Religion

Bahá’í Faith

bah-HY fayth

Also Known As Baha'i Faith The apostrophised spelling of the stored ASCII name. · Bahaism The older English -ism form. · Bahai Unaccented and unpunctuated spelling of the Bahai Faith.

Abrahamic (Monotheistic)

Origin 1844 to 1863

The Bahai Faith holds that God is unknowable in essence and made known through a succession of messengers, among them Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus and Muhammad, whose teachings differ because the ages that received them differed. Bahaullah, a nineteenth-century Persian nobleman, is held to be the most recent. From this follow its characteristic teachings: that the great religions are one in origin, that humanity is one race whose unification is the task of the present age, that women and men are equal, that religion and science must agree, and that prejudice and inherited dogma obstruct all of it. There is no clergy; affairs are directed by elected councils.

History & Origin

The Baha'i Faith traces its origin to the teaching of Baha'u'llah in nineteenth century Persia, preceded by the Bab, a herald whose own movement, Babism, Baha'is regard as a distinct precursor faith.

Facts

Belief

Supreme Being

A single, unknowable God, held to have revealed himself progressively through a succession of messengers or manifestations including Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, the Bab and Baha'u'llah. 2

Theology

Monotheistic: one God 1

Position on Marriage

Marriage is held to be monogamous, with remarriage after divorce sanctioned under specified conditions 3

the subject's own accountMarriage is restricted to a monogamous union of a man and a woman, the sole context in which sexual relations are held licit. Baha'u'llah counsels that a couple beset by antipathy wait out a year of patience rather than divorce immediately; if reconciliation does not occur within that year, the marriage may be dissolved, and remarriage afterward is not itself prohibited.

Marriage Position Detailthe subject's own account

bahai.org states marriage is "a union between two consenting adults: a man and a woman," quoting Baha'u'llah: "God hath prescribed matrimony unto you... Enter into wedlock, O people, that ye may bring forth one who will make mention of Me amid My servants." On divorce it quotes Baha'u'llah's statement that "the Lord loveth union and harmony and abhorreth separation and divorce," counseling that "should resentment or antipathy arise between husband and wife, he is not to divorce her but to bide in patience throughout the course of one whole year, that perchance the fragrance of affection may be renewed between them." Divorce is permitted after that year of patience if reconciliation has not occurred. 3

Position on Sexuality

Same-sex sexual relationships are held contrary to teaching; LGBT individuals are welcomed as members but not ordained, and same-sex unions are not blessed 4

the subject's own accountBaha'i law holds licit sexual relations to a monogamous marriage between a man and a woman, so it does not recognize a same-sex marriage and does not extend the marriage law to same-sex couples. Persons of any sexual orientation are nonetheless welcomed as members on the same basis as any other applicant, and Baha'i institutions are instructed, per the Universal House of Justice's 1995 letter, that regarding homosexual people with prejudice or disdain is against the spirit of the Faith.

Sexuality Position Detailthe subject's own account

bahai.us states "sexual relations are only permissible between a couple who are married to each other," and marriage is "between a man and a woman," so "it is not possible to recognize same-sex marriage within the Baha'i community." A person with same-sex attraction "should be treated like any other people seeking admittance to the Baha'i Faith, and be accepted on the same basis," with membership carrying the same expectation of aligning conduct to Baha'i teaching as any other member's. Quoting the Universal House of Justice's letter of 11 September 1995, the page states "to regard those with a homosexual orientation with prejudice or disdain would be entirely against the spirit of the Baha'i Faith." 4

Origins

Origin Period

1844 to 1863 1

Place of Origin

Persia and Ottoman Iraq: Shiraz, Baghdad and Acre 1

Founder

Baha'u'llah (1817-1892), preceded by the Bab (1819-1850) 1

Status

Status Today

Living tradition, practised today 1

Legal Status

Egypt's national identity card system recognized only Islam, Christianity and Judaism in its religion field, leaving Bahais unable to obtain identity documents essential to daily civic life. Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court ruled on 16 March 2009 that a dash could be entered in the field instead, and the Interior Ministry implemented the ruling by decree the following month; the first identity cards issued to Bahais under the new policy were dated 8 August 2009. 5

