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The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations

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A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Theologies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 February 2023) | Viewed by 25348

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Dr. Moojan Momen

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Guest Editor

Department of History and Texts, Wilmette Institute, Evanston, IL 60201, USA
Interests: Bahā’ī history; Shi`i Islam; Qajar Iran; the study of religion

Dr. Zackery Mirza Heern

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Guest Editor

Department of History, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 83209, USA
Interests: Middle East; Islam; Shi'ism; Iran; Iraq; world history

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Bahā’ī Faith has been in existence for over 160 years and in that time has spread around the world such that there are now organized Bahā’ī communities in almost every country of the world and, according to the statistics compiled by the Association of Religion Data Archives, over 7 million Bahā’īs.¹ All such statistics can be problematized but what is undoubted is that the Bahā’ī Faith has not received from the academic community the amount of attention and research that its size and rapid growth would warrant. Until recently, there have been only a handful of scholars in North America and Europe and almost none in the rest of the world who have had this religion as the main focus of their research and very few papers and monographs were published in the past one hundred years or so. The situation is improving gradually but only slowly so.

The collection of papers in this Special Issue is a small effort toward correcting this deficit in the publications available to the academic world. The theme has been made deliberately broad so that the scholars who contribute can present the research they are currently engaged in.

Note

https://www.thearda.com/QL2010/QuickList_125.asp (accessed 26 May 2022)
©2001 World Christian Trends, William Carey Library, David Barrett & Todd Johnson

Tentative Completion Schedule

Abstract submission deadline: 1 January 2022
Notification of abstract acceptance: 15 January 2022
Full manuscript deadline: 30 December 2022

Dr. Moojan Momen
Dr. Zackery Mirza Heern
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Baha'i
Baha'i history
Baha'i textual studies
Baha'i doctrinal studies
Babi movement
Bahai

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Published Papers (12 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 299 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Ante Litteram Critique of Orientalism: The Case of Abu’l-Faḍā’il-i-Gulpāyigānī and E.G. Browne

by Mina Yazdani and Omid Ghaemmaghami

Religions 2023, 14(6), 765; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060765 - 9 Jun 2023

Viewed by 1446

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, the term Orientalism has been closely associated with Edward Said (d. 2003) and his influential monograph of the same name. First published in 1978, Orientalism advanced a number of critiques about the discipline of “Oriental Studies”, its frequently condescending portrayal and depiction of the Eastern world, and the complex relationship between knowledge and power in the context of the Middle East. As revolutionary as a number of Said’s theses have been, in his critique of Orientalism and in particular his penetrating analysis of the relationship between knowledge and power, Said was not breaking entirely new ground. In fact, seven decades earlier, a voice from the Orient itself, the Persian Bahā’ī scholar Mīrzā Abu’l-Faḍā’il-i Gulpāyigānī (d. 1914), expressed a similar, albeit embryonic, critique of Orientalism. Abu’l-Faḍā’il’s analysis, presented in the opening chapters of his final book Kashfu’l-Ghiṭā’, focused on one of the foremost Orientalists of his time, the Cambridge scholar Edward Granville Browne (d. 1926). Rather than studying the extent to which Browne fits the paradigm of Orientalism (a topic some scholars have previously expressed views on), this article explores ways in which Abu’l-Faḍā’il’s critique of Browne’s study of the Orient can be viewed as a nascent prefiguration of some of the theses developed and advanced by Said decades later. Gulpāyigānī’s precedence as a Bahā’ī scholar in discerning and addressing the link between Western scholars’ knowledge production and the colonial power relations of their respective governments with the countries or areas they studied, helps correct a misconception forged about Bahā’īs. Historical narratives produced in anti-Bahā’ī polemics decades after Gulpāyigānī’s death created a master-narrative that cast Bahā’īs as agents of colonial powers, sweeping under the rug counterarguments such as those posed by Gulpāyigānī’s critique. The authors of this article have been motivated by this corrective goal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

23 pages, 818 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Role of Wonder in Creating Identity

by Todd Lawson

Religions 2023, 14(6), 762; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060762 - 8 Jun 2023

