NASSIF BEBAWY WAS BORN in 1925 to a Coptic family he describes as poor and pious. Like countless other boys his age, he left school after completing his elementary education to take up work as a storekeeper, becoming the sole support of his widowed mother, three brothers and two sisters.

As a child, he attended sermons at Christian associations where, he claims, he was fed negative ideas about Islam. Now 81, Bebawy also recalls how, upon reaching adolescence, he began questioning the diet of sectarianism he claims both Christians and Muslims were feeding him. He was then living in the Delta city of Qalyoub, and in his neighborhood there were two mosques: one for Sunni Muslims, the other for Shi'a. Every week, he says, there were clashes between practitioners of the two Muslim rites.

“I used to wonder how they could both be Muslims and beat each other up,” he recounts.

Likewise, Bebawy was perplexed by doctrinal conflicts between the Christian sects: “The Orthodox have their faith, Catholics have theirs and so do Protestants. The Protestants and the Catholics beat each other up, too.”

Disillusioned by both Christianity and Islam, Bebawy decided to convert to the Baha'i faith, which recognizes all monotheistic religions, as well as their prophets, and is considered by many to be an amalgamation of Christian, Muslim and Jewish beliefs. “Christians don't believe in Prophet [Muhammad] (PBUH),” says Bebawy. "However, what made me believe in Prophet [Muhammad] was the Baha's faith I used to dislike Islam; now I love both Islam and the Qur'an."

While nearly anyone on the street can name the prophets of Islam and Christianity, few in Egypt had heard until recently of the Baha'is, let alone of Baha'uallah, whom they have taken as their prophet.

The relatively young religion made headlines earlier this summer when a Baha'i couple filed suit with the Administrative Judiciary Court (AJC) demanding that Egyptian Baha'is be allowed to state their religion on government documents, including national identification cards and birth certificates. At present, the state allows citizens to choose only Islam, Christianity or Judaism as options.

The case sparked a fire storm of controversy in religious and political circles, especially after the AJC ruled in the couple’s favor on April 4. The victory was short-lived for the nation’s 2,000 or so Baha'is: On May 15, the Attorney General’s Office appealed the lower court’s decision to the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) despite a senior Interior Ministry official saying the ministry had no real objections to including the faith on ID cards.

Claiming the AJC’s decision was contrary to a 1975 ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court, the Supreme Administrative Court stayed the implementation of the lower court’s ruling and asked a panel of jurists from the State Delegates’ Council to provide a report on the constitutionality of the issue by June 16.

The council is believed to have failed to make the report on time, prompting the SAC to postpone its verdict until September 16, 2006.

(The administrative courts and the State Delegates’ Council are all branches of Maglis El-Dawla — or the State Council — which was created in 1988 to settle administrative disputes pertaining largely to the affairs of the state.)

The case has also caught the attention of lawyers and human rights activists, who say the SAC decision could set precedents in freedom of religion, equality and citizenship rights.

In the face of loud opposition from religious conservatives, Muhammad Shama, a professor of Islamic Studies at the German Department of Al-Azhar University, added fuel to the fire by claiming that recognizing Baha'ism as a faith and allowing Baha'is to mention their religion in official documents does not contradict Shariah.

“Islam would recognize it [the Baha'i faith] as a religion, but as an invalid religion like Buddhism, Confucianism etc,” says Shama. “There are monotheistic religions and hundreds, thousands — even millions — of non-divine religions. If we suppose hypothetically that Muslims ruled the whole world, would they abolish all religions? From an Islamic perspective, there is no problem if you even write down ‘unbeliever’ or ‘atheist’ in civil documents.”

Shama’s statement stands at odds with the objection of many other Al-Azhar scholars to the initial court verdict. Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa was quoted in the local press dismissing Baha'ism as a religion and denouncing its adherents as non-believers. He maintained that Shariah does not recognize any religion other than Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

The problem dates back nearly a decade: After the automation of civil records, first introduced by the Interior Ministry in 1997, Baha'is found themselves left out in the cold when they were only allowed to enter one of the three recognized monotheistic religions.

Labib Iskandar, a Baha'i of Christian origin, explains that things were less complicated before 1997, when ID cards were still handwritten. The religion reported on Baha'is’ documents varied depending on the issuing offices. In some offices, clerks — unaware of the sensitivity of the issue — registered the applicant as Baha'i. In other offices, the clerk would draw a line through the space designated for religious affiliations or write the phrase ‘other religion,’ adds Iskandar.

