The Bahai faith is practiced in more than 300 countries and transcends barriers among all groups of people with a positive message of unity and oneness of humanity.

“Bahais are using a variety of methods to promote unity,” said senior Yvonne Tyler, a Bahai, in an e-mail. “Since it is the second most widespread religion, we use guidance from Baha’u’llah, Abdu’l-Baha and the Universal House of Justice to systematically cause change from the grassroots.”

To do this, Bahais invite the community to partake in core activities including devotional gatherings, children’s classes and study circles.

“Devotional gatherings are a place where people can comfortably share their prayers, artistic endeavors and beliefs,” Tyler said. “Children’s classes are essential so the next generation of people can grow to be free of prejudice and recognize the oneness of religion. ... Study classes [are] where people in all stages of spiritual development can further their understanding of who we are as humans and what we have to do to grow spiritually and serve the community.”

Bahais believe in the same one God as do Christians, Muslims and followers of many other religions. They also promote independent investigations of the truth, like in the Bible, said Jonathan Gottlieb, a Bahai UW medical student.

Technically no child is born a Bahai, meaning that people need to find the truth for themselves and not follow what others tell you to believe, Gottlieb said.

The message and ideas of the Bahai faith appeared in 1844 through the Bab.

“Through great tribulation, the Bab, which means ‘the Gate’ in Arabic, declared God’s message of love and peace,” Tyler said. “[He] prepared his followers for the coming of Baha’u’llah. In this sense, he was the gate to the glory of God.”

The Bab is like the forerunner to Baha’u’llah in a similar way that John the Baptist came before Jesus. The Bab proclaimed that something greater was coming, Gottlieb said.

Since the Bab attracted so many followers, the Persian government and the Islamic clergy eventually killed him. Thousands of his followers were persecuted as well, and the Bab was eventually martyred.

Next came Baha’u’llah, as the promised one for this day.

“Baha’u’llah, which means ‘the glory of god,’ declared his message in 1863. From there, the Bab’s followers [Bab-i’s] became Bahais,” Tyler said. “Baha’u’llah’s life too was filled with hardships, but his mission was clear, and he revealed many writings during his lifetime that Bahais use as authoritative texts such as The Kitab’i’Aqdas [The Most Holy Book, and] The Kitab’i’lqan [The Book of Certitude].”

Bahais also study other religious texts like the Bible and the Quran, to gain an understanding of other faiths.

“Baha’u’llah also stressed the covenant and revealed the setup of the Bahai administration,” Tyler said. “The covenant is two-fold. The first is God will never leave humanity alone, and from the beginning of time has sent us divine teachers (such as Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad and now the Bab and Baha’u’llah). The second part of the covenant is our promise to God, which is [that] we will follow his laws and commandments.”

After the passing of Baha’u’llah in 1892, his eldest son, Abdu’l-Baha, became the center of the covenant and guided the community, Gottlieb said.

“Bahais also look to him as the perfect example,” Tyler said. “The way he lived his life, is what all people should strive for. ... During this time, Abdu’l-Baha lead the Bahai faith until he died in 1921.”

Shoghi Effendi, Abdu’l-Baha’s grandson, became the guardian of the faith as proclaimed in Abdu’l-Baha’s will and testament.

“Shoghi Effendi safeguarded the faith,” Tyler said. “His main duty was to translate the Arabic and Persian texts of the Bab, Baha’u’llah, and Abdu’l-Baha into English. Shoghi Effendi died without any heirs. After him, the leadership of the Bahai Faith was passed on to the Universal House of Justice.”

The Universal House of Justice has nine members who are elected to oversee affairs. They live their lives as a service to the faith and not for monetary gain, Gottlieb said. They help to interpret laws and readdress issues for the present day.

“Bahais believe that God is an unknowable essence,” said graduate student Amanda Henck in an e-mail. “We are finite and God is infinite, and the finite can never understand or truly know the infinite.”

Bahais believe in progressive revelation, or that God will periodically send prophets and never leave us without guidance, Gottlieb said.

“We believe that all the manifestations of God are essentially teaching the same thing but that they build on one another,” Henck said. “We view them as being like perfect mirrors reflecting the light of the sun. We can’t look at the sun directly, just as we can’t know God directly, but we can see the light being reflected by these mirrors. Because the mirrors might be at different angles, pointing in different directions, or have different names, humans want to separate them into being different, but they are all in reality, reflecting the same sun.”

A fundamental belief is the oneness of God, religion and mankind. This belief helps prevent Bahais from separating into different sects.

“We are always trying to grow closer to God, and we do this in two ways. One is to recognize the manifestations of God and the other is to obey the laws,” Henck said. “As we do this, we are acquiring attributes of God [virtues] and therefore moving closer to God. We view ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ as a personal state of nearness to or distance from God, not as a particular place that one goes. We believe that after this life, the soul will still know and recognize people we knew in this life, but that we don’t have time, space or physical bodies anymore.”

However, here on Earth, Bahai followers believe in changing the world from the foundation up through education.

Gottlieb said that civilized societies are born out of education. Education isn’t just physical education but also encompasses spiritual and moral education. This allows people to think outside of themselves and gives them a greater perspective of what is going on in the world.

For example, you can’t prevent violence among women by just forming support groups. You need to educate children on equality between people to build a moral foundation to help prevent violence in the future, Henck said.

“[Bahais believe in] the abandonment of all forms of prejudice,” Tyler said. “The ways in which Bahais actively carry out these principles is numerous. ... At least every community tries to carry out these principles. ... Each person should independently seek out the truth for themselves, each person should try to promote unity in their everyday life, and for universal education, there have been numerous schools set up on Indian Reservations and third world countries to help educate people and promote the equality of women and men.”

While Bahai followers try to promote the idea of unity among races and religions, others in the world try to prevent the spread of these principles by persecuting them.

“Bahais in Iran are being systematically denied education by the government. As Bahais, we are not allowed to lie about our religious beliefs in order to protect ourselves, so when someone asks if we are Bahai, we always say ‘yes,’” Henck said.

Bahais are allowed to take entrance exams for universities. However, universities will label them “Muslim” on their acceptance letter. When Bahais change this, their admission is revoked.

“The Iranian government currently has a law in progress which will make it a crime against the state, punishable by death, to convert from Islam to another religion,” Henck said.

“This could extend to outside of the country, thus possibly increasing risk for Bahais in and out of Iran,” Henck said.

“In Egypt, Bahais are not able to get ID cards because the government limits the religion category on ID cards to say ‘Muslim’, ‘Christian,’ or ‘Jew,’” Henck said. “Without an ID card, most government services (school, hospitals, etc.) are not available.”

Despite persecution, Bahai followers still believe that unity can happen in the world.

If we were to eliminate prejudices, social and economic boundaries in the world, think of what we could achieve, Gottlieb said. We believe that world peace isn’t just attainable; it’s inevitable.

[Reach reporter Doris Wu at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]