Questions about the Baha'i

[Arthra]

Are there any sects within the Bahai faith? Which is your most site, and why?

Yes Supreme...Thanks for your post!

Basically what Susan posted above...

Historically there have been some breakaway groups.. Most of these have not been successful in dividing the vast majority of Baha'is...

Generally the vast majority of Baha'is recognize Baha'u'llah as the Prophet Founder of the Baha'i Faith ...this began around 1863 with the declaration of Baha'u'llah in Baghdad; Baha'is recognise the Bab as His Precursor.. Baha'u'llah left a Will in which Abdul-Baha was the Interpreter of His Father's Writings and Center of the Cause; In His Will and Testament Abdul-Baha in His turn appointed Shoghi Effendi His grandson as the Guardian. After the passing of Shoghi Effendi in 1957 the Universal House of Justice was elected in 1963 and has been elected every five years since then.

At each juncture in our history a few opposed the succession or authority of the institutions but by and large have failed to divide the main body of Baha'is.

On the web the main sites that represent the Faith are

http://www.bahai.org/

https://www.bahai.us/

https://www.bic.org/

The Universal House of Justice:

http://universalhouseofjustice.bahai.org/

 

[Arthra]

Since it's been brought up and the question was asked of Baha'is our view of heaven and hell..

I'll also add the following:

We don't see heaven and hell as places having any kind of geographical reality or as literal realities...

They are seen in more symbolic terms.

What we believe regarding heaven and hell is that they are more conditions of being...our being.

From an essay by Robert Stockman:

The Bahá’í Faith usually defines the concepts of heaven and hell as

"restricted to this world" (`Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, 282)

and "conditions within our own beings" (Shoghi Effendi, High Endeavors, 48).

In other words, heaven and hell represent the state of the soul in its progress toward, or remoteness from, God, and its degree of obedience to divine law.

- from an essay "Heaven" by Robert Stockman

Heaven

 

[Arthra]

Tomorrow Thursday February 26th begins this year a four day period called Ayyam-i-Ha ..."The days of Five"... The letter "Ha" has a numerical value of five.

Ayyam-i-Ha is a fun time of year when Baha'is socialize..sharing food or some gifts.. Anyone can participate in Ayyam-i-Ha.

The purpose of Ayyam-i-Ha is also I believe to have a light hearted season before our Nineteen Day Fast...where people over fifteen years of age that are healthy abstain from liquid and solid food between sunrise and sunset. The Baha'i fast occurs in the last month of the Baha'i year before Naw-Ruz our New Year.. The ancient Persian New Year on the vernal equinox.

Ayyam-i-Ha will be four days this year..in a "leap year" Ayyam-i-Ha would be five days. The Baha'i year has nineteen months with nineteen days in each month...for 361 days so Ayyam-i-Ha the four or five days makes a 365 day solar calendar.

 

[.Mikha'el.]

MOD HAT ON!

Thread cleaned. Please take care to observe the following CF rule:

Flaming and Harassment
● Please treat all members with respect and courtesy through civil dialogue. Refrain from insulting, inflammatory, or goading remarks. When you disagree, remember to address the content of the post and not the poster personally.
● If you are flamed, do not respond in-kind. Alert staff to the situation by utilizing the report button.
● Stating or implying that another member or group of members who have identified themselves as Christian are not Christian is not allowed.
● Be considerate and do not make another member's experience on this site miserable. This includes making false accusations or persistently attacking them in the open forums.
● Respect another member's request to cease personal contact.

MOD HAT OFF!

 

[Chesterton]

Doesn't Islam claim it is Allah's final revelation, and Muhammad Allah's final messenger? And that Islam is perfectly complete as a religion?

 

[smaneck]

Doesn't Islam claim it is Allah's final revelation, and Muhammad Allah's final messenger? And that Islam is perfectly complete as a religion?

Islam is not a person that it could make any claims whatsoever. The idea that there will be no more prophets after Muhammad is based on a single verse in the Qur'an, namely: "Muhammad is not the father of any man among you, but he is the messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets."

The context of this verse is the following. Muhammad's adopted son Zayd was in an unhappy marriage with Muhammad's cousin Zaynab. Three times he asked the Prophet for permission to divorce her. The first two times divorce was refused. The third time, the Prophet agreed but to shield Zaynab from the shame and vulnerability of a divorce he married her himself. For the Arabs this constituted incest. The Qur'an insists that for purposes of incest an adopted son is not a real son. It was in this connection that the Qur'an states that Muhammad is the Seal of the Prophet. It was a way of saying that Zaynab would not inherit his office of prophethood. I don't think the Qur'an ever meant to imply that revelation would end with Muhammad. On the contrary, the Qur'an is very insistent that revelation cannot be exhausted:

"Say:. 'If the sea were ink for the Words of my Lord, the sea would be spent before the Words of my Lord are spent, though We brought replenishment the like of it.'"