He himself is identified as Baha'i on his handwritten ID card.

But even if the state strongly objects to acknowledging Baha'ism in civil records, Iskandar, like his peers, is willing to settle for less. The suit was not filed to force people to accept or recognize the Baha'i faith — or even to have it listed as a religious option on official forms — he says. It was about civil rights and the truth. Most Baha'is don’t want their religion falsely identified, but refusing to select one of the three listed religions renders the paperwork process incomplete. Iskandar explains that most would rather have the phrase ‘other religion’ in their civil records than be registered as members of another religious denomination.

This was actually the case in the 1950s, when the Interior Ministry, after a ruling by the then-State Council, issued a directive to its branches to draw a straight line in the designated space when applicants chose a religion other than the three major faiths.

This directive was applied in the case of Iskandar’s eldest son, Ragi, whose ID card is striped with overlapping horizontal and vertical lines in the space specifying religious denomination.

All handwritten ID cards are set to become invalid by the end of this year. “I am not asking for much, I am just asking for an ID, it is so simple,” says Ragi Iskandar.

“Even though the [Administrative Judiciary Court] verdict did not recognize Baha'ism as a faith, it recognized my right to life as an Egyptian Baha'i,” says Wafaa Hindy Girgis, Bebawy’s daughter-in-law, shortly before the verdict was overturned. “It is a very refined verdict. I am not [expecting] the recognition of Baha'ism as a faith; this does not matter to me. When I chose to be a Baha'i, I knew that I would face countless hardships but I shouldn’t be deprived of my identification card.”

Girgis has similar concerns about her 17-year-old son Nabil, who does not even hold a handwritten identification card.

“This child has the right to hold an ID card and driver’s license. What [has he done] wrong to be denied such documents? Is it simply because he is a Baha'i? That shouldn’t be anyone’s concern. Let God be the judge of that — and even have him burn in the hereafter,” Girgis says. “Our children do not have a strong determination to stay in Egypt, they [constantly think of] moving away [they feel] seriously oppressed, and this leads them to be depressed.”

Baha'ism first arrived in Egypt in the 1860s, when Iranian Baha'is settled in Al-Mansouriyyah, near Giza, and converted a number of the mostly Iranian expatriates living there.

Three decades later, Abdul-Bahaa, the son of Iranian Baha'i convert Mirza Baha'u'llah, sent Islamic scholar Abu Al-Fadl Al-Gulpayagani to preach the message in Cairo. Al-Gulpayagani, a Baha'i, took up a post at Al-Azhar — the oldest Sunni institution in the Muslim world. Concealing his faith, Al-Gulpayagani established himself as a distinguished scholar and succeeded in convincing some 15 teachers and students to convert to Baha'ism.

The Baha'i community only started forming, however, after Abdul-Bahaa himself came to Egypt from 1910 to 1913. Using Egypt as a base, Abdul-Bahaa traveled to the United States as well as several European capitals to meet with leaders and spread the word beyond the Middle East region.

Today, there are believed to be more than 5 million Baha'is worldwide. India hosts the largest population, with roughly 2.2 million followers. Iran comes second with 350,000 Baha'is and the United States third with 150,000. At the continental level, Asia boasts 3.6 million, Africa 1.8 million, and Latin America 900,000.

According to Bradley Clough, associate professor of comparative religion at the American University in Cairo, the Baha'i population has increased almost sixfold since the 1960s, when there were only 1 million Baha'is worldwide. “I think one of the reasons why it spread goes hand in hand with the mission of the Baha'i faith, which is very socially [active],” says Clough, adding that the major expansion happened in less developed parts of the world, including Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and India. There, he says, the Baha'i message of equality sounded more appealing among the disenfranchised.

“There is the threefold unity: God is one, the prophets are one and humanity is one. Then, to fulfill the third fold — ‘humanity is one’ — you have to go out to the world to try to bring everyone together,” explains Clough. “They do honor each culture’s and each nation’s uniqueness — and each individual’s uniqueness — and at the same time they have this mission to unite the world politically and religiously that leads them to be very socially active in world peace movements, development, education and the environment. They are out there in the trenches working with very poor people.”

In 1924, a decade after Abdul-Bahaa’s first visit to Egypt — which was closely monitored by the local media and sparked a storm of fury among Muslim religious scholars — Egyptian Baha'is formed their first National Spiritual Assembly (NSA). (According to the Baha'i administrative order, there must be an NSA in each country where there is a Baha'i population.) They are also believed to have established their own printing house around that time.