Trajectory

Membership Over Timethe subject's own account

By 2010, three independent outside demographic estimates converged in a narrow range: the World Religion Database gave 7.3 million, the Association of Religion Data Archives gave 7.6 million, and the CIA World Factbook gave 7.8 million (0.11 percent of world population). All three sit well above the Baha'i World Centre's own current figure recorded below, a divergence in the opposite direction from the Church of Scientology's case in this axis, where the tradition's own claim runs far ABOVE outside counts. 9

Membership Over Time

The Baha'i World Centre's own statistics page currently states, as an undated ongoing figure, that there are more than 5 million Baha'is worldwide, present in well over 100,000 localities, notably lower than the outside demographic estimates of 7.3 to 7.8 million recorded above for 2010; the page names no counting method behind the total, unlike the church-reported figures this axis records for PC(USA), the ELCA and the UCC. 10

Membership Over Timethe subject's own account

The Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd edition, 2005) states that worldwide Baha'i numbers stood at a little more than one million at the end of the 1960s, rising to close to six million by the early 21st century, as compiled in a BahaiTeachings.org survey of population estimates. 9

Membership Figure As Ofthe subject's own account

1969-12-31 9

Membership Figure As Ofthe subject's own account

2010-01-01 9

Membership Figure As Of

2026-08-13 10

Basis of the Membership Figure

Church-Reported Rolls 10

Basis of the Membership Figurethe subject's own account

Scholarly or Demographic Estimate 9

Reach

Adherents Today

5,000,000 1

Adherents Today

The Baha'i community's own worldwide estimate is approximately five million adherents, gathered across virtually every country and territory. As with most new religious movements, no independent national census breaks the figure down apart from the community's own reporting. 1

Practice

Practice Status

Living, and practised in varied local forms 6

the subject's own accountThe Baha'i writings are published in full and the faith is explicitly non-secretive, actively distributing its scripture and teaching to the public as part of its practice. No closed initiatory core or restricted rite is documented.

Giving

Standing Giving Expectation

Huququ'llah (the Right of God), established by Baha'u'llah in the Kitab-i-Aqdas, obliges a Baha'i whose possessions reach a set threshold (nineteen mithqals of gold) to pay nineteen percent of that value once, and again on each further increase of the same size. Unlike this arm's other codified obligations, payment is explicitly left to individual conscience: the law itself states that no believer is to be approached individually to pay it, so there is no administrative consequence, such as a membership or participation gate, for not paying. 7

Standard Rate Expected

Nineteen percent. 7

How the Expectation Is Enforced

Codified Obligation With Consequences 7

Law and State

Ban or Official Watchlist

Iran's 1979 Constitution names in Article 13 only Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian Iranians as the country's recognised religious minorities, free within the law to perform their own rites and follow their own canon in personal affairs; the Baha'i Faith, Iran's largest non-Muslim religious minority, is not among them and has no legal recognition or protected status under the Iranian constitution. 8

Iran's 1979 constitution names only Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian Iranians, alongside Sunni Islam, as recognised religious minorities free to perform their own rites within the limits of the law under Article 13; the Baha'i Faith receives no such recognition at all, and the state instead treats it as a misguided sect rather than an independent religion, on the reasoning that it emerged after Islam and its adherents are apostates from it. Since the 1979 revolution Iran has executed Baha'i leaders, confiscated Baha'i-owned property and cemeteries, barred Baha'is from public sector employment and pensions, and denied Baha'i students admission to state universities, an exclusion that led the community to found its own underground Baha'i Institute for Higher Education to continue educating its young people outside the state system.

Establishment Status

No Establishment 8

No state establishes the Baha'i Faith; its distinct non-recognition is specific to Iran, whose constitution excludes it from the enumerated protected minorities (see religious-ban-or-watchlist).

Learn More

Progressive Revelation

The organising idea of the Bahai Faith is progressive revelation: that God is beyond direct human knowledge, and that what is known of God comes through a succession of figures Bahais call Manifestations, each founding a religion suited to the capacity of the age that received it. Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus, Muhammad and the Bab are named among them; Bahaullah is the most recent. He is not held to be the last, since the succession is understood to continue, though no further Manifestation is expected for a long period.

