'i Faith has roots in Islam in the same way Christianity has roots in Judaism. The Baha'i Faith confirms and validates the truth in all of the established world religions and recognizes their essential oneness having all sprung from the same source. The Babi religion, the forerunner of the Baha'i Faith started in Iran which is a predominantly Shiite country, and Baha'u'llah was born in Tehran. Members of the Baha'i Faith revere all religions, including Islam. They revere its Book, revere and love its Prophet (PBUH) and His family in the same way that Muslims are enjoined by their religion to revere Christianity, its Book, Jesus (PBUH) and His mother Mary.
Baha'is have always believed in and acclaimed the independent nature of their religion, and the highest Muslim courts in Egypt pronounced judgment that the Baha'i Faith has nothing to do with Islam, as early as 1925.
* Baha'is are apostates
Most adherents of the Baha'i Faith come from backgrounds that never had any relationship to Islam. This is largely due to the opposition and persecution the Faith and its adherents have faced in Muslim countries since its inception in the middle of the 19th century. All these adherents from non-Muslim background however, have to accept and believe in all religions including Islam before they can call themselves Baha'i. How can someone who never used to believe in Islam, be called an apostate just because now they believe in it? Just because they accept the Baha'i Faith that taught them to revere the Qur'an and the Prophet (PBUH) in the first place?
* A cult
The Baha'i Faith has no clergy. No single member of the Baha'i Faith has any special spiritual rank, authority, or power. There are no secrets or secret rituals. There is no indoctrination in the Baha'i Faith because one of the main principles is the "Independent Investigation of the Truth". Only God is worshipped in the Baha'i Faith. Money is never solicited from individuals. Only general appeals for funds are occasionally issued for particular projects and contribution is totally voluntary. Only Baha'is can contribute to Baha'i Funds. Baha'i administrative bodies are elected without any nominations or campaigning and are done at the grassroots level. Baha'i books and literature are readily available from Baha'i publishers, public libraries in some countries, and on line. They can also be ordered through bookstores.
Nothing of what has been described here, has any semblance to cults and how cults operate.
* In collaboration with (Russian/ British /Zionist ..etc.) colonial powers
Every few decades, new accusations are launched linking Baha'is with whichever power that happens to be the enemy of the time.
When Czarist Russia had ambitions and had its eyes on the riches of the Caspian, stories were told about the collaboration of the Baha'is with Russia and with Russian spies. One of Baha'u'llah's relatives worked as a secretary to the Russian consul, and when Baha'u'llah was in the Siah Chal (Black Pit) dungeon and His family was worried about His life, the Russian Consul tried to intervene and offered that Baha'u'llah could be exiled to Russia. When Baha'u'llah was finally released from that particular prison, He declined the offer from the Russian government and was exiled to Baghdad instead.
During WW I Abdul-Baha, the son of Baha'u'llah distributed wheat and grains from some land He had purchased and farmed, to feed many starving villages that were affected by the war. When the British toward the end of the war managed to drive the Turks out of Palestine and the rest of the Fertile Crescent, they were seen as liberators of the Arabs who suffered for centuries under the yoke Ottoman rule, and were welcomed as heroes. Later they honored Abdul-Baha for His charity work during the war and He was knighted. Out of His usual courtesy He did not turn down the appreciation He was shown, even though He had no use for any earthly title.
As to the relationship with the state of Israel, the accusations are based on the fact that many of the Baha'i holy places associated with the central figures of the Faith, such as the Shrine of the Bab and the Shrine of Baha'u'llah and the seat of the Baha'i international administrative body happen to be in today's Israel. What people neglect to mention, is that this geographical fact was due to Baha'u'llah's exile to Akka, Palestine in 1868. A full eighty years prior to the formation of the state of Israel. He passed away on the outskirts of Akka, and is buried there.
* A religion that teaches that there is no afterlife, nor Heaven and Hell, nor angels and demons
While there is very little written about the nature of the soul and the afterlife in the holy writings of other religions, hundreds of passages are found in the Baha'i Writings on this matter. Baha'is do believe in Heaven and Hell, but they don't believe them to be physical locations, but rather states of being indicative of closeness or remoteness from God.
Baha'is don't deny the existence of evil either, nor its very obvious effects in the world, but one of the ways they may see it is as a negative existence; in some ways similar to darkness being a result of the absence of light. Evil can be removed when Good is allowed to take it's place.
Neither does the Baha'i Faith deny the existence of Angels or demons or Satan. In fact, the Baha'i Writings speak of limitless worlds of God, their number known only to Him, and He only knows what creation of His inhabits these worlds be they physical or spiritual. However, Baha'is may also interpret references to Satan as our lower self or lower nature that constantly prompts us and tempts us into disobedience and rebellion. They see daily life as a constant striving to rise above the lower self which can only be achieved by reliance on God's assistance through prayer and obedience to His laws; by living a chaste and sanctified life.
