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What Does it Mean to Me to be a Baha'i?

Jamál (Beauty), 4 Mashíyyat (Will) 175 B.E. - Sunday, September 30, 2018

What Does it Mean to be a Baha'i?

I meditate upon this question, read the sacred writings of The Bab, Baha'u'llah, and 'Abdu'l-Baha, and attempt--as best I can--to follow 'Abdu'l-Baha's example. This is an unending spiritual journey of prayer, meditations, reading the sacred scriptures, and taking action to follow Baha'u'llah's prescription for living and 'Abdu'l-Baha's advice on living "As A Baha'i". Sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I fail. The idea is to never give up, and to bring myself to account each day.

"To Live The Life As A Bahai Is"

a) To be no cause of grief to anyone
b) To be kind to all people and love then with a pure spirit
c) To look always at the good qualities and not at the bad qualities of man
d) To do all of our deeds in kindness
e) To cut our hearts from ourselves and from the world
f) To be humble
g) To be truthful
h) To be reverent
i) To be a cause of healing for every sick one

Abdul Baha1

Each day is a battle between my lower material/physical nature and my higher spiritual nature. Each day is a battle to question and dispel the prejudices, superstitions, and dogma I was taught as a child, in order to reflect the divine attributes mirror by Baha'u'llah, the Manifestation of God for this day. My weapons in this battle are prayer, reading sacred scriptures, meditation, deepening on the sacred scriptures, and action. If I have questions about anything I have discovered, I can go to the writings of Shoghi Effendi, the letters from the Universal House of Justice, the letters from the National Spiritual Assembly, or ask a member of the Local Spiritual Assembly. However, in the end I am responsible for using my mind to determine the answers for myself.

Baha'is Believe In

1. One God
2. The Oneness of humanity
3. Independent investigation of truth
4. The common foundation of all religions
5. The essential harmony of science and religion
6. The equality of men and women
7. The elimination of prejudices of all kinds
8. Universal compulsory education
9. Spiritual solution to economic problems
10. A universal auxiliary language
11. Universal peace upheld by a world government

From a card I carry in my wallet.

What does it mean to me to be a Baha'i? It means to accept Baha'u'llah as the promised one of all religions. It means to accept the validity of the Divine Messengers or Manifestations who appeared in the past. It means to accept the validity of their sacred scriptures because they were revealed by the Holy Spirit to the Divine Messengers. It means to polish the mirror of my soul so that it can reflect the light of Baha'u'llah, the Glory of God.

Baha'u'llah Titles
(These are all I can think of or discover right now.)

The Glory of God,
The King of Glory,
The Promised one of All Ages,
The King of kings,
The Lord of lords,
The Lord of Hosts
The Lord of the Ages,
The Great Trumpet of God,
The Divine Physician,
The Sun of Truth,
The Sun of Reality,
The One that God made Manifest,
The Pen of Glory,
The Ancient Beauty,
The Blessed Beauty,
The Supreme Mediator,
The Well-Beloved of all worlds
The Everlasting Father.

Author's Note: ▼

This is what I believe. If anyone wants more information about Baha'u'llah or the Baha'i faith I suggest contacting the Baha'is in your area of the world or checking the following websites: https://www.bahai.org/, https://www.bahai.us/, https://www.bahaullah.org/, or http://bahaiteachings.org/.

Footnotes
1  quoted by George Townshend in the Promise of All of Ages, pp. 232-233,1957 Ed.