The Baha'i Bible - or not?

There appears to be some confusion in the minds of many observers regarding the Bahá’í Bible. I use the term 'Bible" as a point of reference, but not an entirely inaccurate one. The term 'bible' means, literally: a collection of books. The Jewish Bible is exactly that: a collection of books written by various authors over hundreds of years. Christians added to that collection books and letters of their own written by several authors over a shorter period of time.
There was a great deal of argument among Christians for several centuries about which books and letters should be added to the Jewish Bible. The argument continues today in that Catholic Christians accept additional books that other Christians don't.
Hindus and Buddhists also have sacred scriptures that were written by various authors over hundreds of years, so many that binding them into one set of covers is impractical, so no one really things of a Hindu or Buddhist Bible.
For Muslims the situation is entirely different. Their holy book, The Recitation, or in Arabic; Qu'ran, is the result of one man who dictated the contents in sections during His lifetime. It is regarded as being directly revealed by the angel Gabriel from God with Muhammad merely a vehicle for the words to take form. These revelations were gathered together after His death and arranged by length and the Muslim 'bible' is the result.
Bahá’í scripture came about through a process similar to all of the above, except for the question of authenticity. There are three authors of Bahá’í scripture all speaking as the Voice of God. In addition there are two authors of auxiliray texts which serve to illuminate, explain and implement the teachings of the others. If this sounds confusion, remember that the 'book' of Isaiah in the Jewish Bible was written by at least four authors and the Books of Moses were not written by Moses (it is difficult for a person to write about their own death and events afterwards). The authors of the Bahá’í scripture are simply unfamiliar at this time (it is easy to forget that Christ was an unknown name to most Romans).
The primary author of Bahá’í scripture is Bahá’u’lláh, a title meaning: The Glory of God, who was a vehicle of revelation. He lived 1817-1892 first in His native Persia, then in the Ottoman Empire where He was exiled. His writings include books and letters, mostly letters, some very short, some hundreds of pages long. The Bahá’í World Center, in Haifa, Israel, has the responsibility of collecting these letters and translating and publishing them. To date some 7,000 have been collected. That is one section of the Bahá’í 'bible.'
Secondary to the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh are those of His forerunner, a merchant from Shiraz, Persia who is known as the Báb (the Gate). He instituted a religion of His own but emphasized that His followers were to turn to the next Messenger of God for whom He was the Gate. And that the next Messenger was free to abrogate whatever of His scripture He saw fit. Bahá’u’lláh was in prison for being a follower of the Báb when He became aware of His own role as the next Messenger. Bahá’u’lláh did affirm some of the Báb's teachings such as the equality of women, the nineteen month calendar. So some of the Báb's writings, and certainly His prayers, are part of the Bahá’í 'bible.'
In His writings, Bahá’u’lláh apointed his son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Servant of the Glory) to head the faith after Him. It is a unique situation because never in the world's religious history has the founder of a religion legally appointed a successor. Bahá’u’lláh charged ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to speak on His own behalf, making the two one continuous authority. So, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is the second author of the Bahá’í 'bible.'
‘Abdu’l-Bahá had been inprison since He was a young man (because entire families were exiled and imprisoned) and was only freed when political events changed the government of the Ottoman Empire. As in the case of His father, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote a few books but more letters. In addition, after He was freed, He traveled to Egypt, Europe and America, not to see the sights but to educate and encourage the Bahá’ís in those places. In so doing ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke to numerous audiences from the NAACP to Jewish sunagogues, churches and private homes. Stenographic notes were often taken and these talks also became part of the Bahá’í bible.
Not just any notes are Bahá’í scripture, Bahá’u’lláh was very clear about this and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá upheld it. They specificed that Their words, in whatever form, had to be verified and authenticated or they could not be considered scripture. Unauthenticated words of Theirs are NOT part of the Bahá’í bible. This has resulted in some confusion by those who do not know the difference. The authentication was to be done my Themselves or the head of the faith. This clearly defines the canon of Bahá’í scripture so there is no disagreement.
'Abdu'i-Baha did not pass on His authority, He created an institution to succeed Him and appointed His oldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi, to fill the position. This is the institution of the Guardianship. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá specified the personal qualities of future Guardians, the appointment process and the election to validate the appointment. One of the responsibilities of the Guardian is to interpret and implement the scriptures revealed by Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Bahá’u’lláh had outlined the system of administration for the Bahá’í community. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had begun to implement some of it, Shoghi Effendi continued this process. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had encouraged Bahá’ís to for the local councils specified by Bahá’u’lláh. It fell to Shoghi Effendi to create the secondary and international councils. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had outlined teaching plans to take the Bahá’í message to the entire world, Shoghi Effendi further implemented these.
At his death, Shoghi Effendi had not appointed a successor Guardian, there was no one who fulfilled the qualifications set by 'Abdul-Baha. Bahá’u’lláh had hinted of this possibility. Shortly after Shoghi Effendi's death the Bahá’ís of the world elected the Universal House of Justice, that international council ordained by Bahá’u’lláh with certain responsibilities, among them to interpret and implement the Bahá’í scriptures. The Universal House of Justice could also legislate on subjects not covered in Bahá’í scripture and change those decisions when necessary so flexibility was insured.
In summary there are three authors of the Bahá’í bible: Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Báb and two institutions of interpretation: the Guardian and the Universal House of Justice. In addition, for worship and devotions Bahá’ís are free to use any earlier scriptures: the Qur'an, the Christian and Jewish Bible and other scriptures for Bahá’u’lláh clearly stated: "There can be no doubt whatever that the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from one heavenly Source, and are the subjects of one God. The difference between the ordinances under which they abide should be attributed to the varying requirements and exigencies of the age in which they were revealed. All of them, except a few which are the outcome of human perversity, were ordained of God, and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose."*
So far the Bahá’í scriptures (the Bahá’í 'Bible') collected and authenticated at the Bahá’í World Center consist of 7,160 pieces by Bahá’u’lláh, 15,549 by 'Abdu'-Baha plus some of the Báb for a total of 22, 709 primary documents. In addition are another 16,370 by Shoghi Effendi and a contuning stream from the Universal House of Justice (which can be more than one email a day) of secondary guidance. It is impossible to publish all of these in one paper book, but the World Center is in the process of posting them on the internet.
So that is the Bahá’í bible.
*Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 217.

