Tag: Bahai

Profiles in Spirituality- The Life of Ali

Profiles in Spirituality- The Life of Ali

Published March 16, 2019 by admin

Tonight’s passage continues our “Profile in Spirituality” of Ali Ibn Abu Talib.

In the midst of one of the early battles against the Muslim community, Ali’s servant brought him some sweet syrup to drink, stating “my lord, the sun is very hot and you have been fighting, have a glass of this cold drink.”. Ali looked around himself and replied “shall I refresh myself when hundreds of people around me are lying wounded and dying of thirst and wounds? Instead of bringing sweet syrup for me, take a few men and give each of these wounded men a cool drink.” The servant said “but my lord, these are your enemies”. Ali said “they may be but they are human beings and attend to them.”

Another story is told of a situation in which Ali’s army was kept from refreshing themselves in a river, as it was presided over by the commander of the enemy. They requested but were denied the ability to refresh themselves. Soon after, Ali’s army attacked and were able to take the river. The enemy now sent men to Ali, asking if they could access the river for themselves and their horses. Ali told them to take as much water as they like and as often as they need. When his officers remarked to him that these were the very people who had refused them access to the river, he replied “they are human beings and, though they have acted inhumanly, yet I cannot follow their example and cannot refuse a man food and drink because he happens to be my enemy”.

After the death of the Prophet, Ali assumed no formal political role initially, spending time delivering sermons on the nature of Islam. He had a deep commitment to learning and protected the library of Alexandria from being harmed after it was taken by the Muslims, stating that none of the learning in it could possibly be against the Quran. When he did accede to leadership, he initiated reforms and systematically promoted education and literacy.

Ali was particularly concerned about the differences between the new Muslim community and the Arab tribal structure it was replacing. There was a constant tension, as there is in the modern day, between various groups who wanted to jockey for resources and power against other tribes and racial groups. Ali taught about the equal distribution of public wealth, even to slaves, and centered much of his attention on the poor and downtrodden. In order to demonstrate this, he sought to reflect these values in his own life, eating humble food and dressing in clothing that was similar to the poorest Muslims.

One man described an encounter with Ali in this way- “One day I went to see Ali in the Government House. It was the time of breakfast and before him there was a cup of milk and some barley bread. The bread was dry, stale, hard, and did not contain any butter or oil. It could not be easily broken into pieces…I turned towards his servant and said “FIzza! Have you no pity upon your old master and cannot give him softer bread and add some butter and oil to it?” She replied “why should I pity him when he doesn’t pity himself? He has strict orders that nothing it to be added to his bread and even the chaff and husks are not to be separated. We are his servants and we eat much better food than him”…. Ali was asked why he ate in this way and he replied- “I want the eat the kind of food which the poorest of this realm can afford at least once a day. I shall improve it after I have improved their standards of life. I want to live, feel, and suffer like them”.

One time, Ali came out of his house and there were patches sown onto his dress and was teased for looking so shabby. He said “Let go, what you you to find objection in my dress. It is the kind our masses can afford. Why can you not think of their lives and dress? I shall improve my standard after I have succeeded in improving theirs. I shall continue to live like them. Such kind of dress makes one feel humble and meek and give up vanity, haughtiness, and arrogance.”

Ali instituted progressive taxation and refused to accept gifts that were over and above the normal taxes. He insisted on the equal distribution of the public taxes, stating that the income of the ruler (from public wealth) must be no more than a commoner. The development of agricultures was more important than taxation stating “so far as the collection of land revenue is concerned, you must always keep in view the welfare of the tax-payer, which is more important than the taxes themselves…, as actual taxable capacity of people rests on the fertility of the land, therefore more attention should be paid to the fertility of the land and prosperity of the subjects than to the collection of revenues.” He also demonstrated benign governance. He laid down rules of war that supported only wars of defense, saying never to attack someone who is wounded or someone who is running away, and never to harm women, children, or the elderly.

In doing all these reforms, he made some natural enemies, particularly from those who wanted to control public wealth in a non-equal way. One of his companions pointed this out to him by saying, “Look my lord, these are the reasons influential people and rich Arabs are deserting you….Of what use are these poor persons, disabled people, aged widows and Negro slaves to you? How can they help and serve you?”. He replied “I cannot allow rich and influential persons to exploit the society of this Muslim state and run an inequitable and unjust system of distribution of wealth and opportunities. I cannot for a moment tolerate this. This is public wealth. It comes from the masses and must go back to them…So far as the usefulness or services of these disabled persons and have-nots is concerned, remember that I am not helping them to secure their services. I fully well know that they are not able to serve me. I help them because they cannot help themselves and they are as much human beings as you and I. May God help me to do my duty as He wishes me to do.”

