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"lighten and uplift
them, so that they may soar on the wings of the Divine verses"
-Baha'u'llah
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A
Century of Growth and Expansion |
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Maintaining the unity of
the Bahá'í Faith after Bahá'u'lláh
The question of religious succession has
been crucial to all faiths. Failure to resolve this question
has inevitably led to schisms. Alone among world religions,
the Bahá'í Faith has resisted any fragmentation.
At the time of
the passing of Bahá'u'lláh a
century ago in 1892, there were perhaps 50,000 Bahá'ís in
the world. The Faith had spread to most of the countries and
territories in the Middle East and to the
Indian-subcontinent. In Europe, the Americas, sub-Saharan
Africa, Australasia, and most of Asia, however,
Bahá'u'lláh and His teachings were known.
Today, the
Bahá'í Faith is the most geographically widespread
independent religion after Christianity, with communities in
at least 205 countries and major dependent territories.
There are more than five million Bahá'ís in the world, an
increase of a hundred fold in 100 years
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"My
object is none other than the betterment
of the world and the tranquillity of its
peoples."
-- Bahá'u'lláh
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The story
of this growth and expansion is intimately tied to two
major figures in the Bahá'í Faith: `Abdu'l-Bahá and
Shoghi Effendi, who headed the Faith successively
after the passing of Bahá'u'lláh in 1892.
As noted in the last section, the governance of the
Bahá'í Faith is in the hands of democratically
elected bodies. The achievement of Bahá'u'lláh's
purpose in the regard was the work of these two
hereditary leaders. The role they played in
maintaining the essential unity of the Bahá'í Faith
is without parallel in religious history.
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The
question of religious succession has been crucial to all
Faiths. Failure to resolve this question has inevitably led
to enduring schisms. Today, there are more than 2,000 sects
of Christianity, 1,000 or more in Islam, and comparable
divisions in Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism. Many of these
sects emerged because of disagreements over who had final
authority over the interpretation of sacred scripture.
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Bahá'u'lláh prevented schism in the Bahá'í Faith
through a seemingly simple device: a will and testament.
In that will, Bahá'u'lláh
not only appointed His oldest son to succeed him but
passed to Him. clear-cut authority to interpret His
writings and to be the focal point for unifying the
community.
Left:
`Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris, 1911.
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Excerpted
from The Bahá'ís, a publication of the Bahá'í
International Community.
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