Viewed by 1815

Abstract

Although the Bahāʾī Faith was born in a Shīʿī Islamic cultural milieu it has clearly gone beyond the “gravitational pull” of Islām and assumed a distinctive social, scriptural, and religious identity. Bahāʾīs revere Islām as “the source and background of their Faith” and consider the Qurʾān the only authentic, uncorrupted scripture apart from their own. However, Bahāʾī teachings insist that this new religious movement is more than a sectarian development. It represents a distinctive—if you will “autonomous”—religious dispensation along the lines of the development of Christianity out of its original Jewish setting. This assertion and trajectory is clear in the very earliest scriptures of the new religion revealed by the Bāb and runs through subsequent Bahāʾī writings. A key term, badīʿ, used dozens of times by the Bāb in his annunciatory composition, the Qayyūm al-Asmāʾ, denotes this sense of the “wondrously new”, something that is simultaneously ancient and unprecedented. It is suggested here that this term is a central and pivotal idea in the Bāb’s vision and that it had a major role in generating the imaginative and kerygmatic cultural energy that would eventually result in the above-mentioned escape from an Islamic orbit. The word badīʿ eventually acquires a life of its own in Bahāʾī thought and practice. It is the word used to designate the new calendar whose current year is 180 B.E., “Bahāʾī Era” or “Badīʿ Era”. It is used in the title of one of Bahāʾuʾllāh’s major books, the Kitāb-i Badīʿ. It is given as a name for one of the young heroes of the Bahāʾī Faith who was tortured and killed because he dared to attempt to communicate directly with the Shah of Iran to testify to the truth of Bahāʾuʾllāh’s mission. It is a word encountered frequently throughout the Bahāʾī writings and translated various ways. It functions as an emblem and symbol of the Bahāʾī ethos and message. The main focus here is the Qayyūm al-Asmāʾ, the Bāb’s proclamatory summons, disguised as a Qurʾān commentary, in which he claimed to be in immediate and intimate contact with the hidden Imām and, therefore, the centre of all authority (walāya) whether political or spiritual. The clarion message of the Qayyūm al-Asmāʾ, in which the much repeated Arabic word badīʿ is a powerful and vibrant symbol of “the new”, is that a profound and radical covenantal renewal—as distinct from “revivification/tajdīd”—is at hand, a renewal that would evolve into a distinctive Bahāʾī communal identity that is simultaneously–and therefore wondrously–new and primordial. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

13 pages, 833 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Bāb on the Rights of Women

by Siyamak Zabihi-Moghaddam

Religions 2023, 14(6), 705; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060705 - 25 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2091

Abstract

In his writings, the Bāb (1819–1850), the founder of the Bābī religion, introduced laws and pronounced ethical injunctions pertaining to women that marked a significant departure from Muslim legal norms and social customs prevailing in Iran and the wider Islamic world. His statements signal a deliberate attempt to improve the status of women, including in marital relations. They addressed issues such as mutʿah and taḥlīl marriages, polygyny, bridal consent, divorce and spousal relations. This article examines the Bāb’s statements on these issues and reflects on their significance for the rights of women in the context of Muslim juridical opinions and social customs, focusing mainly on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

13 pages, 899 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Wave of Bahā’ī Intellectual Thought: The Impact and Contributions of World Order Magazine

by Seena B. Fazel

Religions 2023, 14(4), 497; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040497 - 4 Apr 2023

