To assert that a
religion is independent of other faiths is not to argue that
it began in a religious vacuum. Buddhism emerged from a
traditional Hindu background, and only after it had crossed
the Himalayas did it assume its full character as a separate
faith destined to become a major cultural force in China,
Japan, and the lands of Southeast Asia. Similarly, Jesus
Christ and his immediate followers began their mission within
the context of Judaism and for some two centuries the movement
was regarded by neighboring peoples as a reformed branch of
the parent religion. Christianity did not appear as a separate
religion with its own scriptures, laws, and institutional and
ritual forms until it had begun to attract large numbers of
adherents from the many non-Semitic races in the Mediterranean
world.
The religious matrix of the Bahá'í Faith was Islam. Much as
Christianity was born out of the messianic expectations of
Judaism, the religion that was to become the Bahá'í Faith
arose from eschatological tensions within Islam. In the same
way, however, the Bahá'í Faith is entirely independent of its
parent religion.2
The new faith first appeared in Persia, a predominantly
Muslim country. It then spread to neighboring Muslim lands in
the Ottoman and Russian Empires and to northern India. Though
some early followers were of Jewish, Christian, or Zoroastrian
background, the vast majority had been followers of Islam.
Their religious ideas were drawn from the Qur'án, and they
were primarily interested in those aspects of their new belief
system that represented the fulfillment of Islamic prophecies
and the interpretation of Muslim teaching. Similarly, the
Islamic clergy initially saw those who followed the new faith
as Muslim heretics.3
Because of the Bahá'í Faith's Islamic background, it is
important to give consideration to the Islamic matrix out of
which it arose. Such an examination is important for a second
reason as well: Islam fits into a concept of both religious
history and the relationship between religions which is
central to Bahá'í teaching. The Bahá'í Faith is perhaps unique
in that it unreservedly accepts the validity of the other
great faiths. Bahá'ís believe that Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster,
Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, and Muhammad are all equally authentic
messengers of one God. The teachings of these divine
messengers are seen as paths to salvation which contribute to
the "carrying forward of an ever-advancing civilization." But
Bahá'ís believe that this series of interventions by God in
human history has been progressive, each revelation from God
more complete than those which preceded it, and each preparing
the way for the next. In this view, Islam, as the most recent
of the prior religions, constituted the immediate historical
preparation for the Bahá'í Faith. Not surprisingly, therefore,
one finds in the Bahá'í writings a great many Quranic terms
and concepts.
Some tenets of Islam are especially important to a clear
understanding of the Bahá'í Faith. Like Muslims, Bahá'ís
believe that God is One and utterly transcendent in His
essence. He "manifests" His will to humanity through the
series of messengers whom Bahá'ís call "Manifestations
of God." The purpose of the Manifestation is to provide
perfect guidance not only for the spiritual progress of the
individual believer, but also to mold society as a whole. An
important difference between the two faiths in this respect is
that while, among the existing religions, the Qur'án
designates only Judaism, Christianity, and Islam itself as
divinely inspired, Bahá'ís believe that all religions are
integral parts of one divine plan:
There can be no doubt whatever 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. All of them, except a few which are the outcome of
human perversity, were ordained of God, and are a reflection
of His Will and Purpose.4
There is yet another aspect of Islam which influenced the
development of the new religion and which dictated Muslim
reaction to it. Like Christianity before it, Islam gradually
divided into a number of major sects. One of the most
significant of these is the Shiah sect, which believes that it
was Muhammad's intention that his descendants inherit the
spiritual and temporal leadership of the faithful. These
chosen ones, called Imams, or "leaders," were believed to be
endowed with unqualified infallibility in the discharge of
their related responsibilities. However, the great majority of
Muslims rejected such claims believing that the sunna--the
"way" or mode of conduct attributed by tradition to the
Prophet Muhammad--was a sufficient guide. Those who subscribed
to this latter belief became known as Sunni. Although Sunni
Muslims vastly outnumber the Shiah today, and are usually
referred to by Western scholars as "orthodox" as opposed to
the "heterodoxy" of the Shiah, Shiah Islam has a long and
respected tradition, a tradition that only recently has become
the object of serious study among a growing group of
non-Muslim scholars.5
By A.D. 661, only 29 years after Muhammad's death, power in
the Muslim world fell into the hands of the first of a series
of dynastic rulers, theoretically elected by the faithful, but
in fact representing the dominance of various powerful
families. The first two of these Sunni dynasties, the Umayyads
and the Abbasids, saw the Imams as a challenge to their own
legitimacy. Consequently, according to Shiah accounts, one
Imam after another was put to death, beginning with Hasan and
Husayn, grandsons of Muhammad. These Imams, or descendants of
the Prophet, came in time to be regarded by Shiah Islam as
saints and martyrs.
Although Shiah Islam began among the Arabs, it reached its
greatest influence in Persia. From the beginning, the Persian
converts to Islam were attracted by the idea of the Imam as a
divinely appointed leader. Unlike the Arabs, the Persians
possessed a long heritage of government by a divinely
appointed monarch, and the devotion that gathered around this
figure in time came to focus on the person of the Prophet's
descendants and appointed successors. After centuries of
oppression by Sunni caliphs, the tradition of the Imamate
eventually triumphed in Persia through the rise of a strongly
Shiah dynasty, the Safavids, in the sixteenth century.
By this time, however, the line of Imams had ended. One of
the features of Iranian Shiah tradition is that, in the year
873, the twelfth and last appointed Imam--only a child at the
time--withdrew into "concealment" in order to escape the fate
of his predecessors. It is believed that he will emerge "at
the time of the end" to usher in a reign of justice throughout
the world. This eschatological tradition (doctrine of "last
things") has much in common with the Christian expectation of
the return of Christ and Mahayana Buddhism's promise of the
advent of Maitreya Buddha, "the Buddha of universal
righteousness." Among other titles Muslims have assigned to
this promised deliverer, the "Hidden Imam," are Mahdi (the
Guided One) and Qá'im (He Who Will Arise i.e., from the family
of the Prophet).
For a period of 69 years following his disappearance, the
twelfth or Hidden Imam was said to have communicated with his
followers through a series of deputies. These intermediaries
took the title báb (gate), because they were the only way to
the Hidden Imam. There had been four bábs up to the year 941,
when the fourth one died without naming a successor.
The refusal of either the Imam or the final báb to name a
successor implied that the matter was to be left by the
faithful entirely in the hands of God. In time, a messenger or
messengers of God would appear, one of whom would be the Imam
Mahdi, or Qá'im, and who would again provide a direct channel
for the Divine Will to human affairs. It was out of this
tradition that the Bahá'í religion and its forerunner, the Bábí
Faith, appeared in the mid-nineteenth century.