Photo Banned - Newspaper Closed

It is odd that a travel advertisement can shut down a newspaper. This wouldn’t happen in Topeka and it didn’t happen here. But it did happen earlier this month in another capital (which, oddly, also starts with the letter ‘T’) in another land. That capital is Tehran.
The action did not surprise one Topeka resident who grew up in Tehran. Mahin Stanley left Tehran in the 1960s in pursuit of education and more opportunities than were possible for women in Iran at that time. Now the times are worse.
Before leaving Tehran, Mahin watched members of the Iranian military and clergy take pick axes to the dome of the national Baha’i Center just down the street from her home. At the time an art display was exhibited inside in which a drawing of hers was entered. Needless to say, she never saw her drawing again. The building was seized for a time, trashed, then returned to the Bahá’ís (but only after Bahá’ís in thousands of communities around the world objected. Bahá’ís in Topeka sent telegrams directly to the Shah of Iran and President Eisenhower asking for the persecution to be curtailed.).
For the last thirty years the situation has been worse. Not only was the national center seized again, as well as all other Bahá’Í owned property in the country (including cemeteries, homes and businesses of individuals) but hundreds of Bahá’ís have been murdered and more tortured. Today a couple dozen Bahá’ís are in prison, some for over a year, on such charges as “spreading corruption on earth,” “provoking in insanctaties” and supporting Zionism.
What on earth can they mean?
“Supporting Zionism” is easy to understand. The world center of the Bahá’í Faith is located in Haifa, just as the Vatican is located in Rome. That location in Haifa is the result of a decree of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire in 1868. Bahá’ís today are being killed for it.
This is rational?
“Provoking insanctaties.” This term has no meaning to most people, but in Iran it is a capital crime. It means, as far as I can tell, that Bahá’ís do not revere Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) as the last Messenger of God. No. Bahá’ís believe Bahá’u’lláh to be the most recent Messenger of God.
In American, and most of the world, that is one’s choice. In Iran it is a capital crime and hundreds have died (and for those who are already dead, the cemeteries are bulldozed).
“Spreading corruption on earth,” is similar but can only happen in Muslim countries such as Iran. In such countries, add Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the government does not marry people or perform other actions of that nature, they are conducted solely by the religions community. And in most of those countries existence of the Bahá’í Faith cannot be acknowledged (because there can be no Prophet after Muhammad and it is illegal to think differently). The result of this is that Bahá’í marriages are not recognized as valid so every Bahá’í husband and wife is in an adulterous relationship and all the children are illegitimate – and has been so since the nineteenth century!
And what does this have to do with a travel advertisement that shut down a newspaper? The ad was promoting travel to India. The ad featured the most visited building in India (the Taj Mahal is now second) that has won international acclaim. This building, in the shape of a lotus blossom surrounded by pools of water, happens to be the Bahá’í House of Worship in New Delhi.
And the alarms sounded!!!
The Bahá’í Faith does NOT exist (despite it being the largest minority religion in Iran), therefore there can be no photo of a Bahá’í building in a newspaper in Iran!
The fact that it was the newspaper with the highest circulation in Iran is also very interesting – and the photo ad was on the front page!
No wonder the newspaper, Hamshahri, was shut down!
And life in a totalitarian state lurches on. In just the past ten years 120 newspapers and other news outlets have been shut down with editors and reporters jailed and murdered. Most closures have been permanent. This time, oddly, the closure was only for one day. Very curious.