Since then, the Baha'i community has been growing steadily, despite resistance from both Muslims and Christians.

With two Baha'i pendants hanging from her neck — the first carrying a photo of Abdul-Bahaa, the other depicting the Baha'i canonical symbol of the Greatest Name (Ya Bahaa Al-Abha, meaning “O Glory of Glories” in Arabic calligraphy) — Bebawy’s wife, Somaia Mohammed Tantawy, stands out from her own Muslim family as well as her husband’s Christian one.

Tantawy, who converted to the Baha'i faith in 1965, was born into a conservative Muslim family. Her father, in fact, was a Qur’an reciter.

She first learned of the Baha'i faith from her brother-in-law, who worked as an engineer. Her initial reaction to what she heard at the time was: “They [Baha'is] are heretical bastards,” remembers Tantawy guiltily. That day, she found out that not only did her brother-in-law come from a Baha'i family, but that he had also convinced her sister to convert to Baha'ism without informing her family.

“You can’t imagine what happened to me; I was shocked to death,” remembers Tantawy, who was a teacher and the breadwinner for her family at the time. Although she tried to avoid talking with her brother-in-law, he spoke elaborately of the Baha'i message to her and gave her Baha'i writings. She recounts being racked by inner conflict for six months before she was finally convinced that Baha'u'llah was a divine messenger.

Bebawy still recalls how, in 1952, Shoghi Effendi (Abdul-Bahaa’s grandson and the last single-person keeper of the faith) sent a letter to the NSA in Cairo urging its members to send Baha'i missionaries to Egypt’s governorates to spread the faith. Bebawy himself was selected by the Assembly to propagate the Baha'i message in Minya. The assembly offered LE 50 to each missionary, equivalent to nearly LE 5,000 today, but Bebawy refused any financial compensation for a mission he deemed purely spiritual.

Once in Minya, Bebawy found a partner and opened a store selling plumbing supplies and sanitary fittings. This store became the center from which he propagated “The Message,” he says. He engaged his customers in religious discussions to try and convince them of the authenticity of his faith. He claims he succeeded in winning nine people over.

As his business expanded, Bebawy decided to move from Minya to Aswan, where he has been running another store for the past two years. Despite his age, Bebawy says he still uses the same method to spread Baha'ism in Aswan.

But making a name for the Baha'i community in Egypt has been anything but smooth sailing. “I think as a family we came to the conclusion that when a Baha'i works in the public sector, he suffers,” says Bebawy’s 46-year-old son Sami, who now runs his father’s business in Minya. “So we decided to work in the private sector from the beginning.”

The suffering, as Sami puts it, has been going on for decades. In 1960, President Gamal Abdel Nasser issued a decree stipulating the dissolution of all Baha'i institutions, the confiscation of NSA property and the criminalization of Baha'i religious activities. The result was several waves of mass arrests of Baha'is on grounds of disseminating “un-Islamic” ideas. The first detainees were taken in the mid-1960s, followed by more in 1972 and 1985.

But for young Baha'is like Sami, social pressure only succeeded in making them even more determined to hold on to their identity.

“We had to preserve our identity, relations and religious knowledge,” says Sami, recalling that they used to meet periodically in each other’s houses to study Baha'i texts. “We used to hold meetings with a very small number of participants to avoid attracting attention. We used to select a Baha'i book and then sit down and discuss it together.”

On Mount Carmel in the Israeli city of Haifa, close to the two holiest Baha'i shrines of the Bab (see “What Do Baha'is Believe?”, page 112) and Baha'u'llah, stands the Universal House of Justice (UHJ) — the highest Baha'i legislative body, which guides the activities of the global Baha'i community. The UHJ consists of five members elected from Baha'i NSA assemblies worldwide every five years.

Baha'is insist the UHJ has no religious authority, as their faith condones neither clergies nor a tradition of ongoing interpretation of their texts.

“They [houses of justice] can alter neither the writings of Baha'u'llah nor the revelation that was given to him, nor can they alter — in terms of theology — the interpretations of Abdul-Bahaa or Shoghi Effendi,” explains Clough. “They can only make institutional changes or juridical legal changes.”

However, the UHJ can still make legal pronouncements on issues that were not tackled by Baha'u'llah and his two successors.