In addition to being a great statesman, Ali is most known as the center of Islamic metaphysics and his commitment to reason and knowledge. His description of God is illuminating-

“God is not like any object that the human mind can conceive. No attribute can be ascribed to Him which bears the least resemblance to any quality of which human beings have perception from their knowledge of material objects…He is with every object, not from resemblance or nearness. He is outside everything but not from separation or indifference towards His creatures. He works and creates but not in the meaning of motions or actions….He has no relation to matter, time and space. God is omnipotent because knowledge is His Essence, Loving because love is His Essence, Might because power is His Essence, Forgiveness because forgiveness is His Essence, and not because these are attributes apart from His Essence.”

(Passages summarized from Peak of Eloquence (Nahjul Balagha), translated by Sayed Ali Reza and published by Thrice Tarsile Quran, Inc. Sixth Edition 1996)

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Welcome to the 19 Day Spiritual Challenge!

Welcome to the 19 Day Spiritual Challenge!

Published March 2, 2019 by admin

Thank you for joining us on this! We hope you find it spiritually refreshing and enlivening. We’re going to take a very unique approach in the next 19 days and draw on the scriptures of three great religions- Christianity, Islam, and the Baha’i Faith- to try and grow spiritually and as people. As this is a program inspired by the Baha’i teachings, we are going to view these religions as Baha’is view them- not as separate “religions”- but as part of One Religion- the “changeless Faith of God”- as Baha’u’llah referred to it. This is therefore not an “inter-religious” program, but one that views each of these great revelations as part of one continuous whole. It’s a unique perspective, and takes a little getting used to, but it is extraordinarily enriching once you get your mind and heart around it.

We should note that there is no intention to exclude the other great revelations from God, and Baha’is accept that there were many others. We could have equally used passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Bhagavad Gita, or others, but we wanted to keep it simple.

Our other focus is on this concept of the “voice of God”- that there is an inner melody to the diverse forms of language and concepts in these scriptures- a “voice” that you learn to recognize when you listen to them with your heart. That “voice” is humanity’s true Beloved, one that these scriptures all tell use we need to learn to recognize and follow. It’s a “spiritual thing”, but you’ll know it when you feel it. Some have compared it to the voice of their mother or father. Your mother spoke to you in different ways- sometimes gently, sometimes forcefully- and said many things, but it was still your mother’s voice and you knew it when you heard it. Same idea here.

The theme of this year’s challenge is “Finding your Beloved”. Even the title betokens a more intimate idea of God than many people may be used to, but it is at the center of what people feel in their heart when they develop a “personal relationship with God”. Your first “assignment” is to reflect on this beautiful quote from the Bab, that expresses a sense of spiritual intimacy-

“Behold with the eye of thy heart. Verily thy truth, the truth of thy being, is the divinity of thy Lord revealed unto thee and through thee. Thou art He Himself, and He is thou thyself, except that indeed thou art that thou art, and He is that He is…Verily, God ceaselessly sheddeth His effulgence, gazeth upon thee through thee, and embraceth thee through thee. This station is thine uttermost paradise and ultimate goal.”

Even if our minds may be cluttered with all kinds of different ideas about God- different impressions, some positive, some not so much- we can all feel the beauty of this way of thinking about God. It’s universal and that’s why we wanted to take this perspective for the Challenge.

Each morning, you will be presented with short passages to read and absorb. We highly encourage you to try and memorize them, at least the portions of them that you find significant. It helps to internalize them and you’ll be surprised when you find yourself thinking about their words while waiting in line at the supermarket or some other down moment. Those moments of reflection in real life can be the most enriching moments.

We will also supply music of the same passages we present when available, as music is a “ladder for our souls” and illuminates spiritual ideas. This is easier for Baha’i scriptures- particularly the Hidden Words- as Baha’is commonly put their scriptures to music. It is not as easy for Christian scripture, as Christians did not typically put the actual words of Jesus to music, and it is not possible to find music expressing words from the Quran in English.