The consequence is a distinctive claim about the world's religions: that their differences are matters of social teaching, given for particular times and places, while their spiritual core is one. Bahais therefore do not regard the earlier faiths as false. That position is also what makes it difficult for others to accept. Islam holds Muhammad to be the seal of the prophets, and a claim of subsequent revelation is rejected in Islamic terms as a denial of that finality. This is the root of the hostility the faith has met in Iran since its beginning, and the two sides describe the relationship in incompatible terms: an independent religion on one account, a heresy out of Shia Islam on the other.

The teachings that follow are stated plainly: the oneness of God, of religion and of humanity, with racial and national prejudice named as the obstacles to the last; the equality of women and men; universal education; the harmony of science and religion; the abolition of extremes of wealth and poverty; independent investigation of truth rather than inherited belief; and an international auxiliary language and system of collective security. Scripture is the writings of the Bab, Bahaullah and Abdul-Baha, an unusually large body of text recorded in the founders' own lifetimes, which removes many questions of transmission that surround older traditions.

A Faith Without Clergy

The Bahai Faith has no priests, ministers or ordained office of any kind, and no sermon in its worship. Bahaullah abolished professional clergy, and the functions clergy usually carry are divided instead between individual conscience and elected bodies.

Administration rests on Spiritual Assemblies, elected annually at local and national level by secret ballot. There is no nomination and no campaigning; electors vote for whoever they judge fit, which is intended to keep the process clear of the factionalism the faith regards as its chief danger. Every five years the members of the national bodies elect the Universal House of Justice, the international governing council, established in 1963 and seated in Haifa near the shrines of Bahaullah and the Bab. Its authority to legislate on matters not covered in scripture is accepted as binding.

Individual practice is correspondingly plain: obligatory daily prayer, a nineteen-day fast from sunrise to sunset each March, abstinence from alcohol and from non-medical drugs, and contribution to Bahai funds, which are accepted only from Bahais. The calendar has nineteen months of nineteen days, and the community gathers every nineteen days for the Nineteen Day Feast, which combines devotion, consultation on community affairs and hospitality.

Consultation, a structured method of collective decision-making in which an idea once offered belongs to the group rather than to the person who raised it, is treated as a core religious practice rather than a procedural convenience. Marriage requires the consent of all living parents of both partners. Houses of Worship, of which only a small number exist worldwide, are open to people of any religion and host readings from any scripture.

A Worldwide Minority, and Iran

The Bahai community is small but exceptionally dispersed. Estimates run from about five million, the figure long cited by the faith's own institutions, to around eight million in more recent Bahai statements. Independent enumeration is difficult because the community is thinly spread and, in some countries, unsafe to count. There is a Bahai presence in most countries of the world, with the largest national community in India and substantial numbers in sub-Saharan Africa, the United States and Latin America. Much of the twentieth-century growth came from mass enrolment campaigns in rural Africa, India and the Andes, and the gap between formal enrolment and active participation is a known difficulty in the faith's own statistics.

In Iran, where it began and where it remains the largest non-Muslim religious minority, the Bahai Faith is not among the religions recognised by the constitution, and its adherents have no standing as a community in law. Persecution has been recurrent since the nineteenth century and intensified after 1979: the national administrative bodies were dissolved and members of them executed, the House of the Bab in Shiraz, a principal place of pilgrimage, was demolished, and Bahais have been barred from universities and from public employment. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, reports of the Secretary-General, and successive Human Rights Council resolutions have documented arbitrary arrest, confiscation of property, denial of education and closure of businesses, and describe the persecution as persistent and continuing rather than historical.

Bahai teaching forbids partisan political activity and requires obedience to civil government, which leaves the community little recourse beyond international advocacy on its behalf.

Spread History

Marker size and shape show how established Bahá’í Faith was there: a small filled dot for an arrival, a larger one for an established or dominant presence, and a hollow, distinct marker where it was suppressed or nearly disappeared, never simply absent.

