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By u/forbiscuit
Posted on May 2, 2014
Maybe it is just me, but I find the concept of sin so Christian oriented that I don't find it reasonable in the realm of the Baha'i Faith. I understand things to be immoral or not in line with the Writings of the Baha'i Faith, but sin?
The reason I say so as well is because in Islam it was the whole Haram/Halal matter - which is still separate from the Christian understanding of sin.
So, the question remains, is the concept of "sin" a concept that Baha'is implement in their Faith?
u/beardybahaiguy:
I was wondering this with the post yesterday that asked about sin. I view sin in a similar light as hell (distance from God), and sin being what distances us from God. Thus sin is our lower or animalistic nature as we see here:
"All sin comes from the demands of nature, and these demands, which arise from the physical qualities, are not sins with respect to the animals, while for man they are sin. The animal is the source of imperfections, such as anger, sensuality, jealousy, avarice, cruelty, pride: all these defects are found in animals but do not constitute sins. But in man they are sins." (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, p. 119)
So I suppose it does exist in the Bahai faith, but we do not dwell on it as Christianity does per say. Partially because confession of sins does not exist in the Bahai faith, they are very much between us and God, that is to say no human can absolve us of our "sins".
[Deleted]:
Isn't a sin going against God's teachings?
It's certainly used in the writings of Baha'u'llah.
"By Thy glory! I know not for which sin to beg Thy forgiveness and implore Thy pardon, nor from which of mine iniquities to turn aside unto the Court of Thy bounteousness and the Sanctuary of Thy favor. Such are my sins and trespasses that no man can number them, nor pen describe them."" -- Epistle to the Son of the Wolf
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"All sin comes from the demands of nature, and these demands, which arise from the physical qualities, are not sins with respect to the animals, while for man they are sin. The animal is the source of imperfections, such as anger, sensuality, jealousy, avarice, cruelty, pride: all these defects are found in animals but do not constitute sins. But in man they are sins." -- Abdu'l-Baha
u/Rinky-dink:
There is a concept of sin in the Baha'i Faith, but there isn't a concept of damnation. So one consequence of sinning repeatedly is that the soul will be impaired in the next world, not as developed or perfect as it might have been, but there's no concept of purgatory or eternal torment in hell. With no heaven/hell binary and no idea of the limits of rewards and consequences or what they look like, people just focus on observing the laws better.
Also Baha'is believe that we can't judge how developed another's soul is, because right up to when they expire anything can happen on the spiritual plane.
So there is sin, but we don't dwell on the specific consequences of sinning.