The issue of interfaith marriages is one that hasn’t been fully resolved across the region. Egyptian Baha'is maintain that their religion does not prohibit followers from marrying spouses from other faiths, but requires the couple have a Baha'i marriage contract signed by the parents of the two spouses. Sami’s wife, Wafaa Hindy Girgis, is one example of an interfaith relationship. Born to a Coptic mother and a Baha'i father, Girgis recounts that her father converted from Christianity after marriage but her mother did not. Elsewhere in the Middle East, however, Baha'is are not allowed to marry non-Baha'is — a prohibition Sami puts down to a “problematic” conception of cross-religion marriages amid the region’s inhabitants.

Looking back on her childhood, Girgis recalls that she was more inclined toward her mother’s faith. At the age of 16, however, she found her father’s religion more appealing, particularly when it came to beliefs such as the denial of the apocalypse; the Baha'i faith does not recognize an apocalyptic end of time, as do Islam and Christianity.

“They do have, what we call in religion, eschatology, which for most religions means the end of time,” says Clough. “However, eschatology has a different meaning in the Baha'i faith. The Baha'is speak of the ends of eras; that is their eschatology.”

Remonda Shawki Taha is a 48-year-old housewife who was born into a Baha'i family that converted from Islam to Baha'ism in the early 1900s. Since 1981, Taha has been married to Labib Iskandar, a Baha'i of Christian origin.

Taha believes that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was the seal of prophets of the first era, which started with Adam. “From Adam to our Lord Muhammad, that was an era,” she says. “Another era started with Honorable Sir the Bab, the herald of Honorable Sir Baha'u'llah This era will last for 500,000 years.” Baha'is believe that more prophets will come, but not until a full 1,000 years since Baha'u'llah’s revelation have elapsed.

On almost every wall in the couple’s apartment in Maadi is a picture or icon depicting the Baha'i Faith. These range from portraits of Abdul-Bahaa and pictures of Baha'i shrines to placards etched with Baha'i symbols. Iskandar recalls that he picked up most of the pieces from India, where he completed his postgraduate studies, and where the world’s largest population of Baha'is lives.

Iskandar’s parents converted to Baha'ism in the mid-1920s. Iskandar, a professor of mathematics at Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering. He was brought into the faith by his father, a Customs Authority functionary and convert from Christianity who came across Baha'ism when he was posted at the Port Said Customs House and met a group of Baha'is living in the city.

As a child, Iskandar’s parents used to send him regularly to Hazirat’ul-Quds in Cairo’s Abassiya district. Literally translating as ‘Sacred Fold,’ it is a sacred space devoted solely to work related to the Baha'i faith. There, he would have the opportunity to intermingle with his co-religionists and learn the pillars of his faith. “When we were kids, we used to go to Hazirat’ul-Quds, where we [attended] religious gatherings, celebrations, meetings and religious lessons [as] we grew up,” remembers Iskandar. As Baha'is have no similar center today, they send their children on vacation to countries where Baha'ism is practiced freely, such as India, to receive a similar training in their faith.

One pillar of the Baha'i Faith is the belief that more than 100 volumes with mystical and legal content have been revealed to their prophet. However, Iskandar explains, some of those volumes are still missing. “Honorable Sir Baha'u'llah kept moving for 40 years between Iraq, Iran, [Edirne and Acre],” explains Iskandar. “On this tour he wrote and stamped a lot of [manuscripts] by himself. He left them with some Aheba’.” (Baha'u'llah’s followers are referred to as Aheba’, the Arabic word for “the beloved ones.”)

But Baha'is around the world were subjected to much persecution and, to preserve their faith, they used to hide the manuscripts, Iskandar says. Later, some of those manuscripts were disclosed, but many more have yet to be found.

Al-Kitab Al-Aqdas (“the most sacred book”) is the main Baha'i text providing guidance for religious rituals and legal injunctions for social transactions. Holding the book, Taha shows that Al-Kitab Al-Aqdas is divided into three separate sections: The first one includes the text as written by Baha'u'llah while the other two sections consist primarily of interpretations drafted by Abdul-Bahaa.

Baha'is also have a calendar of their own based on the number 19; one year consists of 19 months, each of them 19 days long. According to Sami Bebawy, ‘19’ reflects the Baha'i belief in the oneness of God, which they relate to a mystical tradition of assigning numerical values to letters. “The word ‘One,’ which refers to God, equals 19,” he explains.

