Alright, this has to be the most requested video I’ve ever made.
Let’s talk about a religion that makes all the divisions between all religions disappear.
A religion claiming everyone is right, and that there’s no wrong worship.
Let’s talk about the enigmatic Baha'i faith.
The Baha'i faith is one of the youngest religions out there.
At least one of the youngest Abrahamic religions.
It traces its origins to Persia or Iran today, in the mid-eighteen hundreds.
The story of the Baha’i begins with the founder Bahá'u'lláh’s life story.
He was born in eighteen seventeen in Tehran, the current Iranian capital.
His father was the Shah’s Vizier, a high ranking advisor.
When he was twenty seven, he heard from a man who went by the name ‘the Báb’.
He was the leader of a religious sect called the Bábí movement.
The Báb declared himself the Mahdi.
The Mahdi is the Muslim messiah, who is supposed to redeem the Islamic world before the Muslim
armageddon.
This Bábí movement sprung out across the Persian Empire.
He claimed he was preparing the world for judgement day when a messenger from god will
come.
His movement also rattled feathers by doing away with big institutions like traditional
succession.
Bahá'u'lláh was convinced and spread the movement around his home province.
His status got him audiences, and he became one of the most successful proselytizers of
the Bábísts.
Within the movement, he advocated even more radical changes, proposing to upend the entire
Islamic legal system and start from scratch.
In eighteen 48, the Bábí movement began getting into violent clashes with the Persian
government.
When the Báb declared himself god’s manifestation on earth, the Persians massacred Bábís.
Two years into the violence, they executed the Báb by firing squad.
Between then and eighteen fifty three, the Persians wiped out or displaced almost the
entire Bábí community.
After the Báb’s execution, his followers returned the violence.
The Persians imprisoned Bahá'u'lláh after a retaliatory assassination attempt on the
Shah.
They locked him away in the Síyáh-Chál or the black pit, a Tehran dungeon.
Bahá'u'lláh claims he had a visit from “the maiden of god”.
In this vision, the maiden revealed Bahá'u'lláh himself was God’s messenger the Báb prophesized.
With pressure from the Russian ambassador, the Persians freed Bahá'u'lláh and other
Bábists unconnected with the assassination after only four months.
There was one condition though, Bahá'u'lláh had to leave the Persian Empire forever.
The Russians offered him asylum, but Bahá'u'lláh turned it down, preferring Iraqi exile.
At this time, Iraq was an Ottoman province.
In April of eighteen fifty three, Bahá'u'lláh and his family moved to Baghdad.
His new city attracted the Bábists.
Pilgrims escaped from Persia and flooded into Baghdad.
The movement liked him, and he became a prominent leader rather than a proselytizer.
The official successor, a man named Mírzá Yahyá plotted against Bahá'u'lláh, attempting
to discredit him.
However, Mírzá Yahyá was an absent figure, often hiding and distancing himself from the
movement.
Without much leadership from the official successor of the Báb, Bahá'u'lláh became
the de facto administrator of the movement and Mírzá Yahyá interpreted it as a leadership
challenge.
His attacks on Bahá'u'lláh drove away new converts, and in eighteen fifty four he had
enough.
He chose exile again.
He didn't want to be a figure tearing the Bábist movement apart.
Bahá'u'lláh made sure his family was taken care of, and without telling anyone where
he was going, or what he intended, he left Baghdad.
He went into a mountainous region straddling modern Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria called
Kurdistan.
Bahá'u'lláh lived there alone for two years.
He was a hermit who dressed like an Islamic mystic, also known as a dervish.
Eventually, someone recognized his handwriting and local Sufis, Islamic mystics, came to
him out of curiosity.
Soon, he became a source of wisdom and advice.
During this period, Bahá'u'lláh wrote several books on spirituality, religion, and philosophy.
Back in Baghdad, the Babi community was falling apart.
Mírzá Yahyá’s lapse leadership created malaise.
Some Babis looking for leadership searched for Bahá'u'lláh.
They heard legends of a mystic who lived in the mountains who was rumoured to be their
lost leader.
Bahá'u'lláh’s family found and begged him to come back.
They said they needed him to lead the Bábists, and in eighteen fifty six, he returned to
Baghdad.
Bahá'u'lláh tried reviving the movement through inspiring letters.
Through them, he developed a new understanding of the Babi religion, and many soon recognized
him as the Babist movement’s leader once again.
He became a prominent Baghdad figure, especially amongst the Babi community.
It caught his enemies’ attention back in Persia, and the empire asked the Ottomans
to extradite Bahá'u'lláh back to Tehran.
They wanted to prevent this movement from taking off again.
The Ottomans decided to reject the request.
As a security measure, they relocated Bahá'u'lláh to the great capital Constantinople, far from
the borderlands where the Persians might capture him.
In the twelve days before he left, Bahá'u'lláh told to his friends about the Tehran dungeon,
and that he was god’s messenger.
He declared himself the messianic figure The Bab talked about while he was still alive.
Baha’is consider these twelve days holy, and they celebrate them as a festival every
year.
His followers from this point onward were the first real Baha'is, a sect within the
Babi movement.
In August of eighteen sixty three, Bahá'u'lláh moved from Baghdad to Constantinople with
his family and followers.
Everywhere he stopped the locals treated him with respect, and when he got to the imperial
capital, he was treated like a dignitary.
This honeymoon phase would be short lived.
Within three months he’d be kicked out of Constantinople and moved to Adrianople.
Nobody is sure why this happened.
Some guess the Persian ambassador pressured the Ottoman government to get rid of him,
others suspect he caused friction with authorities.