The Challenge will follow an order from “inside” to “outside”- meaning we will start with trying to develop that sense of inner spirituality and how to nurture it, then move towards expressing that in the world through our actions. So, we’ll be pretty mystical at first, more practical later, but the whole idea of religion is to transform our insides and then express that in the world, so this is the perspective we took.

In the evening, you will be presented with longer passages and alternatively “Profiles of Spirituality”- stories of some of the beloved figures of history who have truly expressed genuine spirituality in action. Some of them will be familiar to you, others likely not, but they all exhibited amazing virtues that showed us what religion is really supposed to be about.

Our website does not allow comments but our Facebook and Twitter pages do, so please feel free to post any thoughts or comments on those pages for others who may be doing the Challenge. If you know of something inspiring related to something we post, please share it so others can benefit as well. And of course, feel free to share any of the content with other friends.

Thank you again for joining us! We hope you enjoy the Challenge!

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The Master

The Master

Published March 1, 2019 by admin

The Revelation of Baha’u’llah, God’s revelation for our time in history, consists of the words of Baha’u’llah but also those of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’- the appointed interpreter of His teachings. ‘Abdu’l-Baha exemplified the ideals of Baha’u’llah- selflessness, purity of heart, keenness of mind, embrace of progress and science, and love of all people. The post below describes the life of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’ and posts that highlight his life or writings are catgeorized and can be found off the link on the main page. ‘Abdu’l-Baha’ is incredibly inspiring and illuminating! Please do take the time to read about him and explore his writings,. You will be very happy that you did!

For Baha’is, two extraordinarily significant things happened on the evening of May 23, 1844. The first was the Báb was announcing his revelation to the first believer, and the other was the birth of Baha’u’llah’s son, `Abdu’l-Bahá. It is remarkable that they occurred simultaneously. Some conjecture that, just as the revelation of God for today was being created, a human who could accept it on behalf of all humanity was also being created. Such mystical things we will never know, but we can say that `Abdu’l-Bahá was an extraordinary human by any measure.

Born with the given name of Abbas, the man we know as `Abdu’l-Bahá was a young child of 9 years of age when His father and family were exiled from their native Persia. He was 19 when His Father formally declared His mission to humanity. During His Father’s lifetime, `Abdu’l-Bahá increasingly represented the community to the outer world, allowing Baha’u’llah to carry out the work of His mission. Made an exile at the age of 9, `Abdu’l-Bahá remained a prisoner until he was 64 years old, with all the “good years’ of his life being spent in the harsh imprisonment of Akka- his only crime being that he was the son of a Prophet of God. When Baha’u’llah passed away in 1892, he made `Abdu’l-Bahá the center of His faith, describing him as the “Mystery of God” and stating “Blessed, doubly blessed, is the ground which His footsteps have trodden, .. the heart that hath tasted the sweetness of His love, the breast that hath dilated through His remembrance, the pen that hath voiced His praise, the scroll that hath borne the testimony of His writings”.

After being released from prison by the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire, `Abdu’l-Bahá then traveled to the US and Europe in 1912 to promote his Father’s teachings. He had no formal education, had never spoken in public, and had been a prisoner all his life, but his presentations captivated people across America and Europe as he unfolded to them a vision of universal peace and justice. His visit encompassed dozens of stops and a variety of venues including talks at Columbia and Stanford Universities. Admired from afar by the founder to Temple University, Dr Russell Conwell, he was invited to speak in Philadelphia at the Baptist Temple on campus where he declared that “an equal standard of human rights must be recognized and adopted”, foreshadowing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was signed by all nations after the founding of the United Nations in 1945. Throughout these trips, `Abdu’l-Bahá declared the oneness of humanity, promoted the equality of men and women, proclaimed the fundamental unity between science and revelation, and exemplified how religion could be a source of goodness and truth. He had a remarkable mind, a gentle spirit, and an equally remarkable ability to explain spiritual ideas in accessible terms. The clarity, sweetness, and poetry of his language is unlike anything ever seen in the religious history of humankind.