Baha'is have an annual fast of 19 days, from March 2 and 20. To observe this month, Baha'is should cease eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset, Taha explains. Like Muslims during Ramadan, they break their fast once they hear the call to Maghrib or sunset prayer, she adds.

Among the obligatory Baha'i rituals is Al-Diyafat Al-tes’ ‘Ashreyya or the 19-day feast. Diyafat refers to monthly gatherings of the Baha'i community intended for worship, administration and socializing. These meetings are held every 19 days, on the first day of every Baha'i month. Prior to Nasser’s decree, Baha'is used to hold their Diyafat at the Abassiya Hazirat’ul-Quds. It was there that the NSA would convene and review all Baha'i affairs. According to Iskandar, among the functions of the assembly was the regulation of the propagation of the faith.

Since Nasser seized their property, Baha'is have been holding their Diyafat in houses, but they are quick to point out that they refrain from pursuing administrative functions banned by the law. They maintain that their obedience to the government is not out of fear of reprisal, but out of their strict adherence to the tenets of their faith.

“Obeying the government is a very important thing in our faith,” says Girgis. “Some people think we have no personality. But we obey governments as long as this obedience does not contradict our [faith]. If the government tells me not to pray or not to hold Diyafat, I would say ‘no.’ However, if it tells me not to spread the message, I would obey,” clarifies Girgis, who was arrested in 1985.

With a ban placed on their elected assemblies, Egyptian Baha'is had no choice but to resort to informal networks to regulate the affairs of their community. Baha'is still seek guidance from a group of adherents who are deemed the most capable of serving the Baha'i community, according to Girgis. “This group has no official status and is not elected,” Girgis insists, adding that it is also in charge of contacting human rights organizations about Baha'i complaints.

The Baha'i cemetery is the only collective property that was not confiscated by the state in 1960. Today, Baha'is are still allowed to bury their dead in a special cemetery called Al-Rawda Al-Abadeyya, the Eternal Garden, according to Taha. At the center of the cemetery stands the shrine of Al-Gulpayagani, the first official Baha'i missionary.

“That is the only thing that still exists for us,” says Taha. “I love to go to that place where I feel there is something that belongs to us.”

According to Shoghi Effendi’s book, God Passes By, Egyptian Baha'is did not have a cemetery of their own until the 1930s. The book, which documents the history of the first century of the faith, says the debate over the burial of Baha'is came to the forefront after riots had erupted over attempts to bury a Baha'i of Muslim origin in Muslim cemeteries in the port city of Ismailiyyah in the 1930s.

The NSA promptly submitted a petition to the government demanding sites on which to establish Baha'i cemeteries. The government referred the request to the Grand Mufti, who ruled that it would be unlawful to bury Baha'is in Muslim cemeteries since they are not followers of the same faith. The Mufti’s statement resulted in the government’s decision to grant Baha'is two cemeteries, one in Cairo and the other in Ismailiyyah.

As for pilgrimage to Haifa, Taha and her husband explain that the ritual is mandatory only for men and can be performed at any time of the year. For political reasons, Arab Baha'is are not allowed to perform the ritual, which is observed in what has now become Israel.

“We are constantly being accused of supporting Zionists, so the UHJ prohibited Baha'is all over the Arab world from performing pilgrimage so as not to provoke their governments,” says Taha, who was detained for one month with her family among a group of Baha'is in 1972.

Baha'is have always been tainted with accusations of espionage and loyalty to Israel, as their holy places and UHJ lie in the Haifa/Aqqa region. Such suspicions were allegedly the precursor to Nasser’s ban on Baha'i institutions.

However, Egyptian Baha'is dismiss those allegations as “meaningless” and “unfounded.” “Honorable Sir Baha'u'llah arrived in Acre in 1868, and he died in 1892 Israel was not there,” responds Girgis to those accusations.

Taha stresses another little-known fact about their faith: Their religion follows two prophecies, which are referred to as “The Minor Peace” and “The Major Peace.”

“The Minor Peace refers to political peace attained between nations, and we are moving ahead toward it. As to the Major Peace, it will be achieved when the Baha'i faith spreads in all parts of the world, becomes known and embraced by all people,” explains Taha, adding that once a global conversion is achieved, rulers and kings are expected to flood into Baha'i shrines in Haifa.

According to Taha, Baha'is do not believe in physical, but spiritual resurrection. “After death, the soul is judged by God and assumes a certain spiritual position accordingly,” she explains.