"And Joseph had already come to you before with clear proofs, but you remained in doubt of that which he brought to you, until when he died, you said, 'Never will Allah send a messenger after him.' Thus does Allah leave astray he who is a transgressor and skeptic.""

I believe that where the concept of no revelation after Muhammad became harden is during the Riddah Wars after Muhammad's passing where every tribal shaman was claiming to be a prophet.

A more thorough discussion of this question can be found here:
A Bahá'í Approach to the Claim of Finality in Islam

 

[Chesterton]

Thanks for the link. What do you personally think of Joseph Smith?

 

[smaneck]

Thanks for the link. What do you personally think of Joseph Smith?

All i can do is judge him by his "book", namely the Book of Mormon. I read about a third of it when I was teenager, but it so redundant I gave up. Got tired of reading about how God turned sinners skin black.

 

[Chesterton]

Didn't Baha'u'llah write that every planet had lots of creatures on them?

 

[smaneck]

Didn't Baha'u'llah write that every planet had lots of creatures on them?

Here is the statement in question:

"Know thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planet its own creatures, whose number no man can compute."

He does say that ever sun has its planets and every planet its creatures (khalq.) The question is what did He mean by creature? Your assumption is that He was referring to a living creature whereas He may have simply meant a 'creation.' The Persian is ambiguous. In any case, Baha'u'llah's intent is to demonstrate the immensity of the universe, not to argue for life on Mercury.

 

[Booko]

Ah yes, this quote a friend and I irreverently refer to as Baha'i scifi lol

Someone once asked how finding that aliens existed would change anyone's theology, and my first thought was, "not at all - I sorta expect it at some point."

I do wonder though if God in His infinite wisdom will hold off any such meetings until we're able to deal with it. I mean we can't quite get along as one species yet, so I don't think we're quite ready.

 

[Celticflower]

Someone once asked how finding that aliens existed would change anyone's theology, and my first thought was, "not at all - I sorta expect it at some point."

I do wonder though if God in His infinite wisdom will hold off any such meetings until we're able to deal with it. I mean we can't quite get along as one species yet, so I don't think we're quite ready.

The only ones who will have a problem will be those who put God in a box and currently believe He didn't/couldn't/ wouldn't create life somewhere else. I don't believe there is a box big enough and He can make whatever He wants wherever He wants it.

And I agree - we aren't ready to meet a species from another world, but maybe one day...

 

[Arthra]

Booko wrote:

"I do wonder though if God in His infinite wisdom will hold off any such meetings until we're able to deal with it. I mean we can't quite get along as one species yet, so I don't think we're quite ready."

It seems at present we are not getting along well with each other... and evidence suggests we can't even get along with the other species on our world.

See:

Lists of extinct animals - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seriously we need a "remodel" of our own species...

 

[jacknife]

The only ones who will have a problem will be those who put God in a box and currently believe He didn't/couldn't/ wouldn't create life somewhere else. I don't believe there is a box big enough and He can make whatever He wants wherever He wants it.

And I agree - we aren't ready to meet a species from another world, but maybe one day...

actually the odds of evolution giving another species on another planet intelligences is almost zero. if we did discover life its most likely going to be non-intelligent. but keep in mind almost zero chances happen, its an improbability that any of us were ever born and yet here we are.

 

[Booko]

The only ones who will have a problem will be those who put God in a box and currently believe He didn't/couldn't/ wouldn't create life somewhere else. I don't believe there is a box big enough and He can make whatever He wants wherever He wants it.

Yes!

I have learned the hard way to try to not put God in a box, because He always hops out of it and pretty loudly too.

 

[Celticflower]

actually the odds of evolution giving another species on another planet intelligences is almost zero. if we did discover life its most likely going to be non-intelligent. but keep in mind almost zero chances happen, its an improbability that any of us were ever born and yet here we are.

If you really look at it the odds of life developing here were a bit iffy - but it happened. If God decided it would happen elsewhere than it did. Just because we haven't seen it doesn't mean it cannot have happened.

 

[jacknife]

If you really look at it the odds of life developing here were a bit iffy - but it happened. If God decided it would happen elsewhere than it did. Just because we haven't seen it doesn't mean it cannot have happened.

oh yes the odds are quite good that there is life elsewhere. but i think the vast majority of it wont be too intelligent.

 

[Celticflower]

oh yes the odds are quite good that there is life elsewhere. but i think the vast majority of it wont be too intelligent.

I often wonder about the intelligent life here...

 

[Booko]

I often wonder about the intelligent life here...

Beam me up, Scotty. There's no intelligent life here. ~snort

 

[Booko]

I can see why LoAmmi has just about had enough.