In `Abdu’l-Baha’s travels, he spoke to western audiences and used language and examples that were familiar to those audiences. For that reason, many people find his writings to be very understandable and accessible, particularly if the Baha’i Faith is new to you. His talks in America are compiled in a book called “The Promulgation of Universal Peace”, while those in Europe may be found in “Paris Talks” among other compilations. “Selections of the Writings of `Abdu’l-Bahá” presents a selection of his vast correspondence to the Baha’is of the West and the larger Persian communities that he shepherded. The truths he expressed in these talks and letters, originally spoken and written 100 years ago, feel like they were from just yesterday.

Generations of Baha’i children from around the globe have memorized prayers and passages of `Abdu’l-Bahá- prayers such as ‘O God, refresh and gladden my spirit, purify my heart, illumine my powers”, and passages that teach children to see all humanity as a garden, with different colored flowers whose diversity contribute to the beauty of the whole.

Wherever he went and whatever he did, his sole desire was to demonstrate the truth of his Father’s revelation through word and deed. His public life was only about 20 years, but he left a wellspring of words and stories that will be guide to human civilization for centuries.

‘Abdu’l-Baha’s writings and talks can be found in several publications. “The Promulgation of Universal Peace” is a collection of his talks in America. “Paris Talks” collects his talks given in Paris. “‘Abdu’l-Baha in London” chronicles his visit to the UK. “Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Baha'” is a compilation of letters he wrote to Baha’is around the world. “Some Answered Questions” addresses various topics that were asked of him in a series of table conversations with Laura Clifford Barney, an educated woman from New York who had become a Baha’i in the early 20th century.

All of these are worth putting on your bedside table!

Photo is of `Abdu’l-Bahá (center) surrounded by a diverse group on one of his stops in America

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Baha’u’llah

Baha’u’llah

Published February 28, 2019 by admin

Baha’u’llah was born in 1817 in Persia to a prominent and wealthy family. He was raised in Tehran and a rural provincial village, known as Nur, where he spent much of his childhood- learning horseback riding, calligraphy, and other skills considered appropriate for those of noble birth. He was not taught Arabic, and similar to Jesus, Muhammad, and the Báb, He was not trained in religion in any formal way. When he was in his late teens, his father died and Baha’u’llah assumed control of the family’s affairs. He soon freed all the family’s slaves, stating later in His revelation that “it was not for him who is himself a servant to own another of God’s servants”. His talents and capacity were well recognized and he was offered a position in the royal court, which he declined, choosing instead to serve the poor in the area around his rural home . He and his young wife turned a portion of their house into a children’s hospital for the province.

When Baha’u’llah was 27 years old, the Báb’s first and most prominent disciple communicated a message to Him through an intermediary, a message that included a Tablet from the Báb himself. Baha’u’llah opened the Tablet, read a few lines, and stated to his brother- who was standing with him at the time- that these were the words of God. Baha’u’llah remained as a background figure while the Báb’s religion played out and they never met in person, always separated by hundreds of miles.

After the execution of the Báb, a young man, disconsolate over the loss of the Báb, took it upon himself to revenge his death and attempted but failed to shoot the Shah. The event raised the ire of the royalty, who went on a rampage of mass imprisonment and execution of the Báb’s followers, of which Baha’u’llah was now one of the most prominent members. He was taken from His home and thrown into a dungeon known as the “Black Pit”. With two heavy chains around His neck and death an imminent possibility, Baha’u’llah’s revelation began. The Gospels describe the holy spirit alighting on Jesus like a “Dove” and Muhammad referred to the Voice of His revelation as the “Angel Gabriel”. Baha’u’llah described a “Maid of Heaven” appearing to Him in the Black Pit and confirming His station as the one chosen to reveal God’s will to humanity.

Baha’u’llah was then exiled from Persia to the provincial capital of the Ottoman Empire, Baghdad, where he was able to move freely about the city for the next 10 years. He gradually assumed greater leadership of the followers of the Báb, and attracted interest by a wide range of peoples who came through the city. In this broader cultural climate, Baha’u’llah continued the conversation with humanity started by the Báb, teaching the ideas of the progressive revelation of religious truth to different audiences using different genres. In the Seven Valleys, he explained the truths in the poetic language of a mystic. In the Book of Certitude, he addressed traditional theological challenges from the perspective of Christian and Muslim scripture. In 1863, in a garden that has come to be known as the “Garden of Ridvan (Paradise)”, Baha’u’llah formally declared openly His mission as the one the Bab had foretold and the fulfillment of the promises of all previous revelations.