To Baha'is, heaven and hell are metaphors not to be interpreted literally. Heaven indicates closeness to God, while hell indicates spiritual distance from God, Taha says.

According to Clough, Baha'is believe in continuous, progressive divine revelations. “They believe that, theologically, the major religions of the world are true, so certain things like the oneness of God do not change. Moses preached it, Jesus preached it and [so did the Prophet] Muhammad,” says Clough. “But the idea is that other things change historically. Not only social institutions and economic and political conditions, but also the spiritual needs of humanity change. God sees this, so he sends new messengers — not to contradict earlier prophets, but to give a new version of revelation that will speak directly to the way people in the world are thinking.”

Baha'is do not only recognize prophets with monotheistic revelations, but they also consider Krishna, Zoroaster and Buddha as divine messengers.

Baha'u'llah is believed to have revealed three types of obligatory prayers that vary in length. Taha explains that a Baha'i is free to choose the type of prayer that suits him most. The long prayer is performed once a day at any time of the day, whenever the person is spiritually ready for it, she says, adding that this prayer is very similar to Muslim prayer in terms of gestures. All prayers should be preceded by ablutions, she explains, in which a Baha'i is required to wash his hands and face and recite prayers.

While Sami Bebawy uses the Islamic term ‘zakat,’ Taha uses the phrase “God’s Rights” to refer to Baha'i almsgiving. “Anyone who is [financially] able and possesses money or any assets worth the value of almost 70 grams of gold should pay 19 percent of that value,” Taha says.

“As a historian of religion, I see a religion that is in many ways extremely close to Islam in its beliefs, in its practices and so forth, but there is enough separation,” says Clough. “The radical difference is not so much in beliefs about God, but it is in prophethood.”

But highlighting similarities of their faith to Islam only annoys Baha'is, as their detractors have always deemed their beliefs as a cult or an offshoot of Islam rather than an independent religion.

Al-Azhar’s Shama agrees with Baha'is that their faith is not an Islamic cult, and he dismisses Baha'ism as an “invalid faith” that has nothing to do with the world’s three monotheistic religions. “There is no similarity between Islam and the Baha'i Faith,” says Shama, whose area of expertise is comparative religion. “This is not Islam, but a new faith that has nothing to do with Islam, Christianity or Judaism.”

To him Baha'u'llah is a false prophet, who brought no evidence of being a divine messenger. “When a prophet comes, people ask him about his proof of being a messenger from God. The proof must be a miracle,” says Shama. “Where is his [Baha'u'llah’s] miracle? He has no miracle.”

Muslims base their belief that Muhammad (PBUH) was the last prophet sent to humanity on the following verse: “Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the Messenger of Allah, and the Seal of the Prophets: and Allah has full knowledge of all things.” (Qur’an 33:40)

However, Baha'is suggest a different interpretation of the same verse to prove their claim that Baha'u'llah was a divine messenger.

Invoking the same verse, Bebawy claims there is a theological difference between the terms ‘prophet’ and ‘messenger.’ Abd Al-Moati Bayoumy of Al-Azhar’s Islamic Research Academy agrees that there is a theological difference between the two words, but categorically dismisses Baha'i claims as “a fallacy.”

“The Prophet is not obliged to spread a message; however, a messenger has an obligation to do so. That is an Islamic fact,” says Bayoumi, a professor of creed and Islamic philosophy at Al-Azhar University. “As far as the Baha'i fallacy is concerned, a prophet does not necessarily have to be a messenger; however, a messenger must be a prophet.

“When God says there will be no prophets after Muhammad, this automatically implies that no further messengers will come.”

Baha'is believe in one God and the unity of all major religions. According to the Baha'is, there is only one religion: the religion of God. There is only one God, an all-knowing and ever-present Creator of the universe, but there are many ways to Him. Baha'is recognize all religions as divine since their origin is from God.

Baha'is believe in the equality and unity of mankind. Equality for and between all people, regardless of gender, creed or nationality, is of paramount importance to Baha'is. They advocate a universal education system, currency and language, as well as an international government.

Baha'is believe in searching for truth independently. Based on the core principle of equality, there is no hierarchy in the Baha'i faith. Baha'u'allah created guidelines for leading the faith that eliminated the need for clergy. Each Baha'i takes on the role of a clergy member by individually reading and discovering the meanings of the texts.