3 events have a recorded place with no map coordinate yet, so they are not marked above: Shoghi Effendi Becomes Guardian of the Baha'i Faith (Haifa), The Bahai World Marks Its Centenary With the Publication of God Passes By (Illinois), UNESCO Inscribes the Baha'i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee (Haifa).

View the Full Spread Map

The Bab Declares His Mission in ShirazIran, 1844 to 1863, Arrived
The Baha'i Faith Is Proclaimed In BaghdadIraq, 1863, Arrived
Baha'u'llah Is Exiled To AkkaIsrael, 1868, Established
The Baha'i Faith Reaches The United StatesUnited States, 1894, Arrived
The Young Turk Revolution Frees Abdu'l-Baha From Ottoman ImprisonmentIsrael, 1908, Revived
Shoghi Effendi Becomes Guardian of the Baha'i FaithHaifa, 1921, Established
The Bahai World Marks Its Centenary With the Publication of God Passes ByIllinois, 1944, Established
The Mother Temple Of Africa Opens In UgandaUganda, 1951 to 1961, Established
The Universal House of Justice Is First Elected in HaifaIsrael, 1963, Established
The Iranian Revolution Triggers Systematic Persecution Of Baha'isIran, 1979 to 1983, Suppressed
The Terraces on Mount Carmel Are Completed and OpenedMount Carmel, 2001, Established
UNESCO Inscribes the Baha'i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western GalileeHaifa, 2008, Established
The Baha'i House of Worship Opens in SantiagoChile, 2016, Established
The First National Baha'i House of Worship Opens in KinshasaDemocratic Republic of the Congo, 2023, Established
The National Baha'i House of Worship of Papua New Guinea Is Dedicated in Port MoresbyPapua New Guinea, 2024, Established
The Design of Cameroon's First Local Baha'i House of Worship Is Unveiled in BatouriCameroon, 2026, Established

Correspondences & Relations

Pantheons

Baha'i

Connections

Associated With

Extracts From the Baha'i Writings on Family Life and Marriage (Baha'i International Community)

This source names Bahai directly: "bahai.org's own compilation of Baha'i writings on marriage states that marriage is "a..."

Source Extracts From the Baha'i Writings on Family Life and Marriage (Baha'i International Community)the holders' own account

Indo-Iranian

Baha'u'llah's Persian writings are Indo-Iranian (Iranian branch), alongside Arabic; the family already carries an edge to Zoroastrianism, the other major Persian-rooted tradition.

Source The Indo-Aryan LanguagesGeorge Cardona and Dhanesh Jain (eds.)

Persians

The Bab and Baha'u'llah were both Persian; Persian is one of the faith's two scriptural languages.

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Radio (Bahaipedia)

This source names Bahá’í Faith directly: "Bahaipedia is a community-maintained encyclopedia about the Bahá'í Faith; this article gives station-level detail (call signs, frequencies, staffing) on the Bahá'í radio network that corroborates..."

Source Radio (Bahaipedia)

Santiago Baha'i Temple (Wikipedia)

This source names Bahai directly: "Wikipedia's article on the Santiago Baha'i Temple in Penalolen, Santiago, Chile, comm..."

Source Santiago Baha'i Temple (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Shoghi Effendi Rabbani (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

This source names Bahá’í Faith directly: "Encyclopaedia Britannica's biography of Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, documenting his 1 March 1897 birth in Acre, his 1918 degree from the American University in Beirut, his further study at Balliol..."

Source Shoghi Effendi Rabbani (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

Tehran

The Bahai Faith traces the first intimation of Bahaullah's revelation to a Tehran prison.

The 1903 Yazd Massacre

The Baha'i community of Yazd and its surrounding villages was the massacre's target throughout the month of violence.

Source Bahaism vii. Bahai Persecutions (Encyclopaedia Iranica)Denis MacEoin

The 1955 Anti-Baha'i Campaign in Iran

The Baha'i community of Iran, and its national center in Tehran specifically, was the campaign's target throughout.