With His revelation, Baha’u’llah declared that the standard God expected from humanity had changed. No longer was it acceptable before God to promote exclusiveness and division. The beloved of God in this Day were those who were lovers of the entire human race and worked for the benefit of all. He instructed us to have a “world-embracing vision”, to “make each day better than its yesterday” and to be “worthy of the trust of your neighbor and look upon him with a bright and friendly face”, stating that His first “counsel” was for humans to have a “pure, kindly and radiant heart”. He wanted us to open our minds as well as our hearts, to be just and fair-minded, and “look into all things with a searching eye”. He promoted scientific thinking as an expression of humanity’s God-given and fundamentally spiritual rational mind and said that humans possessed spiritual capacities that were utterly untapped. He saw gems in the hearts of human beings and His religion is meant to mine them.

As Baha’u’llah’s influence grew, the Persian and Ottoman authorities decided to suppress His impact by exiling him further away, eventually to the Crusade fortress of Akka in the Holy Land, just 100 miles from Jerusalem. From this desolate prison, Baha’u’llah revealed the major Tablets of His Revelation, including some of the Tablets to the Kings and other calls for the unity of the human race.

After the declaration of His mission, Baha’u’llah spoke with the Voice of God in all His Tablets and letters, with a power and majesty that is extraordinarily compelling. It is impossible in a single post- or a lifetime of posts- to fully capture the range and majesty of Baha’u’llah’s words. He himself described it as an “ocean inexhaustible in its riches” and invited humanity to “discover all the pearls of wisdom that lie hidden in its depths”.

Photo is of the Shrine of Baha’u’llah in the Holy Land. Courtesy of Baha’i Media Bank.

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The Prophet of Shiraz

The Prophet of Shiraz

Published February 27, 2019 by admin

The Revelation of God for humanity in our time in history actually has two prophetic figures- the Báb and Baha’u’llah himself. The Báb proceeded Baha’u’llah and prepared Persian society for his coming and to accept His teachings, thus forming the community of early believers that have now spread His Revelation all over the world. This post will summarize the story of the Báb. A related post compares the life of the Báb with that of John the Baptist, to whom He is often appropriately compared.

The prophet known to history as the Báb (“the Gate”) was born in the Persian city of Shiraz in 1819 and trained as a merchant before announcing His mission as a Prophet of God in 1844 at the age of 24. Similar to Jesus, He had none of the features that would give him religious authority within His society. He never trained in religion and was not formally taught Arabic, the language of Islam. His claim to prophethood was distinctly against the traditional Muslim belief, who interpreted Muhammad’s self-description as the “Seal of the Prophets” as meaning He was the last prophet. Instead of a new prophet, Muslims anticipated a final Judgment Day, a Day of Resurrection, in which the final battle for ultimate victory would occur, with the “resurrection” of believers from their graves to fight the final battle. But here was a 24 year old merchant, with no army, no seal of authority, revealing verses in Arabic that clearly made claims to be a divine revelation. Virtually none of the things people expected to happen at the “end of time” were associated with His religion. Despite that, His religion spread like wildfire and inspired heroic devotion because of the power of His words.

His initial revelations had features that were reminiscent of the Quran itself, and it was regarded by his initial followers as a “new Quran”. They vigorously promoted it throughout Persian society and it soon became a mass movement of significant energy, matched only by the energy of the government and clergy to suppress it, who regarded it as a heresy and a threat to the State. The Bab was eventually brought to trial in the Persian city of Tabriz, where He was questioned about His claims by senior religious officials in the presence of the Crown Prince, the future Nasir-din Shah. He stood up boldly in the gathering and stated “I am the Promised One, I am the One whose name you have for a thousand years invoked, at whose mention you have risen, and whose advent you have prayed God to hasten.” The boldness of His statement led to the adjournment of the trial and His beating and imprisonment. The Báb remained a prisoner in a far off mountain fortress for the remainder of His mission, until He was put to death by firing squad in the city of Tabriz in May of 1850.

The Báb’s message went through several stages as He gradually revealed the full measure of His claim and His theology, culminating in the revelation of His major work- the Bayan– or “Exposition”- while a prisoner in the mountain fortress. In that and supportive works, He explained that God was an entity beyond human understanding to know in any direct sense, but He made His reality manifest “to His creation, through His creation”, specifically through the revelations that formed the religions of humankind. These revelations had occurred throughout human history and were a “natural phenomenon”, like the rising and setting of the sun, illuminating human understanding like the sun illuminates the material world. The revelations of God were evolutionary, as each one built on the others before it, continually unfolding to humanity the full spectrum of the knowledge of God, a process that could have no end.