Religion and Modern Times

At the opening of the twentieth century religion was a dominant force in society. During the century that role was invalidated by the inability of most religions to accommodate new fields of knowledge, especially scientific knowledge. As a result the beneficial moral role of religion in society was also dismissed. Into that vacuum stepped materialistic hedonism and a religious liberalism with no moral compass. Neither were able to generate the discipline and devotion necessary for providing a firm foundation and the self-sacrifice necessary for social progress.

With the failure of materialism to satisfy the deepest human needs, a renewed interest in religion has followed. But the religious traditions that could not adequately respond to the circumstances of the early twentieth century are far less able to respond to the even greater changes since then. A response to this condition has been a desire to go to the foundations of the religions hoping answers will be found there.

These supposed fundamentals of the religions are even less adequate to provide relevant answers and, in a desperate need for answers, fundamentalist fanaticism results. Jewish, Christian, and Muslim fundamentalists all have the same desperate need for order, sexism and conformity, and militant violence has resulted from them all.

All oppose the materialism which has spectacularly failed to meet the human need for moral guidance. Moral values were seen as an innate part of humanism if not human nature. The greatest failure of materialism was to not recognize that such values are the bare remnants of the former influence of the religions that materialism displaced. With the erosion of these moral values society has slipped further and further into a morass of pleasure seeking irregardless of the consequences to others.

This moral vacuum has been filled by the fanatical fundamentalists on one hand and those who have sought refuge in the multiplicity of sects and cults that have risen and flourished with amazing rapidity. Not a few of them proclaim self-indulgence as a form of self-discovery and spirituality. The wider society has put its faith in various programs of liberal social and economic development to alleviate the hardships of others through material prosperity. The resulting widening of the gap between the poverty-stricken and the affluent is adequate testimony to the ineffectiveness of this approach.

The inability of traditional faiths to address the challenges of modern times has not adequately been addressed. Several reasons contribute to their ineffectiveness. One would obviously be their time of origin. They began before the possibility of human rights ideals, globalization or modern science. Those situations, much less their implications, are not addressed in their scriptures. And their structures for interpretation and implementation are equally at a loss.
One prominent feature of the global nature of present society is the way in which diverse peoples from contending cultures are now brought into daily contact on the internet, in the work place, while shopping, in schools, in all aspects of daily life. In former centuries such peoples would never see each other and they would not interact. Now it is imperative that they learn to interact in a peaceful and productive way, but there is no guidance or basis for such interactions.

Every culture, for its own integrity, has had to consider itself as superior to every other. Each has its own “right way” to view the world and social interactions. In many cases these “right ways” are incompatible and there is no bridge between them.

In the face of these incompatible points of view, most are blinded to what they share in common. Those who see the common elements are often derided or pushed aside. And modern science has complicated the situation by raising moral questions unique to our times: what is environmental utilization or exploitation, is stem cell research a reasonable endeavor, and many more.

Attempts to answer these questions from the scriptures of traditional faiths have failed. At the most they have resulted in conflicting answers from the same traditions which are no solution at all.

These faiths are hindered in their attempts to adequately address and solve contemporary problems by their claims of superiority and exclusivity. Instead of searching for common agreements, each is motivated to insist, in increasingly stronger and more strident tones, that their perspective is the “only right way,” and dialogue is pointless. Their claims of authority often reach well past their Founders teachings. This is further complicated by insistence on concepts that were added to the original teachings through corruption of power held by religious authorities, human imagination or misunderstandings.

It might surprise many people to examine some of the common teachings of the religions followed by most of the people of the planet. These include that there is one God; this can be included for Hindus, where the lesser “gods” are really attributes of God, and for Buddhists who have “the First Cause.” What other term could be applied to the Creator of all that is? Another is that each human soul has the capacity to pray to God, and the role of the Prophet-Founder of the religion to facilitate that conversation. And there is the promise of a return of the Messenger.

Such primary commonalities strongly suggest that there is a common foundation or source for those teachings; such is a basic teaching of the Bahá’í Faith. Bahá’u’lláh states that all revealed religions are part of a continuous process, initiated by the Creator, to gradually and progressively reveal guidance to the human race for our continued development. More fundamentally, all religions are essentially chapters of the same religion.

These chapters have come at different times and places for the benefit of all mankind. Gradually over the centuries, interpretations and other ideas have been added. Additional confusion can arise due to the emphasis necessary by the Founder to eliminate certain pernicious evils of the society in which they appeared (Muhammad and idolatry, for instance).

The greatest crisis now facing society is that of unity. Disunity has paralyzed or crippled most social endeavors. On a global scale it can be catastrophic. Humanity now has the ability to destroy all life on the planet and no effective restraints, especially by disgruntled terrorists. Only a global, unifying moral consciousness and force can effectively deter such a result.

The Bahá’í community offers itself as a model for that solution. In the Bahá’í community no person has authority over another, the diversity of the human race is celebrated, decisions are made by councils in consultation and each person has equal access to the Divine. The Bahá’í community has been described as the most diverse, yet united, group of people on the planet. It is a remarkable achievement.