Source A Faith Denied: The Persecution of the Baha'is of Iran (IHRDC)

The Bab (Wikipedia)

This source names Bahai directly: "Wikipedia's article on the Bab, born Siyyid Ali-Muhammad Shirazi, community-edited. R..."

Source The Bab (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The Babi Persecutions in Iran

The Baha'i Teachings and Homosexuality (Baha'is of the United States)

This source names Bahai directly: "bahai.us states that "sexual relations are only permissible between a couple who are..."

Source The Baha'i Teachings and Homosexuality (Baha'is of the United States)the holders' own account

The Gate's Own Site and Letterboxd Records

This source names Bahá’í Faith directly: "Two records held together: the film's own official distribution site (thegate.vhx.tv), whose own synopsis states "As the world suffers from the divisive forces of strife and intolerance, a new Faith..."

Source The Gate's Own Site and Letterboxd Records

The Life and Work of Shoghi Effendi (Baha'i Reference Library)

This source names Bahá’í Faith directly: "The worldwide Baha'i community's own reference library account, published at bahai.org, of Shoghi Effendi's life and thirty six year guardianship of the Baha'i Faith, documenting his November 1921..."

Source The Life and Work of Shoghi Effendi (Baha'i Reference Library)

Wikipedia, Baha'i Faith (source)

This source names Bahá’í Faith directly: "Wikipedia's article on Baha'i Faith, a continuously edited tertiary source with no fixed publication year, accessed 2026-08-20."

Source Wikipedia, Baha'i Faith (source)Wikipedia contributors

Derived From

Babism

Most Babis became Baha'i after Baha'u'llah's 1863 declaration in Baghdad; the Bab is venerated in Baha'i teaching as Baha'u'llah's herald.

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Founded By

Baha'u'llah

Source The Oxford Dictionary of World ReligionsJohn Bowker (ed.)

Objects and Practices of This Tradition

Abdu'l-Baha

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Abha Kingdom

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Angels and Spirits

The Bahai writings treat angels as a symbol for perfected human souls and for divine confirmations rather than as a separate order of beings, so the ranked hierarchies of the Western tradition have no place in Bahai belief.

Source Pseudomonarchia DaemonumJohann Weyer

Auxiliary Board Member

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Ayyam-i-Ha

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Badi (Baha'i) Calendar

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Bahá’í Funeral

Set out in Baha'i law.

Source The Kitab-i-Aqdas, The Most Holy BookBahaullahthe holders' own account

Baha'i House of Worship

Mandated in the Kitab-i-Aqdas as the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar.

Source The Kitab-i-Aqdas, The Most Holy BookBahaullahthe holders' own account

Baha'i House of Worship

Baha'i Long Obligatory Prayer

Baha'i Medium Obligatory Prayer

Source An Introduction to the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Baha'i Prayer for the Dead

Source An Introduction to the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Baha'i Short Obligatory Prayer

Source Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llahBaha'u'llah (comp. and trans. Shoghi Effendi)the holders' own account

Baha'u'llah

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Birth of Baha'u'llah

Source An Introduction to the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Birth of the Bab

Source An Introduction to the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Burial

Source The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)Anonymous (multiple authors)

Continental Counsellor

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Dawn of the Light

Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.

Day of the Covenant

Source An Introduction to the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Declaration of the Bab

Source An Introduction to the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Hand of the Cause of God

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

House of the Bab, Shiraz

Source An Introduction to the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Hummingbird (1973)

Written by two practicing Baha'is whose stated purpose, repeated across decades of interviews, was to carry Baha'i teaching into their songwriting; this song's own lyrics quote Baha'i scripture directly.

Source Wikipedia, "Hummingbird (Seals & Crofts Song)"Wikipedia contributors

Huquq'llah

The Right of God, instituted in the Kitab-i-Aqdas.

Source The Kitab-i-Aqdas, The Most Holy BookBahaullahthe holders' own account

Independent Investigation of Truth

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Kitab-i-Aqdas

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Kitab-i-Iqan

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Lotus Temple

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Martyrdom of the Bab

Source An Introduction to the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Member of a Local Spiritual Assembly

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Member of a National Spiritual Assembly

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Member of the Universal House of Justice

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Mount Carmel

Source The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological GuideJerome Murphy-O'Connor

Mulla Husayn

Mulla Husayn was the first of the Letters of the Living and a founding figure of the Babi movement from which the Baha'i Faith emerged.

