Figures

who it looks to — gods, spirits, ancestors; some rooms are empty on principle Part of Belief →

The ultimate — what this line takes as final

G God. Addressed constantly and described never. Bahá'í Houses of Worship contain no image, no altar and no representation of anything; prayers use a great many names and the writings state plainly that all of them describe the worshipper's conception rather than the reality. It is one of the most thoroughgoing apophatic positions in any living religion. Domain Everything, and nothing that can be statedStanding The tradition's starting move is that nothing whatever can be predicated of the divine essence, which makes every subsequent theological statement a statement about a Manifestation Meet them — context →

Prophets & messengers — who carries the word between

B Baha'u'llah — the promised one. A Persian nobleman who spent forty years in exile and prison, writing the unity of humankind into scripture from a cell. Domain The promised one of all religions, Baha'is holdStanding The Manifestation of God for this age Meet them — context →

T The Manifestations. A single succession stretching back before record and forward past the present, each fulfilling the last and promising the next. They share what the faith calls a station of divinity and a station of humanity — so Jesus is right to say he and the Father are one, and equally right to say the Father is greater, and both statements refer to different stations of the same being. Domain Revelation, one instalment at a timeStanding Not incarnations and not merely prophets — perfect mirrors reflecting a light that never descends into the mirror Meet them — context →

T The Bab — the gate. A merchant of Shiraz who declared the dawn, gathered followers, and was shot by a regiment — the herald whose promise Baha'u'llah answered. Domain The gate — herald of the one to comeStanding Executed in 1850; honored as the dawn before the sun Meet them — context →

Founders & teachers — the ones who opened the way

S Shoghi Effendi. Twenty-four years old, at Balliol, when he learned from a telegram that he had been appointed head of a world religion. He spent thirty-six years building an administrative order out of scattered groups, translating the central texts, and mapping systematic expansion plans. He died suddenly in London in 1957, without children and without appointing a successor. Domain Interpretation, translation, and the building of the administrative orderStanding He translated the central texts into an English deliberately modelled on the King James Bible, which fixed the register of the faith in its most-used language. He died without an heir, which forced the next transition Meet them — context →

Saints & exemplars — lives held up as the pattern

' 'Abdu'l-Bahá. He went into exile at eight, was a prisoner of the Ottoman state until the Young Turk revolution released him at sixty-four, and then travelled to Europe and North America. Bahá'ís are careful about his station: he is not a Manifestation, and he is the perfect exemplar — the demonstration that the teachings can be lived by a human being. Domain Interpretation, and the demonstration of what the teachings look like when livedStanding A prisoner from the age of eight to sixty-four. Knighted by the British in 1920 for famine relief in Palestine, and he did not use the title Meet them — context →

T Táhirih. A poet and theologian from a distinguished clerical family, so learned that she taught from behind a curtain, and the only woman among the Báb's first eighteen disciples. She was strangled with her own scarf in a Tehran garden in 1852. What she is reported to have said before it — you can kill me as soon as you like, but you cannot stop the emancipation of women — is quoted constantly and is not securely attested. Domain Poetry, theology, and the public break with the pastStanding At Badasht in 1848 she came into the assembly without her veil, and men fled the tent; one cut his own throat. Strangled with her own scarf in 1852, aged about thirty-five Meet them — context →

B Bahíyyih Khánum. Sixty years of exile, imprisonment and household management, and twice she held the affairs of the entire faith — during 'Abdu'l-Bahá's travels in the West, and again after his death while the newly appointed Shoghi Effendi was abroad and recovering from the shock. No woman has held a comparable position since, and the faith's own writings on her are unusually warm. Domain Holding the household together across sixty years of exile and imprisonmentStanding She headed the affairs of the faith during 'Abdu'l-Bahá's absences and again after his death while Shoghi Effendi was away — the highest position a woman has held in the faith, and she was never given a title for it Meet them — context →

M Mullá Husayn. A young cleric who had searched for the promised one for years and who, on the evening of 22 May 1844, accepted an invitation to tea from a merchant in Shiraz. The Bahá'í calendar counts from that conversation. He died five years later commanding the defence of a shrine in Mázindarán against a besieging army. Domain Being firstStanding The first to accept the Báb, on the evening of 22 May 1844 — the moment from which the Bahá'í calendar counts. Killed at the siege of Shaykh Tabarsí five years later Meet them — context →

Adversaries — named in order to be refused

T The Covenant-breakers. People who accepted Bahá'u'lláh and then contested the succession he had appointed in writing — his half-brother Mírzá Yahyá, and later his son Mírzá Muhammad 'Alí. Bahá'ís must shun them completely, including relatives. It is the faith's only expulsion, it is decided by the head of the faith alone, and it has been applied to a few dozen people in a hundred and eighty years. ⚖ contested within Domain The rival claim; the split that did not happenStanding Bahá'ís are required to shun them entirely, including family. It is the only form of expulsion in the faith and it is applied rarely — a few dozen individuals in a century and a half Meet them — context →