Within that framework, traditional religious terms were given new meanings. The “Day of Resurrection’ was not like something out of a fantasy movie, but was the day when a new messenger brought a new revelation to humanity. “Paradise” was when anything reached its stage of perfection, a state that humans could only fully achieve by accepting the revelations of God. One fascinating angle on the Báb is the realization that He was a contemporary of many intellectuals and philosophers in Europe who have had a major influence on the modern conceptions of religion- thinkers like Feuerbach, Darwin, Nietzsche, and Marx. Because of the cultural distance, more so than the geographic one, the two intellectual streams never met, but the young Prophet addressed in creative ways the challenges raised by the their views. Ironically, while they predicted the death of religion, the Báb was almost simultaneously proclaiming its renewal.

He was described by all who met him as extraordinarily gracious and polite, elegant and refined in His bearing. He had to be moved in his prison several times because the guards who were responsible for Him came to be so devoted to Him that they no longer did their jobs effectively. His mission was one of sacrifice and martyrdom, and He knew it, and expressed it frequently in His writings, as there was no chance His society could accept such a challenging claim without severe persecution coming in its wake. Nevertheless, He always acted with dignity and composure, with an air of detachment in His writings that is very striking.

As His religion reached its climax, and He had tens of thousands of followers, He funneled all their devotion into the One who would come after Him- a figure He described as “Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest”. The Báb summarized His mission as to “devise means” whereby people would turn unto Him when he manifested Himself, for “thereby they will have attained the summit of their existence, and will have been brought face to face with their Beloved, and will have recognized, to the fullest extent attainable in the world of being, the splendor of Him Who is the Desire of their hearts.” Virtually every chapter in the Bayan mentions “Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest” and he clearly stated that all His laws and teachings had as their explicit intention that people would accept Him when He came.

The Báb’s promises reached their fulfillment 19 years later, when Baha’u’llah announced a new universal revelation to humanity in a small garden outside of Baghdad in 1863.

Photo is of the Shrine of the Bab and the Baha’i Gardens. Haifa, Israel. Courtesy of Baha’i Media Bank.

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The Quran and Islam

The Quran and Islam

Published February 26, 2019 by admin

Today we continue our survey of the scriptures and sources we will be drawing on at Sifter of Dust, focusing on the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, and Islam.

The Prophet Muhammad was born in the year 571 AD in a backwater of the civilization of His time, along the trade routes that coursed through Arabia between the ancient Persian empire and the Byzantine empire, a remnant of Roman civilization. He was orphaned early in life and trained and worked as a merchant. After He reached 40 years old, He went to meditate in the cave of Hira, a mountainous cave near his home of Mecca, and was visited by an angel who told Him to “Recite!”, calling Him to be the bearer of a Revelation from God. For the next 23 years, the Prophet revealed the Quran- the “Recitation”- in a beautiful form of Arabic poetry. A community quickly developed around Him and persecution of that community in Mecca led them to flee to neighboring Medina, where the Muslim community continued to grow in influence, leading to further battles and ultimately the conquering of Mecca by the new community centered around the Quran. The Prophet entered the holy shrine of the Kaaba in Mecca, previously devoted to idol worship, and destroyed all the idols personally, teaching that only an immaterial God was worthy of worship. Every chapter of the Quran uses terms to describe the nature of that God, the most common being “the Compassionate, the All-Merciful”.

The new community of Islam was structured around belief in one God, and submission to that God- the Source of all Goodness- was the ultimate responsibility of all human beings. The social laws of Islam were a vast improvement over the tribal structure of the time, and every community member was expected to care for the orphans and the elderly, paying a religious tax that provided subsistence money for the disadvantaged.

Islam was a universal religion that recognized virtually every significant religion known to the people of Arabia before it as valid. There are over 25 previous “prophets” or “messengers” of God noted specifically in the Quran, but even that number was regarded as only a partial list. The Prophet Muhammad taught that both Christ and Moses (as well as other Hebrew prophets) were true, and both Jews and Christians were given special status in Muslim communities.