Baha'is believe that life is a journey of spiritual development. Humans are created in God’s image and even though we exist on earth in physical bodies, it is our everlasting spirit that defines our essential identity. Humans are capable of doing evil, but the idea that human nature is innately evil is rejected, as is the concept of “original sin” and the existence of Satan or the devil. There is no heaven or hell; the spiritual world is a timeless and placeless extension of our own world.

Baha'is believe in following the Ten Commandments revealed by God to Moses. They achieve closeness to God through prayer, the studying of texts, meditation, work and social outreach. Living a moral life free of gambling, alcohol, drugs, gossip and sexual immorality is important.

Baha'ism has its roots in the Babi religion, which emerged from Shi’i Islam in Iran in the mid nineteenth century. In 1844, Iranian Sayyid Ali-Mohammed proclaimed himself a messenger from God in Iran. Academics believe that Ali-Mohammed declared himself the Twelfth Imam awaited by Muslim Shi’is, which seems to have allowed him to gain some following in a country with a Shi’i majority. He also made another striking claim, predicting the arrival of another divine messenger. Ultimately, the Bab, the Arabic word for door, became his religious title as Ali-Mohammed claimed to be the gate or the portal through which a new revelation would reach come to humanity. His followers became known as the Babis.

Another prominent Baha’i figure was Mirza Husayn Ali Nuri, later surnamed Baha’u’llah. Nuri was born in 1817 into an aristocratic Iranian family and his father was a landowner and a former provincial governor. Baha’u’llah — the Arabic phrase for ‘the Glory of God — converted to the Babi sect in 1844. Although he wasn’t a cleric, he earned a significant position within the Babi movement as he used his money and social standing to support Babis.

After the execution of the Bab by the Iranian government in 1850, Baha’u’llah became the leader of the movement, which resulted in his imprisonment in Tehran. He spent four months in prison, during which time he claimed to have received the first signs of divine revelation. Once released, he was exiled to Baghdad, which was under Ottoman control. He remained in Baghdad for 10 years until he moved to Istanbul in 1863.

On the eve of his departure from Baghdad, Baha’u’llah declared that he was the messenger to whom the Bab referred to as “He whom God shall make manifest”.

A few months later, the Ottomans exiled Baha’u’llah to Edirne (Adrianople, in the European part of Turkey). From there, he sent messengers to Iran to inform the Babis of his new message. Ultimately, most Babis turned Baha’is and swore allegiance to Baha’u’llah.

In 1868, Baha’u’llah and his followers were exiled to Acre, which was then the Ottoman penal colony. In Acre, Baha’u’llah formulated the tenets of his faith. He remained in Acre until he died in 1892 and was buried in his house, called the Mansion of Bahji, (derived from the Arabic word ‘bahja’ meaning ‘joy’) near Acre, which in 1948 fell within the boundaries of Israel. Today, Baha’u’llah’s house stands as the holiest Baha’i shrine visited by Baha’i pilgrims every year.

In his will, Baha’u’llah appointed his eldest son Abbas Effendi, surnamed Abdul-Bahaa or the ‘Servant of Bahaa’, as the head of the faith. Abdul-Bahaa is believed to have contributed immensely to the spread of the faith beyond Acre and Iran as he went on visits to both Western and Muslim countries including England, France, the US, Germany and Egypt.

In 1921, Abdul-Bahaa passed away after designating his grandson Shoghi Effendi to be the “Guardian of the Faith.” Effendi was born in 1897 in Acre and died in 1957. He received his education at Catholic schools in Haifa and Beirut, and then he received an Arts degree from the Syrian Protestant College, which is the predecessor of the American University in Beirut.

Shoghi Effendi is credited with the consolidation of the Baha’i administrative order, which contributed to the propagation of the faith worldwide. He died unexpectedly without naming a successor, which led to the formation of the Baha’i council that now guides the faith. etThe Seat of the Universal House of Justice at Mount Carmel, Haifa, IsraelCourtesy Baha’i International CommunityLabib Iskandar owns an ID card, published in 1988, that states his religion as Baha'iMohamed Al-SehetyMohamed Al-SehetyAssociated Press Undated photos of Abdul-Bahaa, son of Baha'i prophet Baha'u'llahWafaa Hindy Girgis reads the Tablets of Baha'u'llah Mohsen AllamLabib Iskandar with wife Remonda Shawki Taha and sons Ragi and Hadi Mohsen AllamSami Bebawy claims he suffered as a Baha'i Mohsen Allam Mohsen AllamThe Baha'i holy book Al-Kitab Al-Aqdas et