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Najibiyyih Garden (Garden of Ridvan), Baghdad

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

New Era High School

New Era High School was founded by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of India, Burma and Ceylon and remains under Baha'i institutional governance today, so linked to the Baha'i Faith at the religion level.

Source The Baha'i World, Volume XVI (1973-1976): The History of New Era High SchoolThe Baha'i World Centre, under the supervision of the Universal House of Justice

Nine-Pointed Star

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Nineteen Day Feast

The Nineteen Day Feast, instituted by the Bab and confirmed in Baha'u'llah's Kitab-i-Aqdas, belongs to the Baha'i Faith, its own Origin field.

Source The Kitab-i-Aqdas, The Most Holy BookBahaullahthe holders' own account

Nowruz

Source The Zend-Avesta, Part III: the Yasna, Visparad, Afrinagan, Gahs (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 31)L. H. Mills

Numerology

The Bahai Faith carries a marked numerical symbolism inherited from its Babi origins: the value nineteen governs the calendar of nineteen months of nineteen days, and the Bab's own title is derived by abjad reckoning.

Source Cheiro's Book of NumbersCheiro (William John Warner)

Oneness of God

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Oneness of Humanity

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Oneness of Religion

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Prayer

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Progressive Revelation

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

Radio Bahá'í

Source Bahá'í Radio (Wikipedia)

Ridvan

Source An Introduction to the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Shoghi Effendi

Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, 1921 to 1957.

Source The Baha'i Faith: A Beginner's GuideMoojan Momen

Shrine of Baha'u'llah

Source Shrine of Baha'u'llah, Wikipedia

Tahirih

One of the eighteen Letters of the Living; foundational Babi and Baha'i figure.

Source The Sources for Early Babi Doctrine and HistoryDenis MacEoin

The Absence of Clergy

Source Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llahBaha'u'llah (comp. and trans. Shoghi Effendi)the holders' own account

The Adamic Cycle and the Baha'i Cycle

The Appointment of Abdu'l-Baha in the Covenant

The Ascension of Baha'u'llah

The Bab

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The Bahai Pilgrimage to Haifa and Acre

The Baha'i World Centre

The Birth of Baha'u'llah

The Birth of the Bab

The Covenant

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The Declaration of Baha'u'llah at Ridvan

The Declaration of the Bab

The First Election of the Universal House of Justice

The Gate: Dawn of the Baha'i Faith (Bob Hercules, 2018)

The film's own official synopsis names the Baha'i Faith outright as its subject, making this the first screen work the atlas holds for the tradition.

Source The Gate's Own Site and Letterboxd Records

The Hidden Words

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

The Historic Bahai Pilgrimage to Shiraz and Baghdad

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

The Manifestations of God

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The Martyrdom of the Bab

The Nineteen-Day Fast

Prescribed in the Kitab-i-Aqdas as one of the faith's central obligations.

Source The Kitab-i-Aqdas, The Most Holy BookBahaullahthe holders' own account

The Revelation in the Siyah-Chal

The Siyah Chal

The unity of all religions

Source Encyclopedia of ReligionMircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.)

The Universal House of Justice

The Universal House of Justice is the supreme institution of the Baha'i administrative order.

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Persecuted In

The Post-1979 Persecution of Baha'is in Iran

Source Persecution Of Baha'is (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Sacred to This Deity

Haifa

Haifa holds the administrative and spiritual center of the Bahai Faith.

Holy Land

The Baha'i World Centre, Haifa and Bahji/Akko, is the faith's administrative and spiritual seat and pilgrimage destination.

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

The Baha'i World Centre

The World Centre is the spiritual and administrative heart of the Baha'i Faith.

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

The Siyah Chal

Baha'i teaching places the first revelation to Baha'u'llah in this dungeon.