Islamic civilization spread quickly and within 100 years of the Prophet’s lifetime was already a major civilizing force. It spread into Persia, over Africa, down into the Indian sub-continent, and into southern Europe. It came to be regarded as the most advanced civilization on earth for several hundred years.

The source of all the “civilizing energy” was the Quran itself. The Prophet Muhammad drew a distinction between Himself and the recitations that flowed through Him, with the author of the Quran being the voice of God Himself. Verses of the Quran often start with “Say:”, emphasizing that the Quran comes directly from the Voice of God. The Prophet would comment personally in a less formal way on His religion, and those “sayings”- known as “Hadith”- were another source of guidance and spirituality for the Muslim community.

The Quran was the first Revelation of God that was directly transcribed in written form. (The words of Jesus were recorded and compiled years after His death.) For that reason, the written Word- the “Verses”- are held in high honor as their inner melody is the primordial Word of God itself, something that transcends even the outer words. Mosques devoted to the worship of God are embellished only by Quranic verses, and never images or idols. Quranic interpretation became a spiritual and scholarly pursuit, with enough volumes of interpretative works produced to fill many libraries. Mystical poetry and philosophy flourished under Islam and the depth and beauty of these outpourings is one of humanity’s greatest spiritual and literary treasures.

In addition to the Prophet Muhammad and His sayings, the other sources of guidance include early Muslim leaders, particularly Muhammad’s son-in-law, Ali Ibn Talib. Ali accompanied and supported the Prophet through much of His mission, and married his daughter Fatimah. After the death of the Prophet, Ali continued his sermons on the true nature of Islam and its implications, in addition to ultimately leading the Muslim community before his assassination by those jealous of his influence. Ali’s sermons and story are recorded in an 11th century compilation known as the “Peaks of Eloquence”. Ali’s virtues and greatness can be appreciated by the commonness of his name among Muslim populations, surpassed only by the name “Muhammad” itself. They are sometimes complexed together, as with the great American boxer “Muhammad Ali”.

We draw on the Quran, the Hadith, as well as the sayings and stories from the life of Ali Ibn Talib.

Image is of the Mosque of Karouan in Tunisia, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons, Jean Marc Rosier at www.rosier.pro

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Taking a Broad Perspective

Taking a Broad Perspective

Published February 24, 2019 by admin

One of the wonderful aspects of the Baha’i Faith is that, not only has Baha’u’llah given humanity wonderful and amazing new spiritual insights about the nature of the world and of ourselves, He also did that in the context of teaching the fundamental oneness of the great Revelations of the past. People tend to not stray very far when exploring religion and often will study seriously only the religion of their culture and their parents, and not familiarize themselves with another faith before making decisions about spiritual truth. This is of course a generalization and there are certainly exceptions. But Baha’u’llah has taught us that all the great Revelations of the past are true and are essentially for all humanity, even though they appeared within the framework of one particular culture or another.

In one passage, Baha’u’llah revealed- “Peerless is this Day, for it is an eye to past ages and centuries“. Today, we can look back from where humanity has come, and see the great Revelations of the past as stepping stones to the point we are at today. And we can also explore them. The spiritual insights of other faiths, faiths which had a profound effect on millions of people but may not have been part of our particular culture, will be new and incredibly enriching to us. People of Christian background can now read the Quran from the perspective of faith, a much different perspective than if you read it with a critical eye. Muslims, who did not traditionally read the Bible, though they accepted it as true, can now read it from the same perspective of faith and mine its spiritual gems. And both of them can read the Bhagavad Gita- the spiritual masterpiece of Hinduism- and draw on its insights as they course through life.

The oneness of religion is an incredibly enriching idea, one that we can use to enlighten ourselves as we strive to bring humanity closer together. Baha’u’llah told the world’s peoples to “cleave to that which uniteth you” and specifically made the point 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‘ and that most of their religions were “ordained by God and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose“.

God is a really big idea, and maintaining a perspective that doesn’t limit our conceptions of God in any way is usually the path that captures the truth of God most completely. This doesn’t make the Baha’i Faith a potpourri religion. Everything is ultimately judged by the standard of the latest Revelation- as religions of the past were revealed for an earlier stage of humanity’s history. But spiritual truths, as opposed to social laws and customs, are timeless and other religions may have emphasized a spiritual truth in a way that illuminates our understanding beyond what would be attained if we only read about the religion from our culture.

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