The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith

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The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith collects many of the early writings of Baha'u'llah and Abdul-Baha, published in the West, seeking to restore and preserve their vision of the oneness of God, humanity, and all religions.

In addition to all of the 1912 Universal Principles of the Bahai Movement, the book includes Baha'u'llah's Arabic Hidden Words, selections known as the Spirit of the Age, an address by Abdul-Baha at the Friends' Meeting House in London in 1913, and many Bahai prayers for community and individual worship and meditation.

Though beginning in 2004, the Reform Bahai Faith traces its origin to the early Bahais Ruth White, Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, and Julie Chanler, who sought to preserve the teachings of Abdul-Baha after his passing in 1921. They and other early American Bahais understood the Bahai Faith was being turned into an oppressive organization, under what the British Museum document expert Dr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell judged to be a fraudulent will and testament, as discussed in the book Letters from the American Desert .

Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Bahai Faith, as interpreted by his son Abdul-Baha for the modern world, believed in and taught a moderate, universal religion, grounded in a separation of church and state, not a theocracy, and members of the Reform Bahai Faith seek to recover and renew that universal, pluralistic vision for all humanity.

About the Authors
Baha’u’llah was born Mirza Husayn-Ali Nuri in Teheran in 1817 AD. With the declaration of his mission in 1863, he took the title Baha’u’llah, meaning “The Glory of God.” Baha’u’llah appointed his son Abdul-Baha for the work of spreading the religion and continuing the connection between the Bahais of all parts of the world.

Speaking in Europe and North America from 1911 to 1913, Abdul-Baha stated on a number of occasions that he was a man just like anyone else and that the Bahai Faith could not be organized, yet often spoke paradoxically of the growth of the Bahai community throughout the world, grounded in democratic pluralism.

While emphasizing what is universal in humanity’s religious experience, Baha’u’llah taught the changing, evolutionary, and progressive nature of religious truth, demonstrating it by his own example and teaching which evolved away from much of the teaching of his forerunner the Bab. Similarly, Abdul-Baha demonstrated essentially a re-Interpretation of Baha’u’llah’s teachings for the modern world. Reform Bahais do not regard the Bahai message as a rigid set of unchanging and inflexible doctrines and formulas. Nor is the universality of the Bahai vision frozen in a form subordinate to the exclusivism of the Judeo-Christian or Islamic and Sufi cultural heritage of the Bahai Faith. The universal, global Teachings of Baha'u'llah transcend the limitations of all past Dispensations, inspire and envision a new spiritual worldview and civilization.

Reform Bahais believe Baha'u'llah taught that the separation of church and state is the Will of God and distance themselves from any interpretation of an eventual Bahai theocracy, following Abdul-Baha's vision of a global spiritual democracy, enriched by pluralism.

The Reform Bahai Faith
http://www.reformbahai.org