Quick Questions on the Baha'i Faith

https://www.reddit.com/r/bahai/comments/6jgvit/quick_questions_on_the_bahai_faith/

created by chicagoshufflin on 25/06/2017 at 21:28 UTC

10 upvotes, 6 top-level comments (showing 6)

Hello all,

I'm currently taking a religious studies course, and this week's focus is on the Baha'i Faith. I had planned on attending a meeting in the Dallas area but my travel plans fell through, and so far I haven't been able to talk to anyone today on the phone to answer some quick questions.

Hopefully this post isn't too out of line, but I understand if it needs to be removed. If anyone has a few minutes to spare I would love to hear some quick responses to a few questions from the perspective of an average practitioner without the need to cite any sources, just looking for everyday opinions and perspectives.

1. Are any divine messengers more revered than others? From my research, Baha'u'llah has revealed the teachings for the modern age that focus on unity, so I'm assuming that is paramount, but does anyone consider the teachings of say Buddha to be more important or applicable than Krishna for example?

2. It seems that at least in the US, lots of Baha'i meetings are in homes or community centers. Does a location carry a sense of the sacred with it like a church or a mosque, or is it more of a utilitarian perspective that does more to foster community?

3. In your opinion, what does a fully realized world federation where everyone is of the Baha'i faith look like?

4. Is there an easy way to reconcile conflicting statements from the revealed teachings of prior divine messengers like Jesus and Mohammad?

5. What are your thoughts on the current expansion of the Baha'i Faith?

Again, thanks so much for any input, opinions, or perspectives offered. Knowing so little about this faith before studying it this week, it's been one of the highlights of my class to find a faith so incredibly inclusive and focused on equality and truth. Thanks for your time and any help.

Comments

Comment by usernamesaretrite at 25/06/2017 at 23:41 UTC*

8 upvotes, 1 direct replies

Welcome!

1. In short, they are all equally revered because Baha’is view them to be spiritually unified/in a state of oneness. It can get a little more complicated than that but still the answer remains essentially the same.

2. The Baha’is are new & poor. Additionally, the Faith is very widespread so as a byproduct, the wealth is similarly spread out and thus very few dedicated meeting houses exist (like the one in D.C. on 16th street). u/chaun2 mentioned the Houses of Worship and those would be more akin to churches. On this topic I will just briefly mention that Abraham was rejected for saying God is everywhere and does not necessitate a dedicated space to pray to Him. I always remember this when thinking about the supposed sacredness of a space.

3. I think the Baha’is have a lot to learn on this subject and I would caution against any answers provided. For example, I would even challenge the notion that everyone has to be a Baha’i as a pre-requisite for any world unifying federation.

4. This necessitates a long answer. Baha’is believe spiritual laws do not change, but material laws (what you can eat, when a man/woman is dirty, etc) change. Based on this premise, here are my interpretations on why the material laws might need to change and thereby create a perceived dichotomy:

• The Manifestations of God could only reveal/discuss that which the people of the time could understand. Sometimes the teaching was misunderstood either originally or when it was reintroduced by a later Manifestation and so there is an apparent dichotomy, when in reality it is a correction to the original teaching.

• Sometimes the people themselves have changed and thus the law needs to be updated. Thus the later Manifestation ‘updates’ the law to reflect the current time period and believers see this as a conflicting statement. I would say this is the most common.

• Sometimes the law had to change for just that Revelation in order to accomplish a task and then be changed back later.

• Sometimes the Messenger Himself had to correct what He previously said, thus appearing to contradict Himself many times while another viewpoint would see this simply as an update to His Teaching. A very clear example of this is Muhammad’s introduction to not drink alcohol. He introduced this teaching very gradually over the course of many years, each time limiting the number of drinks until it reached 0.

Either way, for Baha’is and I would say for anyone that believes in the spiritual truths behind the story of Noah, God can do whatever He wants at any time. His reasoning for doing so is typically beyond our comprehension. Either way, the laws have a purpose and a wisdom to them that tends to come out when followed.

5 Current expansion of the Baha’i Faith is a hard thing to measure because the numbers are not released publicly on a county level that we could then use to then track individual communities. Non-Baha’i sources provide some polling data that is more county based but that obviously raises accuracy concerns. From a very high level, the Baha’i Faith has not grown much for the past 15 years. I’m sure we all have our theories on why this is so. I’m curious as to why you are curious about this. Definitely within Baha’i circles it’s a question discussed.

Comment by [deleted] at 26/06/2017 at 00:22 UTC*

6 upvotes, 0 direct replies

4. Is there an easy way to reconcile conflicting statements from the revealed teachings of prior divine messengers like Jesus and Mohammad?

On this, the Baha'i view is that perceived limitations of past Manifestations are because of the limitations of humanity at the time they were teaching, rather than limitations of the Manifestation themselves.

If Moses had have said slavery must be done away with, the entire economic system of His region may have collapsed, or He might have simply been run off and none of His guidance would have been followed, similarly Muhammad could not have forbade polygamy, so instead His guidance regulated its implementation.

This ties into the concept of Progressive Revelation. Every time a Manifestation comes, humanity has matured a little allowing them to progress divine principles a little further.

Comment by chaun2 at 25/06/2017 at 22:49 UTC

3 upvotes, 2 direct replies

Quick answers, though I'm sure I'm going to be corrected.

1. No, since they are all different aspects of God, they are all looked at as equally important. Much the same way your 1st grade teacher is no more or less important than your 7 th grade teachers.

2. There are currently 8 Mashriqu’l-Adhkár[1] but we as a whole seem to feel that more at this time would be an inappropriate allocation of desperately needed funds.

1: https://bahaikipedia.org/Mashriqu%E2%80%99l-Adhk%C3%A1r

3. I dunno.... better, but I don't think everyone will become Baha'i, just a large plurality, possibly a majority of people.

4. The simplest way to resolve it is that prior messengers were teaching as best they could. Humanity as a whole didn't have the ability to investigate truth for themselves until recently. This is a primary reason for the emphasis on education.

5. I am not qualified to answer this, as I have no opinion on it.

As u/TheLurkerSpeaks said. These aren't quick, and there is a lot more that probably would need clarification, as a Baha'i raised by Baha'i's, I'm not sure where to start.

Comment by TheLurkerSpeaks at 25/06/2017 at 21:37 UTC

4 upvotes, 1 direct replies

LOL these are not 'quick' questions.

Don't worry, I'm sure three different people are typing out walls of texts for your answers right now.

Comment by 623-252-2424 at 26/06/2017 at 12:06 UTC

1 upvotes, 0 direct replies

I don't have time to type up a wall of text but I'm happy to hop on the phone with you if your want.

Comment by [deleted] at 26/06/2017 at 21:42 UTC

1 upvotes, 1 direct replies

[deleted]