This Adrianople trip wasn’t as glamorous.
It seems the Ottomans treated this move more like another exile.
His prominence in Adrianople once he got set up made his rival Mirza Yahya lose all patience.
He tried assassinating Bahá'u'lláh many times, including a poisoning that disabled
his hand.
After the poison, Bahá'u'lláh announced he was the figure the Bab was preparing for.
In a letter to Mirza Yahya, he called his followers the people of Baha, and he told
the Babis they all must choose between him or Mirza Yahya.
This period is when Bahá'u'lláh started writing about his beliefs and mission for
the world.
I’m tapping in my buddy Alex from the channel Technicality to unwrap what the Baha'is believe.
Thanks, Tristan, The Baha'i religion Bahá'u'lláh developed
moved from a Shia Islam splinter group to a pan-Abrahamic religion.
He claimed all religious figures had important roles in unveiling god’s desires.
In stark contrast to the time, Baha'is are strong believers in the equality of all people.
They follow a lot of the stuff you see in other Abrahamic religions.
There’s a singular and all-powerful god, but religion is progressive.
Throughout history, religious figures like the Buddha, Muhammad, and Jesus all received
revelations about the divine, and they all build on each other, and Baha'is don’t rule
out there’ll be more in the future.
The religion as a consequence rejects concepts like racism and nationalism and tries bringing
everyone together.
Fairly laid back.
How did that work out?
Well, Alex, he wrote about the revelation he had, and he told the world’s rulers to
set aside their differences, give up their possessions, accept his revelation, and make
the world a place of peace and harmony for mankind.
He sent that message to rulers like Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Emperor Napoleon
the third of France, Queen Victoria of Great Britain, Sultan Abdülaziz of the Ottoman
Empire, Naser al-Din Shah of the Persian Empire, King Wilhelm the first of Prussia, Tsar Alexander
the second of Russia, Pope Pius the ninth, and even one targeted at the “Rulers of
America and the Presidents of the Republics therein.”
Still vying for power, Mirza Yahya lobbied authorities to do something about Bahá'u'lláh.
Only here did the Ottomans even notice the Babi movement was a religious one.
In eighteen sixty eight, the government wrote a royal decree condemning the Babists to imprisonment
or exile to the Ottoman Empire’s far reaches.
They exiled Mirza Yahya and his followers to Cyprus, and Bahá'u'lláh and his followers
to Acre, a Palestinian city.
When Bahá'u'lláh and his followers arrived, the city guards confined them to a barracks
in the city citadel.
The government told the Acre citizens the Baha’i were enemies of the state and god
and they ordered the citizens to avoid talking to them.
Conditions were rough, and some followers died, including one of Bahá'u'lláh’s sons
who was only twenty two.
The relationship between the townspeople and the Baha'is improved over time, and after
the Ottoman Sultan died, Baha'is were permitted to leave the city.
In eighteen seventy nine, Bahá'u'lláh retired to a mansion on Acre’s outskirts and left
organizational tasks to his son `Abdu'l-Bahá.
Bahá'u'lláh was getting old, and he wanted to focus on writing.
Here he published a number of works, the most important being the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the law
book.
In May of eighteen eighty two, Bahá'u'lláh contracted a fever.
Over several days, it got worse, and on the twenty ninth of May, he died.
The Baha'i faith’s leadership moved to his son, `Abdu'l-Baháand and with a few blips,
the succession was a success.
The Baha’i faith has grown quite a lot since Bahá'u'lláh’s death.
`Abdu'l-Bahá formed a ruling council, and they expanded on their operation.
Every April twenty first, the council sends a message to Baha'is called the Ridvan message.
It’s full of advice for the upcoming year and sent to their between five and seven million
followers around the globe.
Their current plans are to grow through education and advising the world's children.
Baha'is put emphasis on the importance of education, and incorporating children into
the family unit’s decision making.
Their rituals are also simple.
All able-bodied Baha'is over fifteen must perform a standard daily prayer.
Other prayers and meditations are optional, but encouraged.
They also have a fast every March, and have a nineteen percent tithe on surplus wealth
for charity.
On top of that, Baha'is are discouraged from gossiping and drinking alcohol.
There’s no extramarital hanky panky, and in the great abrahamic tradition, no gay people
allowed.
Baha'is should avoid political life, and are forbidden from begging.
They also believe in burying the dead without embalming and ban cremation.
They have a specific ban on monks, or ascetic lifestyles.
To them, work is part of good worship.
Lastly, and here’s where they stick out, Baha'is love LOVE the UN.
Bahá'u'lláh wrote about the need for a global government, and the UN is a pretty good example
of that.
An organization called the Baha'i international community consults for several UN programs
including UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
Though their current situation isn’t entirely rosy.
Many Baha'is today live in Islamic countries, where most leaders consider it apostasy, especially
in Iran, which executed more than two hundred Baha'is between nineteen seventy eight and
nineteen ninety eight.
In parts of the middle east and sub saharan africa, the Baha'is often have their rights
restricted.
For example, any Baha'i activities are illegal in Egypt, and the government has confiscated
many centres, cemeteries, and libraries.
And on that cheery note, there you have it.
Baha'i, the most interesting religion you’ve never heard of.
If this is your first time here, be sure to mash that subscribe button down below.
You should also go say hello to Alex at the channel Technicality.
I want to thank him for the cameo, and if you look in the description, I made a playlist
of his videos for you to check out.
Last but not least I want to thank these wonderful Patrons, especially Don and Kerry Johnson.
You’re keeping this locomotive moving.
If you can’t help financially like these people, I always appreciate a share on your
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I’m Tristan and stay tuned for more Step Back.