…The fundamental principle enunciated by Bahá'u'lláh, the followers of His Faith firmly believe, is that Religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is a continuous and progressive process, that all the great religions of the world are divine in origin, that their basic principles are in complete harmony, that their aims and purposes are one and the same, that their teachings are but facets of one truth, that their functions are complementary, that they differ only in the non-essential aspects of their doctrines and that their missions represent successive stages in the spiritual evolution of human society.
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The aim of Bahá'u'lláh, the Prophet of this new and great age which
humanity has entered upon -- He whose advent fulfils the prophecies of the
Old and New Testaments as well as those of the Qur'án regarding the coming
of the Promised One in the end of time, on the Day of Judgment -- is not
to destroy but to fulfill the Revelations of the past, to reconcile rather
than accentuate the divergences of the conflicting creeds which disrupt
present-day society.
His purpose, far from belittling the station of the
Prophets gone before Him or of whittling down their teachings, is to restate
the basic truths which these teachings enshrine in a manner that would conform
to the needs, and be in consonance with the capacity, and be applicable to the
problems, the ills and perplexities, of the age in which we live.
His mission
is to proclaim that the ages of the infancy and of the childhood of the human
race are past, that the convulsions associated with the present stage of its
adolescence are slowly and painfully preparing it to attain the stage of
manhood, and are heralding the approach of that Age of Ages when swords will
be beaten into plowshares, when the Kingdom promised by Jesus Christ will
have been established, and the peace of the planet definitely and permanently
ensured. Nor does Bahá'u'lláh claim finality for His own Revelation, but
rather stipulates that a fuller measure of the truth He has been commissioned
by the Almighty to vouchsafe to humanity, at so critical a juncture in its
fortunes, must needs be disclosed at future stages in the constant and
limitless evolution of mankind.
The Bahá'í Faith upholds the unity of God, recognizes the unity of His Prophets, and inculcates the principle of the oneness and wholeness of the entire human race. It proclaims the necessity and the inevitability of the unification of mankind, asserts that it is gradually approaching, and claims that nothing short of the transmuting spirit of God, working through His chosen Mouthpiece in this day, can ultimately succeed in bringing it about. It, moreover, enjoins upon its followers the primary duty of an unfettered search after truth, condemns all manner of prejudice and superstition, declares the purpose of religion to be the promotion of amity and concord, proclaims its essential harmony with science, and recognizes it as the foremost agency for the pacification and the orderly progress of human society…
The Bahá'í Faith revolves around three central Figures, the first of whom was a youth, a native of Shiraz, named Mirza Ali-Muhammad, known as the Báb (Gate), who in May, 1844, at the age of twenty-five, advanced the claim of being the Herald Who, according to the sacred Scriptures of previous Dispensations, must needs announce and prepare the way for the advent of One greater than Himself, Whose mission would be according to those same Scriptures, to inaugurate an era of righteousness and peace, an era that would be hailed as the consummation of all previous Dispensations, and initiate a new cycle in the religious history of mankind. Swift and severe persecution, launched by the organized forces of Church and State in His native land, precipitated successively His arrest, His exile to the mountains of Adhirbayjan, His imprisonment in the fortresses of Mah-Ku and Chihriq and His execution, in July, 1850, by a firing squad in the public square of Tabriz. No less than twenty thousand of his followers were put to death with such barbarous cruelty as to evoke the warm sympathy and the unqualified admiration of a number of Western writers, diplomats, travellers and scholars, some of whom were witnesses of these abominable outrages, and were moved to record them in their books and diaries.
Mirza Husayn-Ali, surnamed Bahá'u'lláh (the Glory of God), a native of Mazindaran, Whose advent the Báb had foretold, was assailed by those same forces of ignorance and fanaticism, was imprisoned in Tihran, was banished, in 1852, from His native land to Baghdad, and thence to Constantinople and Adrianople, and finally to the prison city of 'Akká, where He remained incarcerated for no less than twenty-four years, and in whose neighborhood He passed away in 1892. In the course of His banishment, and particularly in Adrianople and 'Akká, He formulated the laws and ordinances of His Dispensation, expounded, in over a hundred volumes, the principles of His Faith, proclaimed His Message to the kings and rulers of both the East and the West, both Christian and Muslim, addressed the Pope, the Caliph of Islam, the Chief Magistrates of the Republics of the American continent, the entire Christian sacerdotal order, the leaders of Shi'ih and Sunni Islam, and the high priests of the Zoroastrian religion…
His eldest son, Abbas Effendi, known as 'Abdu'l-Bahá (the Servant of Baha),
appointed by Him as the successor and the authorized interpreter of His
teachings, who since early childhood had been closely associated with His
Father, and shared His exile and tribulations, remained a prisoner until 1908,
when as a result of the Young Turk Revolution, He was released from His
confinement. Establishing His residence in Haifa, He embarked soon after on
His three-year journey to Egypt, Europe and North America, in the course of
which He expounded before vast audiences, the teachings of His Father and
predicted the approach of that catastrophe that was soon to befall mankind.
He returned to His home on the eve of the first World War, in the course of
which He was exposed to constant danger, until liberation of Palestine by the
forces under the command of General Allenby, who extended the utmost
consideration to Him and the small band of His fellow-exiles in 'Akká and
Haifa. In 1921 He passed away, and was buried in a vault in the mausoleum
erected on Mount Carmel, at the express instruction of Bahá'u'lláh for the
remains of the Báb which had previously been transferred from Tabriz to the
Holy Land after having been preserved and concealed for no less than sixty
years…
(Shoghi Effendi, Summary Statement - 1947, Special UN Committee on Palestine)