* A religion that prohibits mention of God or saying prayers in public places
People sometimes cite the following verse from The Kitab-i-Aqdas (The Most Holy Book, the Baha'i book of laws) to say that the Baha'i Faith is against prayers and mention and praise of God:
To none is it permitted to mutter sacred verses
before the public gaze as he walketh in the street or
marketplace;
The context of this verse is found when we continue reading and find out that the emphasis is on giving due respect to the words of God, and that pretending to be godly or holy by walking and saying prayers in the streets and public places for the others to be impressed by, is insincere and should be discouraged. Here is the verse again with the few verses that follow:
To none is it permitted to mutter sacred verses
before the public gaze as he walketh in the street or
marketplace; nay rather, if he wish to magnify the
Lord, it behoveth him to do so in such places as have
been erected for this purpose, or in his own home. This
is more in keeping with sincerity and godliness
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 58)
* A religion that undermines national loyalties under the pretence of unity of nations
This passage from the writings of Shoghi Effendi (who was the Guardian of the Baha'i Faith 1921-1957), sheds light on this issue (as he describes the principle of Unity in Diversity):
Let there be no misgivings as to the animating purpose of the world-wide Law of Bah'u'llh. Far from aiming at the subversion of the existing foundations of society, it seeks to broaden its basis, to remold its institutions in a manner consonant with the needs of an ever-changing world. It can conflict with no legitimate allegiances, nor can it undermine essential loyalties. Its purpose is neither to stifle the flame of a sane and intelligent patriotism in men's hearts, nor to abolish the system of national autonomy so essential if the evils of excessive centralization are to be avoided. It does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought and habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests to the imperative claims of a unified world. It repudiates excessive centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on the other. Its watchword is unity in diversity ....
(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 41)
Loving one's family has never stopped one from loving their relatives nor should it be to the exclusion of loving one's nation, and so it is vice versa. Loving one's relatives or nation should never call for lessening one's love for their immediate family. Loving ones nation too, should not be to the exclusion of loving the rest of humanity.
* A religion that undermines national languages favoring some international language
Going back to the principle of Unity in Diversity explained above, the Baha'i Faith does not favor a universal language over national languages, although, in the distant future, this may become a de facto outcome of a world shrinking by the day to form a global society. Baha'u'llah has called for the establishment of an auxiliary universal language so that people would feel at home wherever they travel and not encounter prejudices and misunderstanding based on language. In all cases, we see that to a fairly large extent, this has already happened automatically and naturally as a result of the mixing of all nations whether in the economic and commercial fields or in the fields of education, health, politics, or whatever field.
Before any of this became a reality, Baha'u'llah, in the mid 19th century wrote :
...The day is approaching when all the peoples of the world will have adopted one universal language and one common script. When this is achieved, to whatsoever city a man may journey, it shall be as if he were entering his own home.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 249)
O members of parliaments throughout the world!
Select ye a single language for the use of all on earth,
and adopt ye likewise a common script. God, verily,
maketh plain for you that which shall profit you and
enable you to be independent of others. He, of a truth,
is the Most Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Informed.
This will be the cause of unity, could ye but
comprehend it, and the greatest instrument for
promoting harmony and civilization, would that ye
might understand!
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 88)
We don't know which language the world will choose to adopt as a universal auxiliary language. Baha'u'llah expressed His preference of the Arabic language describing it as a more eloquent, more expressive, and more vast in its possibilities, but He did not insist on any particular language and left it to the parliaments of the world to decide.
* A religion that teaches that divine revelation continues and that prophethood has not been sealed
Baha'is do believe that prophethood has been sealed by Muhammad (PBUH). In the writings of Baha'u'llah's whenever Prophet Muhammad is mentioned, He is mentioned in terms such as this:
' The Seal of the Prophets -- may the souls of all else but Him be offered up for His sake .... '
On the other hand, Baha'is believe that as long as the human race continues to inhabit the planet, it will always be in need for divine Educators Who come from age to age to guide it in accordance to the particular needs and exigencies of that particular time.
To learn more about this issue, we invite you to visit the Islam and the Baha'i Faith website, at http://bci.org/islam-bahai .
* A religion that hides it's books and real teachings
The process of printing Baha'u'llah's works, has been underway since the days He was still alive when some of His books were published in India. Many of His books and Writings have been translated to over 800 languages, and the process continues. The process of translation however has necessarily been slow as it requires utmost care in order to avoid introduction of personal interpretation.
Baha'i books are available from Baha'i publishing trusts, book stores, and public libraries in most countries, as well as on line. As more material gets digitized, it become available on-line almost immediately.
Some writers who present certain verses from the Baha'i Writings as if they were Baha'i secrets that they had cleverly uncovered, have probably obtained their material from books they found in public libraries, books given to them by Baha'is, or from the on-line Baha'i Reference Library at: http://reference.bahai.org/en/ .
* Baha'u'llah's grammatical mistakes in Arabic, prove that He was not sent by God.
To start with, one needs to know their Arabic language very well to really be able to discern for themselves the facts about this issue. One can list hundreds of pages of Baha'u'llah's Writing to demonstrate the point of His superb and total command of a language that was not His native language, nor ever studied, but maybe this isn't the point at all.
The point should be that all things in existence should be weighed by the Balance that God's Manifestations bring forward, and not the other way around. Our rules of grammar should be based on God's language and not the other way around. It is a fact that there are few of the Writings of both The Bab and Baha'u'llah which may not conform with the current standards of Arabic, but when one reads the rest of their works in exquisite Arabic, a fair minded person can not but marvel in wonderment ...
Even though The Bab was a sayyid (descendant of the Prophet Muhammad), he was born and raised in Shiraz (in today's Iran), and the language He grew up with was Persian. He was not of the clergy class, but worked in His uncle's business helping him in his trade as a merchant. Baha'u'llah was born in Tehran. His father had a ministerial position in the court of the shah. As a nobleman from a very wealthy family, Baha'u'llah did not enter any school. Instead, as was the custom in His time, He was tutored in things such as horsemanship, calligraphy and poetry. He never studied Arabic.
For a sample of The Bab's Arabic writing, the visitor is encouraged to see the Bab's Epistle to the Muhammad Shah the king of Iran in His time.
Also, for a sample of Baha'u'llah's Arabic writing, the visitor may want to see Baha'u'llah's Letter to Aali Pasha the first minister in the Ottoman court.