I've been studying the Baha'i faith for about a week now and I have to say, within two days I could feel this being a stress relieving exercise for me.
I'm not positive how i want to structure the blog around this endeavor but I think I'll start by outlining some of the basics that I've gathered about the Baha'i faith.
The first sign of this religion coming to life was in the early to mid 1800s when a merchant in Iran announced that he had a message that would change humanity. He had a 6 year ministry that revolved around preparing the world for a "Promised One".
This messenger gave himself the name "Bab" which mean "The Gate" in Arabic. He preached about caring for the poor, the inequality of the class system, and even about improving the treatment of women.
The Bab
The man of whom the Bab foretold was Baha'u'llah. In the mid 1800s God called Baha'u'llah to be the newest mouthpiece or "Manifestation of God".
Baha'u'llah
The Baha'i get a lot of crap for "believing everything," but it's really beautiful what they believe and practice. They believe that God periodically sends "Manifestations of God". This seems to be the equivalent of a prophet. The Baha'i believe that Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Muhammad, and other famous religious figures were "Manifestations of God" come to teach His people.
I've found that, where the different beliefs that lie in religions tend to separate people, the Baha'i use those differing beliefs to form bridges. If you believe in Jesus Christ then they will respect your worship of Him because they appreciate and study Him also. And the same can be said for the other figures. They find wisdom in each of the Manifestations of God.
Baha'u'llah spent the last 40 years of his life writing about the possibility of a unified world. I'll be spending this next month reading and learning about it! I'll let you know how it sounds!
To learn more about the Baha'i go to their awesome website: bahai.org
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