Spread Events

Baha'u'llah Is Exiled To Akka

Source Baha'u'llah (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Shoghi Effendi Becomes Guardian of the Baha'i Faith

Adds a specific, dated succession between the Baha'i Faith reaching the United States in 1894 and the Mother Temple of Africa opening in Uganda in 1951, both already recorded here: the November 1921 death of 'Abdu'l-Baha at Haifa and the reading of his Will and Testament naming his grandson Shoghi Effendi Guardian of the Cause of God, the office that led the Faith through its thirty six year formative age.

Source The Life and Work of Shoghi Effendi (Baha'i Reference Library)

The Bab Declares His Mission in Shiraz

The true origin point of the Baha'i Faith's own map, nineteen years earlier than the 1863 Baghdad proclamation already recorded there and the only event on record before it.

Source The Bab (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The Baha'i Faith Is Proclaimed In Baghdad

Source Baha'u'llah (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The Baha'i Faith Reaches The United States

Source Baha'i Faith In The United States (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The Baha'i House of Worship Opens in Santiago

The most recent event on the Baha'i Faith's own map by thirty seven years, marking the completion of its worldwide continental temple programme.

Source Santiago Baha'i Temple (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The Bahai World Marks Its Centenary With the Publication of God Passes By

Adds a specific, dated milestone in Baha'i history between Shoghi Effendi's 1921 appointment as Guardian and the Mother Temple of Africa's 1951 opening in Uganda, both already recorded here: the Faith's 23 May 1944 centenary, marked worldwide with the publication of Shoghi Effendi's God Passes By.

Source Shoghi Effendi, "God Passes By" (1944)Shoghi Effendi

The Design of Cameroon's First Local Baha'i House of Worship Is Unveiled in Batouri

Closes a gap of almost two years since 2024's citation of the dedication of Papua New Guinea's national Baha'i House of Worship, moving the map from a completed national temple to the design stage of Cameroon's first local temple, one of three the Universal House of Justice called for the same year.

Source House of Worship: Design Unveiled for the First Local Baha'i Temple in Cameroon (Baha'i World News Service)

The First National Baha'i House of Worship Opens in Kinshasa

Closes a 10 year gap since 2016's The Baha'i House Of Worship Opens In Santiago, the most recent event already on the Baha'i Faith's map, with the faith's first national House of Worship, dedicated in Kinshasa.

Source DRC: First National House of Worship Opens Its Doors (Baha'i World News Service)

The Iranian Revolution Triggers Systematic Persecution Of Baha'is

Source Persecution Of Baha'is (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The Mother Temple Of Africa Opens In Uganda

Source Baha'i Faith In Uganda (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

The National Baha'i House of Worship of Papua New Guinea Is Dedicated in Port Moresby

Closes a one year gap since 2023's citation of the first national Baha'i House of Worship opening in Kinshasa, moving the map from the faith's first national temple in Africa to its counterpart for Papua New Guinea, the second building built for the population of an entire country.

Source A Beacon of Light and Hope: Baha'i House of Worship Inaugurated in Papua New Guinea (Baha'i World News Service)

The Terraces on Mount Carmel Are Completed and Opened

Adds a specific, dated milestone in Baha'i history between the Iranian Revolution triggering systematic persecution of Baha'is in 1979 and UNESCO inscribing the Baha'i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee in 2008, both already recorded here: the completion and opening of the Terraces on Mount Carmel on 22 May 2001, which laid the groundwork for the later World Heritage inscription.

Source Statement of the Universal House of Justice for the Opening of the Terraces on Mount Carmel (Baha'i World News Service)

The Universal House of Justice Is First Elected in Haifa

Adds a milestone in Baha'i history between the Mother Temple of Africa opening in Uganda in 1951 and the Iranian Revolution triggering systematic persecution of Baha'is in 1979, both already recorded here: the Universal House of Justice's first election on 21 April 1963 in Haifa, completing the succession plan Baha'u'llah's writings had set out following Shoghi Effendi's 1957 death.

Source Origins of the Universal House of Justice (Baha'i Reference Library)

The Young Turk Revolution Frees Abdu'l-Baha From Ottoman Imprisonment

Adds a milestone in Baha'i history between the Baha'i Faith reaching the United States in 1894 and Shoghi Effendi becoming Guardian of the Baha'i Faith in 1921, both already recorded here: the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908, which freed Abdu'l-Baha after more than four decades of Ottoman confinement in Akka and let him undertake the Western journeys that carried the faith directly to Europe and North America.