Viewed by 1636

Abstract

This paper explores the scholarship and intellectual contribution of the second series of World Order magazine, which published from 1966 until 2008 over 38 volumes. In so doing, I provide a narrative overview of the main themes and papers in World Order, and by extension some of the topics being discussed in the worldwide Bahā’ī community. This is complemented by interviews with past World Order editors, who provided information on papers, topics and issues that generated the most interest and print runs, a listing of the number of pieces and articles by topic, and a questionnaire survey of those attending an academic Bahā’ī conference. I compare themes identified in the overview with contemporary discourses over a similar period drawing on surveys of textbook and journal contents in similar areas. In addition, I summarise available information on the most cited (from Google Scholar) and downloaded (from Bahā’ī Library online) World Order papers, and hence those contributions with the most impact using these quantitative approaches. I show that Abizadeh’s paper on ‘Ethnicity, Race, and a Possible Humanity’, which discusses how the concept of the oneness of humanity can potentially address racial problems, is the most cited paper, and Stokes’s paper on ‘The Story of Joseph in Five Religious Traditions’, a piece on comparative religion, is the most downloaded. Overall, the most cited and downloaded papers are indicative of the breadth of topics covered in World Order, with pieces on political philosophy, law, education, history, theology, and psychology. The number of articles and editorials on social issues, such as racial justice, women’s rights, and environmentalism, is one indication that the Bahā’ī community was at the forefront of thinking about social action. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

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58 pages, 702 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Bahá’í Faith and the Equality, Rights, and Advancement of Women: A Survey of Principles, Praxis, and Discourse

by Wendi Momen

Religions 2023, 14(4), 491; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040491 - 4 Apr 2023

Viewed by 2074

Abstract

This article examines the Bahá’í approach to the equality of women and men, the education, advancement, and rights of women and girls; their application within the Bahá’í community; and the efforts of the Bahá’ís to influence the international discourse on women. Focusing on significant and interrelated social issues—the education of girls; leadership and participation in decision-making, and violence against women and girls—the article explores these through Bahá’í texts, accounts, and examples of how these have been operationalized by Bahá’í institutions, communities, and individuals; individuals; and in public statements made by Bahá’í institutions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

13 pages, 439 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Who Was a Bahā’ī in the Upper Echelons of Qājār Iran?

by Moojan Momen

Religions 2023, 14(4), 469; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040469 - 1 Apr 2023

Viewed by 1533

Abstract

This paper addresses two questions: first, that of the nature of multiple religious identities in a traditional society; second, that of who can be identified as Bahā’īs in the upper echelons of Qājār Iran. The paper identifies five criteria by which individuals can be identified as having been Bahā’īs and suggests that, since none of these are usually conclusive by themselves, more than one of the criteria should be fulfilled before we label someone as a Bahā’ī. The various grades of being a Bahā’ī are also examined. The paper lists a number of examples of people from the Qājār royal family and from among the highest echelons of the Qājār administration who fulfill these criteria. It also looks at two individuals who have not been claimed to be Bahā’īs in the usual Iranian and Bahā’ī histories, and yet, if a close study of their lives is made, considerable evidence can be accumulated that they may have been crypto-Bahā’īs. In all, this paper indicates that there may have been many Bahā’īs in the upper strata of Qājār society, that this is a factor that has not previously been sufficiently recognized and needs to be examined for the light that it may shed on other matters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

25 pages, 4380 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Translation of the Arabic Duʿāʾ al-Saḥar (The Dawn Supplication) or Duʿāʾ al-Bahāʾ (The Supplication of Splendour) with Select Expository Scriptural Writings of the Bāb and Bahāʾu’llāh

by Stephen Lambden

Religions 2023, 14(3), 426; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030426 - 21 Mar 2023

