{"id":18553,"date":"2026-06-06T12:05:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/?p=18553"},"modified":"2026-06-06T12:16:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T08:46:41","slug":"why-wasnt-bahai-faith-welcomed-by-the-developed-nations-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/?p=18553&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Why Wasn\u2019t Baha’i Faith Welcomed by the developed nations – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “If a soul is seeking to quarrel, ask ye for reconciliation; if he blame you, praise him…”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“that we might have a name more gentle than light, and a memory more fragrant than perfume.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

-Sir ‘Abdu’l-Baha Abbas Effendi<\/a><\/span> and Ghusn-i-Akbar Mohammed Ali Baha\u2019i<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Baha’i Faith: Uniquely Relevant, Tragically Flawed<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When Baha’u’llah’s grandson Shua Ullah Behai first wrote this book, he probably didn’t foresee that it would take 70 years to get it published. The fact that the Baha’i faith has managed to last long enough for such an unexpected occurrence-yet that it remains a relatively small, obscure religion which many people would argue is not worthy of the time and effort expended to edit, annotate, and prepare this book for publication-is a testimony to the peculiar features of this faith.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unlike any other religion I know of and as a person with an academic degree in religious studies I have studied all the significant ones-Baha’i is the only independent world religion that combines a passionate belief in a new revelation from God with a relatively progressive set of teachings. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, all the major world religions were in some ways “progressive” at the time of their founding, but over the centuries, they became ossified and entrenched and often fought against further progress. And yes, there are new religious movements whose founders claim divine inspiration, but most of these movements focus on eschatology, metaphysics, or personal spiritual practice rather than social re-form.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the Baha’i tradition, we find the bizarre confluence of God-in-toxicated self-confidence-a man daring to speak in the Divine voice-with genuinely modernist ideas for the advancement of civilization. Only in the writings of Bahaullah, for example, could we find statements such as this:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 O\u2019 Queen in London Incline thine ear unto the voice of thy Lord, the Lord of all mankind, calling from the Divine Late Thee Verily, no God is there but Me, the Almighty, the All-Wise!…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We have been informed that thou hast forbidden the trading in slaves, both men and women. This, verily, in what God hath enjoined in this wondrous Revelation, God hath, truly, destined a reward for thee, because of this….<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We have also heard that thou hast entrusted reins of counsel into the hands of the representatives of the people. Thou, indeed, hast done well…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common faith.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. Thin, verily, is the truth, and all else naughty but error.[1]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Many religious leaders of the 19 century nobly advocated for the abolition of slavery, the establishment expansion of democracy. women’s rights, universal education, respect for science, interfaith reconciliation, and other such principles as were taught by Bahaullah. But few claimed that these progressive principles were new commandments from God. Baha’u’llah did, and he furthermore claimed that he was the divine messenger sent into this world to command humanity’s embrace of these teachings.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Such a stance seems even more curious today than it must have at the time. In the postmodern era, the trend of religious innovation has moved away from bold faced claims of divinity and prophecy and instead has tended toward the humility and relativism of those who are reluctant to issue heavenly commands. <\/strong><\/p>\n

For example, it is almost inconceivable that an early 21st century spiritual leader would announce that the Supreme Being has commanded that gay people should have the right to marry, claiming prophetic authority to deliver this verdict from on high. But that is exactly the kind of thing that the founder of the Baha’i faith did in his own time, on the controversial, cutting-edge issues of his day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Baha’u’llah claimed to be the return of Christ – a new Christ for a new age of human progress, preaching a message of social reform which for the most part would resonate with liberal-minded people today as common sense and yesterday’s news. In the 1800s, his message was revolutionary. The combination of millenarian utopianism with thoughtful modernism was extraordinary. As Professor Juan Cole writes in Modernity and the Millennium:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Baha’u’llah announced himself as not only the figure, “He whom God shall make manifest,” prophesied by the Bab but as the messianic fulfillment of all the past major world religions. He saw himself as at once the culmination of the six-thousand-year-long Adamic cycle of prophecy and the inaugurator of a new age in world history, the major theme of which would be the gradual establishment of a global world civilization animated by his teachings. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Early Baha’is believed that the advent of the end-time had turned the world upside down. Poor and humble workers were reconfigured as the backbone of the modern economy<\/a>; women were reimagined as equal citizens full of manly courage and enterprise; voiceless subjects, shorn and led like sheep, were elevated to an electorate that would rule by reason in the place of emasculated monarchs; the sciences and modem philosophy were exalted over theology and the minutiae of religious law. [2]<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Keep in touch with us: \u00a0<\/strong>bahaismiran85@gmail.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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[\u06f1]<\/a> Tablet to Queen Vitoria Official Baha\u2019i translation in The Summons of the Lord of Hosts Bath World Centre, anus edition), paragraph 171-173, 176. See Chapter 6, pp. 77-78, for a different translation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[\u06f2]<\/a>Juan R. I. Cole, Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha’i Faith in the Nineteenth-Century Middle East (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), pp. 194-195<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “If a soul is seeking to quarrel, ask ye for reconciliation; if he blame you, praise him…” “that we might have a name more gentle than light, and a memory more fragrant than perfume.” -Sir ‘Abdu’l-Baha Abbas Effendi and Ghusn-i-Akbar Mohammed Ali Baha\u2019i \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Baha’i Faith: Uniquely Relevant, Tragically Flawed \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[823,985],"tags":[3138,15719,15713,3783,4879,15717,15715,15711],"class_list":["post-18553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-articles","category-slidshow","tag-bahai-faith","tag-blame","tag-developed","tag-nations","tag-praise","tag-quarrel","tag-reconciliation","tag-welcomed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18553"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18556,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18553\/revisions\/18556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bahaismiran.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}