Source The Life of 'Abdu'l-Baha (Bahai.org)

UNESCO Inscribes the Baha'i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee

Adds a specific, dated milestone in the Baha'i Faith's institutional recognition between the Iranian Revolution triggering systematic persecution of Baha'is in 1979 and the Baha'i House of Worship opening in Santiago in 2016, both already recorded here: UNESCO's 8 July 2008 inscription of the Baha'i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee as the first World Heritage sites of a religion born in the modern era.

Source Baha'i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Symbolized By

Nine-Pointed Star

The nine-pointed star is the most common symbol of the Bahai Faith.

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Worship Of

God (Abrahamic)

Baha'i doctrine continues the Abrahamic prophetic line and worships the same God under it.

Source A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i FaithPeter Smith

Sources

1. An Introduction to the Baha'i Faith

Peter Smith, Cambridge University Press, 2008

2. A Concise Encyclopedia of the Baha'i Faith

Peter Smith, Oneworld Publications, 2000View the Source

3. Extracts From the Baha'i Writings on Family Life and Marriage (Baha'i International Community)

Baha'i International Community (bahai.org)the stated position on marriage and its supporting detailthe holders' own accountView the Source

4. The Baha'i Teachings and Homosexuality (Baha'is of the United States)

Baha'is of the United States (National Spiritual Assembly)the stated position on sexuality and its supporting detailthe holders' own accountView the Source

5. Egypt: Decree Ends ID Bias Against Bahais (Human Rights Watch, 2009)

Human Rights WatchView the Source

6. Wikipedia, Baha'i Faith (source)

Wikipedia contributors, Wikipedia

7. The Kitab-i-Aqdas, on Huququ'llah (the Right of God)

Baha'u'llah, Baha'i Reference Library, 1873View the Source

8. Iran (Islamic Republic of) 1979 (rev. 1989) Constitution (Constitute Project)

Islamic Republic of Iran, Assembly of Experts for Constitution, Constitute ProjectView the Source

9. How Many Baha'is?

David Langness, BahaiTeachings.orgView the Source

10. Statistics

Baha'i World News Service (Baha'i World Centre)View the Source

International Religious Freedom Report

United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran

United Nations Human Rights Council, 2025Reporting through 2025

Quote, Reporting through 2025

Persecution of Bahais in Iran is documented through 2025.

View the Source

The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions

John Bowker (ed.), Oxford University Press, 1997View the Source

The Gate's Own Site and Letterboxd Records

The Gate (official site, VHX); LetterboxdObjects and Practices of This Tradition: The Gate: Dawn of the Baha'i Faith (Bob Hercules, 2018), thegate.vhx.tv; letterboxd.com/film/the-gate-dawn-of-the-bahai-faith/View the Source

Essays About This Entity (5 essays)

Mount Carmel Carries Three Living Claims, and a Fourth Named but Not Anchored

The Shrine of the Bab and the Bahai World Centre stand on its Haifa slope

Read the Essay

Burial Elaborates Judaism and Islam in Full, and Leaves the Baha'i Faith Bare

The third counted religion; neither its edge nor its own text carries anything for it

Read the Essay

Numerology Belongs to Nine Religions at Once

Reached numerology independently and late, its own devotional calendar built on the number nineteen

Read the Essay

Angels and Spirits Converges on Six Religions, From Zoroaster to the Bahai Writings

Denies the hierarchy separate standing: angels as symbol, not a separate order

Read the Essay

Prayer Is Held by Seven Religions, Each Setting Its Own Terms

Folds prayer into its own wider claim that the great religions are one in origin

Read the Essay

Community

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Organizations In This Tradition

Baha'i House of WorshipWilmette Verified
Baha'i House of Worship, Hofheim-LangenhainHofheim am Taunus Verified
Baha'i National CenterEvanston Verified
Bahá'í World CentreHaifa Verified

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