adminFlora Teckie Bahá’í Perspective —
“It is … the underlying principle of all religions, that God is one, that He is the Father of us all, that we are all immersed in the ocean of His mercy and sheltered and protected by His loving care,” state the Bahá’í Writings.
In addition to acknowledging the oneness of God, all major world religions believe that God is the Creator of the universe and its absolute Ruler.
Although we may pray to God in different languages and call Him by different names, nevertheless we have in mind the same Almighty Creator.
God has chosen to make Himself known to humanity through a series of Divine Messengers, who educate us about our Creator and cultivate our spiritual, intellectual and moral capacities. Religions brought by these Divine Messengers are the fruit of the creative Word of God, which transforms human thought and action.
Throughout history, the main agents of spiritual development have been the world’s religions. The world’s great religions, in the Bahá’í view, are equally valid in nature and origin, and spiritual life is equally accessible to everyone.
The Baha’i Writings state: “… all the great religions of the world are divine in origin, that their basic principles are in complete harmony, that their aims and purposes are one and the same, that their teachings are but facets of one truth, that their functions are complementary …
“… 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.”
Bahá’u’lláh taught that the primary purpose of religion is to “establish unity and concord amongst the people of the world”.
Bahá’í Faith, an independent world religion
In my previous article entitled “Celebrating 199 years since the birth of Bahá’u’lláh,” the newspaper published, in an unintended error, the following phrase after my by-line: “The Holy Quran Speaks.”
It also used a picture showing Muslims praying in a mosque to accompany the article. I would like to make an important clarification: the Bahá’í Faith, as an independent world religion, has its own Holy Scriptures, laws, calendar, and holy days.
There are also differences in its forms of worship. The Bahá’í Faith, however, recognises the divine origin of all the major world religions; it honours and reveres their Founders. It also acknowledges that there are differences between the world religions in terms of social ordinances and forms of worship.
As stated by the Universal House of Justice, the governing council of the Bahá’í International Community: “There are certainly wide differences among the world’s major religious traditions with respect to social ordinances and forms of worship.
Given the thousands of years during which successive revelations of the Divine have addressed the changing needs of a constantly evolving civilisation, it could hardly be otherwise.
“Indeed, an inherent feature of the scriptures of most of the major faiths would appear to be the expression, in some form or other, of the principle of religion’s evolutionary nature.”
The central theme of Bahá’u’lláh’s message is that humanity is one, regardless of race or ethnic background, and that the day has come for its unification into one global society. It is the Bahá’í view that with unity, a unity that welcomes and honours the full diversity of mankind, the problems which face humanity today, can be solved.
Bahá’u’lláh says: “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” “So powerful is the light of unity, that it can illuminate the whole earth.”
Among the other principles of the Bahá’í Faith are: the abandonment of prejudices of every kind: whether race, class, colour, creed, nation or religion, the harmony which must exist between religion and science; the equality of men and women, universal compulsory education; the responsibility of each person to independently search for truth, the adoption of a universal auxiliary language; the abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty and the confirmation of justice as the ruling principle in human affairs.
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