Viewed by 2023

Abstract

This article provides a full English translation of the Du’ā’ al-saḥar or Dawn Supplication for the Islamic month of Ramaḍān. Attributed to certain Imams whom Twelver Shī`ī Muslims regard as the successors of the Prophet Muhammad, it is an Arabic invocatory devotional also known from around the 13th century CE after its opening words, as the Du‘ā al-Bahā (Supplication of Splendour–Glory–Light). It is commonly ascribed to the fifth Imam Muhammad al-Bāqir (d. c. 126/743) or as transmitted through his son, the sixth Imam Ja‘far al-Ṣādiq (d. c. 138/765). The former version or recension has around 22 invocations, while the sixth Imam’s recension is known as the Du‘ā’ al-mubāhalah (The Supplication for Mutual Imprecation) and is considerably longer, consisting of over 30 supplicatory lines. This latter recension had its origin at a time when Muhammad was challenged near Medina by certain Yemenite Christians of Najrān about his messianic status as a Prophet in the light of theological and Christological issues. Both Sayyid ‘Alī Muḥammad Shīrāzī, “the Bāb” (1819–1850), and Mīrzā Ḥusayn ‘Alī Nūrī, “Bahā’u’llāh” (1817–1892) gave great importance to this supplication (or these two related supplications) and were much influenced by its vocabulary and rhythmic, cascading content relating the Names of God. The Bāb interpreted it on Islamic and imamological lines in his Persian Dalā’il-i saba‘ (The Seven Proofs). He cited it often, both in early texts and within numerous later major writings, including the Kitāb al-asmā’ (The Book of Names) and the Kitāb-i panj sha’n (The Book of the Seven Modes [of Revelation]). In his Persian Bayān and other writings, he used nineteen of its invocatory divine Names to frame the structure and names of his annual calendar of nineteen months: his new, wondrous or Badī‘ calendar (“The New/Regenerative Calendar”). This calendar was furthermore adopted by Baha’u’llah in his Kitāb-i aqdas (The Most Holy Book). His own theophanic title, evolving from “Jināb-i Bahā’” (His eminence the Glory) to “Bahā’u’llāh” (the Glory of God) is closely related and is rooted in this and certain similar texts. Baha’u’llah referred to the Du‘ā’ al-saḥar as the Lawh-i baqā’ (The Scriptural Tablet of Eternity) and understood its opening lines as an allusion to his person as the embodiment of the Supreme or Greatest Name of God (al-ism al-a`ẓam). Several of the Arabic and Persian writings in which the founder of the Baha’i religion interprets the Du‘ā’ al-saḥar are translated in this current paper. Their content demonstrates the extent to which he elevated this powerful Islamic text. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

7 pages, 262 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The mi‘rāj in Select Shaykhī, Bābī, and Bahā’ī Texts

by Sholeh A. Quinn

Religions 2023, 14(3), 397; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030397 - 15 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1105

Abstract

The mi‘raj, or ascension of the Prophet Muhammad to heaven, has received a great deal of attention on the part of Islamic scholars and writers, who expanded upon a short Qur’anic passage and communicated their understanding of this episode. Nineteenth century religious leaders associated with the the Shaykhī, Bābī, and Bahā’ī movements continued the practice of commenting on the mi‘rāj. Rather than communicating fixed ideas about the meaning of the mi‘raj, their writings reflect the contexts in which they were composed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

22 pages, 390 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Last Prophet and Last Day: Shaykhī, Bābī and Bahā’ī Exegesis of the “Seal of the Prophets” (Q. 33:40)

by Christopher Buck and Youli A. Ioannesyan

Religions 2023, 14(3), 341; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030341 - 4 Mar 2023

Viewed by 2292

Abstract

The appearance of post-Islamic religions, the Bābī and Bahā’ī Faiths, is a theoretical impossibility from an orthodox Muslim perspective, since the Qur’ān designates the Prophet Muḥammad as the “Seal of the Prophets” (Q. 33:40), widely understood as meaning the “Last of the Prophets”. To overcome this problem, the respective prophet-founders, the Bāb (1819–1850) and Bahā’u’llāh (1817–1892), each presented novel approaches which this article will explore. In short, the Bāb revealed a “new” Qur’ān, i.e., the Qayyūm al-Asmā’ (1844), and Bahā’u’llāh wrote the Kitāb-i Īqān (Book of Certitude) in January 1861. While acknowledging Muḥammad as the last prophet in the “Prophetic Cycle”, the Bāb and Bahā’u’llāh inaugurated the advent of the “Cycle of Fulfillment”. This new era was foretold in the Qur’ān by way of a symbolic code, understood metaphorically and spiritually. A key concept is that of the “divine presence” (liqā’ Allāh), i.e., the encounter/“meeting” with God, whereby Q. 33:44, Q. 83:6, Q. 7:35 (and their respective parallels) effectively transcend Q. 33:40. Recognizing that the Bāb and Bahā’u’llāh each manifests the “divine presence” thereby constitutes a “realized eschatology”. This paper represents the first time that a wide-ranging survey and analysis of the Shaykhī, Bābī, and Bahā’ī viewpoints on the subject of the “Seal of the Prophets” has been made and is the result of a collaboration between two scholars working in the United States and Russia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

17 pages, 355 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Bāb and ʿAlī Muḥammad, Islamic and Post-Islamic: Multiple Meanings in the Writings of Sayyid ʿAlī Muḥammad Shīrāzī (1819–1850)

by Zackery Mirza Heern

Religions 2023, 14(3), 334; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030334 - 2 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2022

Abstract

Instead of arguing whether or not Sayyid ʿAlī Muḥammad Shīrāzī (the Bāb, 1819–1850) and his writings are Islamic, this paper suggests that they are simultaneously Islamic and post-Islamic. The Bāb’s Qayyūm al-asmāʾ, written at the outset of the Bābī movement in 1844, can be understood as a commentary on the Quran, the original Quran, and divine revelation. Although the Bāb gradually disclosed his identity to the public, his status (associated with the Imām, Muḥammad, and a manifestation of God) is present in the Qayyūm al-asmāʾ, in which he refers to himself as the Gate (Bāb), Remembrance (Dhikr), Point (Nuqṭah), ʿAlī, and Muḥammad. The Bāb participates in the long tradition of Islamic literary culture by creating meaning through metaphorical, symbolic, and paradoxical language, which for the Bāb ultimately point to post-Islamic revelation. The simultaneous absence and presence of Islam in the Bāb’s writings created a real-world division between the Bāb’s followers and his critics, many of whom were Muslim scholars. By focusing on multiple meanings in the Bāb’s texts, this paper analyzes the interplay between the Bāb’s identity and his writings as they relate to Islam. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

11 pages, 262 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Bābī Theology in Poetry: The Creative Imagination of Tāhirih, Qurratu’l-ʿAyn

by Anthony A. Lee

Religions 2023, 14(3), 328; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030328 - 1 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1452

Abstract

Tāhirih, also known as Qurratu’l-‘Ayn (1814–1852), was one of the leading disciples of the Bāb (1819–1844), Sayyid ‘Alī-Muhammad of Shiraz, the founder of Babism. She was formally educated in Islamic learning and theology, but relied heavily on inspiration for some of her most radical doctrines. Her poems contain radical theological pronouncements that would propel the Bābī movement beyond Islam. By no means typical or representative of other Bābī scholars, her theology seems to be filled with a woman’s sensibility, with its inclination towards peace, justice, and reconciliation. At certain moments, Tāhirih anticipates developments in Bābī /Bahā’ī teachings that would not take place until decades later. Tāhirih’s poetic voice offers a unique Bābī theology understood, perhaps, only by her few (women?) followers at the time. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

13 pages, 429 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“This Is a Progression, Not Conversion”: Narratives of First-Generation Bahá’ís

by Tova Makhani-Belkin

Religions 2023, 14(3), 300; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14030300 - 23 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2113

Abstract

This paper discusses the concept of religious conversion in the Bahá’í Faith through conversion narratives of first-generation Bahá’ís. Through life story interviews, the converts narrate their process of becoming Bahá’í as “not converting”, which aligns with a principle of the Bahá’í Faith called “progressive revelation”. Religious conversion has frequently been described in the literature as a radical, sudden, dramatic transformation–often following a personal crisis and seemingly entails a definite break with one’s former identity. Consequently, religious conversion studies have focused on the subjective experiences of the rapid changes in the lives and identities of individuals. However, such perspectives have, until now, focused mainly on Christianity and Christian models and have not adequately addressed religious conversion models in other Abrahamic religions, such as the Bahá’í Faith. The paradigm of conversion focuses our attention on the ways particular theologies shape life stories of conversion and what kind of narratives social scientists will include in the corpus of conversion. Therefore, this research asks to broaden the social scientific paradigms of religious conversion through the case study of the Bahá’í Faith. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bahā'ī Faith: Doctrinal and Historical Explorations)

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